need advice on upgrade

[¢³²sharpeye]

fellas thx for tha advice on the network stuff. i need to ask what are a few good parts to upgrade my home system i have a ASRock AM2NF6G-VSTA board, so what is a good choice for a processor and video card upgrade. just askin around cause i dont wanna wind up getting screwed up with incompatible stuffs.

[richjob]

this is your board, yes? http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=AM2NF6G-VSTA http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=AM2NF6G-VSTA&s=AM2 is the CPUs your board can support. Most any AM2 (not exactly Phenom, but prolly up to the 6400+. A AM2 x2 5000+ should give you decent bang for the buck. The choice of video card you can use is dependent on what you play, the size of your monitor and what you can afford. I'm using TT prices here. If yuh broken to teef, get an 8400gs and play videos and *older* games at decent resolution. If yuh could spend a grand, get a 8600 GT or something so. $1500 will get you a 9600 GT. Unless yuh go the Wizz and get something underpowered and pricey. If you play Crysis, no ultra high fps for you, yuh could do whatever.

[Geese]

omg rich u alive O_O

[Philosophical45]

well for a cpu upgrade, u can go for the amd 6000+ x2 or i recommend u going for the amd 5000+ black edition (better bang for buck). the 6400+ is good, but it does push alot of heat and doesn't oc higher than 3.3 ghz.. and well is not that much significant a performer compared to the 6000+. As for the graphics card, i'm afraid for your board, i see your motherboard chipset is a nforce4 chipset, i'm not sure if the new cards will be compatible with your pci express slots. An 8600gt will work fine, but i'm not sure about the pci-xpress 2.0 cards like the 8800gt or the 9600gt.. please do check ASrock's website or even contact them(using the support section) to see if they are compatible. As far as i know the new cards are compatible with the nforce chipsets up to series 5 i.e nforce 550 and 570 etc.. so do some research on your own before u spend some paper on a graphics card that doesn't post..

[¢³²sharpeye]

thx for the advice guys. :) i cyah get that 9600 lol i borke to teef lol so i go hadda see if i can scrape the grand for the 8600 gt ;)

[the_steph]

the systems at the store have MSi boards that close to that ASUS with 8600GT OC, 1 Gb RAM, AMD 4600 dual core, anyhoo the systems were about TT4000 (approx) and they run just about all the new games decently enough to be played networked without problems

[PX-U600]

i recommend u going for the amd 5000+ black edition (better bang for buck)

IF YOU NOT GOING TO OC DON"T BUY THIS CPU


AMD 5000+ BE 87.00US without a fan.

AMD 5000+ 87.00US with a fan.

[Philosophical45]

IF YOU NOT GOING TO OC DON"T BUY THIS CPU


AMD 5000+ BE 87.00US without a fan.

AMD 5000+ 87.00US with a fan.

oh yea my bad for forgetting this.. how n00b'd of me...lol

[Xen_Lunchbox]

wow @ where are all these people popping out from? lol

[Philosophical45]

wow @ where are all these people popping out from? lol

:rolleyes: ummmm last time i check, the population of trinidad and tobago wasn't 1942.. but approx 1.3million... so ummmm

[ecktt]

For gaming...
Get the cheapest Dual core processor u can buy and a nVida 9600 or better. If yuh bank account really tight, you really hunt around online u can land a 8800GTS 320 for 100US. PCI Express 2.0 cards will default back 1.0 without any real performance hit so don't be bothered about computability.

What you might be concened about is you power supply.

[!doomtack!]

There have been some instances of certain pcie 1.0a motherboards not being compatible with pcie 2 cards...
this can however be remedied with a BIOS flash for the gfx card (if you are willing to).

my advice is, if you are going to purchase a pcie 2 card... in theory it is backward compatible, but just do some research on your board's compatibility, just in case.

[the_steph]

fellas thx for tha advice on the network stuff. i need to ask what are a few good parts to upgrade my home system i have a ASRock AM2NF6G-VSTA board, so what is a good choice for a processor and video card upgrade. just askin around cause i dont wanna wind up getting screwed up with incompatible stuffs.

sharpeye - how much cash do u have to spend on this system?

[¢³²sharpeye]

err about 1500 - 1800 in the next mth so... not much :(

[¢³²sharpeye]

is this a good card ?? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3775034&body=MAIN#detailspecs

[ecktt]

ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB (http://fxvideocards.com/ZOTAC-GeForce-8800-GTS-320MB-ZT-88SE320-FSP-GDDR3-PCI-Express-x16-SLI-ZOTAC-Video-Card-p-16285.html)

[¢³²sharpeye]

omg look at price ! damn y i neva have d money at these times i still hadda wait till nex mth....:eek: and is only 2 left.... btw thx ecktt:D

[the_steph]

if u spending that much on a card u can get the better 8800gt for around the same price or even lower.

thats about $1200 right there and for the processor for $600 that remaining u can get a AMD 4600 X2 that should work with this board.

ie. if u check the processor requirements for games right now u will see that thay ask for 2.4GHZ X2 sooo that processor should cover u

Of course this is just advice u can give or take where u see fit.

[¢³²sharpeye]

hey steph can u recommend a store where i can get stuff locally and cheap ?

[razr_x]

hey steph can u recommend a store where i can get stuff locally and cheap ?

NJ's in arima

[razr_x]

omg look at price ! damn y i neva have d money at these times i still hadda wait till nex mth....:eek: and is only 2 left.... btw thx ecktt:D

u can also get an ECS elitegroup Nvidia Geforce 9600GT at NJ's in arima ofr $1300
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?CategoryID=5&TypeID=34&DetailID=874&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=1&LanID=0

[the_steph]

honestly dont know of any store that has these kinda cool prices...

I am quoting prices of if u buy online in TT... (i do online shoping -ordering parts and stuff and have built systems cheap from ordering online)

[¢³²sharpeye]

cool i'ma check that out... heard about nj's thaz by d market ent

[ecktt]

doesn't www.mmstt.com have decent prices?

[razr_x]

cool i'ma check that out... heard about nj's thaz by d market ent

yeh

[!doomtack!]

doesn't www.mmstt.com (http://www.mmstt.com) have decent prices?

They do have some nice prices (on most things), and saves time on having to ship stuff.
I bought stuff from them before, and customer service is really good. :)

[phoenix31tt]

doesn't www.mmstt.com have decent prices?

They do have some nice prices (on most things), and saves time on having to ship stuff.
I bought stuff from them before, and customer service is really good. :)

agreed

[exterminatus]

I bought a a bit of stuff from them and haven't regreted any of my purchases.
+1 recommendation for mmstt.com

[mojo]

i buy from mmstt when i need high end stuff fast.

i get cheap stuff from local wholesalers like hi touch, SCCL, and wizz.

supertech also has decent prices for a retailer.

[the_steph]

i buy from mmstt when i need high end stuff fast.

i get cheap stuff from local wholesalers like hi touch, SCCL, and wizz.

supertech also has decent prices for a retailer.

agreed with the hi touch and thing but mmstt.com is just as expensive...

i online cause it is cheaper... u just have to wait

[exterminatus]

You also get warrenty from mmstt.com and other local retailers. If you ship in a product and its doa your usually screwed.

[¢³²sharpeye]

small variety of stuff mmstt.com is a trini site tho ?

[wildchild]

yes, mmstt is a trini site

[¢³²sharpeye]

lol got a 8400 for 300 for now that's gotta hold till i get more csh later on. err what's the difference between dual and single channeling in ram ?

[ecktt]

About 20% performance difference on an AMD system vs a 2% on an Intel system (from a gaming perspective).

[kriminal_kl]

well for a cpu upgrade, u can go for the amd 6000+ x2 or i recommend u going for the amd 5000+ black edition (better bang for buck). the 6400+ is good, but it does push alot of heat and doesn't oc higher than 3.3 ghz.. and well is not that much significant a performer compared to the 6000+. As for the graphics card, i'm afraid for your board, i see your motherboard chipset is a nforce4 chipset, i'm not sure if the new cards will be compatible with your pci express slots. An 8600gt will work fine, but i'm not sure about the pci-xpress 2.0 cards like the 8800gt or the 9600gt.. please do check ASrock's website or even contact them(using the support section) to see if they are compatible. As far as i know the new cards are compatible with the nforce chipsets up to series 5 i.e nforce 550 and 570 etc.. so do some research on your own before u spend some paper on a graphics card that doesn't post..

8800gt and 9600gt will work regardless of their PCIx 16 specifications...

[¢³²sharpeye]

Fellas xp 64-bit.... is it wise to use ? or vista 64-bit or should i stay with the 32-bit ver for now ??

[soldier]

Vista Ultimate SP1 64bit.

EDIT

Then again, i now look@ your processor. You might have to stick with the 32bit XP until you upgrade

Drivers for 64bit XP are hard to come around.

[kriminal_kl]

soldier is right about that, i'm only going to use 64 bit because i plan to up my ram to 8gigs...

[soldier]

However, 64bit Vista drivers are not :)

[phoenix31tt]

soldier is right about that, i'm only going to use 64 bit because i plan to up my ram to 8gigs...

umm 8gigs of ram... on a 32-bit processor... is that possible?

[kriminal_kl]

umm 8gigs of ram... on a 32-bit processor... is that possible?

apparently it is......i was refering to my system though.....

[¢³²sharpeye]

planning to upgrade to a AMD Athlon 5000+ X2 Dual Core by the end of the mth. and prolly some more ram. lol also have to upgrade my psu lol it's @ 250W hahaa rofl it's a good thing my system doh take much now yes. err open to suggestions on a psu are welcome :D:D. also sli is like only for certain boards or once u have 2 pci-e slots the option is open ? like 1 2.0 pci-e and i normal pci-e ? alos is this a good board ? ASUS M2N-E

[ecktt]

umm 8gigs of ram... on a 32-bit processor... is that possible?

Yes it is and can be accessed via PAE. The latency hit is massive but that's how x86 servers worked in the 32bit era. OS support is required and CPU support. 36 and 40 bit memory controllers combined x64 processors and 64 bit OSes makes > 4GB support native.


How de ass u end up with 2.5 Gb?
Take that 512MB chip and stick it where the sun doh shine Immediately!

Install Vista 64!

You have plenty of RAM and all you hardware has support for it. You WILL be surprised how well it runs compared to XP.

[phoenix31tt]

Yes it is and can be accessed via PAE. The latency hit is massive but that's how x86 servers worked in the 32bit era. OS support is required and CPU support. 36 and 40 bit memory controllers combined x64 processors and 64 bit OSes makes > 4GB support native.


How de ass u end up with 2.5 Gb?
Take that 512MB chip and stick it where the sun doh shine Immediately!

Install Vista 64!

You have plenty of RAM and all you hardware has support for it. You WILL be surprised how well it runs compared to XP.


but then your processor and board etc has to support PAE... does sempron support it etc?

[ecktt]

but then your processor and board etc has to support PAE... does sempron support it etc?

Yes

[¢³²sharpeye]

err what is PAE (not that savvy) err and i have 3 512 sticks and a 1 gig stick.... had to improvise with what i have available (currently unemployed) :( also vista 64 is packaged separately to vista 32 ? or is it an option u can choose. i have a hacked version with up to vista ultimate at home.

[kriminal_kl]

yeh 64bit and 32bit packages are sold separately

[phoenix31tt]

deleted


stop promoting piracy!!!

let the man gone buy the thing

[¢³²sharpeye]

when buying a processor online it's best to match the model to the supported list from the board manufacturer ?or it does work any ways ?

[¢³²sharpeye]

is updating the bios on the motherboard wise ?

[eddoes]

as to the processor: it is important to buy a recommended type but always remember that no matter how fast the processor, the system will only run as fast as the slowest device. i.e if RAM is used @ 533 and processor and FSB is 800 u still only get 533.

[phoenix31tt]

its not that simple eh eddoes but good practice none-the-less...

with regards to mobo support... generally you look @ the chipset... all mobos are built around a certain chipset and if ur processor is not bleeding edge then chances are the mainstream chipsets (and mobo's) will support it... once the socket is supported
of course the supported list means that the cpu in question was actually tested with the board by the manufacturer...

@ updating bios...
best practice is to update the bios only if you see a problem... or if the mobo manufacturer recommends it
i update my bios when it can get me a better overclock... other than that things stay the same.

[¢³²sharpeye]

4600+ @ $545.00 or 5000+ @ $775.00 lol hard decision to make. hrmm possible combos are :
1. 4600 x2 + 1 gb ddr2 800 = $710.00
2. 5000 x2 = $775.00

[ecktt]

I think ur money would be much better spent on a Video card.

Up date ur Bios. Just just about every mother board (minus my piece of shit Asus) improves with a BIOS update.

[phoenix31tt]

Up date ur Bios. Just just about every mother board (minus my piece of shit Asus) improves with a BIOS update.

unless you're an overclocker :)... updating bioses can be very detrimental to ur OC

[ecktt]

unless you're an overclocker :)... updating bioses can be very detrimental to ur OC

Yeah, totally agree.....Once again : F@#k you Asus! F&*k you!
I cah cross 2.7Ghz now.

[phoenix31tt]

Yeah, totally agree.....Once again : F@#k you Asus! F&*k you!
I cah cross 2.7Ghz now.

wanna know something funny... i had a similar problem... i could never achieve my 3.2ghz after a necessary update... recently i removed my sound card (audigy 2 zs) and boom everything working...

3.2ghz is back in effect :S

[¢³²sharpeye]

i know but the single core thing sticking meh up... need a d-c in fact i need a processor with more than a 128 kb l2 cache <advice from everest> yea maybe later on the year i'll prolly get a 9600 or some souped up 8800 or something but i cant sli (too expensive ) lol

[¢³²sharpeye]

Athlon 1100 rev 0 this is the chipset type.... should i upgrade it ? just askin ppl who know more about this kinda stuff

[¢³²sharpeye]

what's the highest a sempron 2800 can be oc'd to ?

[ecktt]

2.6-2.8Ghz should be possible with good equipment.

with ur mix of ram, and econ class mobo I be very happy with 2.4Ghz.

2.2GHz should be possible without much effort.

[¢³²sharpeye]

ok sent it up to 2.0 ram spd @ 266 cpu temp @ 48 w/load 45 off bus speed @ 250.0 mhz well stable i guess ran Prime 95 for 10 mins no errors

[¢³²sharpeye]

cpu cooler suggestions... what cools best that i can get down here if possibe ?