Computer Questions

[VS Omega]

Hey everyone!

I currently have a AMD X2 3800+ CPU sitting here waiting to replace this tired Celeron 1.7, I only have the CPU at the moment but want to get to using at least the new CPU as soon as possible.

I am looking at the Gigabyte GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard because it has on-board video and a PCI-E 16x slot so when that time comes I could just whack in a proper mid-range video card or worst case scenario sell that motherboard on eBay to go towards one with a more powerful chipset.

What I was wondering is what parts I could re-use from the Celeron and simply replace them with better parts as the time comes?

I know I can reuse:
- Audigy 2 PCI Soundcard
- Hard Drives / Optical Drive
- Case Fans
- Computer Case

What I was unsure about but kind of hoping I could reuse (what I'm asking about):
- Memory! 1GB of DDR1 400 (PC3200) and maybe some lower rated ones. I'm unsure if motherboards for dual core are backwards compatible with DDR1 since it's a DDR2 motherboard. I don't care about performance, I just want to know if it will work or not.

- Power Supply. All the ones I have lying around are 20 pin, and I have a 20-24 pin adapter. Since I'll just be running the motherboard with the CPU more or less (and the drives), no fancy pants graphics card for a while do you think I'll be able to just get by with the same PSU?

The eventual plan has all new parts in the computer except for drives, tossing up between keeping the soundcard or upgrading it.. but for now I want to not have to use the Celeron anymore. I don't like the Celeron.

Thanks! (Also any advice welcome)

[Pretender]

DDR 2 has 240 pins, DDR has 184.
DDR cannot be used on a DDR 2 Motherboard unless the board has provision for both types ie different sized slots.

I would buy a new PSU just to be safe. Having said that the older PSUs are generally more reliable and are reasonably accurate with their wattage figures. You can buy a new PSU rated at 500w that will fail if your system requires more than say 350w. Just remember if a PSU fails it can often take out many if not all other components with it.
I would not risk an old PSU or even a new lightweight model. Buy a good quality PSU when you are looking to update.

[VS Omega]

Thanks Pretender, answered exactly what I was wondering on the memory, and the PSU thing has got me thinking.. looks like this computer upgrade might be a bit longer than I had hoped lol

Cheers!

[azkwazere]

I dont reccomend gigabyte to anybody...if oyu can afford it, get an ASUS board. As pretender said, you need new RAM... again, dont get cheap crap. Get a RAM cooler as well there only $19 and theyll keep it smick.

Update your PSU and buy an aftermarket cpu cooler. If you want, get an SLI board and get a cheap gfx card then later, get another of the same and youll have a decent setup without the need to waste MB space with a GPU.

You can keep everything else...

aZk.

[azkwazere]

i looked it up and the sus M2N-E is the same price and has everything that the gigabyte board has but not onboard graphics... solved with a pci-e card... it does have the passive heat pipe technology. I guess if price is the issue then hold off for a bit and get the goods.

aZk.

[VS Omega]

I wanted to get an Asus but they don't have a MoBo with as many features in the same price range, I've always gone with Asus in the past and if they had a MoBo with what I want I'd go the bit extra but they don't At least where I get my cheap parts don't have it anyway. I'll hold out until I get the graphics card, just after one mid-range (whatever's ~$300 at the time) then get an Asus without onboard video, because I know the saying's true you do get what you pay for and I don't want the GB forever, just as a temporary stepping stone. If I have to use this Celeron much longer it's getting heaved out the window.

I've gone by fine with cheap memory in the past, this isn't going to be overclocked or anything like that, it's just a quick office computer with the occasional HL2 (which the old 3000+ with GeForce 6200 ran fine) and stuff.

[VS Omega]

Replying to your second post it needs to have onboard because I don't want to buy a crappy $50 card now just to use it, then it's going to be replaced later.. the onboard 6100 couldn't possibly be as bad as the Asus P4SGL-VM I have at the moment with onboard SIS

[azkwazere]

the great thing about celerons is they can be overclocked shit loads better than the core 2 duos/extremes can be. The FSB just cooks under load. Spend the cash on a shit load more ram and a decent watercooling setup and push your current system. if seen 1.7s run at 2.5's no worries. ITs the RAM that you need worry about. grab a 2gb(X2) kit of corsair ddr400 and you'll be laughing.

aZk.

[VS Omega]

I already have the AMD X2 3800+ sitting in the cupboard and I'm going to use it, there's no way this Celeron from 2002 in it's most overclocked form should be able to compare with the AMD in standard form should it? *confused* There has to be a reason one's $50 and the other was $218

[azkwazere]

dump a 9600 in and overclock that as well... onboard is the bleh... is no good. Cheaper too...

aZk.

[azkwazere]

by amd x2 you mean am2? cos if so then because its dual core and thats distributive processing... theres a difference to raw processing and mutiprocessing.

aZk.

[VS Omega]

Yeah it's socket AM2 940, Dual-Core.

The old computer was:
AMD 64 3000+ 64
GeForce 6200 128MB PCI-E
Asus A8N-SLI MoBo
1GB DDR RAM

And it did exactly what I wanted perfectly, but this Celeron doesn't. This Celeron never will. I would have thought a 3800+ would be better than a 3000+ since the number's a performance number and not a speed number? It doesn't matter if I overclock the Celeron, it's still a turd and you can't polish a turd right? It's missing a lot of technologies and is highly inefficient in comparison.. Celeron's a bloody low-end office CPU

I'm going to be doing a lot of video editing as well with this PC

[azkwazere]

If you are doing graphics then dont get onboard... just wait and get a good gfx card with an asus board. You can alwasy push more out of computers... always... but it is a celron. hahah...... Gone are the days where you can upgrade a piece at a time. Its shit house....

You want RAM... loads of it. And a twin core CPU.... id be looking into a SATAII raid setup(striped) for just that bit more.

aZK.

[VS Omega]

I just can't see the necessity, for me money's an issue and I can't afford to upgrade everything at once.. the old computer (the 3000+) will end up being severely underspec'd when this computer's finished, and it did everything that I want to do now (and it ran Vista flawlessly).. everything I want to do I can do at the moment but it's slow, but understand what I'm running at the moment - I don't really care if it's not awesome it'll be faster than THIS:

Celeron 1.7 socket 478
Asus P4SGL-VM (onboard SIS video)
512MB RAM DDR
SB Audigy 2 Sound Card

versus

AMD AM2 X2 3800+
GA-M55plus-S3G (onboard nVIDIA 6100)
1024MB RAM DDR2
SB Audigy 2 Sound Card

versus (eventually)

AMD AM2 X2 3800+
Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe
Whatever nVIDIA card's around $300 then
2048GB RAM DDR2 (dual channel'd)
SB Audigy 2 Sound Card -or- Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 Sound Card

[Darren]

All the questions have been pretty well answered so not much for me to add really.

I recently went through the whole upgrade process, wasn't very happy at all considering the graphics card which I paid near enough to $500 only a few months ago couldn't be used in the new box as it wasn't PCI-e. Wanting to go Quad core eventually limited the decision down to 3 boards.

I ended up going way over the top and did the full hog right down to new 120mm fans and ubber sexy window in the side of the Antec case.

A nice little power supply calculator or rather guide can be found at the following:
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Interesting how Gigabyte is knocked? I went the DQ6 which at present is Gigabyte's flagship model and was expensive enough, ASUS whilst having a good reputation I just didn't think it was worth the extra, lets face it if you get 2 years out of it your going well and generally speaking if it's going to go wrong it's going to die well before that.

I've had Epox, Iwill, ASUS, 2x MSI and Gigabyte in that order and all are still running to this day.

Rock on with the onboard sound I had the Audigy 2 ZS with the wank factor external box and didn't use it once, now I'm just using onboard and it does well for what I need it for, most of the time I've got headphones on anyway.

[frenzal_tom]

true that, onboard sound all the way.
and u saying shit about the gigabyte board, i have the exactly same one and it works a treat
wif the ram i got dual channel 667 i think? got it for $165 from a shop where all the wholsalers where into the $200 price range for normal ddr2 1gb at the same time
ram goes up and down all the time, and get a big fast hdd, they cheap atm and worth it

[VS Omega]

Only reason I bought the soundcard was because my unpowered headphones needed them, the onboard I had at the time (A7N8X-X i think) with the nFORCE 2 audio wasn't capable of outputting to the rear or centre channels and I needed that.. they're surround headphones. Since I got the soundcard I noticed increase in performance of games and the sound quality (to me) is noticably improved, not sure how onboard has come along these days.

Might actually sell the soundcard and 5.1 headphones on ebay as a lot to help pay for motherboard, and if I need a soundcard later on get the Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 and just suffice with the onboard for a while

[bezz]

nice choice on the dualcore, i've been using an x2 4200 for about 6 months now and havent looked back. I definately reckon you should get a better PSU, the stock one that came with my case when i bought it couldnt cut it, so i forked out the 100 or so for an antec smartpower 2 500w. In the future you should also look at a SATA hdd if u dont already have one, I've noticed a huge difference in speed since i bought one.

Onboard sound has improved heaps over the years, my cheap msi mobo has realtek 7.1ch output which works great for what it is, that is until i feel the need for an audiophile when i get serious about music production

[bezz]

by the way i dont recommend msi for motherboards... i've been thru 2 already and this one is still a little dodge

[VS Omega]

I had an MSI in my first homebuilt PC, worked pretty well but it was the flagship.. I used the calculator Darren provided before and worked out that this PSU I have here is enough, and I won't need to use the 20-24 pin adapter because this motherboard has provisions to use both a 20 and 24 pin.. turns out I'll be using 100w less under full load than this PSU provides so it can't be too bad if not just a temporary thing, don't think it should chew much juice just using the onboard anyways.. will get an awesome PSU later on once it's running, had a couple of SATA drives in the past and they were noticeably faster so when the time comes I'll be going a SATA2 Hybrid Drive to really get things humming along (stick windows on it), until then if I have the cash will stick whatever SATA Seagate I can afford at the time..

Onboard audios should be fine I reckon because it's just to run some powered desktop speakers.. actually looked up some reviews for the GB motherboard and it scored top points for value and also performed pretty hard, the onboard video is complete shite but for Office duties until I get my hands on a card it should be more than enough, what I really lack at the moment is processing power :twisted: But soon enough.. soon enough

[Darren]

Heading slightly OT it's amusing to read the same with motherboards as hard drives.

From memory all of our servers in the data centre and even in the office for that matter run MSI boards (JC included), with uptime of a year or more which has to say something. I certainly wouldn't hesistate in purchasing another MSI board that's for sure.

In relation to hard drives your either a WD man or Seagate man, I've seen many many WD's die a painful slow death. I haven't owned a WD for a good number of years but when building the new system I bought 2 Raptors and placed them in RAID0 and 2 Seagate as storage before everything moves across to the server which has well over a terabyte in RAID1, thus far no problems with the raptors but it's still early days yet.

Guys I work with won't touch Seagate and vica versa, it all boils down to what lucky you've had with each manufacturer.