In Need of an Upgrade

[PC_Commando]

Hi all, first time poster. The system I have, I had since 2005. I'll list the specs:

AMD Athlon XP 3200 Barton 2.2GHz
Asus A7V8X-X VIA KT400
Crucial 1GB PC2700 DDR333
Maxtor DiamondMax 20GB IDE
XFX GeForce 7900 GS AGP
LG 16x DVD±RW
SoundBlaster Live Value
Generic Beige Case
Generic 300W Power Supply



1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming MW2 (The reason why I'm building the PC) and usual Office stuff, Graphics & Web Design and Internet Surfing.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$600.00 Max before MIR. This does not include a monitor but does include keyboard, mouse and speakers.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

Preferably NCIX, Direct Canada or sister sites. (Canada Computers if necessary)

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

I like AMD but if Intel provides a better deal, willing to go that route.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

No old parts will be used

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Yes I have, OCN, Hard OCP and here

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Free Horsepower. Of course

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Shortly after the new year, say Mid Jan to Early Feb, depending on funds.

The above information IS NEEDED, in order that WE can help YOU make wise judgments on YOUR purchases

Thank you all in advanced for your advice.

[MonsterSound]

Just thought that I'd mention that if I was buying with your budget, I would consider the:
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Dual Core Processor Socket AM3 3.1GHZ 7MB Cache for $110 at DirectCanada and try to unlock the other 2 cores with a decent AM3 MB (a good overclocker too). This CPU would leave more money for a decent video card.

[Raserei408]

Originally Posted by MonsterSound

Just thought that I'd mention that if I was buying with your budget, I would consider the:
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Dual Core Processor Socket AM3 3.1GHZ 7MB Cache for $110 at DirectCanada and try to unlock the other 2 cores with a decent AM3 MB (a good overclocker too). This CPU would leave more money for a decent video card.

If you do get that CPU, I'd recommend an ASUS board (M4A79XTD, or somethings similar) because recent BIOS allows you to pick which cores to reactivate. On this CPU it's very helpful, since it's not all or nothing. 1 core may be bad but the other three are fine, and you can activate all but the bad one. Just my advice.