{"id":223,"date":"2005-07-10T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2005-07-10T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-07-10T11:00:12","modified_gmt":"2005-07-10T11:00:12","slug":"upgrading-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2005\/07\/10\/upgrading-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Upgrading Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every couple of years or so, I embark on a wonderful journey to learn about the marvels of modern PC technology. This experience usually begins when something on my computer breaks, isn?t working correctly, or a game that I want to get won?t run at optimal levels with my hardware.<\/p>\n

Yes friends, it?s time for a computer upgrade!<\/p>\n

My computer has this annoying problem that it won?t always turn on after I turn it off. Sometimes it will work and other times I need to unplug the power cord, wait a few minute, plug the power cord back in, and then try to start it. I suspected that the power supply is slowly ending its life or couldn\u2019t handle the current load. So my initial purchase was an Antec TruePower 2.0 550 Watt<\/a> power supply to replace my 300W Antec PSU. My PC was underpowered when I did my last upgrade, so I knew I?d eventually have to do this replacement.<\/p>\n

Then I started thinking ? which we all know is a dangerous thing. Why not upgrade my AMD 2700+ machine while I?m at it? I?m a big fan of Mwave<\/a> and Newegg<\/a> for computer hardware purchases. Both are reliable and with reasonably fast order processing and shipping. And their prices are very good. I like Mwave?s motherboard\/CPU combinations and they?ve been providing my motherboards for roughly ten years.<\/p>\n

I decided to purchase an AMD Athlon 64 4000+ ?939? socket motherboard. There are all sorts of new sockets for CPUs available these days since I made my last purchase. The sockets are how the CPU connects to the motherboard and since I knew nothing about the 939 motherboards, a little research was in order.<\/p>\n

Let me first point out that doing an individual upgrade and piecing together parts probably is not the cheapest way to go. The individual components I purchase are generally going to be more expensive when everything is added up and compared to how much Dell would charge me for the same thing. I just enjoy making each individual choice and customizing my PC as much as possible.<\/p>\n

I am a big fan of Asus<\/a> motherboards. There are plenty of other fine motherboard vendors out there, but I know that I can rely on Asus boards, so that?s all I?ve purchased over the years. So here?s where the fun began. I needed to choose from six different Asus 939 socket motherboard variations.<\/p>\n

And learn about something called ?SLI.? And nForce 4 and Via motherboard bios. And ?PCI express.? Read what I learned in part 2!<\/p>\n

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