Hello!

My current system details:

Motherboard: Abit AX8
Graphics card: ATI X800XL (PCI-E)
Processor: AMD 64 3200+
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 80gb (SATA)
PSU: Some sort of cheapo Antec one
Memory: 1GB Corsair Value Select stuff.

A few years ago this system ate pretty much anything I threw at it, it's still amazingly hot on Valve's Source engine (run's Ep 2 on full somehow?). But things like Crysis make my computer die a laggy death.

Anyways, cutting to the chase, I'm going to try and do a two stage upgrade, eventually replacing everything.

I need to know whether this first wave of new components will be compatible with the remaining old parts. Obviously I am not going to try and ram a new processor in the old 939 pin mobo.

Here are the new parts:

Corsair Memory 550W VX PSU
Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 PCIE Dual DVI 700/1.9 (PCI-E 2)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB 7200RPM S300 16MB

The questions are:
- Are the new bits compatible with the old bits?
- Are these new bits any good? Or be it are they future proofed for a good while? As my X800XL was.
- Is there anything else I can upgrade without needing a new motherboard in this first wave?
- Am I buying these bits at the right time? Is some massive price crash or technology revolution on its way next week or something?

I've been out of the whole home build thing for quite a while now, I am quite astounded just how incompataible my motherboard has become!

Thanks in advance for your opinions and advice!

Do you want to overclock? What OS are you using? You need more ram.

I am unlikely to want to overclock anything until I've bought the other half of the system later this year, although I don't want to rule it out.

Currently running XP, will buy Vista later this year.

I plan to buy ram in the second phase too, I don't want to buy more of my older ram type, instead I intend to buy 4gb worth of the newer type when I buy the mobo.

Two questions come to mind.
1. How much is your budget right now for this upgrade?
2. How long until the 'second phase' of your upgrade?

1. About £300, it is rather flexible though.
2. A few months I would say. Two or three.

Cheers.

By the way, I am now going to buy a "Seagate Barracuda 7200.1 500GB 7200RPM S300 32MB" rather than the slightly smaller and slower one listed in my first post.

This should still be compataible with my mobo right?

here's the deal. I had a Pentium D 2.8GHz dual core which is roughly similar to your CPU in terms of performance (according to Tom's Hardware CPU charts). You can upgrade your PSU, video card, and even add RAM, but that CPU will bottleneck your card. For example, I had an 8800GTS 320mb running with my Pentium D. Games like Unreal Tournament 3 got around 40FPS at max detail, but during firefights it got laggy as hell. I assumed my graphics card was a bottleneck, but then I used the same card with an Intel E8400 and the same card gives me nothing less than 80FPS in the most intense firefights @ 1440x900 resolution.

If I were you, I would upgrade that processor. You might need a new board, although I can't say because I'm not familiar that much with AMD architecture.

you prolly would need a new board... my 3400+ is S939...

the build looks good, though...

where are you buying from?

definitely get a new CPU and Mobo

it is worth the money, for a faster smoother system...heck when i upgraded to my e8400 fro ma p4, and increased ram from 1gb to 2gb even my internet got faster along with everything else

Thanks for the input chaps.

I am planning on buying from Dabs.co.uk, I used Ebuyer for my previous bits though.

Can somebody confirm for me that there are no outstanding incompatibilities you can spot with all these parts?

The hard drive will still work with normal SATA connections and the PCI-E 2 Graphics Card will work in my PCI-E slot?

I will go ahead and buy these parts I think, while I know they won't reach anywhere near their full potential, it gives me a slightly faster computer for about a month before I bite the bullet with a new mobo if you see what I mean

Do speak up if you see a problem though, I'm ordering tonight!

the gfx should work in your slot, if you can supply it with power, ofc...
and the HDD ought to work with your mobo; just be aware, that if you are going to be installing XP you may need to install new sata drivers...

Ah yeas, I remember being so hopelessly stuck when I failed to realize that before.

I think my motherboard has a floppy disk with them on? I think...

Thanks for your help everyone. It feels weird buying Nvidia and Intel... times change I suppose!

lol. no problems . if anything comes up, tell us and we'll help ya sort it out. Oh, and enjoy the build ^^

You will definitely need another GB of RAM.

Need? Or be better off with?

I do intend to upgrade the lot pretty soon remember

Argh, I also now have to dust my components again...

what your doing looks good, but maybe a 9600gt would give more oomph per $ and draw less power.
ram is cheap, with another gig or 2 you could hold off phase 2 for a while, at least a year would be my guess.

Maybe sli in phase 2.5, but I don't normaly recomend SLI