ophelon

Hello, I just built a new system, but decided to upgrade again and could use a little assistance with what to replace, or what I need to replace.

My current setup is:

- ASUS M3N78 PRO AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400 Brisbane 2.8GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core black edition Processor

- OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM

- ASUS EN9600GSO TOP/HTDP/384M GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

- ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-20B1LT


I'm currently running (2) 22" widescreen LCD's and would like to add at least one more, but possibly 2 more, depending on how I like having the 3 side by side.

My memory apparently isn't fully compatible with my MB, since it won't run 1066, but I'm not a pro here - just mentioning because I'm not all against replacing the MB for one with 2 PCI - E slots if need be. I don't have a problem with the speed of the memory though - my windows experience index is 5.4 I never used the onboard graphics. I don't do gaming, but have streaming charts open all day (not sure how much processing I need for that). I do watch an occasional TV show on one monitor (usually turn the other one off when I do).

Bottom line, could I get away using the onboard graphics for a 3rd monitor, or would a PCI card work?

wrench97

In order to run the Ram at 1066 you would have to have a AM2+ or higher CPU You have a AM2 CPU, the x2 7750 and the Phenoms are AM2+ The Phenom II is AM3.

The Onboard should run the a monitor for charts just fine or you could add a PCIEx1 or PCI card for more I would just use the same chip brand Nvidia in your case.

ophelon

Thanks - I've been putting my own systems together - just so much changes I can't keep up with all the new stuff ....

Would you have any other recommendations on CPU's, or should I just wait to upgrade my MB & CPU together in the future?

On another note, I'm clueless on raid drives - but from what I get, they kind of mirror each other, making a crash less likely, while increasing performance?

wrench97

No Raid 0 is data stripping both drives write different data at the same time to speed up the write operation Raid 1 is mirrored where the same data is written to both disks at the same time creating a back up so to speak as you go. With Raid 0 if 1 disk fails you lose the data on both disks, with Raid 1 if 1 disk fails you have a second to keep running with. Raid 0 is faster then a single Sata disk but riskier data wise, Raid 1 is slower but offers better data protection. Then there are the Hybrid Raids that do both but use more disks and are slower then a single disk.

krisb

yah what he said...lol

linderman

I throw my vote in with the 7750 X2 cpu ..............