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Upgrading M-ATX box - advice welcome

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  • 10-11-2002 6:42pm
    #1
    DC
    Registered Users Posts: 344 ✭✭


    I am fairly new to this whole PC rebuilding lark, so some advice would be welcome to ensure I don't forget anything on my list.

    Basically I am scrapping a 3 year old GW2K Celeron 400 machine. I am happy to go again with an M-ATX board because I don't have that many requirements for expansion. And it allows me keep the case. And I am keen to save on cost.

    I have identified the following as essential:

    - Motherboard (M-ATX) that can handle an AMD Athlon XP and DDR RAM
    - 256MB DDR RAM
    - AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (at least)
    - Cooler / Fan for above
    - New PSU to replace a 90W unit (underpowered possibly and makes an annoying whispering sound when you move the mouse pointer, etc)

    I want to avoid getting a graphics / sound card at this stage.

    I came up with the following on a visit to Komplett.ie:

    Motherboard - ASUS A7N266-VM Socket A DDR nForce 220D: Appears to be everything I require. Built in (reasonable) graphics chipset with Dolby Digital output. Can take up to 1GB DDR RAM, enough for quite a while. Built in 10/100 LAN. 4x AGP Slot. 2 x USB 1.1 ports. 3 PCI Slots. And can take an AMD Athlon XP chip.
    cost €76.74
    RAM - 256MB Generic RAM
    cost €74.15
    CPU - AMD Athlon XP 1900+. Plenty for playing games for the foreseeable future?
    cost €95.16
    Cooler / Fan - Cooler Master CPU Fan for up to XP 1900+
    cost €12.28
    PSU - Chieftec 200W M-ATX PSU
    cost €35.61

    Total cost approx. €294 ex. VAT. Good value I think for getting a PC right up-to-date (well, close enough to anyway).

    I already just bought an 80GB IBM Deskstar ATA-100 drive. And existing bits and pieces are perfectly sufficient.

    Any other recommended (or essential) parts?


Comments

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    #2
    conZ
    Registered Users Posts: 1,714 ✭✭✭conZ


    where did you get the mini-atx case in the first place??


  • Options
    #3
    DC
    Registered Users Posts: 344 ✭✭DC


    Gateway 2000 Celeron box from about 3 years ago. I don't think it was that popular an option. My sister went for it and I kinda ended up with it when my PIII 450MHz PC ended up as an office server.

    I can get hold of a larger ATX box, but I want to take the old motherboard from the M-ATX case and put it into a pal's desktop PC (upgrading him from 133MHz to 400MHz). I'm assuming his old PC case will take it. For him its a significant upgrade.


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