View Full Version : Really Tight Budget
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 03:59 AM
I have $150 to buy a processor and a motherboard. What is the best proccessor and motherboard I can get for this much? Would it be better to go with this processor http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...oductCode=80547 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80547) or do you know of a better processor/motherboard for that money?
Smith
11-01-2003, 04:01 AM
dude its either one or the other ur not going 2 get 2.6 ghz and a mother bord.
mabye 2.4 and a bad mother bord
bob_the_alien
11-01-2003, 04:17 AM
If I were you, I would not go with a Celeron.
Celeron's are not what we would call great chips, I would recommend going with a AMD Athlon XP, The chips run fairly decently and you can buy a 2500+ for about 80 bucks. And for Motherboards, I'd recommend, the Chaintech Mobo's, that are good motherboards, and the cheapest good ones run from 70 dollars and Up.
Check out Price Watch (http://www.pricewatch.com), You can find some good hardware deals there.
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 04:26 AM
This is the mobo I have. http://www.computerhq.com/hardware/partinfo-id-1800.html
Do you think I should upgrade it with my processor?
bob_the_alien
11-01-2003, 04:40 AM
Well, This will be a matter of if you can spend more than the $150, cuz your current mobo doesn't even support DDR.
So if you don't have DDR Ram and cannot afford more than 150, I wouldn't upgrade right now, I'd wait and save up, and upgrade later, Most new mobo's don't support just SDRAM, there are a few that do still, but most only support DDR, except for Pentium mobo's which also support RDRAM, but that's being phased out as well.
To upgrade to a good mobo and cpu, you will have to upgrade your ram as well.
But In my opinon, you mobo is decent, just getting old, like I said, you you don't have the DDR ram, just wait and upgrade later, when you can afford more.
:ph34r:
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 04:43 AM
But can I buy a processor that supports my mobo and newer mobos as well?
bob_the_alien
11-01-2003, 05:27 AM
I went and looked at the MSI website, they say it will support up to a 1.8ghz AMD Athlon XP chip, so I think that's like the Athlon XP 2200+ cpu, so you will be able to buy this chip or under and it will also work new mobo's as well.
bigdawgfoxx
11-01-2003, 06:23 AM
Buy an Athlon XP 2500+ for 80 dollars. That leaves you with 70 dollars on a motherboard. Also you have to consider your RAM. There are some motherboards that support DDR and SDRAM (what u have). If you could get a mobo like that, that would be good.
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 12:50 PM
ok thanks guys.
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 01:00 PM
Does this motherboard support both sdr ram and ddr?
Main Memory
• Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR SDRAMs.
• Supports up to 3GB memory size.
• Supports DDR400/DDR333/DDR266/DDR200 SDRAM
Note: PC3200 (DDR400) maximum 4 banks only.
nope that only supports ddr ram,
what your currents specs.
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 01:16 PM
Specs: Motherboard MSI ms-6330, Processor Amd athlon 999mhz,Memory 512mb,256mb,128mb pc133. 80gb hard drive
SciManAl
11-01-2003, 01:38 PM
hmm... with 150, well i would get a barton 2500, and then use it with what you have right now(i know it would be way underclocked) then qfter you get another 50, you could invest ain a good mobo, like an bit, or gigabyte... and some ram... but your choice also check Compgeeks.com (http://www.compgeeks.com) they have refurbished stuff that i would normally frown apon, but i have purchased even there used proccesers, and have gotten perfect qaulity and the have warrentys on all products... but they have cheap stuff and sometimes kickass (sory my french is that good) sombos under the motherboard section... like a barton 2500 and a gigabyte mobo for $120 (that deal no longer exists but about that much) then you would have enough for a stick a ddr ram 256... mayby pc2700 or so... not bad and next upgrade would be getting more ram...
from wht i read at msi u can support a athlon xp1800, which is about $55 on ebuyer, then u would have and xp1800 and 1gig ram, and 80gig hd, which aint to bad, and save up the rest of the money, till u can afford a newboard, ram and cpu.
but u could even do it in this oprder.
1. buy athlon xp1800,
2. buy new motherboard and ddr ram, use old xp1800
3.buy faster athlon xp chip.
if u want to do it in steps.
or even a new graphics card.
oh yeah, if its not a retail athlon cpu u will need a cooler, which aint much, u will get them for $10 max,
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 01:54 PM
The 2 big reasons I want to get upgraded and newer stuff is because I get a lot of stop errors and when I write them down and look them up every one says its either the motherboard,proccessor,or memory.
I need to upgrade anyways.
From what I have seen is that the new proccessor chips are smaller so they wouldnt even fit in my computer,or are pentiums smaller then amd athlons?
athlon and intel use different fittings, from what i remember, old celeron and old p3 use socket 378, it uses 378 pins, newer intel chips use socket 478, and athlon chips use socket a, and aolder amd chips use socket 7.
SciManAl
11-01-2003, 01:58 PM
dude you have a socket A mobo set up right now the only thing you can put in is an Amd chip, which is CHEAPER than an intel chip... so you are probably gonna get an XP chip...
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 02:01 PM
Another thing is that when I open my computer after it has been running for a while it is very hot,but when my friend opens up his dell 2100 not one spec of heat comes out of it?
if u want to cool it a bit, invest in 2 fans, on at the lower front of the case, pulling air in, and one at the rear pushing air out, this will draw air current throught the case cooling it, but also just go round all your fans and clean them, and the case. but be careful though, and devices can be broken due to static,
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 02:27 PM
It gives me the stop error every time I try to run norton antivirus then it just gives me the stop error at random times if I dont run norton. What hardware would this most likely be causing these stop errors?
what kind of error do you mean, and what os have you got,? it may just be time for a reformat
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 02:37 PM
Nope I just reformated like last week. I have windows xp and one of the many stop errors I get is Machine_Check_exception 0X0000009c
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284
try that memory tester i posted, to eleiminate your ram.
try this http://www.memtest86.com/ its a bootable memory tester.
abu_has_the_power
11-01-2003, 03:02 PM
Originally posted by bob_the_alien@1 November 2003 - 04:17
If I were you, I would not go with a Celeron.
Celeron's are not what we would call great chips, I would recommend going with a AMD Athlon XP, The chips run fairly decently and you can buy a 2500+ for about 80 bucks. And for Motherboards, I'd recommend, the Chaintech Mobo's, that are good motherboards, and the cheapest good ones run from 70 dollars and Up.
Check out Price Watch (http://www.pricewatch.com), You can find some good hardware deals there.
usually my vote would be towards p4, but in ur case, go with a amd athlon xp
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 03:04 PM
ok im going to run the memory tester.
If there's a lot of heat inside your case, the first thing to look at is getting some decent cooling. You are going to need it if you get a faster processor anyway, so see if you can cool things down, it may solve your stop errors. It might be a good idea to get another case fan too, or at least check that the ones you have are working properly.
I suggest getting something rated for an XP3200+ or better, the early Athlons gave out a lot more heat/MHz than the latest Barton cores, so it won't actually be that far over the top for your current processor.
also maybe try running it with your case of, and in a cool room, to see if u still get the errors, and maybe disconnecting some unnecesary hardware, like 2nd cdrom etcs, and usb devices, and another problem, may be a overloaded psu
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 04:06 PM
What is a overloaded psu?
Originally posted by Triadcool@1 November 2003 - 16:06
What is a overloaded psu?
the computer trying to take to much power than the power supply can cope with,
if u have alot of extra hardware and a small power supply, or cheap psu,
that was one of the things on the page you pointed to.
just try one at a time to eliminate what the cause could be. heat/power/cpu/ or whatever else it said on the microsoft site
Triadcool
11-01-2003, 04:11 PM
Well I have a 330w poiwer supply and the hardware on my computer is as follows sound blaster card,modem,ethernet,video card,2 cd roms,hard drive.
seems like plenty power, althought it could be faulty or something. just go throught he list seeing what u could do to eliminate that from the cause.
like heat, take the case lids of to stop heat buildup, and clean out all dust from fans etc.
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