cheap upgrade from barton 2500

[terminator]

Hi

This is my first time here.

At present my rig is as follows:-

2500xp barton
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
2x512MB (1gb) Crucial PC3200 ram
120Gb Seagate SATA,40 GB Maxtor PATA
LG 16+- RW DVD cutter,LG DVD-ROM
PNY 6600GT AGP
Antec 550W Neo PSU


My next upgrade MUST keep my RAM and video card so I'm out as regards going for a Conroe because I doubt they will build an AGP based board but you never know.

I now want to upgrade as cheap as possible to 64bit. Was looking at the ASROCK SATA 2 and the AMD 3700 San Diego as a stop gap before I do a fulll system upgrade to Conroe. Reason for this choice is the now cheap 3700 cost and because the ASROCK has SATA connectors and AGP. One thing I do not know is how good is this motherboard at clocking the 3700 san diego and please advise on a good ,especially quiet ,HS/FAN. Any alternatives and/or advice much appreciated.

 

[terminator]

My god that was one quick response. Never heard of that motherboard and notice that ocuk don't stock it so will have to shop around.

Many thanks

 

[terminator]

I like the sound of Asrock 775Dual-VSTA. Just found it on another site for only £34. Anyone had experience of this board? I would probably match it with the E6300 depending on wether this board will clock it to a 'reasonable' level'. ANy of these suggestions will result in a huge performance increase. Also I've seem my A7N8X-deluxe sell for over £60 online..unreal!! Probably my barton would sell for about £30 as well.

Many thanks for the feedback

 

[terminator]

Just read the review... Does not seem that running PC3200 on this board makes much of a difference than buying more expensive DDR2 ram. Think the fate has been sealed. This board and an E6300 and can keep my AGP card and ram.
Would love to hear from anyone on here who has such a board...and/or similar setup

Cheers everyone