f13.net

Our second PC is on the fritz and we need to upgrade most of it anyway, so I am thinking of just getting a new motherbord, CPU, hard drive and vid card.  I am good on case/dvd/ram/cr-wr/power.

Any suggestions on sites to look at?  I like athalons.  Would like to end up with a system roughly athalon 3000, radeon 9800, gig o' ram.   I (as you can tell from reading this) know shit all about putting things together, so a site that would actually confirm that the parts I am getting are compatible with one another would be necessary.  Yeah, I know, I should learn but I suck and am in WoW withdrawl.  Also, I'm not sure if I need to get new ram to go with the new mobo/processor (I have 2 512 sticks of DDR I can use in it).  

PS Thanks for the tips on monitors, going to strick with the big old behemoths for now I think.

What's your budget?

I like reading AnandTech's monthly buyer's guides to see what's available at various prices ranges. For July here is their low end guide:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2110

and here is their mid range guide:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2087

Newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com) is a useful place to get pricing and to browse products as well.

Socket A / Athlon XP is a dying platform. You might want to spend a little more money to get something that'll last longer.

Sorry, yes I want the Athalon 64.  Price does not really matter, but I'd obviously like to spend less than more.  Basically, whatever is right before the huge markup of the newest stuff (e.g. I like the radeon 9800 vs the newest generation of cards, would like to score the equivalent in the other components).

Thanks for that link, lots of information there.

Thinking that I want to get an Athalon 64 2800 or 3000 installed into a MSI k8n neo motherboard and just buy a sapphire radeon 9800 card to stick in it (I can install the video card, but would like the mobo/cpu to be all set when I open the box).  Looking at hard drives now.

A place like Newegg.com won't install a CPU for you. You'll need to look for a place that sells "white box" systems (systems they build in house) as well as individual components for that kind of service.

Monarch (www.monarchcomputer.com) will sell CPU/RAM/Mobo combos, tested, for a reasonable premium over newegg's prices.  You'll pay more for the parts and the service, but its more plug and go.  They'll also sell barebones (above, in a case with a drive) and assembled systems.

echo.
Always try to buy mainboard/ram/cpu in bundles that are tested together. I've wasted too much money to learn too little too late that my ram hates my mainboard, or my via doesn't like my cpu, etc. etc.

MWave(www.mwave.com) also sells motherboard/CPU/ram bundles, and for $10 will put it together and test it for you.  Their bundle system limits you to stuff that will work, more or less, so it's pretty easy to work with.  They're who I ordered my current mobo/cpu from.  I bought my ram from Crucial.

I've gotten 3 barebones systems from MWave and am a big fan. It's nice to get a new system custom built and just have to stick a hard drive in it and get right to installing the OS. They'll put it all in the case for you and send out ready to go.

Thanks for the tips all, there are some nice options at mwave and monarch.

Last time I upgraded, I went to a local shop and got a "barebones" system that consisted of case, fan, motherboard, CPU, and RAM.  It was a pretty cheap way to go.  I just plugged in all my old components and upgraded them over time, as necessary.

I seem to remember there's a thing with athlon 64s, where if you buy the socket 754 version it tends to fall over if you put more than one DIMM on the motherboard.

Problem can be solved by buying decent RAM and decent mobo; or by buying the socket 939 version.

Or something like that.

Got my stuff (from MWave) last night, put it together and it is working like a charm.  Thanks again for all the tips.

What mix did you finally decide on?