Compatability Help

[Dreamer]

Been looking on Aria for some upgrades with the help of PC Gamer and ive come to the conclusion that im going to buy

ASUS M2N32-SLI DLX nF590 Socket AM2 £99 - Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 Retail AM2 £96 - Processor

and for the graphics i was looking at the Nvidia 7600 GT i was wondering if i bought those 3 items would they all work together, im hoping they work with the rest of my equipment in my computer which i bought from Aria a couple of years back.

Also i noticed the Nvidia 7600 GT is out of stock and there were other options of the 7600 GT card but not made by nvidia would these give me the same results. Thanks :)

[Barley]

What RAM do you currently have? And what do you want to use the PC for? Games etc? If so, the 7600GT won't offer you any help with new games. It'd just about manage to run current titles on medium/low quality I'd guess. Also, depending on your current set up, you need a more powerful PSU as well.

I love AMD, but if I were you I'd plump for a nice Duo E6300 or something now :)

[Dreamer]

right i see.. well im looking to be able to play upcoming games, at the moment i have a radeon 9800 pro and can run medieval 2 total war on medium settings. I have a gig of RAM at the moment im not sure what it is DDR2 or not, im only looking to spend about 400 tops on upgrades, thanks for the reply.

Also would anyone be willing to give me thier msn address so you could help me easier i know im being annoying but im really scared about spending alot of money and all the pieces not being able to work together :(

[Aaron]

The upgrade path from alot of rigs currently in use is going to be annoying. There has been such a change in the technology used in components that its quite hard to use bits from a rig more than a year or 2 old.

If the ram you are using is a couple of years old, chances are it is DDR1, not DDR2 - but double check that one!! ;). Also, you will need a new graphics card, as 99.9% of new motherboards only support PCI-E, and your card is AGP.

There are a couple of motherboards that support both PCI-E and AGP and also DDR1 and DDR2 Ram (http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=23695), so it can provide a slightly less drastic upgrade route. The only one aria stocks at the moment is an intel board, so you wouldnt be able to use the AMD X2 that you mentioned in that board.

If you do choose to go down the route of using the above motherboard so you can use your existing DDR1 RAM, you need to be sure that the CPU you choose also can also DDR1 ram as well.

[Barley]

It's also worth remembering that there isn't much point investing in dead technology either, it just kills your changes of further straight upgrades in the future.

[Biodoid]

so just find out what stuff I buy and get the opposite :lol:

[Dreamer]

cheers for the replies. what do you mean by dead technology i thought the AMD2 sockets were new? and i cant really afford tobuy into the latest technology normally i just pick up the scraps from the midrange technology and use them for a couple of years

[Anonymous]

You need 2 buy AM2 to last teh major switchover, am2 will last for a good 4 years, in terms of purchasing and demand. The new amds will run on it, and are futureproof, including the DDr2 switchover. Anything below the new platform will be useless by halfway through this year, in terms of upgradability. virtually all systems cant be effectively upgraded since this changeover, AGP, DDR, IDE are all being phased out.

[Barley]

If that's the kinda thing you like to do then AM2 would be a good idea, but for the same/less money you really should get an E6300 set-up instead :)

[Dreamer]

right.. so since all the parts in my old computer are pretty much void now, will a better option be purchasing a whole new ready built desktop computer?
although im not sure what parts are out of date on my current machine eg hard drive, sound card, dvd cd drives is there anyway i can check these to see if they can work in a newer motherboard?

[Anonymous]

Hard drive and cd/DVD drive should go in, but bear in mind that the new mobos only have 1 IDE socket. If you have a decent soundcard eg audigy or something that is better than the onboard spec, then use it.

[Dreamer]

i have 2 dvd drives ones a dvd rewriter and i have 1 hard drive, also the sound card is an Audigy ZS.

[Grimmjow1982]

[quote:90b2eae0e1=\"Dreamer\"]Been looking on Aria for some upgrades with the help of PC Gamer and ive come to the conclusion that im going to buy

ASUS M2N32-SLI DLX nF590 Socket AM2 £99 - Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 Retail AM2 £96 - Processor

and for the graphics i was looking at the Nvidia 7600 GT i was wondering if i bought those 3 items would they all work together, im hoping they work with the rest of my equipment in my computer which i bought from Aria a couple of years back.

Also i noticed the Nvidia 7600 GT is out of stock and there were other options of the 7600 GT card but not made by nvidia would these give me the same results. Thanks :)[/quote:90b2eae0e1]

You should try and find pc upgrade at **** it's much easier and cheap too.

mac: - Sorry edited out competitor.

[mac124]

I would suggest C2D the 4300 or 4400 and an Asus p5b-e+ would out perform the AM2 setup you had in mind especially if you overclock it a tad, got my 4300 running 3ghz easily.