[an0n]

This computer is a piece of crap.

Well, not really, but a 550Mhz with 32mb RAM and a TNT2 ain't exactly top of the range anymore. It runs most stuff fine, but it's starting to show it's age with things like Halo just flat-out refusing to run on it.

With this in mind, I'm gonna start buying chunks of a new computer and (to some degree) hybridizing them with this 'puter till I've got enough stuff to form an entirely new computer.

This way I see immediate improvements, save on a monitor and case (for the moment) and I don't have to save up.

So, as of tomorrow I'll have around £110 to waste.

Go find me a nice, cheap mobo/CPU combo.

[Sandwich]

I'll keep an eye out for one in Ramallah.

Seriously, though, ask my brother (Splinter). He's been infected by the computer upgrade bug for a while now, and has been researching things intensively.

[Liberator]

I don't know if they ship international or not but:

MSI K7N2 Delta-L (MS-6570) for $58.00 US Product description from MSI's page

MSI 745 Ultra (MS-6561) for $35.00 (Product Description included)  This is the one I've got, it's fairly straight-forward but the drive connectors are in a poor location and it doesn't support DDR400 or Athlons above 1900.  But the price is hard to argue with.

Here is a list of processor prices from the same company:http://www.cnetpc.com/amdathlonxpcpu.asp

And last but not least, RAM, because you can't recycle your SDR onto the new board:http://www.cnetpc.com/ddrram.asp

[Taristin]

Originally posted by an0n

So, as of tomorrow I'll have around £110 to waste.

Go find me a nice, cheap mobo/CPU combo.

Asus a7n8x-e Deluxe with the 3200+ chip. Dunno pounds to dollars so go t opricewatch.com and find it.

[an0n]

Originally posted by Liberator
I don't know if they ship international or not but:

Terms and Conditions:

We do not ship to any P.O Boxes or third party address, APO/AFO and outside of the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii.

That Delta-L looks pretty sweet though.

[Martinus]

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AMD Duron 1.6 - £28.20
ABIT NF7 V2.0 £52.82 or Abit NF7-S v2.0 £72.26 with better built in sound.

www.overclockers.co.uk - got my stuff from there, good prices and damn reliable. Probably can find the parts cheaper elsewhere dabs.co.uk perhaps but OC'ers is good.

Both are great boards, problem is that they'll only take DDR ram so until you can afford a stick or two you'll not be able to run the bugger so I guess it doesn't exactly fit your criteria.
[/color]

[Dark_4ce]

I personally own a NF7-S board and the thing runs like a dream. And the customer support is good too. Its a good safe choice, plus if you feel like OCing its a great board to do it on.

[an0n]

ATM, I'm thinking Abit NF7-S v2.0 nForce2 Motherboard (£72.26) with an AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2500+ 333FSB (£68.09).

Which comes to just over £140.

And I figure selling off my old internals will scrape enough cash for enough RAM to see me through to when I've next got some cash.

Then I've got a 15" monitor, a few old LAN cards and some crappy modems that I could sell. The monitor's at least 8 years old and is, strangely, the best monitor I've ever come across.

[Bobboau]

n_force2 + Athlon

[Splinter]

any AMD mobo will do tried and tested only Gigabytes myself but also would reccomend Asus.

any of those for about 50 60 quid and an amd Athalon XP 2500+ for approx 60 quid.

just what the doctor ordered...
now you mentioned that you would be peicingtogether as you upgrad now I hope you have taken into account that diffrent ram type fit into diffrent mobos... basically all mobos now adays are designed for DDR if you dont have that well your old ram wont fit. so consider that wehn figuring price.

[an0n]

Yes. I know.

I've already found somewhere selling the right RAM for that motherboard with 128mb chunks costing about £20. Which will serve just fine till I can expand it some more.

[Stealth]

yeah man, keep in mind though, that myself, as well as many people i work with, have had terrible experiences with ordering RAM online.  I'd highly recommend buying it locally, particularly since it's going so cheap nowadays.

if you do find a good deal, but the seller will only ship to America, let me know, i'd be more than happy to collect the item, and then ship it overseas to you.

I have just (well, as of Tuesday when the processor arrives) finished building my computer.  Everything came to less than $650.00 (excluding monitor, keyboard, etc.) and it's top of the line, with 512 MB 3200 RAM, 160 GB Western Digital special edition (8 MB Cache) hard drive (I paid $90.99 for it, brand new, with the Ultra card)...`

[Kamikaze]

That's why people who care about RAM integrity will go through RAM testing (using stress testing programs for days).

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Kamikaze
That's why people who care about RAM integrity will go through RAM testing (using stress testing programs for days).

well i was actually referring to people who don't care to test it, and PARTICULARLY things that happens to RAM in the mail :-/

[Liberator]

RAM is cheap?

There is a particular local retailer that is selling RAM, PC2100 specifically, for nearly $100 for 128 MB.  I'm not going to name names but it's initals are S-T-A-P-L-E-S.

Not that I bought mine there.  I drove 65 miles and paid half that for 128MB and a case fan.

[pyro-manic]

Try www.crucial.com - very good for memory, and they've got a thingy that'll take you to the exact type you need when you input your mobo details.

[aldo_14]

I've sofar bought a wireless network card, mouse / keyboard, USB ADSL modem, FX5600 Graphics card, Athlon XP 2400+CPU, 512MB stick of DDR400 RAM and Abit KF-7S (or is it 7F...ne'erming) from www.dabs.com, and every one has been delivered on or before the given date, and working perfectly.

My monitor (xmas present) also came from them.

So I'd recommend them - although you may be able to find stuff a tenner or so cheaper at www.scan.co.uk/todayonly or somewhere else, depend on the offers on at the time.

[an0n]

Originally posted by pyro-manic
Try www.crucial.com - very good for memory, and they've got a thingy that'll take you to the exact type you need when you input your mobo details.

Yup. That's the site I was planning on ordering from.......Well, the UK Version.