Worthwhile marginal upgrades?

[Fat Tone]

I'm about to build a system for a friend, which has a lot in common with my system. So, rather than buying him all new, I could swap my stuff, and spend an extra £100 on better stuff for myself if it is going to be worth the hassle.

Proposed spec of new machine: (* means I have this already and could swap)

Case/psu
XP2500+ *
120GB HDD * (I'm not bothered about changing this)
2*256MB PC3200 (I have 2*512 corsair low-latency PC3200)
NEC 2500A *
Asus a7n8x-vm-400 (I have the a7n8x-e, so would need to find a cheap gfx adaptor if I swapped it).
(My gfx is 9800XT-TVD)

So what would be worth changing, within my £100 marginal increase?
I thought about getting a mobile Athlon 2500, cos my system was never 100% happy at 3200
I think swapping the DVD recorder to a 2510 or higher probably makes sense.
Is there a 64-bit route that is affordable and sensible?

Of course, there's always the MX1000

Many TIA

T.

[GNEP]

Just make it easy on yourself and do the Athlon XP-M. No reinstalls, driver changes etc to worry about Then do a proper upgrade later.

[Fat Tone]

Yes, I think the XP-M and the DVD writer and the MX1000 would be a good combo, but I am due a re-install anyway...things are getting a tad sluggish despite being 'clean'.

[GNEP]

Well in that case go all-out and give them your old machine!

[Fat Tone]

hehe, I don't want to give them the alu case, the 580W PSU, the watercooling (about to be installed), the 1GB RAM, the 2nd HDD, the 9800XT and 0.5" of dust

[rylan]

If you're going to watercooling than your current 2500+ should run fine at 3200. What voltage are you driving it at?

Throwing in the 2x512MB memory sticks would probably give a noticable bump in performance. Athlons love low latency.

[Fluff]

I reckon it's worth it. Then u could get a s939 with the new A64 3000. With the money. Which would compliment that low latency ram you have.

Or as an option you could just get him one of those reconditioned Advents off www.microdirect.co.uk

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7020&GroupID=539

or

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7671&GroupID=539

These seem quite good value for money!

The lower one.

Specification Value
Name Advent T9200
CPU Intel® Pentium® 4 3.4 GHz HT
Memory 512 MB DDR RAM - PC2700
HardDrive 200GB
Motherboard TG 865PE
Graphics Card nVIDIA® GeFORCE™ FX 5500 (256MB)
Sound Card Realtek AC'97 audio
Network Card Realtek 8139 / 810x (Onboard), ASUS WL-138g Wireless LAN adapter
Monitor
CD/DVD-Rom DVD-ROM DVD-16X
Writer Lite-On® LDW-811S 8x DVD±RW
Modem PCI 56k V9.0
Case Midi
Speakers Advent stereo powered speakers
Software Works7.0
Floppy 1.44MB + Integrated USB 7 in 1 card reader
Keyboard Advent multimedia keyboard
Mouse Advent optical mouse
OS Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
TV Card AverMedia TV-tuner

[Fat Tone]

Originally posted by rylan
If you're going to watercooling than your current 2500+ should run fine at 3200. What voltage are you driving it at?

Throwing in the 2x512MB memory sticks would probably give a noticable bump in performance. Athlons love low latency.

It's a while since I did the o/c on it...I had to bump up the voltage a notch from standard and crank up the speed of the Aero7 fan. It was rather noisy and crashed more than I liked so I settled for an easier, quieter life.

I've been using the memory for about 6 months, and yes, it was nicer than the 2*256 it replaced.


Fluff - I'm looking at a marginal cost of £100. I reckon I can squeeze an A64 2800 (s754) and an ASUS K8N-E dlx out of it, but certainly not a s939 cpu! The downsides to doing it are a) it doesn't get me a MX1000 and b) I could use the money to repair my camera.

[Fluff]

Ah I misunderstood.
If you do get one of those XP-M processors let me know how they are at the old overclocking business.

[rylan]

I haven't heard of anyone with an XP-M that couldn't crank it to at least the 3200+ speed. Most of them do it without a voltage bump, and can go a few hundred MHz past that with good cooling and .1v to .2v increase.

Fyi the normal 2500+ can take 1.85v no problem with good cooling, if you want to help stability at 3200+

[Byock]

I have 2 2500+ both at 3200+ speeds, air cooled,, rock solid. One at 1.85V the other at 1.75V.

I have not seen one yet that could not hit 3200+ speeds.

[Fat Tone]

I'm not saying mine wouldn't do 3200+, I just didn't want the noise associated with dealing with the extra heat.

Now, what about these Athlon 64 options?

[Paddy]

So what A64 mobo would you choose?

[Fat Tone]

I went for the A64 2800+ and an ASUS K8N-E Deluxe (and an NEC 3510). Perhaps a modest upgrade, but its a toe in the door of 64-bit computing for very little net cost.