Upgrade time

Should be getting my tax return this week, time to replace my dead Gigabyte-me 7VRXP. Will probably order from Newegg, as MWave is about $15 more.

New parts:
Epox 8RDA or 8RDA+
XP1700 TBred (OEM)
Antec True380W or True430W PS
WD SE HD 80-120GB, whichever one happens to be on sale

Existing parts:
GF4 Ti4200
SK7 w/80mm Sunon fan
2x 256MB Samsung PC2700
SB Live Platinum 5.1
ATX mid-tower case (120mm front fan, 2x 80mm exhaust)
Liteon 16x DVD-ROM
Teac 16/10/40 CDRW
XP Pro
DLink 10/100 PCI NIC
Floppy, Keyboard, Mouse

Couple questions:

1. Will the 380W be enough or should I spend the extra $10-15 for the 430W?? I run SETI almost 24/7.

Actually I still have an Enermax 430W PS but the 5V rail is too low 4.75-4.8, worried about stability or maybe frying another mobo. Dunno if that had any factor in killing my last 2 mobos, although I had both on for 3-4 weeks w/o any problems.

2. Should I get the 8RDA (non-plus) instead and use my existing sound card and NIC??

3. What's this I hear about having to install SP1 to use the newest NForce drivers??

4. Any idea how high Samsung RAM OCs??

>>XP1700 TBred (OEM)

I'd move up to the 2100, OCs like crazy

>>SK7 w/80mm Sunon fan

If you're going to OC you might consider the ThermalRight Smart Fan 2 and the SLK-800.

>>1. Will the 380W be enough or should I spend the extra $10-15 for the 430W?? I run SETI almost 24/7.

I'd go with the 430 doing 24/7 SETI.

>>2. Should I get the 8RDA (non-plus) instead and use my existing sound card and NIC??

Yup!

Originally posted by OS-Wiz
>>I'd move up to the 2100, OCs like crazy

How much higher can you generally expect to hit with a 2100 over the 1700??

>>If you're going to OC you might consider the ThermalRight Smart Fan 2 and the SLK-800.

I also have a Volcano 9, not being used at the moment. Could take the fan off of there and put in on my SK7. The SK7 & 80mm Sunon fan on my 1.3G TBird @ 1.34G runs at most 39C, case 30C -running SETI 24/7.

>>2. Should I get the 8RDA (non-plus) instead and use my existing sound card and NIC??

On 2nd thought the 8RDA+ is only $14 more which is what you'll pay for a decent NIC anyways.

Any thoughts on the Abit NF7-S v2.0?? Does it have the same lack of driver issues the 8RDA+ has??
Am ordering tonight, so any other feedback would be appreciated. :cool: