So, I'm thinking of getting various updates on my hardware.
 

What would you people recommend as far as processors (I have a Pentium 4 2.00G Hz) and DVD/R drives (got a cd burner right now, no DVD capability)? Please list prices as well.

AMD Athlon XP or 64 depending on how much money you want to spend. If you jumped processors though you would have to jump motherboards as well. You could get an Athlon XP 2800+ (equal to a Pentium 4 2.8GHz) for $139 or if you want to go bigger you could get an Athlon 64 3000+ for only $164.

If you're looking for a DVD-R drive you have a couple of choices available now. You can get an optical drive which will run you faster but, of course, higher priced or dual layer, etc. Actually, if you want to keep it pretty cheap and get dual layer, I'd say go with NEC 8x Dual Layer for only $66. That means you can get twice as much data on a DVD if you were unaware. That still lets you burn with DVD+Rs, etc but a little lower speeds.

So I could use both DVD+R and DVD-R?

Let's say I were willing to spend around $150 on a DVD burner, then what would you recommend?

P4 Prescott 3.0

really nice processor, and its possible your current mobo will support it. Bit more expensive though, it'll run you around 250 canadian, depending on if you pay full retail or can get it cheaper.

DVD burner...you can get a 16x benq duel layer for 115ish canadian, and its all you need.

do you know if your current processor has a 533mhz fsb or 800mhz fsb? if its an 800, there really isnt a huge point to upgrade it...toss in more ram instead.

I already doubled my ram to a gig like 3 weeks ago.

you never answered my question :mad:

2 gigs of ram will make more of a difference than the boost of the processor, but if you do update the processor, go with the Intel 3.0ghz prescott...AMD= is sucks

I do not know. How would I go about checking? Also, I don't think I can double up on the RAM anymore. No more free slots and whatnot.

This computer is almost exactly 2 years old, so I'll probably need a new motherboard for that Intel 3.0ghz prescott.

that old eh...yeah, probably 533.

if you need a new mobo for the prescott processor, get the gigabyte ga-8ipe1000 pro3. Exact mobo I have, supports 4 gigs of ram, has SATA hdd capabilities, dual channel ram, firewire, 6 usb ports, and it only costs 115ish canadian(wholesale pricing, retail is 130ish). doesnt support ide raid, which I doubt you'd use anyway.

Serial ATA...basically, just a different plug in type for your harddrives as oposed to IDE.

Dual channel ram...you take 2 exact sticks of ram, and the mobo runs them faster, you'll have different coloured ram slots on your mobo. Like Orange Purple Orange Purple...you put the two ram sticks in the orange slots, and when you start the computer up, you get a bit of text saying dual channel enabled or something to that effect.