The PC upgrades thread.

GD · driven to tears Age: 48 Gender: Joined: 19 Jan 2005

This one is for the PC geeks among us..

What kind of rig are you currently running, and what are your planned upgrades? Have you already placed new gear on order or are you just dreaming about the latest dual-core CPU? I dunno, I just felt like talking shop with other PC entusiasts I guess..

My basic hardware:

Athlon 64 3700 "San Diego" (OC to 2.4Ghz), stock cooling.
Abit AN8 nForce 4 SLi Mobo
2GB Corsair DDR400 Value RAM, Dual Channel Mode
Cooler Master 480W Power Supply
Antec Mid-ATX /w 2x 80mm Fans
eVGA nVidia GeForce 7800GT (CO) 256MB PCI-E
Seagate Barracuda 80GB SATA HDD, 7,200 RPM
Lite-On Combo Drive, Memorex DVD-RW Drive

It runs everything I throw at it pretty well, but I'm not totally satisfied. I went with the best gear I could afford when I put it together, and I tried to select a motherboard that would allow for plenty of upgrades. I even went SLi, though I haven't taken advantage of it to date.

So for upgrades...

I just ordered this case to replace my aging Antec.

I'm yanking the included PSU to put my Cooler Master in there, it's a much higher quality unit. I also ordered an additional 120mm intake fan, so I'll have 2x 120mm and 1x 80mm, which should improve my cooling situation a bit.

Next up:

Corsair XMS 2GB (2x 1GB Dimms)
Samsung SpinPoint P Series 250GB SATA-II HDD with NCQ
Thermaltake Venus 80mm Cooling Fan/Copper Heatsink for CPU

And either a second 7800GT or an upgrade to a single 7900GT.

Once those are out of the way, this machine will have to last me until I do a full overhaul next year when Vista releases.

Blackmage · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 12:12 am Post subject:

I currently have:
AMD Xp 3200+ 754pin
1GB RAM (dual channel but running in single as my MOBO does support dual)
WD Raptor 36GB, 8MB cache - It's Hella fast
AGP BFG GeForce 5600 128mb Ultra
SB Live! 5.1 Gamer

Planned Upgrades
FX-60
2GB Dual Channel Ram
new mobo
AGP GeForce 7900GTX 512mb
WD Raptor 150GB, 16MB cache

Shurikane · Dim Panties As String Joined: 24 Sep 2002

BOX A (Little-Tight)
----------
Case: Antec Aria
Motherboard: ASUS A8N
CPU: AMD Athlon XP64 3000
RAM: 1 GB (Kingston)
OS: Windows 2000 Professional
Storage: 1x 40 GB HD + 1x external 160GB HD USB 2.0
GFX: Leadtek GeForce PX 6600 GTX
Sound: Onboard AC97 Realtek
CD/DVD: CD-RW Drive
Others: None.

BOX B (Sweet Monster)
----------
Case: Antec Super LANBOY
Motherboard: ASUS A8V-E Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon XP64 3200+
RAM: 1 GB (Kingston)
OS: Windows 2000 Professional + Fedora Core 5
Storage: 1x 80 GB SATA HD + 2x 250 GB HD + 1x 40 GB HD
GFX: ASUS GeForce EN 7600 GS Silent
Sound: Onboard AC97 Realtek
CD/DVD: LG CD/DVD +/-RW Super Multi Drive
Others: Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP Expert Capture Card

Planned upgrades: none - I did them already not too long ago on both PCs. Very Happy

GD · driven to tears Age: 48 Gender: Joined: 19 Jan 2005

So you're sticking with AGP? I figured if you were going from Socket 754 to 939 for that FX-60 (which is a hella nice CPU by the way, but too rich for my blood..), you would want to get a PCI-E board. Are they even making Socket 939 mobos with AGP slots anymore?

I'm going to ebay my 2GB of Corsair Value RAM if you're interested, but it's 4 DIMM's so I don't know if your mobo would support it or not. It's great RAM, I just want to step up to XMS memory.

Blackmage · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 9:34 am Post subject:

Hah, Oops meant PCI-E

I'm in no place to even begin to build a PC financially. It will probably happen after AMD makes the move the 65nm technology.

Andsectoid · Router Monkey of DOOM!!! Gender: Joined: 18 Sep 2003

Main Machine:
Tyan Trinity i845
Intel 1.4 OC to 1.7 stable
2.5 Gb RAM
4400TI AGP
Adaptec SCSI Ultra160 Card 39160
Maxtor Atlas 10K 4 73 GB 4.3ms seek time
SB Audigy 2 ZS
5 80mm case fans including 1 massive Vantec Tornado moving 85 CFM
120 mm temperature controlled fan directed at graphics card.
DVD-RAM, DVD-R RW and CD-R RW drives
600W Power Supply
Case with temperature sensors for HD, processor and vid.

Server:
I forget the Mobo
Intel 2.5
2GB Ram DDR Dual channel
16 Meg integrated Nvidia video... It's a server. Thats all it needs. lol
573 Gb of total storage 57Gb free

Lappy:
IBM Thinkpad R51
1.7 P-4 M
80 GB HD
1.25 GB Ram
Normal R51 Jazz – 14.1 display, CD-RW/DVD, Intel Extreme Graphics 2, abg wireless.

Future upgrades
Main machine:
New mobo, processor, and vid card(as soon as Chinadoll gets me a price)

Server:
+320GB HD

Hoth · Guitarist Gender: Joined: 10 Oct 2002

Main compy:

Asus p5p800 (i think thats right) apg 8x
Intel P4 775 socket 3.0Ghz with HT
1g dual channel ram
1 200G SATA drive
Geforce 6600 GT 128MB
Acer DVD R/RW 52x 16x

Server:
Asus Mobo - Cant remember the type
Dual P3 866Mhz Intel's
512mb ram
Geforce 2 64meg video
1 40G hdd

upgrades - hmmm.. none at the moment

GD · driven to tears Age: 48 Gender: Joined: 19 Jan 2005

My case came today, and I just finished the swap. I'll post pics of it, it's a pretty cool looking case. It's not as gaudy or flashy as it looks in the Newegg photos, the LED in the front is a lot darker and more understated.

I'm not a huge fan of the gaudy, pimped out cases by any means, this one is about as extravagant as I can go. No alien heads or biohazard symbols in sight. Laughing

Next order is a new Copper Heatsink /w 80mm Fan for my processor and a 250Gb SATA-II HDD.