Tower needs new guts...help

[Fusion]

My gaming rig is in need of new guts, but I don't want to do away w/the case if I can handle it.

Current rig:
amd xp 3000+ barton 333fsb
ocz dc ddr pc-3200 1.0 gig
Maxtor 80 gig. 7200 8meg buffer sata
120 gig second HD sata
BFG Asylum 256MB OC (overclocked)Video Card with nVidia's GeForce FX 5700le Chip
Sound Balster card
Sony DVD RW drive does DVDRW and +RW disks
SynMicro 3.5, silver faceplate
Mutant X case
PSU is aprox 600 watts
MOBO is a ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe

My Manager said to me that because I have SATA HD's, I should be able to simply take out the HD outa this machine and insert it into a new rig, saving me the hassle of installing Windows and customizing it the way I want it. If this is correct, terrifs!

Ok, now that we got that outa the way, I need suggestions. What kinda guts can I get into this case? Can I get away w/a SLI vid card, or am I stuck w/a AGP card?

Fus

PS. I don't want this to turn into a AMD vs Intel war, so please don't. Thx

[Krom]

My Manager said to me that because I have SATA HD's, I should be able to simply take out the HD outa this machine and insert it into a new rig, saving me the hassle of installing Windows and customizing it the way I want it. If this is correct, terrifs!

Horrible idea for many reasons that I shouldn't really have to list. That person is an idiot, never listen to their advice again.

Now that we have that little bit out of the way... What is your budget? We can't throw out any [useful] recommendations till we know what you are willing to spend.

[fliptw]

Now that we have that little bit out of the way... What is your budget? We can't throw out any [useful] recommendations till we know what you are willing to spend.

quite true. do you want to stay AMD or go for pure performance? a video card upgrade would be most effective for a single purchase.

[Fusion]

My Laptop is Intel, and it really doesn't matter to me. This box's gut was somewhere around 1800ish IIRC. If I can reuse the case and sound card, then say $1-1.5k

Fus

[Krom]

Definitely Intel, best bang for your buck at the moment in that budget range.

Forget SLI video cards and stick with a single high performance part, your electric bill will be much more tolerable. Also AGP is dead, forget it.

Forget keeping your old hard drives, newer generation drives are dramatically faster than older generation drives. Your system will be much faster even if you don't get the largest ones, plus the extra space from a 320-500 GB drive isn't going to hurt anything. A Seagate 7200.11 series drive will set you back less than $100 for a 500 GB drive these days, highly worth it.

Get lots of memory because it is cheap right now. It doesn't have to be the fastest memory, it is good enough as long as it can keep up a 1:1 sync with the bus speed of the CPU. Although on the more high end Intel processors that is hitting a slightly more expensive 1333 MHz. But as long as you avoid DDR3 for now you should be in good shape to get 2-4 GB worth. (The exception is if you plan on overclocking, get faster memory in that case.) Keep in mind, two sticks of memory are almost always better than four sticks of memory if it is the same size. Fewer sticks means less power draw, less heat, less capacitance, fewer places for failure, and more stability.

Get a decent PSU too. 600w is pretty much overkill for most single socket / single GPU Intel systems but then again they aren't much more expensive than the really dinky units and they will probably never spin up the fan to an audible level. I have an OCZ 700w with a 120MM fan in my system and I am completely satisfied with it.

And last but not least, don't overlook the little things. Unless you really like your existing ones for some reason, a new keyboard and mouse won't set you back excessively.

[Fusion]

My Key/Mouse combo is a cordless setup made by compaq. I use it because of my desk setup, since it has to share desk space w/a Mac.)

Can I sqeeze all of those items into my current case, or am I gonna be searching out for a new one?

Fus

[Krom]

As long as your current case is a mid-to-full tower ATX case everything will fit fine. Of course you could just buy a new case along with it and have two complete machines instead of just one.

[Fusion]

Horrible idea for many reasons that I shouldn't really have to list.

After talking to several other ppl, They have said that it can be done. Plz, what (in a short list), are your reasons why I can't do this simple transfer?

I don't know if it is all the fans or the PSU, but My machine is a noisy box. All Fans are 80 mm, to a total of 5,which includes the CPU Fan. The PSU internal I think is a 120 mm, not certain.

You have mentioned a nice PSU, (Which I like the look of BTW), what would be your thoughts on a good choice for Mobo/CPU/RAM? I have OCZ Ram in this rig, has been nice and solid for me. I am not an OC'ing type of person(wouldn't know how to if I wanted 2) so that's not an issue. Would DDR2 be an acceptable comprimise?

Fus

[TechPro]

Horrible idea for many reasons that I shouldn't really have to list.

After talking to several other ppl, They have said that it can be done. Plz, what (in a short list), are your reasons why I can't do this simple transfer?

Can you introduce me to those people? 'Cause I've suddenly got an urge to sell them some "prime beach front property". Seriously, the reasons it's a horrible idea are many.

Boils down to one thing: Dead OS, requiring you to rebuild from scratch.

The only time you can do that is if the new rig is so much like the old that it's almost exactly the same hardware if not absolutely exact. There are some tweaks that increase platform compatibility but all of them cost you performance and put the ability of your system to even start at risk.

The fact that the drives are SATA has no bearing on this.

[Cuda68]

Horrible idea for many reasons that I shouldn't really have to list.

After talking to several other ppl, They have said that it can be done. Plz, what (in a short list), are your reasons why I can't do this simple transfer?

Can you introduce me to those people? 'Cause I've suddenly got an urge to sell them some "prime beach front property". Seriously, the reasons it's a horrible idea are many.

Boils down to one thing: Dead OS, requiring you to rebuild from scratch.

The only time you can do that is if the new rig is so much like the old that it's almost exactly the same hardware if not absolutely exact. There are some tweaks that increase platform compatibility but all of them cost you performance and put the ability of your system to even start at risk.

The fact that the drives are SATA has no bearing on this.

Unless the MB chipsets are identical from one MB board to the other MB it will just blue screen out, not to mention the drivers for video, it may or may noe blue screen on them also - poof

[Fusion]

After a discussion w/Grendel tonight, He explained to me what you are trying to tell me in better detail. I know you guys mean well and are trying to help, but since Gren knows my machine the best (as he helped me build it it the first place), I trust his judgment and his experience.

I guess that leaves a shopping list, then. Suggestions? If I can help it, I'd like to keep it in my current case.

Fus

[fliptw]

the worst that can happen is XP won't boot. and that will only happen if the HAL is completely different. Like say popping said drive into a p3 machine. moving from the a7n8x to a more modern board, xp will boot, you'd just have to install the drivers.

[Grendel]

The HAL will be different for him. It's way easier and less risky to just reinstal XP on the new hardware, then grab the data from the old disk.

[Foil]

These guys are right, Fus.

On my last build, I tried (just to see if it would work) to just drop my drive \"as-is\" into the new box. Didn't work, of course.

Just save what you want to save, and do a reinstall of XP. You'll be glad you did.

----------

If you want some specific recommendations on hardware, I'd be glad to give you the specs on what I got a couple of months ago. Just catch me in voice sometime.

[CDN_Merlin]

Changing a NIC on a XP install will force XP to not boot. I learned this in school. If your XP system changes more than 7 points (HAL) you need to reinstall. I had this happen when I changed MBs from a 2.4ghz to a 3.0ghz. It's how MS deals with it. A NIC is worth 7 points. Every piece of hardware is worth X points.

[CORD]

What about the old trick of deleting the enum reg key?

[CDN_Merlin]

Never heard of that key.

[Krom]

Additionally, do you really want to sabotage the performance of your brand new $1500 computer by having a old slow hard drive in it? Even if you can get the same copy of windows running it wouldn't be as fast or as glitch free as a fresh format.

Think of it as long overdue major cleaning, getting rid of all the junk software that builds up on a system over time in a way that just uninstalling can't.

[Fusion]

I await your presence then Alum.

Fus