help with upgrade / new build please

[maverickr6]

this missus has banned a new puter so im gonna foll here and keep our current case and just fit new internals.

the question is how easy is it to do???

im thinking of the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3000 (Socket 754) - Retail (CP-070-AM)  

[Jared]

Looks like a decent setup for the future, only main thing that I didn't notice was a power supply upgrade, or any added cooling devices to protect you investment.

Even without more fans you are more than likely going to need a better power supply...I would recommend one over 400W, also check with motherboard supplier to see of they recommend a certain brand...:-)

[maverickr62]

good point - thanx for that. i will check out what wattage is needed for the new mobo and compare it too mine. if its not a goer then i'll get a new un'. i'll also se if i can fit any more fan in the case. if i cant can i just buy more powerfull ones???

what about mobo set up.... is it easy?

thanx again.

[HeavyMetal]

Good advice on the cooling.  A good aftermarket heatsink will do wonders.  Heat will kill a computer. I wouldnt fool arounf with overclocking myself, as 1 wrong move and you will fry the chip and or mobo. If you buy a decent chip up front, there would be no reason to overclock. Setup is real easy. Bios is pretty straight forward as well.  Most settiungs are default anyhow. The Bios just needs to know the correct time , the boot sequence that you wish as well as sometimes you have to put in the chip speed. Most mobo's will pick the chip automatically though. Setting up windows is real easy, IF YOU HAVE A SELF BOOTING DISC.

hope this helps some

Speedbird_1961

[maverickr6]

cheers guys..... i have seen some after market heat sinks for RAM - is this what you mean???

also, what do you mean by self booting disk? do you mean the HDD?

[Jared]

A self booting disk can come in many forms, the har drive being one of them after it is partioned and ready to use.  

The most common form of self-bootig disks in this day and age is the windows Cd's.  I believe that all windows versions since 98 have been self-booting.

What this means is that in your bios you need to tell the system to check the CD before it checks the hard-drive, when it finds bootable files on the CD it will begin windows setup and you will soon be on your way...

[congo]

Aftermarket heatsinks for the CPU, not the ram, is what they are talking about.

They aren't needed and will probably void the Warranty on the CPU. So be warned.

The advice was well meant though, many in the past have had heat problems with AMD CPU's, however, modern CPU's are much less prone to overheating.

The best way to avoid overheat is to provide excellent fan forced air ventilation throughout the PC's tower case, unless you have specialist requirements where more radical cooling is needed.


The motherboard doesn't determine the PSU wattage, but rather the amount and type of components using the PSU.......CDROM/DVD drives, HDD drives, CPU, RAM, Floppy, Fans (many fans!), video card, USB devices etc......

Be aware that peak rated power of say 450 Watts, may actually produce more like 350 Watts in use.

The new AMD systems use the extra P4 type power connector from the PSU, so you may need a new PSU simply for that.