So the processor in my main system fried (I'm pretty positive its completely unrelated to my having purchased a Thermalright SI-97A) and I'm pretty sure it took my motherboard with it, so I'm now in the market for a decent, mid-range AMD platform, that'll take PC3500 DDR, AGP8x, and is 64bit compliant. Basically I'll need motherboard, processor and most likely new PSU to power system, looking for at max $250 US (I rarely use my PC and can't justify much more than that for just playing games)
basically it's performance of 754 vs 939 maximum figure $300 to spend on fixing my system, but that includes processor, motherboard & powersupply
It is quite possible to edit your post; you should know that by now; its far too early for a bump as well. As far as hardware goes, take a look at a Socket 754 Athlon 64 2800+ and Asus A8V SE; nice and cheap and decent enough. I doubt you can afford a solid 939 and new power supply.
Are you able to test the processor at all? A couple of years ago I fried a motherboard and processor. For some reason I kept the cpu, motherboard was definately gone. A few months a go I tested it and the processor worked although I couldn't get it working back then
Try your best to get 939, it'll save money in the long-run. Other than that, a 754 will probably do quite reasonably, seenas there's a flood of cheap 754 stuff that no-one wants.
if you dont mind buying stuff on the forums you could just get some 2nd hand kit to save money!! I dunno what the US fs forums are like, but on the UK ones, quite often some good kit can be bought at good prices: i would look for an antec (400W or so psu) as most people tend to sell theirs these days to buy modular psus, or some 500W+ to increase their eWang motherboard wise, an asus or abit skt 939 mobo should do teh job, with the cheapest cpu you can pick up, as you can always upgrade that later...ram is a bit trickier, but as 2gb is becoming more and more desirable, some good 1gb kits (2x512mb) should be failry easy to get hold off! I would have thought the above can be had for 150 - 200 pounds (dunno what that is in dollars!) hth...
Bad Idea. You want your final PSU NOW, not later; lightning CAN strike twice. He's better off gettig a SOLID PSU now rather than later.
he said cpu I'm looking at either: AOpen N250A-FR Socket 754 & Athlon 64 3200+ ClawHammer or EPoX EP-9NDA3I Socket 939 & Athlon 64 3000+ Venice those choices being determined by requirement of agp8x and not pci-e I think I like the AOpen board more
As a cheap (and new) alternative mobo, maybe consider the Asrock 939 Dual. It'll take your current AGP card now and gives you the option to upgrade to PCI-e at a later date. Reviews pretty much rate it and a couple of people I know that own it have had no problems with it either.
i tend to stay clear of brands i've never heard of before... i've never had issues with AOpen, Abit, Shuttle, Asus, MSI or EPoX, so I tend to go for those My system specs will be above motherboard or CPU combo (one or other) 2x512MB Mushkin Level1 PC3500 Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB Abit AU-10 Sound Card Belkin F5D7000 wireless ATI TV Wonder VE WD 1200JB 16x Lite-On DVD+-RW 16x Lite-On DVD 480W Antec TruPower Chenming Dragon
radeon required minimum 350W.... and I like to keep my system powered well enough either way, not sure which way I'm going to go... I figure since I can live without games for a while, I'll end up buying new hardware next week
Hack'n'Slash - you're correct. ASRock is the budget arm of Asus. That's not to say the ASRock 939 Dual is a pile of budget tat. It's quite the contrary and has gathered a rather large following amongst the enthusiast/overclocking crowd. It sounds like it's a very good motherboard. I, too, would have reservations regarding the chipset it uses but apparently it's the muffet's tuffet.
