I recently upgraded my main rig as I will be leaving for college in a week. I wanted it to be up to par and be able to handle whatever I throw at it. I opted for a CPU, video card, RAM, and DVD burner upgrade. Here is what I chose:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition (unlocked multiplier!)
XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB XXX Edition PCI-e
2GB Corsair XMS-2 DDR2 6400
Samsung dual-layer, multi-format SATA burner
This is a huge upgrade from what I had. The most exciting upgrade here is the CPU. It runs stock at 2.6 GHZ, which is very fast for AMD. This is at a multiplier of 13X (13X200). Within the first 10 min of run time, I had it running at 3.0 GHZ by simply changing the multiplier to 15X (15X200)! No voltage increase was needed to keep it stable, so this already cool running chip stays nice and cool even when overclocked 400MHZ. For $120, this CPU is amazing. It can be pushed to 3.2 with a little voltage increase, which is what the 6400+ runs at, which produces much more heat and uses a lot more energy, for a lot less money than the 6400+.
The rest is just frosting on the cake! The memory is rock solid and will take a little overclocking. The video card is a real performer, bringing DX10 to center stage in Vista. The dvd burner, being $28, was a steal! It was an OEM item, meaning no software or cables. It came in bubble wrap. This drive is very fast due to the fact that it is on the serial ATA bus, which runs at 150mbps as compared to 133 on parallel ATA.
I strongly recommend the AMD X2 5000+ Black Edition to any custom system builder looking for performance and flexibility at a low cost and low energy consumption. I also recommend XFX as the company of choice of graphics cards. Their products are TOP notch and they warrant every purchase for LIFE against ANYTHING that happens to it, weather you overclocked it and burnt it up, or it got hit with lightening. Corsair is well known for their quality and performance as well.
Hope you all enjoyed my quick review lol! Feel free to ask questions I would love to chat it up! Also, please check out my profile, the link to No-Cal computers. I am an admin there and am recruiting computer enthusiasts and general users alike! Check us out, we are small now, but are growing and hope to have a lot to offer! Want to help us help others? PM me if interested!
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition (unlocked multiplier!)
XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB XXX Edition PCI-e
2GB Corsair XMS-2 DDR2 6400
Samsung dual-layer, multi-format SATA burner
This is a huge upgrade from what I had. The most exciting upgrade here is the CPU. It runs stock at 2.6 GHZ, which is very fast for AMD. This is at a multiplier of 13X (13X200). Within the first 10 min of run time, I had it running at 3.0 GHZ by simply changing the multiplier to 15X (15X200)! No voltage increase was needed to keep it stable, so this already cool running chip stays nice and cool even when overclocked 400MHZ. For $120, this CPU is amazing. It can be pushed to 3.2 with a little voltage increase, which is what the 6400+ runs at, which produces much more heat and uses a lot more energy, for a lot less money than the 6400+.
The rest is just frosting on the cake! The memory is rock solid and will take a little overclocking. The video card is a real performer, bringing DX10 to center stage in Vista. The dvd burner, being $28, was a steal! It was an OEM item, meaning no software or cables. It came in bubble wrap. This drive is very fast due to the fact that it is on the serial ATA bus, which runs at 150mbps as compared to 133 on parallel ATA.
I strongly recommend the AMD X2 5000+ Black Edition to any custom system builder looking for performance and flexibility at a low cost and low energy consumption. I also recommend XFX as the company of choice of graphics cards. Their products are TOP notch and they warrant every purchase for LIFE against ANYTHING that happens to it, weather you overclocked it and burnt it up, or it got hit with lightening. Corsair is well known for their quality and performance as well.
Hope you all enjoyed my quick review lol! Feel free to ask questions I would love to chat it up! Also, please check out my profile, the link to No-Cal computers. I am an admin there and am recruiting computer enthusiasts and general users alike! Check us out, we are small now, but are growing and hope to have a lot to offer! Want to help us help others? PM me if interested!