[OpTlk]

Ok, this isn't gonna be in immediate future, but I'd like to slowly start upgrading my current comp. as the money comes in. My questions are well...what are some good "steps" to take as far as upgrading? More specifically, what are some things to look for when picking a board? .....is 431W power supply good to have? cause they're cheap .....how important is the fsb speed? and what's considered a pretty good speed these days?(i have 133 but i see some have it as high as 3200MHz ) I can't think of any of the other questions right now, but you all probably know them anyways, if you were upgrading..besides the obvious processor, HD, etc what should be considered?

Thanks to all ahead of time!
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[cobra]

this may sound even dumber but do like i'm going to do in september. Just by a new one with everythin on and only the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!


K, i understand this is really dumb.
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[BitterBeerFace]

Ok, I'll dump some of my advice here

Power Supply: 451 watts is probably overkill, but for any new system, I'd avoid anything less than 300 watts. One thing to worry about though... the brand of the power supply is important. Deer power supplies suck. A three-legged hamster on a rusty wheel will give more reliable power. Just spend a few more dollars for an enermax from a good place like newegg, and you'll be fine.

Processors: Most of your other choices will depend on what processor/motherboard combo you go with.

Before anyone says one is better than another... any of the new Athlon XP 2000+ or higher and the P4 2.4 GHz or faster will be just fine...

Athlon XPs are generally cheaper, but I'd personally go with a 2.4 or 2.533 P4 for around 200 bucks.

Front side bus: This depends on processor choice... AMD or Intel
If you go with AMD, as far as I know, the max their processors use is 266... I think they pretend to use 333 or even 400, but that's mostly for the memory interface.

Intel, just go with 533, they're cheaper, and a bit faster.

The single most important thing you can buy is your motherboard. Everything else plugs into your motherboard. The biggest thing that seperates motherboards from each other is their chipset. Right now, if I was gonna buy a motherboard I'd get:
AMD: nForce2 or KT400... KT400 will probably be cheaper, but nForce2 is faster
Intel: Sis648 is cheaper, but an intel845 based system would be marginally faster. (and it'd probably have more integrated goodies)

I'd stay away from the Intel based boards that require RDRAM... way too expensive for my tastes.

If anyone else knows much about the new dual DDR boards and how they perform, you might want to take their advice, and be on the cutting edge

RAM... go to crucial.com and buy from there, don't waste time with other cheap crap. You get pretty good prices, free 2nd day shipping, and 100% guaranteed quality stuff. RAM can be confusing now... this should help a little:

PC66 = SDRAM = 66MHz
PC100 = SDRAM = 100MHz
PC133 = SDRAM = 133MHz
PC150 = SDRAM = 150MHz
PC2100 = DDR SDRAM 266 = 266MHz
PC2700 = DDR SDRAM 333 = 333MHz
PC3200 = DDR SDRAM 400 = 400MHz
PC3500 = DDR SDRAM 433 = 433MHz

RDRAM... I really don't know what those specifcations are, but they describe it as PC600, PC700, PC800, PC1066... RDRAM is more expensive and not compatible (a different memory stick layout... won't fit in other DDR slots)

Video, the Radeon 9700Pro is the best, but almost most expensive... something like a GeForce 4 Ti 4xxx or a Radeon 9500Pro will save ya 80 bucks or so, and still be darned fast.

If you have any more specific questions, that might help us provide more details.

[Fresh Tofu]

Stay away from the cutting edge stuff for now. You will be spending money on features that are not even used. Instead go with BBF's advice. I have a Mother board with a dual bios also it has 533 FSB it runs PC2700 memory, It only has a 4x AGP port but most newer boards have 8x. So you should decide what features are important to you and go from there.

I really like Gigabyte's motherboards as they are packed with features I like.

Also Newegg.com is da bomb! I use them regularly and their prices and service are really good!

Question: Are you planning on migrating any old hardware to your new mother board? (sound card video card or the like?)
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[John Doe]

Hey Optik, are you planning on upgrading components in your existing machine or starting to collect parts and such to build a new machine?

If your planning on upgrading within your existing machine please give us a detailed list of what you currently have and then we can make recommendations based on that.

If your planning on getting the parts for a new machine then we can also start listing what we feel would give you the best bang for the buck. The only problem with this is that if your buying parts over 6 months or so to build a PC some components may be off warranty before you even get them installed and tested.

JD
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[Verman]

Budget? While the budget may restict your upgrades, rest assured that at the current pace of technology, whatever you start with will be outdated by the time you finish it.

MB, the heart of the system would be my vote. But that also requires a CPU investment.
If properly selected for upgrade path flexibility, the time factor should not have too much impact on the end results, which is a kick-butt platform.
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