Planning a major upgrade. Need help.

[STAT1STICK]

Greetings everyone.  I'm new here and I'm not sure if this is where this topic should go but I guess I'll post it in here anyway.

I am planning a major upgrade for my computer.  I do not have very much experience in this area but I have seen someone do it before.  And I have also taken computers apart so I know where everything goes, for the most part.

I guess I'm looking for some sort of tutorial or some kind of instruction to walk me through the upgrade so I don't mess anything up.  

Here's a list of my current specs along with a list of the upgrades I plan to get.

CURRENT SPECS:
Motherboard: MSI K7T Turbo2

Processor: AMD Duron 1.3Ghz

128MB SDRAM - 100Mhz - PC100

8X CD-RW

UPGRADES:
Kingwin Mutant X MTX425SW Windowed Computer Case with Front USB 2.0 Ports, Front Audio Output, Front Firewire Ports, 80mm Rear and Front Fan, 80mm Side LED Fan, Clear Acrylic Side Window , 420W Power Supply (Silver)

Sony DW-D26A 16x6x16x DVD-R/RW 16x6x16x DVD+R/RW and 48x24x48x CD-R/RW 8.4GB 4X +R9 Dual-Layer IDE Optical Burner Drive (Black, OEM)

Sony DDU-1613 16x DVD-ROM 40x CD-ROM IDE Optical Drive (Black, OEM)

Western Digital 120GB ATA/100 7200RPM EIDE Hard Drive: WD 1200BB

512MB PC100 SDRAM CL2 168-Pin Dimm PC Memory RAM

Sony 3.5 Inch 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive

Am I missing anything important (besides the cables)?  Should I change an item for something else?

By the way, I'm getting all of the upgrades from www.xpcgear.com.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So, that's pretty much it.  Time for an upgrade wouldn't you say?  If anyone here knows of a good tutorial/walkthrough, I'd really appreciate it if you'd point me in the right direction.

Thanks for reading this really long post.

[Josetann]

If it was me, I'd try to hold off on a major upgrade until you can upgrade the mobo and cpu too.  Try getting just the DVD-RW drive for now, since you can make copies with just one drive (it'll copy the cd/dvd to your hard drive, eject, you load a blank cd/dvd, and it burns it for you).  Maybe a little more ram if it's cheap enough, and if you find a great deal on a large hard drive, go for it.  I wouldn't spend too much on sdram right now, when any future system you get will most likely use ddr (or even ddr2).

In about another 6 months to a year, I'd go ahead and get the new case, power supply, another dvd drive (if you want), mobo, cpu, and a fast hard drive (a WD Raptor would be nice) as your primary drive.  Keep the larger drive you bought (if you got one) to store all your downloaded files, mp3s, videos, etc. and use the faster drive to run your os and programs off of.

Just my suggestion.

[Techie]

First off dude, ouch. Honestly, if you want a major upgrade, you HAVE to upgrade the mobo to handle 184-pin dimms and get at the very least DDR-400 memory sticks. If you can afford it you could get a mobo that supports 240-pin dimms. If i were you, i'd get a mobo that handles the 184-pin dimms and either has a agp 8x or a pci-e 16x slot that can support possibly a better cpu. if you wanted a walkthrough i could help you a bit if you had a budget or not. beside, i'd suggest getting all your stuff from newegg.com. you can get to me on aim: MegaDaveX4 or MSN: sini_star_ckEmail Removed but i'm on aim more.

[xsolx]

What is your budget for a hardare upgrade at the moment? As the others said, you really need to upgrade your CPU/Mobo/RAM before you worry about anoything else at this point. Even if you dont have loads of cash, you could at least get 1 or 2 or the parts now and get the other parts when the rest of your budget fills out.

[Guest]

Hi STAT1STICK,
                         The most important parts which you have to upgrade first are CPU, Motherboard and RAM.

Before deciding any thing please read CPU and motherboard tips.

Learn Motherboard Tips.

&

Learn CPU tips.


best regards


Sumukh

[Recycle_Bin]

I say scrap your current computer and get a whole new system.  If you have a good sound and video card, you can probably use those and your CD drive.