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Upgrade time perhaps

shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
in Zocalo v2.0
thinking about upgrading my hardware a little

retaining :

9800 pro Radeon
gig of 400 DDR ram
2 x 80 gig IDE HDD
current mid tower case

pitching and replacing :

3200 barton core AMD ( about 1GHZ)
Asus Mobo for the above

wish I could retain/modify to suit :

Zalman 7000Cu CPU cooler ( big ass 100% copper jobbie)

I'm looking at a decent Mobo with onboard good quality sound, maybe SATA HDD support and a CPU which is as fast as my budget allows

happy to entertain the idea of a very mild overclock, lower voltage mobile processor etc

Budget :

max $400 USD

What say you technophiles/geeks ??

cheers in advance !

Comments

  • The Cabl3 GuyThe Cabl3 Guy Elite Ranger
    or wait a bit for BTX boards?
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    An AMD Barton 3200 has a clock speed of 2.2GHz, not 1GHz.

    I'm not sure why you want to upgrade the CPU given that that one is still pretty fast. But if you do, probably worth going for AMD64.
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    I put a mobile AMD64 in the home theater box I built for its lower heat output, and its a champ little processor.

    The motherboard that I bought isnt available anymore (dont know how good a sign that is) but they have other models that look just as good.

    [URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123255]Epox 8NPA7I [/URL] is the model that looks like replaced my PAJ. Now, this of course requires you to get a new video card, but its a solid AMD64 mobile compatable motherboard. I put [URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103560]this AMD64 3400[/URL] in it. Its a fast processor, does video really well. Low power, doesnt require a god awefull massive fan that makes noise. Because this home theater PC sits in the living room, I didnt want to hear it. And I dont.

    If you really want to go over the top, they make an [URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123257]sli version[/URL]
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by The Cabl3 Guy [/i]
    [B]or wait a bit for BTX boards? [/B][/QUOTE]BTX is practically dead!
    And that's how it should have been from beginning because it was pure deception invented when Intel noticed P4/Netburst is becoming well-matched competitor for electric heating.



    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by shadow boxer [/i]
    [B]Zalman 7000Cu CPU cooler ( big ass 100% copper jobbie)[/B][/QUOTE]If you think that's big check 7700, it has 12cm fan... and weights almost 1kg.

    7000 should work
    [Url]http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=43&code=005[/url]
  • PSI-KILLERPSI-KILLER Needs help
    It is exciting times for upgrades.

    I would say Tyan, DFI, EVGA, Asus are all good motherboards there are allot I am forgeting but I have not really read anything bad about the currect generation motherboards.
    Then what socket/processor Architecture Intel or AMD
    Then the Chip set ATI or Nvidia. SLI or ATI Crossfire
    I would like to point out that a good Power Supply is always needed. My barebone SLI system came withn a 420Watt which was not enough for the new PPU comming out along with many harddrives.

    My First upgarde was a Silverstone 650 watt and 4 case fans, 8 case fans with the Power to add whatever I want. Now I was ready for upgrades.

    PPU's is next level and i heard this month they would be out but not yet. I actually saw a picture of the card it has SLI connector on it. They say it may take 25 watts with a power connector on card. I think I heard about them here at firstones.

    [url]http://www.ageia.com/technology.html[/url]

    [url]http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=140[/url]
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by E.T [/i]
    [B]BTX is practically dead!
    And that's how it should have been from beginning because it was pure deception invented when Intel noticed P4/Netburst is becoming well-matched competitor for electric heating.[/b][/quote]

    Even without the absurd quantities of heat put out by recent processors, it's still worth having BTX because it means you can more efficiently cool the computer. The ATX case layout is about as unfriendly to efficient cooling as it's possible to get.
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Biggles [/i]
    [B]The ATX case layout is about as unfriendly to efficient cooling as it's possible to get. [/B][/QUOTE]Sure because they didn't expect heat production to return to days of "tube" computers.
    Also end result depends greatly on case.... Do you think keeping fast CPU+GPU and pile of HDs cool is so hard in [url=http://www.chieftec.de/?page=products_show&item=201&k_id=1&language=uk]this[/url] kind case?

    And I doubt that neither has BTX any more reasonable HD "racks"... (reserving enough cooling space+fans for HDs instead of stacking them tightly)


    And considering removing heat made by biggest heaters...
    All top end graphic cards produce so much heat and practically take up two slots (you can't put obstacle directly on top of cooling fan) so I can't see why they don't all use HSF which exhausts hot air directly out instead of leaving it inside case.
    Like [url=http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/X-850article/]this[/url].
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Considering I have that case, no I don't think it's hard. But with BTX's thermal zones it becomes easier and thus more efficient to cool computers (whether they produce more heat than they should or produce the heat of a P500), saving both power and noise. Granted, I don't know all the details of BTX, but the concepts behind it are far superior to ATX.
  • MundaneMundane Elite Ranger
    still using a AMD 1,4ghz :)

    (oh..and a Pentium M 2,0ghz laptop with 1,2gb ram)
  • FreejackFreejack Jake the Not-so-Wise
    Me, other than my work-provided notebook, I'm still using a PII 300...

    Jake
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    I still use (3) HP Vectra PII-266Mhz,
    Dell PII-450Mhz,
    PIII-800Mhz,
    and my Athlon 1.5Ghz.

    Athlon does the Lightwave 8.5 and Photoshop stuff now with Dual display.

    :)

    Very comfortable mini render farm...

    :D
  • PSI-KILLERPSI-KILLER Needs help
    Good news I guess. I was thinking of staying with a single core processer, now with the duals and even my god, tri-core processers you know there will be quad-cores. AMD supposedly released a tri-core today. MY GOD THE INSANITLY!!!!

    :::::laughs like a crazy man::::::



    [url]http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=10242005-5234[/url]
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    There is a motherboard out that supports dual dual core Opterons with 4 full sized PCI Express slots for a maxinum of 4 64 bit Opteron cores and 8 monitors. Don't know the brand, but I know it exists. :D
  • EclecticonautEclecticonaut Elite Ranger
    You mean [url=http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8qw.html]this monster[/url] or something else? So far I've seen only one mobo with 4 PCI-E x16 slots: [url=http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20051004/]Gigabyte GA-8N SLI Quad Royal[/url]

    But of course it could be some early prototype you have seen somewhere.
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