Ok so here's the snip...

I'm taking part of my bonus money and I was planning on buying some new equipment.

My first thoughts were to get a new mobo, cpu, and ram. with that configuration, I was guessing around $300.

Now today, during work, I came up with the crazy idea that maybe I'll get a small/cheap water cooling kit...so that's definitely a possibility. If I do that though, I'm gonna ditch the ram and keep what I have for now.

Here are the products I've been looking at :

DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136147

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103606

And for water cooling I was looking at the Coolermaster Aquagate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103147

now I read reviews on both the mobo and aquagate and I've been pretty happy with what I read so far. I'm not planning on getting pci express anytime soon. I'd also consider a P4 setup...but I would need recomendations for that.

The Aquagate, I know there are better setups...but I really dont wan't to spend more than $130-$140 on this. Plus I like the all in one box style setup. I think there's a Thermaltake bigwater setup in the same price range...but all the water cooling pieces are seperate

Also as a possibility, hold off on the mobo and cpu and just go for the water cooling kit for right now and use that in my current right.

So I'm definitely up for suggestions. I could totally ditch the whole idea and spend the money elsewhere too..but I figured it'd be nice to treat my PC

Thanks!
-Iron

If I had $300 today I'd buy a decent MOBO (DFI or Asus, ~$100) and a "tide me over" graphics card like the x800 GTO2 to replace my MSI K8N Neo2 Plat and AIW 9800Pro

Any reason you don't want to go PCI-E?

well thet DFI i picked out is sub 100 and I ready about 4 reviews today and yesterday and it's scored well..

as far as the pci-e....i don't think it's worth me spending the extra money for me right now. My agp card works just fine and I'm sure it'll carry me a lil further...

plus I could spend the extra money saved from buying a pci-e card and a pci-e board and put it towards everything else

Well the dfi mobo, processor, and the aquagate would cost 388-400 after shipping. a little more than I wanted to spend.

I really like the dfi lanparty board...but here is a cheaper board with similar specs....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128259

What do you guys think about this? I could save $50.

Personally, I would suggest not buying a Socket 754 setup or anything with AGP. If you need to upgrade down the line, you will have to head over to the 939/PCI-Express setup anyway. You want to keep your AGP card, and you want to spend about $300.

How about a Socket 939 AGP board, like this, a Socket 939 3000+ and either some ram or water cooling with the $100 you have left?

If you want to be even more frugal, get some used stuff. I'm sure you can find a 939 CPU for around $100 on PR if your willing to wait a week or two.

You might aswell try to go latest generation in atleast something. Socket 754 is being phased into the budget realm and AMD's M2 is due out in 2006.

Also, you could sell your old CPU, motherboard and RAM to get some extra dough to get a watercooling setup with.

Not a bad idea man...I was actually looking at some of the 939 stuff earlier...

and that mobo/cpu combo was the exact one I was looking at lol

Haven't paid too much attention to the cpu market so didn't realize that 754 was more or less being phased out...

Here is another board I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128286

if I go with that giga-byte board, proc, and that cooler master aquagate, it should set me back about $330 give or take a few bucks...so that's not bad at all.

I could also just ditch the whole motherboard/processor idea and get the aquagate setup for now and wait to get the rest...

I just figured it might be easier to get it all at once and set it all up

Yeah, it's the combo of the 754 phase down/AGP phase out that I'd agree with Spectrum. Get a 939 board and proc at least. If you shop for used stuff you might be able to get a board, proc, and temporary vid card with your $300

Well between that giga-byte board and processor that'll put me right at about $200...which I'm really happy with.

I definitely had my hearts set on that DFI Lanparty board...but if I can save $50 by getting the Giga-byte and it's a decent board then I might head that rought.


One thing that I'm still considering with that Cooler Master Aquagate....it's silver...and my case is black. Not sure if that'll make much difference...but it'll definitely be noticeable. Any thoughts?

Did a bit more research throughout the weekend and part of today...I think this is what I'm close to buying:

Giga-byte K8NSC-939
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128286

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 939
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...ctCode=80701-5

any final thoughts/opinions?

The Gigiabyte should do the trick if you aren't a hardcore Overclocker, it seems to decently though from the reviews on New Egg.

The 3200+ is slightly better CPU than the 3000+ for Overclocking (10X multiplier for the 3200+ you don't have to push the FSB as hard, the 3000+ has a only a 9x)

Almost all low end AMD 64's will do at least 2.2~2.4GHZ at stock voltage with a stock cooler, and can reach 2.6GHZ or more with decent cooling and a small bump in voltage.

Catch me on MSN if you decide to OC it just a bit and would like a few tips

You know you can also get one of those mad Overclocking Opterons (2.8~3.0GHZ on average) for just a few bucks more (Under 200$ for FX-57 Performance)
They also have double the amount of on die cache (1MB vs 512k, think of it as sticks of memory built into the CPU)

if you gotta have bottom level water cooling, look into the kingwin awc-1 its 100 bucks and does decent cooling, has a spare radiator too which you can throw another 80mm fan on. it also only uses 1 drive bay. not a vid card water cooler as it doesnt have the power really, but it does come with both blocks.

I would suggest crawling around different forums to find used watercooling hardware. You could probley get a better set-up for less. I have a used single heater core that I could send to you for free. Just pich in some money for shipping. PM if you are interested.

If anyone gives you crap about sticking with AGP you could flash one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150126

6800GS: With some overclocking you can get 6800GT-6800Ultra performance without the premium cost.

This is just food for thought for a later upgrade, for now stick with using your $300 for the upgrade to 939.

I think that's what I'm settling on, the 3200+ (probably worth the extra few $$ over the 3000+) and the Giga-byte board.

As far as the watercooling setup goes, I haven't heard anything about that Kingwin cooler....I'm still really considering the Aquagate. I might not jump for that one right away...might wait a few weeks.

I'll probably order the processor and mobo tonight or tomorrow...so if anyone else has any input it's definitely welcome

Thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it

Quote: Originally Posted by IronSerif I think that's what I'm settling on, the 3200+ (probably worth the extra few $$ over the 3000+) and the Giga-byte board. As far as the watercooling setup goes, I haven't heard anything about that Kingwin cooler....I'm still really considering the Aquagate. I might not jump for that one right away...might wait a few weeks. I'll probably order the processor and mobo tonight or tomorrow...so if anyone else has any input it's definitely welcome Thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it

Get an Opteron 144 or Opteron 148 they are both going for less than 200 new on ebay and in stores. The 144 has a 9x multi and the 148 has a 11x. They overclock well on nF4 series boards with little to none voltage increasements. My 146 Opty runs 2.8ghz at stock voltage.

Lets play around a bit more before I make a final decision...

Lets say I decide "Hey...my CNPS-7000a will work fine on my 939 board once Zalman sends me that replacement clip....maybe I'll hold off on a water cooling idea for awhile"...


If I did that...what would the possibilities me changing the board to SLI (so the mobo + cpu = $240) and finding a decent pci express video card for $50-$60??

Any recomendations/thoughts?

I realy wish you would think about the Opteron, it's at least a 50% increase (When Oc'd to 2.8~3GHZ) over the performace of a stock 3200+ .

The DFI Ininity with SLI is around 90$ and is a good match for the Opteron, skip the rest and this will give you a basis for upgrades for quite some time.

The Cheap PCIE cards like the 6200 are fine for light duty apps like surfing, but you wont' get passable gaming performance until you get to the 6600GT or better.

Listen to Necro, he's right. A $60 video card is gonna be a waste of $60. Put it into the processor now and start saving for a good vid card

Ok I'll consider the opteron...looking at them now.

Bionic - lets say if I do put the money towards an opteron processor and sli mobo...I still need to get a video card lol. So then what do I do? I know you're saying save the $60 and not buy the cheap vid card....but i do need a vid card.

Or I can just ditch the whole pcieidea for now (which I'm fine with) and stick to the original idea of a mobo and processor and just use my agp card for the time being?

can you even get a pci-e video card for $50 or $60 from the store? i also think you should save up for a video card. if you have a system now that can last you a while why not be patient and get better gaming performance?