Upgrade Specs

[made_of_asp]

Retail AMD Athlon XP 2000 		$174.00AU 
Gigabyte GA-7VKML 			$136.00AU 
256MB DDR RAM PC2100 			$63.00AU 
Pentium 4 Power Supply 300W 		$39.00AU 
 
Sub-Total: $412.00AU

What do you think? Are these good specs? It is worth paying an extra $1 for a PC2700 RAM?

[siyan]

that motherboard...sounds cheesy...get a nForce 2 board or a 7VAX/7VAXP.

$1 extra for PC2700 is good. take it.

and try to get the OEM CPU and buy a different HSF.

[Cander]

Well, that assumes his mobo will take advantage of 2700 speed mem..

But you can get 512 meg DDR 2100 for virtually the same price.

check www.pricewatch.com

256 memory just doesnt cut it anymore.

[Cander]

Also I got a bare bones system with an AMD 2100 for less than that. All in all I think you can do better

[made_of_asp]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I don't need that much RAM right now - I am on a budget and need the computer just to run Visual Studio 6.0 at optimal speed and celly 533Mhz doesn't go very far with that.

This is also a big reason:
Computer Turns off

Whats wrong with the motherboard? Seems all of the features plus an extra CNR slot and LAN chip, that I am not going to use.

http://www.baber.com/baber/411/gigabyte_7vkml.htm

Does Pentium 4 Power Supply mean it is specific for P4, or any 300 Watt-compatible CPU(AMD Athlon)?

Note that this is $AU - twice bigger than $USD.

[siyan]

Well, theres nothing WRONG with it, but its based on the KT266 which is, by all means, ancient.

And trust me, 512MB RAM with VS compared to 256 WILL make a difference. If you ever get to .NET then it will be an even bigger delta. Its worth the cash.

The powersupply will work on an AMD. P4's require a special connector that isn't part of the ATX standard I believe...

[made_of_asp]

How about this?

Gigabyte GA-7VA-C

KT333 and no CNR slot. Extra 2 PCI Slots. Looks much better.

[siyan]

It probably is, but see if you can get a 7VAX