Stuck with DDR-1/Bad Mobo and need to upgrade.

[mediahaze]

Hello all,

Here is my specs

MB: DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra D (Socket 939) (partly fried- see below)
CPU:ATHLON 3200
MEM: OCZ Performance Duel-Channel PC3200 2GIG
GPU: Saphire GTO^2(x850 with Zalman Fan)
DRIVES: SATA2 80G Samsung(2)

and my situation

I have a DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra D (Socket 939) that suffered a tip over in a recent move. On boot it now posts 1/10 times and if it does post, 1/2 of the time it freezes before the loading the os. Once booted the Mobo is fine with exception that when I read from the DVD, the OS has a huge crash. It is not the dvd as I have tried numerous. I am assuming the mobo is screwed and my best bet is to do an upgrade.

Now, the question is... how should I upgrade.

Should I buy a mobo that I can upgrade the CPU in the future? Or do I just stick with something cheap and decent for a couple years and buy something nice in the future.
I dont want to change the mem and wont be adding another card for SLI

A cheap yet decent upgrade I think is the following

MB (79.99) link here
Foxconn NF4SKAA-8EKRS Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce4 SLI, Socket 939, ATX, Audio, PCI Express, SLI Ready, Dual Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Serial ATA, RAID

and possibly getting a new CPU(79)
MD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Processor - 2.20GHz
link here

Tell me what you think.

 

[LonGun]

Did you check see if anything loose connecting to the MB before decide to upgrade? or try to clear the Cmos?

 

[LonGun]

The upgrade is going to be about $200 including shipping and tax. I would just go with the MB and forget about the CPU. Not worth it because the MB only supports DDR ram. Besides your 3200 CPU is fine. Not much of difference in performance anyway jumping to 4200.

 

[Athlon2K15]

The upgrade is going to be about $200 including shipping and tax. I would just go with the MB and forget about the CPU. Not worth it because the MB only supports DDR ram. Besides your 3200 CPU is fine. Not much of difference in performance anyway jumping to 4200.

why would it not be much of a performance gain? going from single core to dual core?

 

[LonGun]

I'm talking about the over all performance. My personal thoughts, I'd go with the AM2 MB + dual core processor and DDR2. But if I only upgrade with that MB for emergency use, then I'd leave the CPU alone.

 

[mediahaze]

Interesting.

I guess part of the question lies in what other sockets supports 184 pin DDR. Without being able to upgrade to DDR2, upgrading the proc in the future may not be worth it.

I did clear the CMOS via the jumpers which seems to have helped. It failed once on a reboot from my 5 tries. The DVD still causes windows to die when I read from it.

I am also skeptical of the mobo as one stick of MEM had gone bad. I RMA'ed the mem and got two new sticks back but I am only using 1g that I know works fine atm.I dont really want loose another stick if it is the mobo that is killing mem.

In the end I think I will take your advice and just get a new mobo. Is the performance difference between single core to duel core not substantial? It will clearly help in multitasking, compiling, ect.

 

[sneekypeet]

If you just want to go really cheap...Call DFI and get the MOBO repaired. They carry a 3yr factory warranty . It will cost you about $7USD if you live in the USA and ship FEDEX. Lastly it takes all of about a week to ten days. So for $7 and 10 days time, you will be able to save more pennies and wait for the intel /AMD war that is soon to come with the new releases!

 

[mediahaze]

no F****** kidding. I did not know about the 3y warranty.

Emailing them right now.

Thanks!

 

[sneekypeet]

No problem...I didnt know either until I taked to them at DFI . I started my conversation with ....Ya ummm my warranty just went out at the egg and...he stopped me and says , Oh its 3 yrs here...My retort was something witty along the lines of SWEET !!!!!!

 

[LonGun]

no F****** kidding. I did not know about the 3y warranty.

Emailing them right now.

Thanks!

Go for it. G' luck on that. In the mean time, it might takes several weeks for the repair. So you might as well grab something for temporaly use and return it with in a month, when you get your old MB back.

 

[hat]

You can do this m8:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116037

Room for DDR2 and PCI-E for the future. OC the CPU to 2GHz easy.

Sell the Athlon