What to Upgrade

[chrisg_75]

Hi there

I have a K7 Triton motherboard (400 i think). I have an athlon XP 2200+. My HD storage is fine for what i am doing at the moment i think. I have 1 x 80gig and 1 x 150gig HD. I am on a buget but was wondering what i need to upgrade and what i can keep of the existing set up. ie keep case etc fans HD's etc etc but replace mother board processor ram etc.

What is essential to upgrade and what can i keep as a general rule if possible. This computer is prob about 3-4 yrs old. I do a lot of image processing but that is mostly it. A bit of music but not really into PC gaming etc

cheers for any help

Chris

[mr_raider]

The case is fine.

The HDDs can also be kept. However, many newer boards only support 2 IDE devices, so that doesn't leave any room for optical drives with 2 HDDs.

The memory can be kept if you go with a Scoket 754 or 939 setup. Socket AM2 or the Intel COre 2 Duos use ddr2. DDR is being phased out so your upgrade options will be more and more limited. Socket 939 and 754 boards and CPUs are also getting harder and harder to find.

Either way, you will probably need a PSU, since most modern rigs strain the 12v line heavily.

GPU depends on your needs. From your description, you could get by with on board video or a cheap low end GPU. You may want to consider jumping to PCI-E since AGP is being phased out. An ATI x1300 or nvidia 7300 will be enough for your needs.

All that said, some recommendations.

If you have 1 gig or more of quality ddr-400 memory:
Cheap socket 754 rig
A64 3200 Venice 54$
Biostar Tforce 6100 66$
This setup is cheap, lets you keep your memory, gives you onboard video and a PCI-E slot for your next upgrade.


If you want to go dual-core:
Socket 939 rig
Opteron 165 180$
Combine with any nforce 4 board or nforce 6100 mobo if you want on board graphics.

If you are willing to replace the memory just pick any AM2 socket dual-core CPU and board, or any Intel Core 2 Duo and board, within your price range. Get 2 gigs of memory. Get the cheap stuff if you must, don't worry about memory speed. Quantity is more important.

[chrisg_75]

Thanx for the reply Mr Raider.

Im hoping to get a little bit more cash soon enough but certainly not heaps. The current setup is really annoying me with the image processing i am doing it takes forever. Should i go dual core or not ?

Will i be able to add a 3rd HDD if i wanted to downt he track or not ?

cheers thanx again

The case is fine.

The HDDs can also be kept. However, many newer boards only support 2 IDE devices, so that doesn't leave any room for optical drives with 2 HDDs.

The memory can be kept if you go with a Scoket 754 or 939 setup. Socket AM2 or the Intel COre 2 Duos use ddr2. DDR is being phased out so your upgrade options will be more and more limited. Socket 939 and 754 boards and CPUs are also getting harder and harder to find.

Either way, you will probably need a PSU, since most modern rigs strain the 12v line heavily.

GPU depends on your needs. From your description, you could get by with on board video or a cheap low end GPU. You may want to consider jumping to PCI-E since AGP is being phased out. An ATI x1300 or nvidia 7300 will be enough for your needs.

All that said, some recommendations.

If you have 1 gig or more of quality ddr-400 memory:
Cheap socket 754 rig
A64 3200 Venice 54$
Biostar Tforce 6100 66$
This setup is cheap, lets you keep your memory, gives you onboard video and a PCI-E slot for your next upgrade.


If you want to go dual-core:
Socket 939 rig
Opteron 165 180$
Combine with any nforce 4 board or nforce 6100 mobo if you want on board graphics.

If you are willing to replace the memory just pick any AM2 socket dual-core CPU and board, or any Intel Core 2 Duo and board, within your price range. Get 2 gigs of memory. Get the cheap stuff if you must, don't worry about memory speed. Quantity is more important.

[_dangtx_]

you can get an e4300 and ddr mobo .i highly sugest u get 2x512mb at least.

[mr_raider]

Thanx for the reply Mr Raider.

Will i be able to add a 3rd HDD if i wanted to downt he track or not ?

cheers thanx again

Yes. It'll have to be a SATA hard drive. Most new boards support between 2 and 8 SATA connections.

[chrisg_75]

Thanx again Mr Raider,
OK
So what would be a basic recommendation for motherboard and processor given i want to keep my HDD's and potentially add another on if possible and not be fading out within 12 mths. Primarily for image processing as i said (adobe photoshop etc)

Appreciate your help

thanx

Yes. It'll have to be a SATA hard drive. Most new boards support between 2 and 8 SATA connections.

[mr_raider]

What type of memory do you have? What's your PSU? What vid card? What's your budget?

[chrisg_75]

OK
I cant remember where i got this info but i had it a little while ago when i was looking at doing something but never got round to it. Not sure if it is usefull or not


GA-7VAX 1394
VIA KT 400
ATX
FSB 333 266 200 Socket A
3 DDR DIMM
AGP 8x 4x
6 Channel Audio
LAN
ATA 133
USB 2
1394

AMD Athlon XP2200+
2 x 512 DDR ram

Nothing special here

But i def need to upgrade for my image processing and storage potential.

Dollars are not huge

Im in Australia bythe way lol

But i guess if i have a starting point i have got somewhere to go either up or down depending on funds but def not unlimitied

thanx again

What type of memory do you have? What's your PSU? What vid card? What's your budget?

[chrisg_75]

Is this the right information needed ?

thanx