[Pc_Support] Rules-of-thumb on upgrading components for an older mainboard ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

If you're considering buying new components for an older mainboard,
here's the rules-of-thumb I use.

1.  Does your older mainboard use the latest, "commodity" components?

If so, then an upgrade is not a bad idea, you're still current.

2.  If not, how much of a "premium" are you paying for those "older"
technology components?

If it's more than 33-50% of what a new, equivalent mainboard would
cost -- assuming you can use your existing CPU on the new mainboard --
consider just getting a new mainboard.

If you can't use your existing CPU on the new mainboard, then use
33-50% of what a new, equivalent mainboard+CPU would cost you.

So, why would you want to chuck what you got?

A.  Newer technology components have a longer lifespan/usefulness for
future use if and when you upgrade again

B.  You can put your old system to use in another way (appliance,
server, donation, etc...)

C.  Integration on newer mainboards replace countless add-in cards,
possibly even offer a superior GPU "for free" in the chipset

- Case Study:  Socket-462 (Athlon/XP) systems

A lot of people are still using Socket-462 platforms with AGP.
Early Socket-462 platforms used PC133 SDRAM.
Latter Socket-462 platforms support DDR200/266 and even 333/400.

If you have an early Socket-462 platform, PC133 is _not_ commodity anymore.
You pay a major premium, even for used components, per MB versus DDR.
Futhermore, your AGP video card is probably slower than a nForce2 IGP,
or possibly even Via/SiS integrated video.  Considering nForce2 IGP
mainboards that use DDR are $30-40, it might be worth upgrading, while
still being able to use your CPU.

If you're considering upgrading your AGP video card to a GeForce FX,
then it becomes a no-brainer, even if you have a latter DDR SDRAM
mainboard.  You should consider a C51 (GeForce 61x0) chipset mainboard
with integrated NV44 GPU for Socket-754 or 939 if you want to reuse
your DDR memory.  Even Socket-939 Athlon-64 processors are sub-$75, so
the mainboard+CPU is sub-$125 now.

If you are not going to use your existing memory (say you only have
256MiB or less and/or it's PC100/133), I highly recommend Socket-AM2
(940) with DDR2.  DDR memory is quickly going non-commodity (within
months), and DDR2 will give you far greater lifespan for future
upgrades.  Socket-AM2, unlike Socket-939, is also a single low-end
(Sempron-64) and high-end (Athlon-64) consumer platform.  You can
start with a solid C51 Socket-AM2 mainboard, Sempron-64 and 512MiB of
DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) memory for sub-$150 nowdays, sometimes as low as
sub-$125.

Especially since in both of the latter two cases, you now have a PCIe
upgrade path for video.  AGP costs a _pretty_premium_ now.  E.g., A
$200 AGP GeForce 6800GS/GT can be matched by a $100 PCIe GeForce
7600GT, and a $75 PCIe GeForce 7600GS can smack a $100+ AGP GeForce
6600 (or even more costly 6600GT) silly.