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  • Question about my Upgrade

    I'm trying to do a interim upgrade and would like to solicitate your opinion on what to put in my system.

    I'm looking for an economic solution since I plan to upgrage one computer first and then rebuild another next year from the ground up and pass this one to my sister. So, I am not looking forward to spend too much on components that can't be tranferred to my next PC but I also don't want to get stuck with fixing any potential problems. All prices in US$.

    My old system:

    ATX tower case with P3-333

    I'm pretty sure the case has at least 300W power (maybe 350W). However, is there any concern it won't be compatible with the Athlon XP MBs? After all, it's quite old but it's spacious inside.

    My Fry's shopping list:

    You don't need to tell my Fry's is not the best place to shop but it's very hard to beat a 5 min ride for convenience.

    ECS K7S5A + Athlon XP1800+ = $130 + hs/f (~$20)
    Box Athlon XP1800+ + motherboard = $115 + ?

    The ECS combo is cheap. Any other good alternative?

    DDR PC2100 512MB $90

    PC2400 is at least 20-30% more expensive. Is it really justified? How about the even higher ones?

    WD Special Edition 80G = $100 (after rebate)

    Sound Card:

    I'm using a ISA Soundblaster + Yamaha daughterboard and I'm pretty sure most new MB won't support ISA anymore. The ECS K7S5A does come with onboard audio. Probably as crappy as my Laptop's built-in one. Which also fits in with my crappy speaker anyway.

    That being said, I'd also entertain the idea of upgrading to some good sound card and speakers. Any recommendation? Note that top end options would likely lost on my ears if you haven't already figured that out.

    Mouse:
    Logitech Dual Optical = $50


    Network:

    Between one laptop and two desktops (plus another new desktop next year).

    This is a rented apartment so I'm eyeing the wireless solutions. One desktop will be directly connected to the router and the other two would go wireless.

    Wireless DSL/Cable Router with built-in firewall:
    Which brand is good? The Netgear on is on sale for $130, I think.

    Wireless card:
    I'm leaning toward the USB version of wireless card since I can switch it between the desktop/laptop as they don't need to be on at the same time. If need be, it's easy to move the laptop around and connect with cable. So the question is, does it work as well as the PCI version?

    Access Point, VPN router:
    I must admit I don't know the difference between these and the DSL/Cable Router. Do I need to concern myself? I'd like to use a VPN client on my laptop but I don't think you need a VPN router for that, right?

    Security:
    What should I pay attention to? Some pro-version Router advertises stronger security measure. I don't need security for my home machine but my work laptop might. I can always fall back to long ugly wires.

    Thanks in advance.

  • #2
    The newer ECS K7S6A is a better choice than the K7S5A and I'd probably go with an AthlonXP 2000+ minimum. 512 megs is OK unless you plan on getting an editing card like the RT.X100. Then 512 is OK but a gig is better. I can't justify DDR333, even though I run it myself. I don't see much of a difference from DDR266.

    Sound card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or Hercules GameTheater XP. VERY low system resource use, unlike Creatives junkware.

    Network/Router/NICS: LinksysCable/DSL Router/switch/firewall and their NIC's.

    You can get the router wired with up to an 8 port switch or wireless with a 4 port switch. This switch will connect to your systems while the Router portion will handle the connection to your cable/DSL modem.

    The Linksys routers have a VERY tough NAT firewall built in. Brute force, but VERY tough to get through. Most testing services can't even see mine much less try to penetrae it.

    Linksys's wireless model: http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=23&prid=415

    Dr. Mordrid
    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 17 August 2002, 19:01.
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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    • #3
      I bought my K7S6A from www.mwave.com for ~$67, Athlon XP 1800+ (OEM) and Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB from www.newegg.com, my 256MB PC2100 RAM from www.crucial.com for $50 (couldn't afford 512 at the time) but that was before the price jump. Mwave charged like $12 for 2 day shipping, newegg and crucial both had free 2 day shipping for those items, but that was in the US. I understand the convenience factor, and just giving you figures for comparison. Also I believe you can buy a logitech dual optical for much less at www.overstock.com or someplace else.

      Oh and I went from a celeron 466 to this and I'm VERY happy. It works with my Marvel G200 and everything!

      My system currently has a 2 year old 300W PS and it is working fine, but I only have 3 of my 5 HDs plugged in. I just ordered an Antec True430 though... 300 should be fine if you don't have too many devices. Do a search for power supply and in one of the longer threads from a few weeks back there is a link to AMD's system builder guide with a chart to help determine how much power you need.
      Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra 9, Opteron 170 Denmark 2x2Ghz, 2 GB Corsair XMS, Gigabyte 6600, Gentoo Linux
      Motion Computing M1400 -- Tablet PC, Ubuntu Linux

      "if I said you had a beautiful body would you take your pants off and dance around a bit?" --Zapp Brannigan

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      • #4
        I've got to give my vote for the Samsung PC2700. $75 for 256MB, currently $163 for 512MB. Greebe has/had his running at 187MHz.
        Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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        • #5
          Thanks for all your suggestions.

          I'll look up the ECS K7S6A for availability and price. I put my MB+CPU budget at <$200.

          PC2100 512MB is good enough for now to save me some bucks. I'll leave the overclocking for my next computer (new case + cooling gear + vaporware).

          BTW, I've heard good things about Turtle Beach cards but do they work with really old DOS games well (the only reason I'm partial to my SB16 )?

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