Upgrade time! Recommendation please?

[bgatot]

I think it's finally time to upgrade my wheezing Celeron 566@850. I've been putting this upgrade off for ever! But some of the latest games are stating to stutter, even at 800x600x16 and most details on medium (low detail generally looks really crappy), so...

Anyway, I'm gonna get a nforce 2 mobo for sure, but still torn between Abit N7F-S (my current Abit BH6 mobo has served me so very well!) and Asus A7N8X (non-deluxe).

The CPU will be Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) unless someone can convince me others are better. My current system is overclocked and has been since it's bought, so I'm comfortable with overclocking. But I do like stability very much, and the BH6 and Celery combo was one of those perfect overclocking partner, and was very stable. And I've never had experience with overclocking an AMD CPU, so if it can't be overclocked right out of the box, I'd rather not do that. Don't want to mess with CPU pins and stuff, I'm clumsy and will break something! Also, will stock H/S and fan works OK if it's not overclocked? As I said, I'm clumsy, and though I managed to attach the Alpha H/S and fan on my current Celery CPU, I heard AMD chips are considerably more fragile than Intel's, so I'd rather not tempt fate trying to do that again!

I want to use the twin bank feature of the nforce2 mobo. Will 2 Crucial Micron 256MB 32x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM CT3264Z335 works for that? Or do I need PC 3200?

I will probably need to upgrade my current 250w Aopen power supply, and would like a PS recommendation.

Anything else I need? I'll just use everything else (hard drives and all) from my old computer. I think my current Aopen mid-tower case can still be used, right? Would love a new, easy to open, no-screw casebut that would stretch the budget a bit too far.


Thanks a bunch!

 

[pelikan]

I would get a 2100+ because a good stepping will get you 2300MHz without a lot of voltage or heat.
An slk-800 (don't use the stock hsf)
2 x 512MB Twinmoss w/Winbond chips because it likes the nvidia chipset and will do well over 200fsb at Cas2
The Fortron/Sparkle 350W psu w/120mm fan.
For the mb pick whichever nforce2 has the features you want (Abit, Epox or Asus) in your price range, just make sure it is the new revision so you can run at 200fsb (hence the pc3200).

 

[bgatot]

Thanks!

So, is Newegg's AXDA2100DUT3C a good stepping for overclocking?

Looks like Newegg don't carry that Twinmoss memory you mentioned. I'd rather order everything from one place. What other memory are good for the twinbank setup? How about Corsair XMS? Kingston? Mushkin, Samsung? Newegg has those. But them memories are so expensive! Easily the most expensive part of the whole system. How about cheaper memory? And I'm gonna go with 2x256 instead of 2x512. Can't afford those!

Looks like you can overclock fine with Asus A7N8X, though yours is the deluxe version, so I might go with that (but the non-deluxe version).

You know, a 2100+ with the SLK-800 heatsink and YS Tech fan is only a few dollars shy of a Barton 2500+ with stock heatsink & fan! It'd better be able to be overclocked faster than the Barton!

 

[pelikan]

People have been getting good 2100+ steppings from NewEgg lately.
Try to make sure you get a Rev 2 mb, whichever one you choose because you can run at least 200fsb. I'm not sure what NewEgg is shipping right now. You can probably find out easily enough.
Try not to skimp on the memory. Corsair XMS pc3200 is good and the 256Mb sticks are on sale at NewEgg right now for a good price.
It's nice having an slk-800 because it cools so well you can use a quiet fan. The YS-Tech adjustable is good, but the Enermax adjustable is much quieter. You can hear recordings of many fans at AMBMB in one of their articles.