upgrade help from Athlon 64 3200

[akien86]

Hi, I have a evesham pc, which is a quality manufactured pc, but i am in the market to upgrade now....

I currently have an msi socket 754 motherboard (msi-7030) and an athlon 64 3200.

I also have 1gb RAM, a raddeon 9550 graphics card, and a western digital 200GB hard drive, and a creative 2 zs sound card.

Does anybody have any suggestions for an upgrade? namely on the processor/motherboard side? budget for upgrade could be 500 max, preferably around 400.

Cheers

 

[akien86]

I use it for university work, internet, music, dvds and occasionaly gaming.

I do prefer getting quality components rather than getting supposed better specs but with cheaper makes.... is there much difference between asus and msi motherboards?

cheers

 

[akien86]

what exactly are the merits of using a cooler? I know a fair bit about computers, but i know nothing about coolers, overclocking, etc.

what are they used for? why dont you have one already? how do you overclock it? is it safe? how much faster will it run?

cheers

Andy

 

[akien86]

well i have a 19" viewsonic 191b monitor.

so if i got a new motherboard and cooler, would that have much of an effect on the speed of my computer, or is that only so i can get a better graphics card? or would a new motherboard enable me to overclock better, giving a better speed?

cheers

 

[akien86]

How do you know whether it is a Neo FSR or a Neo Platinum though?

I've put it up to sargeant. nothing has gone wrong. I downloaded motherboard monitor...

it says case is 56oC, cpu is 59oC. is that ok? any things i should be looking out for?

cheers