Upgrading my computer. Question about mobo/cpu/psu/vid

[AxlxA]

Hi everybody.

I have two computers and i wish to upgrade my old one to atleast match my new computer performance wise.

New compwhich is currently down due to bad mobo? replacement is on its way)
Asus P4533B mobo
Pentium 4 @ 2.66ghz (533 fsb)
250watt PSU(this could be a problem soon)
Geforce 6600GT 128mb on AGP 4x
ATA133 hdds and a dvdrw

Old Comp:
MSI mobo
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.33ghz overclocked to 1.45ghz
some old 400watt psu
Geforce MX400 64mb, it's crap.
4 IDE hdds and 2 optical drives


My main factor is price. I am thinking of buying:

AMD Sempron 64bit 2800+ ($75)
ABIT NV8 mobo with PCI-E ($70)
XFX Geforce 6600gt 128mb PCI-E (I think the 6600gt is the best for its price and xfx has life time warranty, can't beat that!) ($129)
coolmaster 400(says 430) watt psu. ($33)

So far, including tax and shipping, these upgrades will cost me roughly $350 USD.

I plan on overclocking the 2800+ from 1.6ghz to 2.2 or 2.4ghz.
My question is how do i know if the motherboard is good enough for such overclocking? Are these upgrades enough to increase perforamce? I do a lot of video encoding and I CS and BF2 a lot so id' like to see improved experience in both.

Any suggestions? Everything I'm going to buy will be coming from newegg. It's too bad they charge tax.

[Vette Boss]

I only see one thing I don't like, and it's that nasty cheap PSU. Your entire computer relies on this for power, if it's rubbish like that one the the computer won't be good.

For $16 more, this one is a lot better. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

[ranger_dood]

WTF? Fortron better than Coolermaster? You've gotta be kidding me...

[AxlxA]

i thought coolmasters were very reputable?

Any other comments regarding the rest of the set up?

Overclockable motherboard?

[bigfoot1942]

dont you need any memory?

[Vette Boss]

I have seen a lot of good things about Fortron PSU's, they make the best budget-minded PSU's. Looking at the specs of the Fortron, it's pretty close to some PSU that cost almost twice as much. That CM PSU will power your system okay, but you can certainly do much better.

[jayjaya29]

Yeah I second the PSU change. Other than that everything looks good.

[AxlxA]

Originally Posted by bigfoot1942

dont you need any memory?

Already got some. Therefore I dont have to spend more money on them.

[AxlxA]

Originally Posted by jayjaya29

Yeah I second the PSU change. Other than that everything looks good.

So how is that psu better than the Coolmaster? Come on it's nearly $20 if i include tax and shipping. that money could be used for gas or a nice meal.

The coolmaster is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171007
the 53 reviews on this is very convincing. And i wanted something quiet.

Thanks for the input so far guys.

[jayjaya29]

Hmm I suppose, but most people tend to stay with trusted names over the years, the PSU is the component most likely to fail in a PC, so why not spend a little bit more and get something that you can trust. Not to say that the Cooler Master is a bad PSU or anything.

Try and find something within this thread:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=922802

I usually check to make sure the PSU I am going to get is listed somewhere in there.

[Vette Boss]

Originally Posted by AxlxA

So how is that psu better than the Coolmaster? Come on it's nearly $20 if i include tax and shipping. that money could be used for gas or a nice meal.

The coolmaster is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171007
the 53 reviews on this is very convincing. And i wanted something quiet.

Thanks for the input so far guys.

Think of your PSU as safety feature on a car. Cheap saftey, more chance you'll die in a crash. Having enough stable power at all times is very important, I can't stress it enough. The Fortron PSU should be plenty quiet, it has the 120mm fan on it.

[hokiethang]

Originally Posted by Vette Boss

Think of your PSU as safety feature on a car. Cheap saftey, more chance you'll die in a crash. Having enough stable power at all times is very important, I can't stress it enough. The Fortron PSU should be plenty quiet, it has the 120mm fan on it.

I have to also second (or third??) the Fortron power supplies. I will not trust any of my machines to ANYTHING else. The other nice feature of the Fortron power supplies are that they are something like 75 - 85% efficient, unlike most power supplies that are 50 - 60% efficient. Efficiency isn't usually a spec people shop for, but its basically how much of the 350 - 400 watts you actually get usable to your components. Most power supplies produce 350 watts, but only 175 - 200 are actually usable by your components.

Don't cheap out on power supply... it dies, it takes the other $350 worth of upgrades with it (along with most of the other hardware in your computer). It's not a risk I would take.

[AxlxA]

Okay but what i dont understand is what do you guys have against the coolmaster extreme. this PSU seems very nice to me, and coolmaster is very reputable. It's also >70% efficiency.

Main reason why i'm so drawn to this psu is that it is extremely queit, which is osmething that matters a lot to me. In the Fortron PSU, everyone's comment is on how loud this is. That is a huge negative in my book.

[TechZ]

Skip the Sempron, you'd rather do this:

1] AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 800MHz FSB Socket 754 E6 Processor
Model ADA3000BXBOX - Retail $139/-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103606

OR

2] Get a new Socket 939 board + Socket 939 A64

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail $139/-
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...ctCode=80699-5

along with

GIGABYTE GA-K8NF-9 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $76/-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128268

You will definately notice the difference of sempron vs athlon64 in BF2

[AxlxA]

lol.. that's over my limit of spending.

What i'm looking for is nto something that will ROCK ALL THE NEW GAMES. Just enough so i can play bf2 at medium settings. Besides, what i'm really interested in is just CS.

[haha604]

You cpu is going to be fast enough for running most games at 1024*768 at high settings . Sempron's are good overclockers too. I have a S754 Sempron 2500+ running at 1.9ghz (stock 1.4ghz) and CPU temp still remains around low 30's C.

[Kip_6666]

I have trouble running BF2 at medium settings and my computer pwns what techz listed, god i love bf2

[AxlxA]

i have no trouble with BF2 on my:

P4 2.66ghz
1gig of random DDR(i think they're operating on pc2100)
shitty maxtor hdd
but what i got is a leadtek 6600gt 128mb agp @ 4x. Seriously that card rocks for its price, that's why i bought another one for this new set up.

I bought everything today. I bought a different PSU, it's a Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W. tons of reviews, everyone says it's good for OC. And it's cheap!

So what i bought:

Sempron 2800+
Abit NV8 mobo(3 PCI and 1 PCIEx16 and sweet 7.1channel sound)
Thermaltake PSU
XFX Geforce 6600gt 128mb PCIE

[jayjaya29]

Nice, good choice on the PSU.

[AxlxA]

Is this Artic SIlver stuff really essential?

Because i dont have it but i can get it in a day from a friend. Is it worth waiting for?