I am looking to do a cheap as possible MB up grade. I am a cost conscious guy. The reason for upgrading to add more disk space. I figure buying a new MB with extra SATA connections is a better value than getting bigger HDs or buying a serious controller and I might get a bit more speed and computing power for only a little more money. My computer has a 1.6 G PII with 1.5 G of RAM. I will want to continue to run XP. I will pay for PCI slots and SATA connections. I have 4 PCI slots now but two are used for SATA controllers. I am interested in running an eSATA. Do you have suggestions on an external box? I would want USB2 and eSATA interfaces. Again I am looking to go cheap unless there is a good reason not to. I don’t mind spending a few bucks not to go bottom of the line. I was looking at the GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R for only $99 after rebate which has 8 SATA connections, 3 can go out the back, 3 PCI slots and 1 PCI 16 slot. I am not sure I could buy a serious SATA controller for that. I like gigabyte boards because I can read the documentation. Is this a good one? What CPU and memory should I get? I am figuring the slowest CPU will be blazing for me. I am figuring 2 G will be an improvement. Thanks in advance!
sounds like you need to just upgrade the whole computer. lol running a PII? i mean if you just wanna upgrade the mobo, cpu, and ram thats basically a new pc. but lets see if i can help you out here. good board for a dual core! you may think this is overkill but as we all know here at afterdawn or hell any computer geek really, you see the ONE pc game you just have to have and you get it home only to find out it plays like crap because your cpu/ram/vid card sucks. just saying... it'll happen sometime. and you shouldn't skimp out on the cheapest stuff. seriously, if i were you, i'd save my money up until i had about $400 and just revamp my entire system. also, with a new mobo, you should check to make sure your psu will be able to provide enough energy (electricity) to it. if not, there's no reason to get one. see there are alot of "background" things to think about before upgrading a major component like a mobo. ask yourself these 3 questions: 1. What Motherboard do i want? (already answered) 2. Does my PSU put out enough energy to power my new mobo, cpu, etc.? 3. Can I wait to upgrade? but anyways... here's what i would get for that mobo (all from newegg.com) The Motherboard The CPU The RAM as well... PSU and hey if you take my advice on waiting and you want to get a good GPU (video card) to play that game i talked about above, get this one. good luck, cfultz
The motherboard is a good choice. The memory is overkill, you will be fine with PC2-6400, just make sure it's cas4. Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098 You can do much better with the CPU. For only 5 bucks more this one is faster, has more cache, runs cooler, overclocks more and uses less power. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052 Most people don't trust Rosewill PSUs, and the power supply is VERY important. I would get the Corsair 550VX. It's a bit more but worth every penny. Also if you wait around this place sells it for 65 sometimes. http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-vx-550w-atx-power-supply/q/loc/101/205852646.html Also this card is almost four times as fast as the 8600GT, and is cheaper after rebates. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130332
Thanks guys! Yes, I could wait to upgrade but for what purpose? I have waited 5 years and could easily wait one more. I am only upgrading to allow for more HD space cheaply. I still might have .5 TB of space left. I will go for the MOBO the cheaper RAM and the bit more expensive CPU. I like my box it is a mini-tower that could be used as a small server. It has a 750 W power supply, I am way using less power than I used to use because I had so many IDE drives. It has 6 internal bays and 4 more bays that allow outside access. The box is big enough to take bigger MOBOs and more drives than the average of what is being sold today. I will only keep my SATA drives which only leaves the graphics card for a complete overhaul. I have a newer card on the shelf I bought 6 months ago when I was having trouble booting and the graphic card might have been the probelm. The problem went away but I didn't want to risk being dead in the water. I have no need of any faster graphics card than my 5 year old card. I will use the new card just because I have it. If I need a faster graphics card I will buy one at that time. They will be faster and cheaper then than they are now. Although my computer has the oldest and slowest CPU in the house, it is usually the fastest when it comes to processing because the HDs are fast with plenty of space.
I concider the PSU as a non issue. I do not know the make of my PSU. I am sure it is a no-name brand from China. I bought it at a very successful mom and pop store. They still stand 100% behind anything they sell. That stupidity has allowed them to grow from a 10x10 store to a 100x150 ft store in 30 years. They are Chinese and often get 'raw no name' stuff from China. That is where that box came from. I have 100% faith in their products. However, MOBOs cost way too much there. I usually only buy stuff from them that might be problematic or something I want fast. I will contine to use less power than I did a few years back when 100-200 G was a serious disk. I am running less than half the disks I was using during peak usage. I really do not see me ever filling up my bays ever again. I will be using less power than I am now unless the new CPUs use much more power than a HD plus the old PII CPU. I will be dropping my last IDE drive (C and be adding an external.
Well don't say I didn't warn you. I hope you have no problem, but cheap PSUs have been known to catch on fire, or fry other parts.
Thanks for the warning but this is exactly like wondering if the bridge was built to hold you after you have been using it for 5 years. I do understand that it is stupid to risk almost a grand worth of equipment over a stinkling PSU. Maybe I will look into one if I ever start adding more internal disks even if it handled the power before. They do get old and take voltage abuse. I really had not thought about those issues before. I need to keep the box. I came into a little money my wife does not know about. I am letting her spend lots of money we don't have on her kitchen. Still, she would not approve of me spending a few hundred bucks on computer garbage because it is not as necessary as having granit counter tops/new stove and oven ect in the kitchen. If I keep the box I still have the same old computer.
That is hands down the most careless attitude I have ever seen towards a Power supply. When you learn the hard way, you'll wish you'd spent the extra 15 dollars, as your repair bill will be 10, 20 maybe even 50 times that much, not to mention Rosewill have one of the highest rates of fires in the industry - what if in addition to destoying your PC, it burns down your house? You may laugh, but housefires have been started by cheap PSUs before. It does happen, and for the matter of less than 20 dollars difference, it's ridiculously important.
Well he isn't buying the Rosewill, and he did say he would consider buying a decent PSU. Mez, seems likw your case is good enough. Just keep in mind what we said about the PSU. Sam here can tell you what happens first hand when you use a crappy PSU.
This is what gave me doubts, the 'maybe I will look into one' bit. Just don't risk it. Nothing is worse to see than one of your hard disks literally going up in smoke.
Again, my power consumption will be down not up. However, it is on my list. I will invest $65 to precude a PSU failure. It is not normal to think "this power supply has been running perfectly for five years, I got to replace it NOW". It is normal to replace it after a failure.
You think a current gen system uses less power than a P3? You are mistaken. Additionally, that logic is sound for all components but power supplies, for when they fail, you only need to replace the part in question. With PSUs, if it goes, so might your entire system - for an old PC, so be it, upgrade time, but you don't want your brand new system destroyed because your old PSU gives out.
sammorris, I am dropping a drive. Does a P3 use more power than a P2 plus a harddisk? I figure no but then I don't know much. I had to keep a junk IDE drive because it was bootable. My SATAs are not accessable through the CMOS on the P2. Now I will have SATA support on the MOBO so I can drop that drive.
Dropping a hard disk drive removes a lot of surge power on startup, but doesn't remove much power when the system is actually running. 1.6Ghz P3 is as fast as they ever went, and they will therefore use probably near double the power of P2s.
Well that is good to know. I would not have guessed CPUs used that much power these days. I guess that is why the CPU fans keep getting more powerful. An issue no one mentioned is the new PSU has current power connections. I had forgotten what a mess is inside my box. What is out of sight is out of mind until you open the box. I am sure glad you all mentioned power supplies.
I'll be honest, that completely slipped my mind, but you're quite right, old PSUs don't have the connectors required to hook up new systems.
Well it slipped my mind as well and I was buying. The concept is obvious if you give it a second;'s thought. It wasn't until I was seriously checking out pictures of the suggested PSU that it dawned on me no, actually it hit me hard. I would have cursed my stubbornness when I started putting it together.
One last thing... I was hoping to use an AGP graphics card with this but I guess I will need another one. What I do play is maybe 15 yrs old. I do no 3-D gaming or anything you would consider 'gaming'. I do not want a better system because the kids might bug me to put their crap on my computer. I want the minimum graphics. Any suggestions? Thanks
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127316 Just obviously be aware if you did ever want to play modern games, this wouldn't do very well...
