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cyrnel · 01-10-2005, 01:16 PM

If the price turns you off, build smart. Don't get caught up buying someone else's dream parts. Consider what each piece does for you over what you already have. Where are your bottlenecks? Can you use the old components or are you trading/selling...?

We all know gaming is by far the most intensive task for most systems. If that's important, the video card is the most important factor. What do you have now? You might get all the performance you want just upgrading here. The 6600GT and 6800's are impressive.

If the processor is still lacking, use an overclocked 35W XP mobile processor. The 2200 and 2400's are both good candidates (~$80). They clock up to an actual 2500MHz and keep up with 64bit 3200 chips for 32bit tasks. If your motherboard can't handle it, good units are under $100 with dual channel, 133, 400FSB, etc.

I have two old $50 motherboards (one biostar one gigabyte) with XP mobile processors that bench and game faster than my much more expensive DFI based AMD 64 3000 box (bench faster cpu, slightly slower RAM, faster disk). Same video card (6800 OC) same RAM. Even if the 64 were faster it's so close it isn't worth the extra money if I weren't experimenting with 64bit *nix. You won't notice anything 10-15% away in performance so use the money where it counts to get the most gains.

A side-benefit of picking carefully is you can afford to upgrade twice as often, which also translates to better system and component familiarity, which then helps you make these choices.

Not knowing your plans/prejudices/interests I just thought I'd throw out another perspective.

01-10-2005, 01:16 PM	#4 (permalink)
cyrnel Adequate Location: In my angry-dome.	If the price turns you off, build smart. Don't get caught up buying someone else's dream parts. Consider what each piece does for you over what you already have. Where are your bottlenecks? Can you use the old components or are you trading/selling...? We all know gaming is by far the most intensive task for most systems. If that's important, the video card is the most important factor. What do you have now? You might get all the performance you want just upgrading here. The 6600GT and 6800's are impressive. If the processor is still lacking, use an overclocked 35W XP mobile processor. The 2200 and 2400's are both good candidates (~$80). They clock up to an actual 2500MHz and keep up with 64bit 3200 chips for 32bit tasks. If your motherboard can't handle it, good units are under $100 with dual channel, 133, 400FSB, etc. I have two old $50 motherboards (one biostar one gigabyte) with XP mobile processors that bench and game faster than my much more expensive DFI based AMD 64 3000 box (bench faster cpu, slightly slower RAM, faster disk). Same video card (6800 OC) same RAM. Even if the 64 were faster it's so close it isn't worth the extra money if I weren't experimenting with 64bit *nix. You won't notice anything 10-15% away in performance so use the money where it counts to get the most gains. A side-benefit of picking carefully is you can afford to upgrade twice as often, which also translates to better system and component familiarity, which then helps you make these choices. Not knowing your plans/prejudices/interests I just thought I'd throw out another perspective.