Upgrading, what do you guys think?

[Shohan]

Ok, I know these types of questions are asked all the time. I'm sorry. I've been out of the hardware scene for too long. I've already done some searches, ie here, google, toms hardware, etc, and come up with some things that are fine with me. I just wanted to see if anyone had any expericence with this hardware or if there were any suggestions for better, cheaper or whatever.

Here's the list...Thanks again:

Mobo
Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus v1.0 38.99(48.99-10 Mail-in Rebate0
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra 53.99

I'm kind of leaning toward the Shuttle for the nForce chipset.

Proc
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton" Core 75.00

Memory
Mushkin 512MB PC3200 85.00
Geil Value Series 512MB PC3200 93.00

Now the Geil has CAS Latency of 2.5 6-3-3 and the Mushkin has 2.5-4-4. I'm really not to sure of the latency anymore. Would I do good in spending the money to upgrade the 2x512MB of Corsair XMS PC2700 that I current have with either of these PC3200?

Video Card
Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro 256MB DDRII 275.00

I'm getting this to flash it to the 9800XT BIOS.

Alright, that's what I've got in mind. All the links point to NewEgg for ease of viewing. Like I said if anyone has any experience with these or suggestions for better/cheaper then please let me know.

Thank, again!

Shohn

 

[paparazi]

Rock solid, fully featured via KT600!
The slightly faster Nforce 2 but not with the fully featured MCP-T southbridge? which incorperates some nice extra's.
A close thing but most will still say Nforce2.
XP2500+ is a great CPU and used to be the "bargain of the bunch" but with recent price drops you won't pay that much more for the XP2.8+ .
A great deal depends on wether you intend to run this system at stock speeds?
Again this faster memory will help when overclocking but will make little differance run at stock 333 speeds.
Remember Nforce2's run dual channel memory configuration which suits a pair of matching modules.
A good choice of video cards butgot to be honest, I never had much luck with a Radeon 9800pro on my Nforce2) lots of anomollies, so now I run a 256mb FX5900 (slighly slower but easier to live with, also plays all games unlike the Rad)
I think the price you have quoted seems high for the Radeon, look to see big drops now the X800 is on the scene (prices are already tumling on ebay)

As this setup is "Mid Table" I havn't mentioned Athlon 64

Martin




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