My old machine just broke :( Need help in my upgrade route

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luminous
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 717
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:31 am
Location: UK

My old machine just broke :( Need help in my upgrade route

Post by luminous » Fri Jul 01, 2005 7:20 am

I was perfectly happy with my old machine (see signature). But for some reason I have not been able to get a reliable Asus mobo. I have just experienced the fourth, yes fourth failed Asus mobo in my system in 2 years. I've had enough.

I've 2 choices:
1)Stick with a Socket A system and just buy another mobo, probably from Abit.

2) Upgrade to Athlon 64, get improved performance, and a quieter system (because of going water cooling)

I'm not sure what components I have already will be suitable for the new A64 system. Currently I have 2 sticks of DDR400 Kingmax 512Mb. I have a PCI Dolby Digital Live soundcard from Mystique (brand new). I also have an AGP Gigabyte 6800 fanless graphics card (I think I will have to ditch this). My PSU is 2 year old Cheiftec 420W

I'm guessing that the only component in that list above that I will have to ditch is the GPU.

I think I want a Socket 939 NForce 4 system. I know that I do not want SLI. I also will not touch another Asus board.

I'm thinking about using the new Reserator 1 Plus for cooling.

I am not sure if my memory will be suitable. I am also not sure what chipset I should be looking for....

I use my machine for web browsing, video, music and games. I am heavily into music, hence the Dolby Digital Live Coax SPDIF output soundcard.

Oh, and I also fold for nearly all day for SPCR :D

Any suggestions please?

alglove
Posts: 363
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:21 am
Location: Houston, TX, USA

Post by alglove » Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:15 pm

Y'know, you could get an NForce3 or VIA K8T800 based Socket 939 motherboard and still keep the AGP card....

teejay
Patron of SPCR
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:23 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by teejay » Fri Jul 01, 2005 11:27 pm

DFI just released a new socket 939 nForce 3 board, the nf3 Ultra-D... it's in my shopping cart right now, because I did not want to ditch my X800XL AGP just yet :P

luminous
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 717
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:31 am
Location: UK

Post by luminous » Sat Jul 02, 2005 8:44 am

Now, both of those sound like good options to me :cool:

Thanks :)

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