Upgrading help

[trevor]

Im new to building PC's and i wanted to check some things before buying the bits.
I want to make sure that the follwoing parts are compatible with each other?
Asus A8V Socket 939
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
3DFuzion nVidia GeForce MX4000 128MB

I often (try) do multi tasking such as CD/DVD burning, video encoding/transcoding, listening to music (not all 3 at the same time, its almost impossible to do 2 on my current machine!) so i figured a dual core processor was the way to go.

As for motherboard, i currently have 2 IDE Hard Drives and i want to keep them and also a DVDROM & DVD RW so i need the IDE Slots of those components.
Im not to bothered about SATA although being able to u[grade to them in the futrue will be an advantage.

And for graphics card 128MB will be ok, im coping with 32MB onboard currently! I would like TV-Out, it doesnt matter if its just S-Video as i can get the sound from my PC speakers right?

Any help will be gratefully recieved,

Thanks

[Belso]

Wow very impressive.

You can see you have put alot of thought into this system.

Great choice on the processor, Never used the A8V but i have used alot
of Asus motherboards and there excellent.

The graphics card will do everything you want it to do. I take it you dont
play games?

If you like the sound of high quality music then maybe have a look at a sound card.

What kind of RAM will you be using? 2GB kit? If you'll be doing alot of Video work.

What Hard drive? Size? Make?

Power Supply?

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[trevor]

The sound card i have in my current system is adequate for me, and im trying to keep the cost as low as possible whilst getting a powerful enough system for what i want.

No i dont play games.

I will only be having 1GB RAM, i currently have 512MB so doubling it should make a difference big enough for me to notice, and as previously stated im trying to keep the costs down where possible. In future i do plan to upgrade to 2GB though. Currently i have 2 256MB sticks of Corsair, but i will be replacing these. Im not sure what brand of memory to go with, while getting performance and low cost (yes, not often you can get both!). My current memory has never caused me any hassle but a lot of brands seem to be charging roughly the same price for 1GB.

I have a Seagate Barracuda 300GB Drive which is going fine for me and i had an 80GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 which went wrong a couple days ago so im looking to replace that, most likely with a bigger drive.
I also have a 40GB Maxtor which im currently using as an external.

My power supply is an E-Tech MPT-400 400W, i think its a french make, it came with my ready built PC a couple years ago. Its not exactly loud so i plan on keeping that and 400W still seems to be enough power.

PrivatePyle, thanks for your advice, if i find the stock heatsink is too loud then i will look into a quiter one.

Thanks Belso for the help you've given me. Its really appreciated.

[Belso]

1GB of memory is plenty. Make sure when you do buy some more its a single stick. So you can have 2 x 1GB.

Cheap + Good performance..... Not sure really if thats possible!

But i would recommend having a look at Crucial Value Memory. Not the best memory out there, but its stable and does the job well.

Excellent, Seagate, very reliable. Im not a huge fan of Maxtor hard drives.
After seeing so many die. Could throw the 40GB HDD in your pc as a slave. Then buy another Seagate and use that as your external.

I know you want to keep the price down (Who doesn't?) but i really recommend getting a different Power Supply. Most of power supply's that come with the case, are terrible.

And if a power supply blows, it can take some of the more expensive components with it. But thats really your choice.

Best of Luck with your new build.

[trevor]

yeh i plan on moving my 40GB inside and having a new external. That was the 2nd Maxtor to die on me in 3 years. Getting a replacement under warranty from Maxtor is so much hassle and after paying for a courier etc to send a drive back its almost as cheap, if not cheaper to buy a new drive when its only an 80GB!

Thanks for your help again Belso, much appreicated.

This place seems nice and i look forward to sticking around here :)
Quick responses and lots of help

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[trevor]

i'll keep that in mind and look out for a PSU.
Thanks again for your help

[trevor]

just thought i'd let you all know that i've completed building and everything is working great.
My system is now a lot faster, im glad i upgraded :)

Thanks for all your help and support

[Belso]

Wicked Mate!!

What did you decide on getting in the end?

[trevor]

Hi Belso, i got the same stuff as in my other post and the RAM was Corsair.
Seems to be performing well so far :)