Thinking hard about upgrading on a budget

[Chewie]

Not much of a budget, but I was looking at getting these on a finance option...

Athlon 64 X2 3800
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe (http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10285607)
XFX GeForce 7800 GT 256 MB (http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10288143)

Just wondering what more experienced people thought about these.
I'm going to move over my 7200/8MB IDE HDDs, 2x 512MB PC3200 DDR and the other lil' bits n pieces.

[Virtualbody1234]

What do you currently have and what will you be mostly using the new PC for?

Or what do you want to do that your current PC doesn't do?

[Chewie]

My daughter would be playing her games - Sims2 & Tony Hawkes at the moment but my kids change their minds like I change my socks :D.
I'll be encoding a fair amount of time and playing a few games to pass some time.

What I'm thinking of is upgrading the current Sempron 2400+, Aeolus 6600 & Soltek SL75FRN2L to something more future-proof. Something to last the next three or four years before it becomes too outdated.
The Soltek must be 5 years old now and has served me well. It'll go to powering up one of the kids' computers.

I'm looking at that site because of the finance option.

[silent h3ro]

I hear X2 computers aren't great for gaming. Why don't you go for a high end single core AMD 64?

[Virtualbody1234]

Yeah I was going to say something similar. Just get a single core AMD64.

You could also save by getting a motherboard without SLI.

[Seedler]

Get the A64 3700+, it's probably the best single core gaming cpu (value wise) right now. Runs at 2.2 ghz, and with 1mb L2 cache, it's a great buy @ around 250 bucks CAD (around 210 USD).

[Chewie]

To be honest, I had thought that dual core was the way things were going to go with more software taking advantage of it. Gaming isn't the top priority, but I thought the current single core advantage was mainly due to games not utilising dual core advantages.
You've got a point there though, so I'll take a lil' look at single core CPUs. Dual core compatibility on the mobo would be useful for upgrading the CPU in a few years though.

[DrBeerMan]

Did you read this article? http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2736

[clocker]

What I'm thinking of is upgrading the current Sempron 2400+, Aeolus 6600 & Soltek SL75FRN2L to something more future-proof. Something to last the next three or four years before it becomes too outdated.

Define "future-proof" and "too outdated".
It could be asserted (successfully, I might add) that the parts you are thinking of are already obsolete.

I think it's much saner to approach such a move with the attitude that it will be a nice upgrade from your current platform and not agonize about whether it can carry you for the next "x" number of years.

[Chewie]

Well, by 'future proof', I really meant utilising current technology and with upgradeability for the next few years. A mobo that supports dual core mainly.

Anyway, my hand has been forced somewhat due to my current mobo failing on Monday morning.
Fans whir but nothing happens - no beeping even if I power up with absolutely nothing on board... no gfx, RAM, CPU, IDE or anything.
I'm currently looking for a cheap Socket A board just to get myself going again, but there's nothing but ECS and the like online so I'm off down to the computer fair on Sunday to see what I can snaffle.

[Virtualbody1234]

What steps have you taken to decide that you need a new mobo?

What I mean is, it could be something else causing the problem.

Have you cleared the CMOS? Have you tried booting with minimal parts installed ie: only the PSU, mobo, CPU, RAM and graphics card? Try interchanging each of those components with known good ones. Check all connections by removing and reinserting components and connectors.

[Chewie]

Unplugged everything including CPU, RAM & gfx card and I don't even get a beep - with two previously working PSUs. Unless the spare PSU went faulty sitting in a box doing nothing, it must be the mobo.

I've gotten fed up doing nothing about this, and ordered the CPU, with a cheaper mobo and gfx card from the site above. £388 on finance. Hopefully the finance will go through and I'll have something to do in the evenings from the end of next week.

Just realised how dodgy it is to keep myself logged on at FST while I'm at work due to the Mod status and untrustworthiness of some colleagues! :O

[Chewie]

Bugger it! I was refused the finance. That's not good at all. :(

Went to a computer fair yesterday and there was only one Socket A board that I could move my Sempron to, a Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL. That's a bit of a coincidence as my old board was the SL-75FRN2-L... the same thing but without SATA RAID.
There wasn't even the usual £30 ASRock or ECS to go for.
I had no choice but to pay the £50 asking price; told the guy my old board only cost £52 years ago but he just said it's been reduced from £75, implying I should be happy.

Spent about 8 hours installing it, repair-installing XP and getting it running right. It took so long cos the XP install was freezing until I unplugged my dying 200GB HDD and because the BIOS needed upgrading to recognise the CPU, so it was effectively an Athlon 1.0GHz until I'd been to the Soltek site.

It BSODed last night and I'm worried about the RAM; it's at 200MHz (it is PC3200) but had been running it at 166 on the old board for some dumb reason I forget... possibly BSODing at 200MHz!
Jeez, it never rains but it pours, eh?

[Virtualbody1234]

It sounds like the PSU isn't able to provide enough power. Could that be why the it won't work with 200GB drive?

[Chewie]

EZ-Cool 600W Silent (http://www.cjcomputers.co.uk/prodpages/psu_600w14cm.single_ezcool.html)

I bought it because I thought it was the old PSU that was clicking like a car's indicator... ker-TICK, ker-TICK, ker-TICK, ker-TICK...
Turned out that it's the data hdd doing it.
Even more annoying, I was desperate and paid £49.95 some weeks ago and now see them regularly on sale for £20-£25.

0x8e BSODs have continued tonight (sometimes with various dlls quoted but most with none) until I dropped the memory to 166. It passed Memtest86 at 200 but I'm wondering if the almost identical DIMMS just don't get on with the nforce dual channel idea.
I think I'll re-arrange them to run in the standard configuration and see what happens at 200 then.