I'm currently running a rather old P4 2.0ghz, 2gb of ram machine as my daily use PC and LFS machine all in one. Its time to upgrade finally!

My 3 uses for this new machine are going to be LFS, Digial Photo editing, and surfing the web.

I have a spare ASUS motherboard (A8N-SLI, socket 939) and was wondering if thats even worth keeping. I didn't pay anything for it and its just sitting around. Should I start there or go intel instead? Is the cost worth it to buy another board for intel vs having a free AMD board already?

Which processors should I be looking at?

What about video cards. The board is SLI, and I'm NOT an ATI fan at all.

And last, recomendation on RAM.


Many thanks! I need to get back into LFS something serious!

Wow, 42 views and nobody can help?!

Soc 939 cpu's are out of stock, and their not worth it.

You could tell how much money you want to spend.

Well, I read the HardForum (Hard as in hardware).
http://www.hardforum.com

There are whole sections on what you need.
There's a FAQ on each componant too - CPU, mobo, vid card, etc.

Gen[H]ard FAQ... n00bs start here
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1289005

Make sure you browse a bit & USE SEARCH. They have over 100,000 reg. users & almost any question has been asked before. Keep that in mind - because just like this forum - there are nice people who will help and be polite and there are jerks who will talk trash to you because they are 12 year olds in 25 year old bodies.

You might want to browse these "2008 sample builds" for ideas:

May Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide = $1000
http://sharkeyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/3747766

January High-end Gaming PC Buyer's = $2500
http://sharkeyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/3721471

March Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide = $4000
http://sharkeyextreme.com/guides/EGBG/article.php/3731911

How much are you looking at spending?

S939 is totally dead - that board is worth probably just over the cost of an S2 license (even if it is my favourite mobo of all time!)

Thats the mobo I am using right now on a 939 4200X2+, still playing anything I throw at it. Though the older stuff is a hell of a lot more expensive, compare DDR ram with DDR2 for instance.

If you can find a CPU and some ram cheap for it, then buy a midpriced graphics card it will still run todays games, but tbh you might as well spend that little extra and go all new. When I found out about the AM2 socket, I rummaged around the internet in search for a better 939 pin thinking they would be cheap as chips but none in stock anywhere, and the ones I did find were like double the price of the RRP.

Definatly would recommend you buying completely new gear, you seem quite happy to build it yourself and tbh for what you want to use your PC for you probably wont need to spend much.

If you wana build a budget system that will run LFS & many other games just fine then start with what youv'e got.
Just add used parts from ebay & you will have a cheap, fast, PC.

Quote from turbo4door :

I have a spare ASUS motherboard (A8N-SLI, socket 939) and was wondering if thats even worth keeping. I didn't pay anything for it and its just sitting around. Should I start there or go intel instead? Is the cost worth it to buy another board for intel vs having a free AMD board already?

The thing is, money you can potentially save by using that old motherboard will be wasted on buying outdated processor and RAM. Standard motherboards are pretty cheap anyways so it's not really a big loss. I'd just say go for for new platform, atleast you won't be stuck with old hardware that needs an upgrade soon again.