Upgrading computer: Suggestions!

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jeff.yeh

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Hey everybody, I'm new here, and I hope you can help!

Anyways, right now, I'm running:
2000 Gateway
1 ghz Pentium III
256 RAM
Unknown Motherboard
ATi Radeon 9600 Pro
80 gb Western Digital Primary HD
20 gb Seagate Secondary HD

What I'm looking at:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Retail $210
ASUS K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard $140
KINGSTON 2X256 mb 400MHZ CL3 DDR DIMM $80
ENERMAX EG325P-VE SFMA 320W NoiseTaker PSU $50

First of all, those four things would be the only things I want to upgrade. Case remains the same. Are there any better/cheaper setups out there? This would be used for some gaming, some video editing, and simultaneous large photo editing.

If this setup is O.K., what will I need to do to my current computer to install this? (someone said that I couldn't swap from a Pentium to an AMD). I'm willing to reformat and reinstall Windows XP onto the 80 GB HD, where it is now. The 20 GB is where I store my files, will that need to be touched? How should I go about doing this? Thanks!!!
 
umm...can you still use the same case???? also for gaming and editing i would sugest a p4, athlon's are really used for just gaming. if you get a 2.8 p4 you'll be good i belive.

with the HDD do you have every thing you can get on the 20 and then you're just gonna transfer it to the 80?

welcome to the forums bro...hope you get all the help you need.

what kind of RAM is that? do you have a link to it or some thing? 80 bucks looks a little iffy.
 
i would chose the amd just because i'm a gamer and i don't do any editing...BUT, in your case you do editing so i would say pick the P4.

i like msi boards for P4 but the asus is an awsome board

as far as the ram goes, don't get anything value...causes major problems. if you want to get some good ram it's gonna be about 130 to 160 for a pack of 2 256mb ram.
 
i would go with the AMD. I can see where compy is coming from, but im just a die-hard AMD fan. They are cheaper for better. And you need to make sure your case has ATX dimensions otherwise your new motherboard wont fit. All your new upgrades look good. I would look into getting a new graphics card as well if you can afford it, just to go with all your other nice new parts :). Doesnt have to be to the best of the best, a radeon 9800 Pro or radeon 9800 xt would go nicely.
You could probably sell your current gfx card too

anyway hope this helped :)
 
the ram you suggested at the start is not a good idea because the Cas latency is 3, which sucks even though it is PC3200 that ram wouldnt be as fast as another set of PC3200 ram with a Cas latency of 2.0 or 2.5. and the thing about the editing, still dont go the P4, because the AMD has 1Mb L2cache which means it will be better at editing etc, than normal AMD's. and prolly better than a P4 2.8
 
get Fortran FPS-350 PSU, its robust and dead quiet, and u might wont be needing a fan at back sa it is with 1 120MM fan at bottom, getting air out directly from CPU, although I still have a small 80MM fan at back
 
well guys i'm not geting all over amd here because i'm about to build an amd64 system, but, the p4 is better at multi tasking and video editing. they are both great chips and will suit you fine. go with wich ever one you can aford. i may be wrong but is there like a benchmarking comparison thing? like for example, if you wanted to test how two future systems would work...ie the amd and the p4 mentioned above...could you just do a comparing thing to see wich runs better? i know there probaly is one just that's another way to decide performance. if you are not going to be doing heavy gaming, doom3, hl2...yadda yadda yadda, get the p4. if you will be playing those games i suggest the amd.

as far as the vid card goes you don't need a new quite yet, i say wait for prices to go down on the new cards that are out.

my dad has a p4 system and there hasn't been any problems with the cpu, again both are great buuuuut i still think you should be goin with the p4. and don't forget about the RAM, value ram will mess with your computer!

best regards on your choice...just get what ever suits you, remeber if you aren't happy with your buy then it wasn't the right one. :)
 
hey thanks for the input everybody!

i've decided to go with the p4 system. the final cost is about 80 less than that of the amd system. i never did plan on upgrading the video card, i bought it about 8 months ago. the ram will be one stick of 512 corsair so i can upgrade and buy a second in the future. also, the psu is the fortron fsp-350w.

once again, thanks for your input!!
 
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