Hey guys, just registered after reading for a week or two. I've been very impressed with the site as a whole and the community
I had been out of the hardware loop for a while, but thanks to this site and its helpful reviews I'm back up to speed again.
Basically I've ordered a new comp (see sig) and I was wondering about the best way to get extra life out of my old comp, whcih im giving to my dad.
old comp:
Athlon xp 2000+
1.5 gig pc2100 ram
Radeon 9800 pro
Gigabyte GA7VRXP mobo
80 gig ATA HD
Clearly the main kickers are slow cpu and slow ram, plus lack of cpu upgradability.
It was pretty kick ass when i bought it a few years ago. Originally had a geforce 3 ti 200 and 512mb pc2100 ram, then i added the 9800 pro and an additional gig of ram which i think is pc2700, havent checked in a while
I was thinking about replacing the motherboard with ASRock 939Dual-SATA2, since its not only cheap, but it has both an AGP and a PCI-E slot, combined with a socket 939 slot. Since the 9800 pro is agp, and its not entirely useless just yet (plus money issues) I thought this was a nice way to go.
With an A64 3000+ to go in the socket 939, and maybe a SATA hard drive, I'm thinking this would get much more out of the system.
But I would like input on the motherboard etc. How much of a difference in practice would getting SATA HD make? I realise the ram is pretty old, so would i be just aswell aiming to get 1GB pc3200 to replace it with? Would the pc2100 ram even run on the new mobo and cpu?
First stage would be mobo and cpu, which i think is great performance for the cash. But if the ram wont work then its going to have to wait till i can get more of that aswell. And when 9800 pro is completely useless, can always get a cheap 6800 or 6600 gt.
Input appreciated )