Tech savvy?

[rknapp]

This past January I did a major overhaul on my desktop computer. I replaced the optical burner drive, added another hard drive, upgraded/replaced the power supply, upgraded/replaced the motherboard, processor, and proc heatsink, upgraded/replaced the video card and so on.

 

Some information on the "new" mobo:

ASUS A8N-SLU Premium

Socket 939

DDR

 

This board was attractive at the time because it enabled me to upgrade my processor and to also upgrade my video card to PCI-e and give me the expandability of SLI in that regard. It also had at least three PCI slot, two IDE headers, and utilized DDR memory. I needed a board with DDR memory because its predecessor was DDR and I didn't have the money left in the budget to replace my existing memory with DDR2.

 

Fast forward to the present and I am in the position when my system simply cannot run efficiently with the amount of memory in it against all of the performance-robbing programs I have. I currently have 512mb of PC3200 DDR memory, which is the current minimum threshold for most applications and games, so it's high time I upgraded. Lucky for me, xmas is around the corner, so I added computer memory to the list of things I want that my parents have been yelling at me to provide for them. My parents are NOT tech savvy, so they handed it to my sister (who works for Circuit City's new FireDog deparment) to handle it. She bitched me out for putting DDR on there since DDR is more expensive today that DDR2. I told her that DDR2 is not compatible to my mobo and she bitched that ASUS even designed a board to use SLI with DDR instead of DDR2. I shopped around online to see if any mainboards could meet my needs and upgrade me, and the offerings are limited at best (shopping at TigerDirect.com).

 

So here's what I'm looking at --> spend a lot of money on old technology, or spend a lot of money to upgrade to new technology when I already sunk $600 into this system a little over 10 months ago.

 

Technically I could replace the memory that is on my list now with a mobo/processor/memory combination from Tiger and get a new heatsink. I told my roommate what's up and said that if I did that and got it, then I could sell my current mobo/processor/memory/heatsink to him since he hates his setup.

 

 

HOWEVER! This presents two more problems. I need a mobo with two built in RJ-45 ports and two IDE headers. I don't always have need of two LAN ports, but sometimes the need arises. I also have four IDE devices and no SATA devices... my two optical drives and my two hard drives are all IDE. I found one mobo combo on Tiger from MSI that has one LAN port (I can live... get a LAN card if I need it since the mobo has one more PCI slot that I'll need) and one IDE header. I don't know if I can use converting wires and plugs to made my IDE drives use the SATA headers... my current and older mobo both came with tons of SATA cabling, but I don't recall any of them converting an IDE device to SATA. Logically I should upgrade to SATA, but I don't want to spare the expense to replace drives that are still serving me well (two of them purchased and installed in the last major overhaul in January).

 

 

What do you all think?

[JamesSavik]

If you feel confident in swapping out a motherboard, new technology is where you want to be.

 

If you are running XP, I would suggest at least a gig of RAM (or 2 if you can swing it). XP's performance (and any other Microsoft OS) is directly related to the amount of available memory.

 

Video is something that I like to put in a PCI card for. Motherboard video is usually fairly limited. By putting in a card, you can add memory to it for improved performance.

 

Network cards can add an extra port if you need one and they are cheap as dirt.

[rknapp]

I've built my computer twice already, so installing and uninstalling mobo's is not a problem. It's a PITA, but not a problem.

 

I adamantly REFUSE to run anything newer than windows 2000 pro. XP is unstable and Vista has little support, so Vista will have to wait a few years.

[JamesSavik]

XP after SP 2 isn't so bad... In fact, it's selling better than Vista.

 

Vista is a steaming pile of crap that can't be fixed. They tried to make it secure... and made it very difficult to modify or tweak.

 

Best bet: pick you favorite flavor of Linux.