[Fineus]

Hey all - I'm looking to upgrade my CPU to around an XP 2400+ - but that means I'll need a new motherboard. Upgradability is important and it must take DDR ram... any thoughts on where I could get started? (or indeed if it's worth shelling out more/less for a better/worse chip? - is the gap between the 2200+ and the 2400+ etc.. that big?)

Thanks

[Stealth]

CPUs and motherboards i can get for you dirt cheap, especiall CPU/motherboard bundles

i'll be back later

do'nt buy anything yet! i can hook you up

[Fineus]

You'd be hooking my dad up (the basic idea is this is a possible christmas present for me) but thanks for the offer anyhow, I'll await what you have to say! Any advice from anyone for the time being would be good though

[Top Gun]

Just Keep Checking Pricewatch  to get a general idea of what you should be paying

[Grey Wolf]

I'm upgrading too. A bit more drastic though. I'm going for the MSI KT3 Ultra2 and the Athlon 2000+. And before anyone tells me to get a better one than that, I lack the money to and it's far better than my current CPU (P3 550 MHz)

Edit: I think I've heard the 2100+ and 2200+ have heatsink problems, so I'd go for the 2400+ in your shoes, Thunder.

[Stealth]

you lack the money?  there's no excuse better than that

i'm going to go to frys tomorrow... they sell all sorts of electronics at wholesale prices.  so go ahead and make a decision if you want, but i'm going to check tomorrow

[Turnsky]

Grey wolf, i've just recently purchased a 2200+ and it's running pretty cool at the moment.. no probs in that area..

BTW, i'm running it on a kt3 ultra 2

[Fineus]

Originally posted by Stealth
i'm going to go to frys tomorrow... they sell all sorts of electronics at wholesale prices.  so go ahead and make a decision if you want, but i'm going to check tomorrow

I'll be waiting on what you have to say anyway - it was dads birthday yesterday so I figured going up to him and saying "Happy Birthday, I'd like an AMD 2400+ and this mobo..." would be a tad insensitive

[Stealth]

get a new case too!

[01010]

I went to a computer fair last saturday for a Mobo and XP 2100+ and paid £120.

I think almost all new boards take DDR so that's not so much of a problem.

[Stealth]

give me what you're looking for on a motherboard... what kind of processor, what speed, what kind of RAM, etc.

 
how's that motherboard, with this processor:


Form Factor  ATX (12.00 inches by 8.50 inches
 
   
Processor  Support for an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor in a mPGA478 socket with a 400/533 MHz system bus
Hyper-Threading Technology Support
Support for an Intel® Celeron® processor in a mPGA478 socket with a 400 MHz system bus
 
 
Memory  Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets
Support for DDR 333 and DDR 266
Support for up to 2 GB¹ system memory
 
 
Chipset  Intel® 845PE Chipset
 
I/O Control  SMSC LPC47M172 LPC bus I/O controller
 
Audio  Six channel audio with analog, coaxial digital, and optical digital output using AC '97 processing with the Analog Devices AD1980 codec featuring SoundMAX Cadenza
 
Video  AGP connector supporting 1.5 V 4X AGP cards
 
SATA/SATA RAID  Sil 3112A controller supporting individual drives and RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations
Two SATA connectors supporting a total of two drives
 
 
Peripheral Interfaces  Six USB 2.0 ports
Three IEEE 1394a-2000 ports (optional)
One serial port
One parallel port
Two IDE interfaces with Ultra DMA 33 and ATA-66/100 support
One diskette drive interface
PS/2* keyboard and mouse ports
Three fan connectors
 
 
Expansion CapabilitiesFive PCI bus add-in card connectors  
 

 

I was thinking you could run a P4 2.53 GHZ processor, which that motherboard would support.  would you like that? or do you want a faster processor

[Shrike]

Thunder's getting himself a new MoFo?  Will it run icy hot, with ghettocooling?

[Stealth]

heh


EDIT:  if your dad wants to buy something (an ebay auction or something) in america, then i can organize payment/shipping to you

[Fineus]

The specs look good Stealth - thanks - but only one small (large) problem.. the mobo is for an AMD Athlon chip in the XP 2200 to 2600 range. It won't fit on a P4 mobo

[Martinus]

[color=00ff66]

*Throws arms in air and starts chanting*

"Athlon! Athlon! Athlon!..."

Price and performance, it suits me down to the ground.


BTW Thunder I'm going to wait until after chrimbo to buy parts, I was going to shell out for a Mobo and DDR this month but my friend who does a lot of buying is expecting a price increase for chrimbo and advises that if possible to wait until Jan/Feb. That's just for the UK.
[/color]

[Fineus]

Well the UK interests me... I'd be more than willing to wait untill Feb for the price drops on 333 FSB chips etc.. hell I could ask for the money for Christmas and do what I want with it when the time comes...

[Fineus]

What about this?

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7v8x/overview.htm

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Thunder
The specs look good Stealth - thanks - but only one small (large) problem.. the mobo is for an AMD Athlon chip in the XP 2200 to 2600 range. It won't fit on a P4 mobo

eh?  that motherboard is meant for P4 processors!  what motherboard are you looking at?

Oh, and that link you gave... the A7V ... very good motherboard.  in fact, pretty much any ASUS motherboard is quality... all the A7(somethings) are good... except for the A7A266, which has a pathetic chip.

EDIT:  without even looking at the specs... if you look on the box (in the picture) it says "for Pentium 4 processors" or something... see? :

[Fineus]

Cheers Stealth - and yeah, I mean't the mobo I wanted was one for an Athlon... P4 built mobos are no good

[Stealth]

amen to that!  i always go Athlon myself (lol) but i thought "if i say something about why he's getting a P4 motherboard, he'll flame me"... so i just kept quiet

yeah... if you're going for Athlon processors, then go ASUS.  that motherboard you showed is good