So, I wanted to upgrade the processor on my AMD Athlon 64 chipset 754 from 1.6 to something more. In the process of finding such parts, it's become glaringly obvious that my current home computer is very nearly obsolete.

That brings on some questions for those around here in the know:

Is the ATX form factor about to obsolesce? Should I concentrate on Micro-ATX?

IDE is about phased-out, isnt it? SATA looks like the way I should be heading.

How should I connect my hard drives? SATA or internal USB?

Since AGP is gone, PCI Express: is it really as comparable to AGP as it seems, or is it that superior? Also, I might as well bronze my AGP vid card and frame it as a relic of the past, huh?

With the looks of these new MBs, it's nearly unnecessary to be running an off-board GPU, huh?

Should I even worry about internal hard drives, or should I go with a couple external USB HDDs and leave an expensive brick with CD/DVD drives sitting there?

Speaking of CD/DVD drives, should I go ahead and get one LightScribe CDRW, one LightScribe DVDRW, and one LightScribe BluRay DVDRW? Or is that all overkill?

Can I load/install an OS on an external HDD? Why would I want to and NOT want to?

Anything about cabinets that I should be aware of?

If I keep my 650W ATX power supply, is it still relevant, or should I get a new one to accommodate different power requirements?

RAM coolers. Why?

HDD coolers. Why?

I really should be considering a push AND a pull fan for the cabinet, huh? I figure with how fast and hot these components GOTTA be running now...

My last build is an ASUS K8UX Chip 754 AMD Athlon 64 1.6 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB IDE C:, 30 GB IDE D:, GeForce5200 GPU, some old IDE CD-R drive, an IDE DVDRW on an ATX form factor mid-tower with 3 hidden internal 3.5" bays and 3 exposed CD drive bays. I have no front-panel USB ports on the cabinet, and the cooling fan up front is hidden behind the vented facade. The rear panel has a spot for a cabinet fan, that's been vacant. I have no idea how many slots the cabinet came with out back, but it's a bunch.

Thanks for yalls advice.

I'll take a stab.

1. I don't know which form factors are the future. Personally I don't like micro ATX. Space is not a factor for me, so I'd rather have something large to get more airflow and keep things cool. I have a HUGE case that sits under my desk. I understand your concern here, but odds are, you won't be swapping mobos in the future. Typically when your mobo is obsoleted it's time for a new build. Most cases accomodate ATX and micro...so what I'm saying is I'd get the mobo you like and not worry about future compatibility.

2. IDE is phasing out. New computers have SATA. Most new mobos today should offer SATA or a combination of SATA and IDE. I wouldn't expect huge gains from SATA, but it is the future.

3. I'd use SATA instead of internal USB. That's personal preference. I think in theory they are about the same speed, but I'd rather plug directly to the mobo than go through the USB controller.

4. Yeah pretty much PCI Express now, but there are variations like PCI Express x16. Some vid cards now days even consume TWO PCI slots! PCI slots are important and you need to figure out what you want out of your PC. I had to buy my specific mobo for my PC a few years ago because it was the only one with enough PCI slots for my needs at the time.

5. I don't know about the GPU. I have a video card because my mobo was insufficient. I also have a cheap mobo.

6. Internal hard drives are faster and cheaper

7. That's overkill. A DVD will play both DVD and CD. A Blu Ray will play both DVD and BluRay (and I believe CD). So in otherwords I'd just get a BluRay. If you really want a 2nd drive then you could. I have two drives and never use more than 1 at any given time.

8. You could load an OS on an external drive but it will be SLOW. External drives are slower than internal ones. I don't know what you would gain from an external drive.

9. For cases just get something that has potential for a lot of fans and gets good reviews. I have a Thermaltake Tsunami. Like I said it's HUGE but moves some serious air and it's quiet. I'd suggest something like Thermaltake or Antec. They get good reviews. Try to get something all metal and not plastic. Also look at the hardware they have to hold drives in place. Some have slick ways to easily get to drives. Others have cheap POS plastic pieces. My case has rubber grommets that isolate the drives from the case for vibrations and helps keep is quiet for example. Little things like that might be nice.

10. Depends on what you are running but I'd think 650W is enough. That's what I've got in my PC running 3 hard drives, wifi, tons of USB, fans, video card, TV tuner card, 2 DVD drives...

11. Don't know if RAM coolers are worth it or not. My ram has a lifetime warranty and my fans move enough air that I'm not worried about it.

12. I have no experience with these.

13. I didn't see you mention a CPU cooler but I would recommend that over a RAM or hdd cooler. You don't have to liquid cool (though it's best). A good CPU cooler can lower CPU temps by several degrees and help it be more reliable, last longer, or help you overclock.

This is all my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

Thats all good info I think, but I'll throw my 3 cents (adjusted for inflation) in anyway:

* Internal SATA is the way to go for sure.
* PCIe is much better than AGP. As for onboard graphics vs a video card, it depends on what you use the computer for. If you play games and/or edit video, get a 16x graphics card and make sure your motherboard has a 16x slot. Otherwise onboard might be good enough. You can always try it and upgrade later if it doesn't work out.
* HDD coolers are definetly a good idea, but they can be noisy. Should find them for around $12.

Thanks for the info, fellas. Me and my wife now KNOW what direction we wanna go with our future desktop. Sure appreciate it. Matter of fact...here's the build from earlier. I will provide updates according to the info yall just provided.

ECS A780GM-M3 MB
AMD Athlon Phenom II X4 Chip 965 3.4 GHz
$12 thermal paste and upraded fan
4GB DDR2 PC2 6400 800 MHz (2 sticks of 2 gigs)
1 tera 7200 RPM HDD SATA
250 gig 7200 RPM HDD serial SATA
PCIe GeForce 9400GT 512MB w/DVI, VGA, HDMI
RealTek 3D stereo (on-board)
Blu-Ray burner, reader & DVD/R/RW
RaidMax Aura ATX-927WU Blue
[need to delete this since I'll be using my ThermalTake 650W]: Antec 850W Signature PS
No case cooling fan since I hope to be able to re-use mine
No case acc
WIN XP Home [although I chose No Selection ]
Stereo computer speakers
ACER 20" X203H LCD monitor
XEye USB webcam 352x288 100k pixel
Logitech ClearChat headset

Assembled, tested, shipped: $1550 through PriceWatch.Com.

Come to think of it, there was nothing, aside from the PS that I was lost on. Either way, thanks for the advice, fellas. Great lookin out.

You could build that yourself for half the price. Good Luck though.

IMO that is one ugly case lol.

Post up brands dude no joke.

I would tell you how to get double the performance for cheaper but you're hung set so go for it!

You should always build your desktop if you have the know how to do it. You'll save sooo much money.

That does seem expensive. I built mine for about $700. Also if you are building this you may want to consider windows 7 64 bit as your OS. It is the future and I love it and have had no negative experiences yet. The 64 bit OS with a 64 bit processor will recognize all 4gb of memory. Otherwise with your build Win XP 32 bit will max out at 3gb and the rest is wasted. I think this would be the perfect time for you to jump to Win 7.

See...I just might still go for that. I really only want, heck, need, the CPU and fan installed for me. I was really only playing around and getting my wife's opinions on stuff. I already knew the bare minimums, I needed to know how high-end she wanted. No, I'm not really dead-set on THIS computer, and I wont be buying until, at soonest, mid-deployment. 'Sides, who else makes AMD, GeForce, RealTek, RaidMax and ECS? No, I aint getting salty, though I do realize my typing makes it sound that way. I really do appreciate yalls input and willingness to help.

I didn't mean to sound offensive its just for that price you could have 4 gigs of ddr3 ram with an i7 processor and still be under budget.

Hey Rick,

I just priced out your stuff and sorry I didn't read it carefully the first time. I didn't realize you went for a Blu Ray BURNER instead of a Blu Ray PLAYER for example. I didn't notice you got speakers and a 20" monitor. Those definitely drove the price up higher than the number I listed for my build (I dont have blu ray and I'm using my old 17" LCD).

From what I'm seeing you could save about $200-$300 if you built it yourself though. It's up to you if you have the time to attempt the build though. There is nothing complicated about it...I did my first one in a day just taking my time and installing Win XP took the longest.

If you decide to build it, I can walk you through it. I'd consider $200 savings in a day to be worth it, especially when I got to learn something new.

Check out components on www.newegg.com and look at the prices and customer reviews. You can find some good deals and bundles on there too and sometimes those will save you more or save on shipping.

DARN IT! I forgot that site! Like I said, I did go to PriceWatch.com. Most likely, I will be buying piecemeal to rack up the savings. The ONLY thing I will not do is mount the CPU to fan. Last time I tried it, I fried the CPU. Yeah, I am gun shy now. Overheating CPUs is not something I wanna do. they're expensive.

I built one computer in Korea in 05, another in New Mexico in 06(?), and now this will be my first build using ALL new components.

I can most certainly see WIN7 64 in my future and Office 07 as well. I'm about sick of WINXP and how long it takes to re-load the stinkin program, what with all the updates.

Lemme do a full build on NewEgg and report the differences, realizing the differences will be more drastic buying piecemeal.

You forgot to put the brand of ram and hard drives that is why I asked for brands.

Also I know you didn't mean to get salty but Geforce is not the brand. So is it Nvidia, Asus, BGF, evga, etc etc?

What core does the processor have sargas? Deneb? Regor? Brisbane? Agena? Well Since I'm guessing you meant it was Phenom processor by the rest of the specs then it must be a Deneb Core. Btw for future reference there is no such thing as an Athelom Phenom processor its either one or the other.

Pricewatch is great for finding the cheapest price on parts themselves.

newegg
tigerdirect
frozen cpu

idk I have loads of links for parts.

Check out this site. Don't just look at the specials. Go in and fully customize the computer. The parts selection is ungodly. Once it's done it's not much more price wise then building your own and you get a warentee with it. They always have sales and or free shipping as well. I've bought my last two computers from there and have been very happy.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

One nice thing is there is no junk software with it. Only what you tell them to put on it.

just went to NewEgg.com and "bought" all the pieces for my desktop build, and ended up spending about $100 more than at pricewatch. Pricewatch even did the part I wanted them to do: assemble the CPU and heatsink.

I'm about to check out cyber power then on to tiger direct and frozen cpu.

Cyber Power just asked for $1744. Thats like 200 more than PriceWatch.