was going to upgrade to a X2 processor, but figured i might as well save up for a month or two then get a c2d system which i'd rather do.
i currently have a a64 3000+ (running at 2ghz, woo yeah! :/), abit an8 ultra mobo, 1gb ddr ram (2x512), coolermaster 200 case, pci-e geforce 6600gt along with various hdds (including a noisy as hell old 18gb atlas 10k scsi hdd which i ise as a windows drive and other higher capacity 7200rpm ide drives running vista (thinking of going back to XP due to drivers not yet being good enough, c&c3 demo has problems with fmv and my mate who has an identical system, has no such problems). currently running to a 2001FP @1600x1200 by DVI but waiting on delivery of a 2407WFP.
the list of things i looking at getting are:
-an overclockable c2d cpu/mobo, e4300, reading reports of people hitting 2.5ghz+ is rather tempting me to this cpu. would like the mobo to have onboard sound (i really cant tell the diff between onboard and a "professional" spec sound card), firewire if possible but not end of the world.
-new memory as my current ddr isnt compatible, 1gb ram or 2gb of ddr2?
-gfx card good enough be able to play games @ 1920x1200, but this is not essential as i dont mind using lower res, but obviously prefer to use native. depending on how near/far dx10 cards are from release and how much they are, i might wait till then and either go for that or a top range dx9 card which will hopefully come down in price.
-new psu? i have an old enermax 400w-ish psu, how good are the enermax "noisetaker" psus in terms of reliability and being to run power hungry gfx cards?
-new case maybe, how quiet are the antec p180s? its billed as being super quiet but if you have 120mm fans running even at low rpm, its still going to be still noisy no? and i figure i'd need a psu with cables long enough to reach.
and most importantly: it needs to be quiet as possible, i hate loud machines with a passion! i got my abit an8u because its passively cooled, didnt give much consideration to the rest of the system, doh!
i dont need mouse/keyb/monitor/dvd writer/hdd as i will be able to reuse those parts.
then i was looked at dell (optiplex machines, we use them at work and they are pretty damned silent from what i can tell) so thats the sort of audible benchmark i'm going for, if i can get that with a self-build, i'd be happy as i wouldnt imaging dell psus are able to power the new gfx cards.
i also looked at a e4300/asrock combo as a cheap upgrade but the gfx card PCI-E is limited to only 4x, while my an8u is 16x. the plus is that i could reuse my ddr ram saving me some money but if i wanted 2gb, i'd need to replace the ram with 2x1gb.
opinions and suggestions for parts are welcome/appreciated.
i currently have a a64 3000+ (running at 2ghz, woo yeah! :/), abit an8 ultra mobo, 1gb ddr ram (2x512), coolermaster 200 case, pci-e geforce 6600gt along with various hdds (including a noisy as hell old 18gb atlas 10k scsi hdd which i ise as a windows drive and other higher capacity 7200rpm ide drives running vista (thinking of going back to XP due to drivers not yet being good enough, c&c3 demo has problems with fmv and my mate who has an identical system, has no such problems). currently running to a 2001FP @1600x1200 by DVI but waiting on delivery of a 2407WFP.
the list of things i looking at getting are:
-an overclockable c2d cpu/mobo, e4300, reading reports of people hitting 2.5ghz+ is rather tempting me to this cpu. would like the mobo to have onboard sound (i really cant tell the diff between onboard and a "professional" spec sound card), firewire if possible but not end of the world.
-new memory as my current ddr isnt compatible, 1gb ram or 2gb of ddr2?
-gfx card good enough be able to play games @ 1920x1200, but this is not essential as i dont mind using lower res, but obviously prefer to use native. depending on how near/far dx10 cards are from release and how much they are, i might wait till then and either go for that or a top range dx9 card which will hopefully come down in price.
-new psu? i have an old enermax 400w-ish psu, how good are the enermax "noisetaker" psus in terms of reliability and being to run power hungry gfx cards?
-new case maybe, how quiet are the antec p180s? its billed as being super quiet but if you have 120mm fans running even at low rpm, its still going to be still noisy no? and i figure i'd need a psu with cables long enough to reach.
and most importantly: it needs to be quiet as possible, i hate loud machines with a passion! i got my abit an8u because its passively cooled, didnt give much consideration to the rest of the system, doh!
i dont need mouse/keyb/monitor/dvd writer/hdd as i will be able to reuse those parts.
then i was looked at dell (optiplex machines, we use them at work and they are pretty damned silent from what i can tell) so thats the sort of audible benchmark i'm going for, if i can get that with a self-build, i'd be happy as i wouldnt imaging dell psus are able to power the new gfx cards.
i also looked at a e4300/asrock combo as a cheap upgrade but the gfx card PCI-E is limited to only 4x, while my an8u is 16x. the plus is that i could reuse my ddr ram saving me some money but if i wanted 2gb, i'd need to replace the ram with 2x1gb.
opinions and suggestions for parts are welcome/appreciated.
having a card and cpu to play smooth at high res then running the game from the hard drive will make you cry.
borrow beg or steal a magnetic screwdriver. case is quiet and good though.