Upgrading Soon

[Vic]

Hello to everyone. I am about to upgrade my own PC (last week I asked for advice regarding a friend's graphics card - I ended up getting him another stick of RAM instead

[Dan]

Hi Vic! I can answer some of those questions, but I can't price in dollars very well so I won't do that part!  ;)

a) Well for the price you 'aint going to go that well. I hear that over AGP 8X the change to PCI-e isn't that noticeable. I would think that from 4X it would be worth it.

b) Now remember that everything connects to the mobo at some point. If your going to spend over on anything, make it that. I would suggest a DFI if your thinking of overclocking, or an ASUS for stability.

c) Can't say.

d) In brief, it would suck! But that would only be because it would be holding the system back. Personally, if  necasary I would keep that RAM for now and buy some VERY good RAM like G.Skill 1GB Dr FF PC4800 (2x512MB) Dual Channel. That is

[4_Series_Scania]

300 Watt is barely enough, go for 400 as a minimum, especially if your running a new ish PCI-e card.  ;)

[the_autopilot]

Sorry for the long rant, now to the questions:
a) Is it worth it for me to switch to PCI-Ex of that price range? Will the performance be noticable? If Yes: What card do you recommend in that price range?
b) What MB do you recommend for me within that price range?
c) Does the Dual Channel RAM work with all 939MB's and all types of RAM?
d) What if I leave the RAM I have now for a bit?
e) (To someone who has personal experience upgrading from 512mb to 1024mb) Is it worth it? Is this smoothness or just faster loading?
f) Will my 300W power Supply handle this?
Thank you very, very much for any help that you can provide to a very confused guy that is having nightmares deciding what to buy!!!
Vic
Edit: Added power supply info.

A) Depends on the card you buy. For 130, you can't really get a good card. I'd recommend getting a 6600gt which is about 180, but let me tell you, thats the sweet spot. Best performence for that price. Can't be beat. And if you do buy a 6600 gt, the performence increase from agp 4x (and your curren card) to pci-e with 6600 gt is huge!!!

B) I'd recommend a asus socket 939 mobo. Preferably a nforce4 chipset.

C) no, not all. But nforce4 certainly does and a lot more too. I'd seriously consider getting this mobo as I've never had any trouble with it. Like dan said, you might want to spend a little morre on the mobo.

D) Not a good idea. It'll hold back your system. Consider getting some higher quality DDR400 ram. OCZ or Corsair is good.

E) 1 gig is currently the sweet spot for gaming. More than 1 gig for the averge person is unecessary and less could increase loading times and hamper performence a bit.

F) technically yes, but except problems like random reboots and possbily hardware damage. Practically, no. Get atleast a 400 watt PSU. I recommend thermaltake or antec. These companies actually post the real wattage on their packaging. Cheapo companies report 500 watts on their boxes except the PSU can really only handle 200 watts. The PSU is also a good place to spend a little extra to make sure the rest of your comp doesn't get screwed.

[Vic]

Thanks for the advice Dan, Scania and autopilot!
I have decided to get 1gig of RAM (2x512 DDR400 - haven't decided on brand yet), will keep the video card I have right now (Not that old and you said that the jump from 4x to 8x will be noticeable and that PCI-Ex isn't the best for me yet and it does add atleast $130 to the total)
Now, which of the ASUS MB's would you suggest?
(I would like one with an NForce chipset...but it seems that all NForces are PCI-Ex...I had a VIA before...didn't have any real complaints - any comments about VIA??)
Here are the finalists:
ASUS (The only ASUS boards that are AGP)
Asus A8V ($91) http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=478&modelmenu=1
Asus A8V Deluxe ($107) http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=238&modelmenu=1
Asus A8V Deluxe + WiFi ($117) (Same as above but +the WiFi kit)

GIGABYTE
Gigabyte K8NS Ultra - 939 ($112) http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-K8NS%20Ultra-939.htm

I wouldn't mind spending a bit more on the MB, but I cannot really find a 939MB that has AGP  ???

2 Last questions:
A) Which motherboard would you suggest out of those? (Or a new candidate)
B) I heard that the AMD64 S939 uses LESS power than what I have now (Athlon XP 1800+) is this true? (I can, but really really really don't want to change my power supply right now)

Vic
Thanks!!!

[the_autopilot]

I wouldn't mind spending a bit more on the MB, but I cannot really find a 939MB that has AGP  ???

Actually, the nforce3 chipset is a socket 939 with AGP.

2 Last questions:
A) Which motherboard would you suggest out of those? (Or a new candidate)
B) I heard that the AMD64 S939 uses LESS power than what I have now (Athlon XP 1800+) is this true? (I can, but really really really don't want to change my power supply right now)
[/quote]

A) I recommend the gigabyte mb. Its an nforce3 chipset and I've had nothing but good experiences from it (which I can't say for some mobo i've used...with SIS chipsets). Its also made by gigabyte which is also good as their products are high quality.

B) Really depends on what CPU you plug into that socket, but I doubt any CPU has power.   I seriously recommend changing your PSU anyway as 300 probably is the bare mininum. Plus, when you later upgrade your vid card (trust me, you will) or anything, your power req will go up. I'd recommend a thermal 420:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006

[congo]

The problem you face is that you have the opportunity for a great upgrade and your gonna screw it up by sticking to your AGP card.

Better to just wait until you can afford the PCIe card, and by then the whole upgrade will