My PC died last night and it seems the motherboards just had it. Its quite an old Asus Socket A so I dont really want to keep the CPU. However I intend to keep everything else, including the memory which is 1.5gb of DDR400 3200.
Do I go AMD or Intel and if so what motherboard suggestions do you have?
The other thing is as my HD is absolutely fine, effectively can I still use it without formatting or will there be consquences?
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asrock+4CoreDual-SATA2+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=28535
- I dont know if you can still get them though.
edit: yeah
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-011-AK
+ CPU. The C2Ds 2xxx look great for the money, Id go for around 2ghz and clock it up a little.
That motherboard will take all your old kit and will take new stuff too (only prob I know of is the 8800GT apparently has issues with it).
Quote from: FuMaNThe other thing is as my HD is absolutely fine, effectively can I still use it without formatting or will there be consquences?
Sometimes. It might be worth trying a repair over the existing install but tbh a fresh install is way simpler.
Ive never heard of Asrock, what are they like? Currently I have a Asus A7N8X which has lasted a good few years. Im only looking to replace the motherboard and cpu.
Ooooh I cant decide between a Pentium 4, Dual Core or Core Duo 2.
Asrock is like budget Asus. Built 2 pcs based on Asrock boards and theyre fine is you can stand a bit of brand snobbery from time to time.
C2D is where its at really. I got my E4xxx 2ghz running at 2.85ghz (havent tried any higher yet). Nice and fast. If I was buying again on a budget Id get a E21xx.
Whats your budget?
Memory is so well priced atm it would be silly not to take advantage of it :P
Depending on what you want to spend really.
Ive just repaired a pc I made years ago, with 3 Asrock boards :lol: Its a P4 cpu and the 1st 2 Intel chipset boards both failed within a very short time (no vga). On my third attempt with a Via one.....get an Asus again if you can :)
Well my budget is probably £150 ish for board, cpu and memory. I definitely want to get 2GB considering the prices.
Any Asus board recommendations then?
If you want features and good value for money i would also consider Abit and MSI.
Heres a bundle for you
A64 X2 4800+ 2.5Ghz Dual Core - AM2
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134571
spend a few £s more and hike that processor speed up :D
ABIT KN9S Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/110803
Corsair 2GB Ram (2x1gb) PC6400
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/98710
I actually use this setup atm, it rings in at £150.03 (choose supersaver delivery and its free)
Benefits, dual core, ddr 2, sata and ata support, quality products.
You dont need to spend £150, just go for a big name mobo, you can save £s for selecting a different chipset, i used nvidia in this bundle. Processors you have a varied choice i would say AMD they are well priced for a dual core, you could drop down Sempron and save more money, i cant comment on them never used them, you can also go for generic memory but its worth paying a few £s extra for quality.
The Semprons are gutless. ^Sounds like a winner to me.
How cheap is memory nowadays!? I remember spending that on 2x8mb EDO :shock:
Memory is cheap as chips at the mo, Id grab it within the next few days, or wait till after Xmas for the sales.
If you order closer to Xmas you risk it not being in stock, or a price hike.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=527001
its cheap, but its fine, ive been using it as put-me-by for a few months, its as quick as the basic Corsair, and youll get twice as much for half the price.
Motherboard Asus M2A-VM. Again, i have one of these, awesome piece of kit, and the graphics are "good enough" if you dont have a PCI-e card yet.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=564802
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=535754
AMD 5600+ X2.
Total cost including postage and VAT is £153.29
basically recommending what ive used, and what i tend to buy at the moment. The "cheap" memory isnt actually that bad, the stuff i have has Hynix chips on a generic board, and it works fine with my 6000+
so for that you get ::
2Gb DDR2 800
5600+ Dual Core CPU
mATX motherbaord with PCI-e, HD Audio, 4xSATA ports, 1xPCI-e, up to 8GB RAM supported in 4 slots. To be fair im not a huge fan of mATX boards, but i do actually rate this after I got mine.
So much choice I dont know what to go for!
I see another 8 pager coming . . .
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:CufhhcSEM-0dCM:http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/lock-picking-5.jpg)
Quote from: FuMaNSo much choice I dont know what to go for!
couple of things, are you going to overclock it?
what GFX do you have at the moment?
What are you actually going to use it for?
Its just for general surfing, media, very little gaming, some coding and photoshop too.
I currently have some kind of ATI Radeon, not sure what model. Im work right now so Ill check tonight.
Quote from: FuMaNIts just for general surfing, media, very little gaming, some coding and photoshop too.
I currently have some kind of ATI Radeon, not sure what model. Im work right now so Ill check tonight.
so you probably arent going to overclock, youll likely be doing some media encoding, and your graphics could do to have a bit of grunt at least. Tell us what GFX you are using at the moment, and well have a better idea. If its something older then youll probably find that the modern onboard GFX are about the same grunt, and that may give you the option to upgrade later on.
Both packages mentioned by Beaker and Bacon sound ideal for your needs.
You dont need a monster rig, and those specs would be fine. The only thing to consider is if you want to start playing the latest cutting edge games you will want to beef up the graphics, but if not those systems would make tidy workhorses.
The leap from Athlon to dual core CPUs is massive, you really wont need to worry about all round performance with those setups.
OK I went with the Asrock and just set it all up and it starts up. I decided not to format the HD just yet. I started it up and the black XP screen came up then a second later I got a blue screen saying to do a scan disk. Is this because it will be trying to load drivers from the old motherboard and its being incompatible?
Ive plugged my HD into another PC as a slave just to check its ok and everything seems fine. So right now Im having to backup my files so I can format. Bleh!
Whenever Ive done that type of upgrade Ive always gone into device manager and uninstalled everything before installing the new hardware (or transplanting the HDD) and it usually goes smoothly. Have you tried going into safe mode?
Its the same in safe mode. Luckily Ive got most things I need from the HD. The one thing I cant copy is the chat logs from MSN because they are passworded and the certificate only allows my user on my PC to open or copy it. I may have to clone my brothers PC to have the same computer name, add an account with that name so it works! I can afford to lose the logs but I dont really want to.
A quick google suggests http://msn-and-yahoo-message-archive-viewer.download-381-21896.datapicks.com/
No idea what its like, dont use any text chat programs these days.
I think it you put the xp cd in and do a repair itll work.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI
Seeing as fuman has finished with this thread I hope he doesnt mind me hijacking it.
Im looking for a new setup thats as low cost as possible but capable of playing the new EVE Online client, which basically needs a dx 9.0c graphics card. A better graphics card would help I suppose.
Basically mATX would be decent if the perfomance doesnt suffer due to the size. I could go for ATX. Also, I have a Tagan PSU, must be around 350W or so.
Would I need a new PSU?
I have a budget of around £400 at the very max, as close to £300 as possible would be good.
£300-400 is a nice budget, opens up a lot of options
Quote from: AdrockI have a budget of around £400 at the very max, as close to £300 as possible would be good.
As cost appears to be the driving factor Im suggesting the following, should also allow you to play other newer games OK as well. Its all from Scan because thats just who i use, again, only picked one place because if cost is an issue you dont want to be shelling out tens of pounds on P&P on top of the cost of parts ::
Asus M2A-VM AMD 690G :: Again, i serious recommend this board if you want something well featured and are on a budget. Was £20 more 6 months agao when i got mine!
250Gb SeagateYou dont save enough by lowering the drive capacity these days.
4400+ Energy EfficientThis is where there is way more scope to play around with stuff.
2x1Gb generic RAMits cheap, and it works as well as "cheap" corsair etc. Doesnt have the same warranties, and wont take overclocking though. Pay more if you feel youll need to overclock.
512Mb Sapphire 1950ProCheap and has plenty of poke for what you need. You might want to consider something else, but if you only need Dx9 compatability then this will do fine.
Cheapy Scan Keyboad, Mouse, Case and PSU kitAgain, im thinking cheap here.
Black Samsung Dual Layer DVD WriterAvoid the real cheapy no-brand DVD Writers, they get really fussy with what media they use, and the Optiarc ones are crap. Ive seen them die in under 6 months with moderate usage.
Total cost :: £301.80 including VAT and P&P.
Quote512Mb Sapphire 1950Pro
Cheap and has plenty of poke for what you need. You might want to consider something else, but if you only need Dx9 compatability then this will do fine.
Another £15 would get a 3850. Or if you hold on a month or so the 256mb 8800gt is gonna sell for the same price afaik.
OK this is really weird. Ive just tried to do a repair with the new kit and after it copied the setup files it restarted as usual. Then not long after that it switched itself off. Now when I turn it on it switches itself off again after a bit. I think it might be the PSU!! Fortunately I dont mind that Ive had to upgrade but this definitely sounds like a PSU issue right?
Quote from: sdpQuote512Mb Sapphire 1950Pro
Cheap and has plenty of poke for what you need. You might want to consider something else, but if you only need Dx9 compatability then this will do fine.
Another £15 would get a 3850. Or if you hold on a month or so the 256mb 8800gt is gonna sell for the same price afaik.
that was my 1st choice, but i was put off by the "As near to £300 as possible" line. Though to be fair i would put the extra £15 as well. it was only a quick spec i threw together :)
also when anyone actually gets the 8800Gt in they MAY sell for that price, if low stock levels dont mean the retailers rack the prices up.
Quote from: FuMaNOK this is really weird. Ive just tried to do a repair with the new kit and after it copied the setup files it restarted as usual. Then not long after that it switched itself off. Now when I turn it on it switches itself off again after a bit. I think it might be the PSU!! Fortunately I dont mind that Ive had to upgrade but this definitely sounds like a PSU issue right?
could also be an issue with heat to be fair. if you bought the Retail package at it was already gunked then check that the motherboard settings have the heat protection set to a sensible level. I had an MSI thing a few weks back that had the cutoff temp set to 30C!
I dont even get anything on my monitor now :(
The then turns itself off after 10s or so. It must be a temperature related issue!
Quote from: FuMaNI dont even get anything on my monitor now :(
The then turns itself off after 10s or so. It must be a temperature related issue!
check your clips, make sure they are tight. Check that the CPU didnt have a stupid clear pad over the compound, and make sure the HSF is spinning up.
It probably is that, it turned on for 1 minute this time and now its turned off again!
OK clips are tight and everything else is fine! HSF is spinning too, Im baffled.
I had it running in the bios this evening for 5 mins but the idle temp of the CPU was 62c! Is it quite possible the heatsink isnt screwed down tight enough then? Ive just pushed it down at the moment and screwed it anti-clockwise. That seems right to me.
Quote from: FuMaNI had it running in the bios this evening for 5 mins but the idle temp of the CPU was 62c! Is it quite possible the heatsink isnt screwed down tight enough then? Ive just pushed it down at the moment and screwed it anti-clockwise. That seems right to me.
isnt it on clips? That temp is WAY too high. Even my 6000+ doesnt run at that temp!
It sounds to me like the HSF isnt tight enough for certain.
Quote from: FuMaNWell my budget is probably £150 ish for board, cpu and memory. I definitely want to get 2GB considering the prices.
Any Asus board recommendations then?
2 Gig of ram comes as cheap as £30 these days for modern DDR2.
Its old DDR PC133 ram that comes in at £50 for a stick of 512.
YOu can easily build a decent core 2 duo system on that budhet.
Cypher could you point out a decent mobo/cpu combination for myself then please?
I really have no clue about all of these new chipsets and all that.
Im stuck in the olden days of Athlon 2500+ :(
Is C2D really that much better than Athlon now?
Thanks for that beaker. I took the motherboard out of the case and one of the clips had been bent back but its now fine. To save having to take it out again I just rested it on some cardboard and booted it up. Temps are normal now running at 30c idle. I just need to put the board back in the case when I get home tonight.
The weekend just hasnt been long enough!
Quote from: AdrockIs C2D really that much better than Athlon now?
its now purely dependant on your budget, or if you decide to overclock or not. Personally ive yet to find anything that troubles my 6000+/2Gb/X1950XT at all. Also when i was buying the rig an E6600 which was the equivelent Intel chip was about £40 more for the CPU, and about £50 more for a board with the same features I have on the AM2 board.
"Buy Core 2 Duo or nothing" gets on my nerves when it gets repeated as a mentra. They are good CPUs, but most people dont overclock, so most often the C2D and CD stuff isnt going to make a difference.
Quote from: AdrockCypher could you point out a decent mobo/cpu combination for myself then please?
I really have no clue about all of these new chipsets and all that.
Im stuck in the olden days of Athlon 2500+ :(
Is C2D really that much better than Athlon now?
I recently bought 2 sets of the following for a custom job.
Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz E6750 (£120)
Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3P (£40)
http://techreport.com/articles.x/12737Although one of the boards was DOA after 1 day of use. They really are no thrill motherboards, if it wasnt for the failure I was quite pleased with them. The only reason I chose that board was for compatability with some digital camera capture cards.
There is plenty of choice about mind.
http://www.ebuyer.com/search/?strSearch=&bolShowAll=true&intStoreID=2&intCatID=14&intSubcatUID=658&intMfrID=148&bolShowAll=trueThese were idling at something like 23C after a few minutes.
Ive decided to go with a dual core Athlon. The AM2 variety of course. Looking at the mobo, would it be worth getting one that will support Phenom cpus in the future? Or will it be a matter of early revisions will be limited to earlier Phenoms and therefore not worth the bother?
Now onto gpus and all that. Nvidia 8800GT looks nice but is quite expensive. Is there anything comparable around for cheaper? Or will they really be cheaper in a couple of weeks?
Im struggling to bide my time here, g/f just got a nice £1000 tax rebate >_<
Heh Im awaiting my tax rebate! I am looking for in the 1200 quid range! :D