PC Upgrade

Hello everyone, I've just stumbled across your great website and I have a quick question if you don't mind.

I'm looking to upgrade my PC from a P4 2.6 to a AMD Athlon 64 3000+.

I only have a small budget so I was planning on moving most of my original components over to the new board.

I've checked the specs and I think their all compatible. My question is this; is there any point using my original 512MB DDR 2700 RAM with my new board and processor or will that just bottleneck all my new power? I was planning on buying a new 1024MB of DDR 3200 RAM but I realised I can't afford that now so I'm just going to get another 512MB stick of 2700 to go with my original 512MB stick.

The final spec should look something like this, please point out any problems I may of missed.

Cheiftec Dragon Case with 400 watt PSU
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (with standard AMD heatsink and fan)
Gigabyte GA-K8N 64 Motherboard
1024 DDR 2700 RAM
128MB Sapphire Radeon Atlantis 9800 Pro
Audigy Player PCI sound card
120GB 7200 Standard hard drive
Sony DVD
Sony CD-RW

One last thing, how easy is it to upgrade your motherboard and processor? I've never done this before nor have I ever built my own PC. I bought a book on how to build PC's and it looks relatively simple, it doesn't mention upgrading though.

Thanks for you time.

Gabe

looks like a nice PC,,, why are you going to 64 bit already?.... Windows XP 64B is only in beta currently and is not out till Feb/05. Not only that you have to think that most games and applications will stay 32B because people wont buy them unless they can afford a 64B processor.

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your old components look good, they look like they will run on your suggested Upgrade.

Your DDR 2700 is better than my 2100, I dont think it will affect your performance alot, but if i were in your shoes, id use the 2700 stick until i had enough to buy either, dual channel 2X256MB at PC3200 or PC4000, or 2X512MB at PC3200.

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Another totally new fronteir would be to wait for DDR II Ram to come out, with speeds can reach upto 800MHZ, and upgrade to the Motherboard which supports 240 PIN DDR II. May be expensive, but will turn out to be a faster, smoother comp.
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Its your preference on this one, you could upgrade to AMD Anthlon 3200+ and pay less the 64B, or you can go your way. Just look at some facts before you chose.

Well that was the original plan at first - to buy an XP3200+. But I found a website that's selling the AMD 64 3000+ chip for just £20.00 more than the XP. Also the mid-range Gigabyte motherboards for XP and AMD 64 a pretty must the same price.

After reading a few reviews and looking at benchmarks until my eyes bled I decided the 64 would be a better investment. I know most games / programs are and will still be 32 bit for the time being but I think its worth it just for the extra performance gain.

Thanks for the memory opinion though...I think I'm going to stick with my 2700. I really can't afford the 3200 and if I wait for any more "new" technology to come out - I'll be hanging around 'till doomsday.

Yep sometimes you just have to run with it or you will always be waiting on the next big thing. If you wanted to stay 100% up to date you would be rebuilding your machine monthly.

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I agree,,,, I just was readin up on 64Bs.... THEY RUN AT 1600 MHZ FSB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

THAT IS double Pent.4s... CRAZY!!...