If I Go Pci-e! How Much Roughly.

[Jockstar]

You'd get more performance out of switching the motherboard to a PCI-Express one and adding a PCI-Express graphics card, AGP won't cut it with most of the newer games.

Lets say i get a PCI-Express MB and a card to go in it. 2GB Ram. What we looking at?Anything else i've overlooked?

PCI-E Motherboard?=

Decent card?=

2GB Ram?=

Or would my existing RAm fit in a PCI-E board?

Keep the same hardrive, box etc.

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

[monty]

Your ram should work nicely in the new PCIe mainboard! No extra expenses there...

I use the Asus A8n-e mainboard for my 64 bit AMD cpu's, which I think can be had for a bit over 3000 Baht.

It's already a bit older model (I have them almost a year and payed quite a bit more back then ) but will suit your needs just fine.

[Tywais]

Your ram should work nicely in the new PCIe mainboard! No extra expenses there...

Just a comment on this. Just be sure the new mainboard supports the same memory type as your existing one if you wish to re-use the memory - DDR versus DDR2. The A8N series are fine (I have an A8N-SLI and a A8N32-SLI deluxe), both use DDR.

[solo siam]

Keep everything the same and simply buy a new graphics card, the hard drive etc... will all work perfectly, although it will be a much easier upgrade path if you wanted a faster HDD later on.

Its really a simple swap-out, as long as you have a decent PSU its just a motherboard and PCI-Express purchase, The 8800GTS is the graphics card you want.

[Jockstar]

as long as you have a decent PSU

Anyway to find out what i have without taking off the cover? Or the type of RAM i have?

[solo siam]

PSU - you can probably take a look at the back of your computer where you plug the power in, if its a brand name (e.g Vantec, Coolermaster, Zalman etc..) you should be fine - The ram should show up in either BIOS or your boot check.

[Tywais]

as long as you have a decent PSU

Anyway to find out what i have without taking off the cover? Or the type of RAM i have?

The board you have requires DDR memory, so a replacement board that also supports DDR (not DDR2) will work.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec....N_Neo2_Platinum

[Jockstar]

As i preplied in my other thread. This is what i am thinking about, although depends on the cost.

Looking at going for something along these lines.

ASUS A8N32- SLI DELUXE nforce SL1 x16(socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard

Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB ( PCI-Express)

1GB RAM- DDR 400(i think?)

Currently have AMD Athlon 64/3000+ - Thinking about upgrading this depending on price. Maybe the 4000?

Buying a 500GB external hardrive

Does this look ok?

[Jockstar]

PSU - you can probably take a look at the back of your computer where you plug the power in, if its a brand name (e.g Vantec, Coolermaster, Zalman etc..) you should be fine - The ram should show up in either BIOS or your boot check.

Just checked. PSU is 400 Watt. Will that be enough?

[Jockstar]

Got a guy in Oz who will help me get good parts and a decent price. Looks like i'm going for something along these lines. How does it look?

E6600

Corsair 2GB DDR2 Ram in 2x1GB sticks

500w "Ever Power" PSU

GA- 965P-DS3P Motherboard

8800 GTS card

500GB external HD

Stilll unsure whether to go for Vista or XP. I believe that Vista has had many problems. But arent they bringing out a Service Pack 1 soon? Any replies welcome.

[Firefoxx]

Looks nice, although a lot of people prefer the Asus P5B mainboard. Why the external HDD? 500GB is *really* expensive, as in per-gb price, and external is even more so.

I myself was in a similar situation. I had 2GB of DDR memory and a decent AGP card, but a lousy CPU and an old mainboard. So I wanted to find a board that supposed DDR/AGP and newer CPUs. I found a couple (not that many), but they weren't good, and I ended up selling the components and buying everything new (P5B, 8600GT, 2x1GB kinston, E4300, 650W PSU). It cost a lot more but I think I'll have less problems.

[Tywais]

Looks nice, although a lot of people prefer the Asus P5B mainboard. Why the external HDD? 500GB is *really* expensive, as in per-gb price, and external is even more so.

His specs are nearly identical to mine except for a Coolermaster 550W RealPower supply. Also agree with the P5B, I have the P5BE-Plus and performance and overclocking a E6600 is excellent.

[Jockstar]

Why the external HDD? 500GB

Reason being is that i will just transfer my documents straight to it and do a total new install on my existing HD. The question still is though. Should i go Vista or XP. I would have to buy a legit copy from Ebay or somewhere around AUD$160ish or buy Vista. This wont be for another couple of months. So i'm wondering if the Service Pack 1 will be out for Vista then? I'll have to upgrade to Vista eventually. So what to do? Is XP being pushed out in 2008 or is that <deleted> just to make us buy Vista?

[Mid]

Is XP being pushed out in 2008 or is that <deleted> just to make us buy Vista?

I'll take ,

bullox for a grand ........

[cali]

XP is projected to remain the dominant operating system in use until sometime in 2010. Vista drivers are lacking for non-state of the art hardware. In my case, it doesn't work with my ADSL modem, scanner, digital camera, or SCSI card and digging into a few of them the providers have made it clear they never will allow you to use these devices with Vista. On a 500GB hard drive, Vista will allocate 100GB of it just for itself! But despite these and other downsides, I prefer it over XP. It's totally stable, better look and feel, takes better advantage of new hardware, and has more future proofing.

[Jockstar]

XP is projected to remain the dominant operating system in use until sometime in 2010. Vista drivers are lacking for non-state of the art hardware. In my case, it doesn't work with my ADSL modem, scanner, digital camera, or SCSI card and digging into a few of them the providers have made it clear they never will allow you to use these devices with Vista. On a 500GB hard drive, Vista will allocate 100GB of it just for itself! But despite these and other downsides, I prefer it over XP. It's totally stable, better look and feel, takes better advantage of new hardware, and has more future proofing.

So what to do? I have XP pro at the moment. But this was installed when i got my last PC built. Is XP home much different?

[Jockstar]

Also. Since i am building a new system. I thought Vista may be the go. Saying that. I looked at external Hardrives and they say nothing in the specs that they support Vista.

[dave_boo]

XP is projected to remain the dominant operating system in use until sometime in 2010. Vista drivers are lacking for non-state of the art hardware. In my case, it doesn't work with my ADSL modem, scanner, digital camera, or SCSI card and digging into a few of them the providers have made it clear they never will allow you to use these devices with Vista. On a 500GB hard drive, Vista will allocate 100GB of it just for itself! But despite these and other downsides, I prefer it over XP. It's totally stable, better look and feel, takes better advantage of new hardware, and has more future proofing.

Vista; the Windows ME II. I'm really wondering if they'll see the error of their ways and possibly quickly release another OS that is what Vista should have been really.

I've played around with the various betas. Colour me unimpressed. While I can not fault Microsoft for the laziness of hardware manufacturers not releasing proper drivers (if any at all), I can't believe they broke the driver model so much that it's that big of a deal.

[dave_boo]

XP is projected to remain the dominant operating system in use until sometime in 2010. Vista drivers are lacking for non-state of the art hardware. In my case, it doesn't work with my ADSL modem, scanner, digital camera, or SCSI card and digging into a few of them the providers have made it clear they never will allow you to use these devices with Vista. On a 500GB hard drive, Vista will allocate 100GB of it just for itself! But despite these and other downsides, I prefer it over XP. It's totally stable, better look and feel, takes better advantage of new hardware, and has more future proofing.

So what to do? I have XP pro at the moment. But this was installed when i got my last PC built. Is XP home much different?

Here are some of the noticeable differences between the two for me:

1) Processor support. Pro allows support of 2 sockets. Both support as many cores as possbily can be crammed into each socket. Thus Home, while supporting only one socket, can have a multicore processor in that socket and support both (or all in the case of quad core) cores.

2) Dynamic Disk support. Pro allows you to span volumes across disks, create software RAID, and keeps a hidden database that tracks changes to the dynamic volumes.

3) File level access control. Pro allows you to limit access to implement, through Group Policy Objects, access to individual files.

4) Domain Membership. Pro allows you to log onto an Active Domain.

There are many more, but these are those that are most important to me. If it's been several years since you last installed the XP Pro, if you properly retire the machine, you can reuse your liscense on your new machine.

External drives aren't a problem with a modern operating system. With the exception of getting one that may be formatted in HFS (Apple's FS), or more highly unlikely EXT2(3) (Linux's most common FSs), you should just be able to plug them into an external port and run with it.

[Ping]

With respect to Cali, I have Vista and the only incompatibility problem I had was with a bluetooth dongle. Changed brands to an Asus dongle and no problems with any other hardware. Software problems with DAP (Download Accelerator Plus) and Office 98 - will not work at all. I am now using OpenOffice (free! and an excellent package - as good as MS Office for my purposes). Despite some minor problems, I have found the move to Vista well worth while. BTW, I am using a 965P DS4 board and it is excellent. The 965P-DS3P board is also an excellent board. With the GTS and one hard drive and DVD drive, you will get away with 400 watts (right on the margin) but I would recommend headroom of at least 500 watts.