Upgrade help

[Browncoat]

Hi there,

I built myself a rig with components from overclockers back in Sept 2003, and think its time for an upgrade and was hopeing you guys could give me some much needed advice. My current spec is as follows


P4 2.4ghz cooled by Zalman CNPS7000b-CU
512mb (2x256) of twinmos ram
Radeon 9800Pro
Abit IC7 motherboard
Coolermaster ATC201 'black widow' case
Globalwin supersilent TOP420-P4
Seagate 160gb HD


I've been reading the forums a couple of days now and have basically decided on completely replacing most of the components (apart from moniter,case,optical drives etc) and have decided to get the following

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego OEM along with a ThermalRight SI-120 and akasa fan
G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3

So far so good, what i'm really struggling with however is which motherboard to go for. Please bare in mind i don't really want to spend more than 650-700quid in total. I'm not really interested in SLI/Crossfire as i cant see me upgrading to two gfx cards in the future. I intend on doing a fair ammount of overclocking and tweaking but am not really interested in the detail of a DFI board, just in it being a solid overclocker. I've looked at the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra but am worried by the ATX 2.0 complient PSU required statement, that leads me to my next question (bare with me!)

I bought my globalwin PSU which i assume is 420watt (lost my old invoice) hopeing that it would be a solid PSU that would last me through my next upgrade (think i paid about 100quid for it). Would this PSU be enough to power the system i'm intending on putting together, and what is the ATX2.0 standard mean, as not all boards (even the more expensive ones) list it as a requirement. I'm really hopeing i don't need a new PSU as the money saved on that will probably be spent on a 74gb WD raptor!

Any help is very much appreciated.

P.S Anybody have any suggestions what to do with the old kit ? (oh and sorry for the long post )

 

[ACESHIGH]

I've been reading the forums a couple of days now and have basically decided on completely replacing most of the components (apart from moniter,case,optical drives etc) and have decided to get the following

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego OEM along with a ThermalRight SI-120 and akasa fan
G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3

So far so good, what i'm really struggling with however is which motherboard to go for. Please bare in mind i don't really want to spend more than 650-700quid in total. I'm not really interested in SLI/Crossfire as i cant see me upgrading to two gfx cards in the future. I intend on doing a fair ammount of overclocking and tweaking but am not really interested in the detail of a DFI board, just in it being a solid overclocker. I've looked at the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra but am worried by the ATX 2.0 complient PSU required statement, that leads me to my next question (bare with me!)

I bought my globalwin PSU which i assume is 420watt (lost my old invoice) hopeing that it would be a solid PSU that would last me through my next upgrade (think i paid about 100quid for it). Would this PSU be enough to power the system i'm intending on putting together, and what is the ATX2.0 standard mean, as not all boards (even the more expensive ones) list it as a requirement. I'm really hopeing i don't need a new PSU as the money saved on that will probably be spent on a 74gb WD raptor!

Any help is very much appreciated.

P.S Anybody have any suggestions what to do with the old kit ? (oh and sorry for the long post )

Hi there, welcome.

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego OEM along with a ThermalRight SI-120 and akasa fan
G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3

This is all good stuff... probably best bang per buck gear, the CPU & graphics card at present.

The MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra is a good mobo. The ATX2.0 statement means more than likely you will just need a 24-20 pin converter for it to work with your older PSU.

 

[Browncoat]

Thanks for your help,

I've read elswhere that you can simply plug the 20pin power connector into the 24pin socket, is it safe/advisable to do this ?

 

[semi-pro waster]

I've read elswhere that you can simply plug the 20pin power connector into the 24pin socket, is it safe/advisable to do this ?

You can do that however it isn't likely to be as stable as using a proper 24pin plug. You can get adapters quite cheaply which I'd say was a better idea, OcUK don't appear to sell them at the moment though for some reason so pop into your local electonics retailer as they ought to have them.

 

[ACPCUP]

Browncoat, can you email me at: koolpc at gmail dot com

Thanks

 

[iraiguana]

you could sell your old kit at either the members market (u will need 250 posts and been member for 90 days, spamming posts wont help) or can try the big auction site on the web.