So apparently my luck with computer parts has finally run out. After almost 5 years with no parts ever going bad I've had two fail on me in the last couple of months. Do you think they were feeling mistreated or forgotten because of the new car and all the talk of buying another gun? That I do not know, what I do know however is that I need some replacement parts, and would like some advice on what I should buy.
As far as the motherboard goes I don't have a huge manu preference. I've had good experiences with Gigabyte hardware, and would go with ASUS or one of the other "better" builders, but prefer to stear clear of MSI, ECS, and all of the other budget guys.
My old system was an Athlon XP 2500+ with 1gig of PC2700, so my question is what will give me the biggest increase in performance for less than $350. I'd like to get something that is AMD/socket 939 so that I can have some room to upgrade if I feel the need, or something Intel comparable (probably not much of that option), I also need something with an AGP slot to carry of my 6800GT (I'll be buying a new system next year with an full PCI-E board and graphics setup).
Here are the options I've been going over, any suggestions will be appreciated.
1) Buy an Athlon 64 3800+ and motherboard, carry over my existing memory.
2) Buy an Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ with 1gb of PC3200 or faster.
3) Get a processor/mobo combo that's even less expensive than a 3000+ but then get 2gb of RAM.
As far as the motherboard goes I don't have a huge manu preference. I've had good experiences with Gigabyte hardware, and would go with ASUS or one of the other "better" builders, but prefer to stear clear of MSI, ECS, and all of the other budget guys.
My old system was an Athlon XP 2500+ with 1gig of PC2700, so my question is what will give me the biggest increase in performance for less than $350. I'd like to get something that is AMD/socket 939 so that I can have some room to upgrade if I feel the need, or something Intel comparable (probably not much of that option), I also need something with an AGP slot to carry of my 6800GT (I'll be buying a new system next year with an full PCI-E board and graphics setup).
Here are the options I've been going over, any suggestions will be appreciated.
1) Buy an Athlon 64 3800+ and motherboard, carry over my existing memory.
2) Buy an Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ with 1gb of PC3200 or faster.
3) Get a processor/mobo combo that's even less expensive than a 3000+ but then get 2gb of RAM.