Upgrading - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

da^cheat · 01-19-2004, 01:45 AM

i have a p4 2 ghz, 512 ddr, 60 gig hd, geforce 3 ti 200 128mb comp..... but i feel like its starting to get old compared to these days modern comps... so is there any advice on which of my parts should i upgrade?

ebeye · 01-19-2004, 01:48 AM

It really depends on what you are doing with it. But as a starter, go for more RAM (get up to 512MB at least) and upgrade your video card to a newer NVidia or Radeon. Just my 2cents.

But if you are just surfing, sending/reading e-mail, and doing general office type stuff, don't waste your money. Most people really don't need beefy systems.

da^cheat · 01-19-2004, 02:17 AM

although i do surf the net and chat alot, but most of the time im usually playing games, so i'd think a gaming machine

ebeye · 01-19-2004, 02:33 AM

Then definiately upgrade the video card first. After that, if you have enough money left over, look at a new motherboard and CPU.

I just looked at your spec again and I missed that you already have 512MB RAM, forgive me for missing it earlier. My order would be:

Video Card - Definitely a money choice, really nice new ones are $400+, but you can get a nice one for $200 that will play everything really well, just not cutting edge.
MB and CPU - Another money choice here, I am an Intel fan so I am using a P4 3.0Ghz HT on my gaming system, and I am very pleased. It isn't quite top of the line so it is cheaper.
RAM (another 512, or probably faster with new MB)
HD (faster / bigger) - Serial ATA is the way to go here

cheesemoney · 01-19-2004, 02:58 AM

If money is an issue, you ALWAYS get more bang for your buck spending the same amount of money on an AMD that you were gonna spend on an intel. Intel is a better chip--at the ultra high end--but if you want an 80 dollar motherboard and 80 dollar cpu, you ain't getting crap with intel--whereas you could get an AMD athlon 2500+, nforce 2 mobo, and then you could use the software on the nforce 2 mobo bios to overclock your speed to 3200+ w/ NO modification of the motherboard or chip. Just change your settings, and you have a SCREAMIN' computer. I don't know what 80 bucks gets you from intel--maybe a weaksauce celeron?!?

If you have bank, then just get the latest hyperthreading intel and overclock the frontside bus. They overclock very well, I hear.

But overcclock the mobo first.

And I don't really know about the serial ATA thing yet--a lot of mobos still have probs. I never had probs with my old raid mobo though--so who knows.

I say get a 110 dollar vga card, use pricewatch.com or newegg.com (relatively cheap--if you don't live in CA you don't pay salestax), and find a 50-80 dollar nforce 2 mobo, get an athlon 2500+ for 80 bucks, get a good heatsink for 10 bucks, pop it in and set your settings on the mobo to 400mhz fsb -- and wham, you got a 3200+ for 130-180 bucks or so. Pretty bitchin' for hardly any money, and since you don't modify the cpu to overclock it (they are all locked now, meaning you can't unlock the multiplier... and don't worry if you don't understand this, it doesn't really matter), you have the cpu still under warranty.

Hope this makes since. Its 3am.

darkure · 01-19-2004, 05:30 AM

ebeye is right to put the hard drive as the lowest priority. 60gigs is enough for most people. Also to use a SATA HD you need either a motherboard that has the correct connections or a seperate PCI expansion card. And the way I understand it now, You don't really use the potential SATA bandwidth(150MB/s) to its fullest. For a few seconds there maybe a burst that gets up near 100MB/s but for the most part bandwidth usage doesn't fill up the 133MB/s bandwidth on the latest plain ATA generation. To get a performance boost, it is best to get a HD with a large cache like 8MB. If it just so happens that you find a SATA HD with a 8MB cache and your motherboard already supports it, then go ahead a get it if you want. But I wouldn't go out and splurge on a new HD and mobo/expansion card just to say I have a SATA hard drive and get a slight speed boost.

mystix · 01-19-2004, 05:33 AM

video card then cpu should be ur priority. 512 is fine for games, but 1gig will make ur system seem more "peppy". and i second the vote for a barton 2500+ from amd, u can oc it to 2400 mhz very easily and have a fast computer

Lasereth · 01-19-2004, 08:00 AM

The big question about upgrading is: how much money do you want to spend? Most people so far have taken your upgrading statement to mean that you want an entirely new PC. If you just want to upgrade the existing computer, then that's different.

The absolute first thing I'd do is get a new videocard. If you give us a price range, we can tell ya which one is the best bang for the buck.

Secondly, a new processor would be nice. Do you know what motherboard you have? You may not have to upgrade your motherboard if it supports HT or even 533 MHz FSB. They make 2.4 GHz 533 FSB P4's, and that would last you a good while for not much money at all. If you have the money to spend, I would suggest a new motherboard and CPU, however. But you said you wanted to upgrade the existing computer, so that's what I'm out to help ya with!

What speed is the RAM? I assume PC2100, so adding more past 512 MB would help a bit, but you wouldn't see too many improvements except in some games. One of my RAM sticks went bad recently, and now I'm at 512 MB from 768 MB, and I *can* tell a difference.

I wouldn't bother upgrading the HDD unless you're out of space.

Bottom line is: upgrade the videocard first, then the CPU if you have enough money. Give us a price range for the entire upgrade, and we can tell ya the best choice. Do you want an entirely new PC, or do you want to use the current motherboard, etc.?

-Lasereth

rubicon · 01-19-2004, 09:07 PM

I'd go with a better video card. I have an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ and it plays the games I like just fine. It does Word, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop in a quick fashion.

I suppose you could upgrade the CPU if the video card doesn't suffice for you, but Intel will cost you.

da^cheat · 01-20-2004, 12:13 AM

my budget is around $300-400, but i wont go higher

rubicon · 01-20-2004, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by da^cheat
my budget is around $300-400, but i wont go higher

The newest video cards can set you back that amount. I imagine an updated Intel chip will fall in the same price range. If you do up the CPU, I recommend getting a retail-boxed chip because of the warranty.

Lasereth · 01-20-2004, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by da^cheat
my budget is around $300-400, but i wont go higher

Again, do you know which motherboard you have? We need to know which FSB speeds it supports. There are 400 MHz, 533 MHz, and 800 MHz FSB Pentium 4's, and you could upgrade to a much faster one for a decent price.

If you want to spend $400 max, I'd get a GeForce FX 5900 (NOT "SE", NOT "XT", and NOT "ULTRA") for about $200. With the remaining $200, I'd upgrade your processor to a faster Pentium 4 while keeping your current motherboard and RAM. Which processor you can get depends on which motherboard you have. If ya tell us that, we can tell ya the processor you can get!

-Lasereth

da^cheat · 01-20-2004, 10:05 PM

atm im overseas thats why im asking what should i buy since its cheaper..... anyways i am positively sure thats my motherboard is a gigabyte 533 fsb but i dnno what model it is

Lasereth · 01-21-2004, 07:46 AM

You could get a 2.8 GHz P4 for under $200 for your motherboard. I'd get the videocard I suggested and the new processor.

-Lasereth

cheesemoney · 01-21-2004, 10:22 PM

Or you could get a totally new mobo for 70 bucks w/ the AMD Barton 2500+ for 80, pop em together for only 150 bucks, overclock it EASILY with the stock heat sink w/out doing anything but setting the FSB speed in the BIOS, and boom--you got 250 bucks to spend on a video card. An athlon 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ is cheap and comparable to a 2.8 ghz p4, you save money, you could sell the other mobo and cpu for 100 bucks or so bringing your net cost to 50 bucks, and you could then drop 300 bucks on a sweet video card...

Nothing wrong with pentium, other than the ridiculous price.
If you are not going top of the line, there is never a reason to buy one.
You always get more bang for your buck with AMD unless you want cutting edge.
If money isn't a concern, by all means get a p4 and destroy your friends.

I gather from your post that money is a concern, however.

tritium · 01-21-2004, 10:26 PM

Sell it to me for a beer and a Big Mac and I will give you this wonderful Celeron 400Mhz, 128MB-PC100 SDRAM, 5.4GB 5400RPM, 56k, 10baseT, 16MB Voodoo2, microATX machine that is sitting in the corner of my room idle. Its a real crazed beast man -- rabies and such. It was hard to hold back ... in 1996.

tritium · 01-21-2004, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by cheesemoney
Or you could get a totally new mobo for 70 bucks w/ the AMD Barton 2500+ for 80, pop em together for only 150 bucks

Where are you buying your parts?!?! I'm totally down with those figures, man. In all seriousness, I could order tomorrow. Give me a holla.

ToolBag · 01-21-2004, 10:32 PM

Newegg is where its at, though I did not get the prices this guy has listed, I was able to get:

EVGA GF 5900se 128mb DDR
AMD Barton 2500+
1024mb Geil Gold Dragon PC-3200
MSI K7N2 Pro Mobo
120GB Maxtor HD

for $518

and it should be here by Monday! ROCK!

da^cheat · 01-22-2004, 12:19 AM

i'll think i'll get the 2.8 ghz cpu and a decent card with how much i got left

Lasereth · 01-22-2004, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tritium
Where are you buying your parts?!?! I'm totally down with those figures, man. In all seriousness, I could order tomorrow. Give me a holla.

NewEgg has those prices. That processor can't be beat in the performance-to-price ratio. I'd get a better motherboard with it, but you really can find a mobo that supports it and the CPU for $150.

-Lasereth

cheesemoney · 01-22-2004, 10:41 PM

Pricewatch.com
Newegg is great, but not if you live in California (sales tax).

Get the MSI 70 dollar mobo.
Can't the name--the nforce-2 chipset, onboard sound, 400 mhz fsb, etc.
Its very solid--got great reviews, overclocks like nothing, doesn't have bells and whistles that you don't really need, like SATA, etc.
Those things are nice, but you don't need to spend 120 bucks on that sweet Abit board if you want a budget system

cheesemoney · 01-22-2004, 10:51 PM

Newegg lists them at these prices...

MSI nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "K7N2 Delta-L" RETAIL -- 75 bucks
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ -- 85 bucks

Grand Total... 160 bucks.

For 13 more bucks, you can get an on board Gforce 4 MX--not great for gaming but makes a sweet system if you want to build a cheap and powerful machine for a friend.

Be sure to get 2 sticks of ram to utilize dual-channel speeds.

You can do better on pricewatch if you want to, just be sure to make sure that the site is reputable. I think that 150 shipped is easily attainable.

No matter how you look at it, an Athlon running at 3200+ w/ a 300-350 dollar video card is gonna destroy a pentium 2.8 w/ a 150 dollar card.

For gaming, the card is by far the most important part. Don't remember what your original system is, but I'm thinking you'd be a lot better gaming w/ a 2.0 ghz p iv and a 400 dollar card than a 2.8 ghz piv and a 200 dollar card.

da^cheat · 01-24-2004, 01:45 AM

so what should i get? a new cpu + video card OR just a $400 video card

cj22009 · 01-24-2004, 07:50 AM

If you only wanting to spend 300 or 400 dollars I would get a radeon 9600pro or 9600xt good mid range card I would get another 512mbs of ram and possibly upgrade that hard drive to a 8mb buffer one theres no point of going with sata right now becasue there going to do sata 2 in april your proc is fine enough to run all the games that are out there right now

cheesemoney · 01-24-2004, 06:48 PM

I'd say you'd be far better off selling your mobo/cpu, buying the AMD 2500+ and KSI mobo for 150-160 bucks... assuming you got 100 bucks or so for your mobo/cpu (I have no idea what that would sell for, but Pentium's ARE expensive, so you may get a bit for em.) Damn, after looking it up, the PIV 2.0 ghz goes for 123 bucks alone, so maybe you could get 200 dollars for the combo.

If you only get 150-160 for the combo, that leaves you with zero net after the AMD Cpu/mobo upgrade (this will make a difference... it really takes NO additional effort to overclock this through bios... just change the setting from 166/333 to 200/400 mhz). Then you effectively have a 3200+ athlon (which destroys a pIV 2.0 ghz), and 400 dollars to spend on a video card. Don't worry about the hard drive right now, you can find deals on them all the time. Look for rebate deals from techdeals.net and slickdeals.net. My current HD is 120 gigs and only cost me 40 bucks after 3 rebates that could all be used together. It is a fast 7200 drive with 8mb buffer, a great performing seagate. I have seen western digital 8mb drives for 30 bucks at circuit city through these deal websites. Be sure to print out the rebate(s)
and bring it into the store.

Techdeals and slickdeals also have good deals on video cards too, and sometimes you'll find mistakes like video cards that are better than advertised on the box at fry's or compusa, etc (in other words, they put the wrong card / upgrade in the box and don't market it as such).

I look at it this way. If you are lazy, get a great video card. For gaming, this is the most important bottleneck that you need to get over.
If you really want a sweet system for 400 bucks, and are willing to do a little work, get the AMD 2500+ and KSI and overclock that sucker just through bios. Sell your Mobo / PIV (175-200 bucks probably).

-150 - 200 Selling PIV/Mobo
+160 AMD 2500+ and KSI Mobo
+20 Extra case fans just cause you can't ever be cool enough
+388 GeForce FX 5950 256 megs ram

Totalling to about 400 bucks...

I don't know if this GeForce is a good card or not.. Its just the one I saw on pricewatch for about 400 bucks.

They list radeon 9800 pro for 325

And I am sure that you could add a cheap HD for 40 bucks if you just keep an eye out on techdeals and slickdeals.

Probably 100 bucks with 60 bucks in rebates.
I got a 120 gig one about 3 months ago, so maybe now you'd get 160 gig or so for the same price.

nanofever · 01-24-2004, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by cheesemoney
I'd say you'd be far better off selling your mobo/cpu, buying the AMD 2500+ and KSI mobo for 150-160 bucks... assuming you got 100 bucks or so for your mobo/cpu (I have no idea what that would sell for, but Pentium's ARE expensive, so you may get a bit for em.) Damn, after looking it up, the PIV 2.0 ghz goes for 123 bucks alone, so maybe you could get 200 dollars for the combo.

If you only get 150-160 for the combo, that leaves you with zero net after the AMD Cpu/mobo upgrade (this will make a difference... it really takes NO additional effort to overclock this through bios... just change the setting from 166/333 to 200/400 mhz). Then you effectively have a 3200+ athlon (which destroys a pIV 2.0 ghz), and 400 dollars to spend on a video card. Don't worry about the hard drive right now, you can find deals on them all the time. Look for rebate deals from techdeals.net and slickdeals.net. My current HD is 120 gigs and only cost me 40 bucks after 3 rebates that could all be used together. It is a fast 7200 drive with 8mb buffer, a great performing seagate. I have seen western digital 8mb drives for 30 bucks at circuit city through these deal websites. Be sure to print out the rebate(s)
and bring it into the store.

Techdeals and slickdeals also have good deals on video cards too, and sometimes you'll find mistakes like video cards that are better than advertised on the box at fry's or compusa, etc (in other words, they put the wrong card / upgrade in the box and don't market it as such).

I look at it this way. If you are lazy, get a great video card. For gaming, this is the most important bottleneck that you need to get over.
If you really want a sweet system for 400 bucks, and are willing to do a little work, get the AMD 2500+ and KSI and overclock that sucker just through bios. Sell your Mobo / PIV (175-200 bucks probably).

-150 - 200 Selling PIV/Mobo
+160 AMD 2500+ and KSI Mobo
+20 Extra case fans just cause you can't ever be cool enough
+388 GeForce FX 5950 256 megs ram

Totalling to about 400 bucks...

I don't know if this GeForce is a good card or not.. Its just the one I saw on pricewatch for about 400 bucks.

They list radeon 9800 pro for 325

And I am sure that you could add a cheap HD for 40 bucks if you just keep an eye out on techdeals and slickdeals.

Probably 100 bucks with 60 bucks in rebates.
I got a 120 gig one about 3 months ago, so maybe now you'd get 160 gig or so for the same price.

Don't mean to offend but he would be a fool to buy a 400 dollar video card. The 5900(200$), 5950(400$), 5950 Ultra(500+$) are all the same chip meaning that a 5900 can become a 5950U with a significant amount of tweaking and bios flashing. Even if you decide not to oc you can spend your money in significantly more efficient way than a 400 dollar video card.

Lasereth · 01-25-2004, 09:05 AM

If someone has a 2.0 P4 and a GF3 videocard and wants to spend $400 to upgrade, a combination of both is what I'd still do. The processor will barely get by a year or so down the road. The videocard has the same problem.

GeForce FX 5900 - $200
2.8 GHz P4 @ 533 MHz FSB - $200

Problem solved. A videocard that beats out the 9700 Pro, has DirectX 9 support, and a processor that won't be outdated for at least two years when it comes to gaming. Concentrating on only the processor or only the videocard will create a bottleneck, and bottlenecks are the worst in a computer system for gaming.

PS: going AMD would be cheaper and yield better results, but selling a used motherboard and processor is nearly impossible (especially if you want a good return on it!). If da cheat can get rid of the motherboard and processor easily for good money, then it's a different story. He wants to upgrade though, not get a new PC.

-Lasereth

sailor · 01-25-2004, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lasereth
If someone has a 2.0 P4 and a GF3 videocard and wants to spend $400 to upgrade, a combination of both is what I'd still do. The processor will barely get by a year or so down the road. The videocard has the same problem.

GeForce FX 5900 - $200
2.8 GHz P4 @ 533 MHz FSB - $200

Problem solved. A videocard that beats out the 9700 Pro, has DirectX 9 support, and a processor that won't be outdated for at least two years when it comes to gaming. Concentrating on only the processor or only the videocard will create a bottleneck, and bottlenecks are the worst in a computer system for gaming.

PS: going AMD would be cheaper and yield better results, but selling a used motherboard and processor is nearly impossible (especially if you want a good return on it!). If da cheat can get rid of the motherboard and processor easily for good money, then it's a different story. He wants to upgrade though, not get a new PC.

-Lasereth

Yeah, do this. Bottlenecks are bad. You dont need more RAM right now, all you need right now is a new proc and a new video card.

01-19-2004, 01:45 AM	#1 (permalink)
da^cheat Upright	Upgrading i have a p4 2 ghz, 512 ddr, 60 gig hd, geforce 3 ti 200 128mb comp..... but i feel like its starting to get old compared to these days modern comps... so is there any advice on which of my parts should i upgrade?

01-19-2004, 01:48 AM	#2 (permalink)
ebeye Tilted Location: South Korea	It really depends on what you are doing with it. But as a starter, go for more RAM (get up to 512MB at least) and upgrade your video card to a newer NVidia or Radeon. Just my 2cents. But if you are just surfing, sending/reading e-mail, and doing general office type stuff, don't waste your money. Most people really don't need beefy systems. __________________ "I've never understood how God could expect His creatures to pick the one true religion by faith - it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe." - Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land

01-19-2004, 02:33 AM	#4 (permalink)
ebeye Tilted Location: South Korea	Then definiately upgrade the video card first. After that, if you have enough money left over, look at a new motherboard and CPU. I just looked at your spec again and I missed that you already have 512MB RAM, forgive me for missing it earlier. My order would be: Video Card - Definitely a money choice, really nice new ones are $400+, but you can get a nice one for $200 that will play everything really well, just not cutting edge. MB and CPU - Another money choice here, I am an Intel fan so I am using a P4 3.0Ghz HT on my gaming system, and I am very pleased. It isn't quite top of the line so it is cheaper. RAM (another 512, or probably faster with new MB) HD (faster / bigger) - Serial ATA is the way to go here __________________ "I've never understood how God could expect His creatures to pick the one true religion by faith - it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe." - Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land

01-19-2004, 05:30 AM	#6 (permalink)
darkure Addict Location: Dodging the ice pick	ebeye is right to put the hard drive as the lowest priority. 60gigs is enough for most people. Also to use a SATA HD you need either a motherboard that has the correct connections or a seperate PCI expansion card. And the way I understand it now, You don't really use the potential SATA bandwidth(150MB/s) to its fullest. For a few seconds there maybe a burst that gets up near 100MB/s but for the most part bandwidth usage doesn't fill up the 133MB/s bandwidth on the latest plain ATA generation. To get a performance boost, it is best to get a HD with a large cache like 8MB. If it just so happens that you find a SATA HD with a 8MB cache and your motherboard already supports it, then go ahead a get it if you want. But I wouldn't go out and splurge on a new HD and mobo/expansion card just to say I have a SATA hard drive and get a slight speed boost. __________________ COYW

01-19-2004, 08:00 AM	#8 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	The big question about upgrading is: how much money do you want to spend? Most people so far have taken your upgrading statement to mean that you want an entirely new PC. If you just want to upgrade the existing computer, then that's different. The absolute first thing I'd do is get a new videocard. If you give us a price range, we can tell ya which one is the best bang for the buck. Secondly, a new processor would be nice. Do you know what motherboard you have? You may not have to upgrade your motherboard if it supports HT or even 533 MHz FSB. They make 2.4 GHz 533 FSB P4's, and that would last you a good while for not much money at all. If you have the money to spend, I would suggest a new motherboard and CPU, however. But you said you wanted to upgrade the existing computer, so that's what I'm out to help ya with! What speed is the RAM? I assume PC2100, so adding more past 512 MB would help a bit, but you wouldn't see too many improvements except in some games. One of my RAM sticks went bad recently, and now I'm at 512 MB from 768 MB, and I can tell a difference. I wouldn't bother upgrading the HDD unless you're out of space. Bottom line is: upgrade the videocard first, then the CPU if you have enough money. Give us a price range for the entire upgrade, and we can tell ya the best choice. Do you want an entirely new PC, or do you want to use the current motherboard, etc.? -Lasereth __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

01-19-2004, 02:17 AM	#3 (permalink)
da^cheat Upright	although i do surf the net and chat alot, but most of the time im usually playing games, so i'd think a gaming machine

01-19-2004, 02:58 AM	#5 (permalink)
cheesemoney Loser Location: Paradise	If money is an issue, you ALWAYS get more bang for your buck spending the same amount of money on an AMD that you were gonna spend on an intel. Intel is a better chip--at the ultra high end--but if you want an 80 dollar motherboard and 80 dollar cpu, you ain't getting crap with intel--whereas you could get an AMD athlon 2500+, nforce 2 mobo, and then you could use the software on the nforce 2 mobo bios to overclock your speed to 3200+ w/ NO modification of the motherboard or chip. Just change your settings, and you have a SCREAMIN' computer. I don't know what 80 bucks gets you from intel--maybe a weaksauce celeron?!? If you have bank, then just get the latest hyperthreading intel and overclock the frontside bus. They overclock very well, I hear. But overcclock the mobo first. And I don't really know about the serial ATA thing yet--a lot of mobos still have probs. I never had probs with my old raid mobo though--so who knows. I say get a 110 dollar vga card, use pricewatch.com or newegg.com (relatively cheap--if you don't live in CA you don't pay salestax), and find a 50-80 dollar nforce 2 mobo, get an athlon 2500+ for 80 bucks, get a good heatsink for 10 bucks, pop it in and set your settings on the mobo to 400mhz fsb -- and wham, you got a 3200+ for 130-180 bucks or so. Pretty bitchin' for hardly any money, and since you don't modify the cpu to overclock it (they are all locked now, meaning you can't unlock the multiplier... and don't worry if you don't understand this, it doesn't really matter), you have the cpu still under warranty. Hope this makes since. Its 3am.

01-19-2004, 05:33 AM	#7 (permalink)
mystix Tilted	video card then cpu should be ur priority. 512 is fine for games, but 1gig will make ur system seem more "peppy". and i second the vote for a barton 2500+ from amd, u can oc it to 2400 mhz very easily and have a fast computer

01-19-2004, 09:07 PM	#9 (permalink)
rubicon Stop. Think. Question. Location: Redondo Beach, CA	I'd go with a better video card. I have an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ and it plays the games I like just fine. It does Word, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop in a quick fashion. I suppose you could upgrade the CPU if the video card doesn't suffice for you, but Intel will cost you. __________________ How you do anything is how you do everything.

01-20-2004, 12:13 AM	#10 (permalink)
da^cheat Upright	my budget is around $300-400, but i wont go higher

01-20-2004, 10:05 PM	#13 (permalink)
da^cheat Upright	atm im overseas thats why im asking what should i buy since its cheaper..... anyways i am positively sure thats my motherboard is a gigabyte 533 fsb but i dnno what model it is

01-21-2004, 07:46 AM	#14 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	You could get a 2.8 GHz P4 for under $200 for your motherboard. I'd get the videocard I suggested and the new processor. -Lasereth __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

01-21-2004, 10:22 PM	#15 (permalink)
cheesemoney Loser Location: Paradise	Or you could get a totally new mobo for 70 bucks w/ the AMD Barton 2500+ for 80, pop em together for only 150 bucks, overclock it EASILY with the stock heat sink w/out doing anything but setting the FSB speed in the BIOS, and boom--you got 250 bucks to spend on a video card. An athlon 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ is cheap and comparable to a 2.8 ghz p4, you save money, you could sell the other mobo and cpu for 100 bucks or so bringing your net cost to 50 bucks, and you could then drop 300 bucks on a sweet video card... Nothing wrong with pentium, other than the ridiculous price. If you are not going top of the line, there is never a reason to buy one. You always get more bang for your buck with AMD unless you want cutting edge. If money isn't a concern, by all means get a p4 and destroy your friends. I gather from your post that money is a concern, however.

01-21-2004, 10:26 PM	#16 (permalink)
tritium Professor of Drinkology	Sell it to me for a beer and a Big Mac and I will give you this wonderful Celeron 400Mhz, 128MB-PC100 SDRAM, 5.4GB 5400RPM, 56k, 10baseT, 16MB Voodoo2, microATX machine that is sitting in the corner of my room idle. Its a real crazed beast man -- rabies and such. It was hard to hold back ... in 1996. __________________ Blah.

01-21-2004, 10:32 PM	#18 (permalink)
ToolBag Insane Location: Chicago	Newegg is where its at, though I did not get the prices this guy has listed, I was able to get: EVGA GF 5900se 128mb DDR AMD Barton 2500+ 1024mb Geil Gold Dragon PC-3200 MSI K7N2 Pro Mobo 120GB Maxtor HD for $518 and it should be here by Monday! ROCK! __________________ Jesus was a ruffies victim! Dan 3:20

01-22-2004, 12:19 AM	#19 (permalink)
da^cheat Upright	i'll think i'll get the 2.8 ghz cpu and a decent card with how much i got left

01-22-2004, 10:41 PM	#21 (permalink)
cheesemoney Loser Location: Paradise	Pricewatch.com Newegg is great, but not if you live in California (sales tax). Get the MSI 70 dollar mobo. Can't the name--the nforce-2 chipset, onboard sound, 400 mhz fsb, etc. Its very solid--got great reviews, overclocks like nothing, doesn't have bells and whistles that you don't really need, like SATA, etc. Those things are nice, but you don't need to spend 120 bucks on that sweet Abit board if you want a budget system

01-22-2004, 10:51 PM	#22 (permalink)
cheesemoney Loser Location: Paradise	Newegg lists them at these prices... MSI nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "K7N2 Delta-L" RETAIL -- 75 bucks AMD Athlon XP 2500+ -- 85 bucks Grand Total... 160 bucks. For 13 more bucks, you can get an on board Gforce 4 MX--not great for gaming but makes a sweet system if you want to build a cheap and powerful machine for a friend. Be sure to get 2 sticks of ram to utilize dual-channel speeds. You can do better on pricewatch if you want to, just be sure to make sure that the site is reputable. I think that 150 shipped is easily attainable. No matter how you look at it, an Athlon running at 3200+ w/ a 300-350 dollar video card is gonna destroy a pentium 2.8 w/ a 150 dollar card. For gaming, the card is by far the most important part. Don't remember what your original system is, but I'm thinking you'd be a lot better gaming w/ a 2.0 ghz p iv and a 400 dollar card than a 2.8 ghz piv and a 200 dollar card. Last edited by cheesemoney; 01-22-2004 at 10:54 PM..

01-24-2004, 01:45 AM	#23 (permalink)
da^cheat Upright	so what should i get? a new cpu + video card OR just a $400 video card

01-24-2004, 07:50 AM	#24 (permalink)
cj22009 On the edge of control Location: Ga	If you only wanting to spend 300 or 400 dollars I would get a radeon 9600pro or 9600xt good mid range card I would get another 512mbs of ram and possibly upgrade that hard drive to a 8mb buffer one theres no point of going with sata right now becasue there going to do sata 2 in april your proc is fine enough to run all the games that are out there right now

01-24-2004, 06:48 PM	#25 (permalink)
cheesemoney Loser Location: Paradise	I'd say you'd be far better off selling your mobo/cpu, buying the AMD 2500+ and KSI mobo for 150-160 bucks... assuming you got 100 bucks or so for your mobo/cpu (I have no idea what that would sell for, but Pentium's ARE expensive, so you may get a bit for em.) Damn, after looking it up, the PIV 2.0 ghz goes for 123 bucks alone, so maybe you could get 200 dollars for the combo. If you only get 150-160 for the combo, that leaves you with zero net after the AMD Cpu/mobo upgrade (this will make a difference... it really takes NO additional effort to overclock this through bios... just change the setting from 166/333 to 200/400 mhz). Then you effectively have a 3200+ athlon (which destroys a pIV 2.0 ghz), and 400 dollars to spend on a video card. Don't worry about the hard drive right now, you can find deals on them all the time. Look for rebate deals from techdeals.net and slickdeals.net. My current HD is 120 gigs and only cost me 40 bucks after 3 rebates that could all be used together. It is a fast 7200 drive with 8mb buffer, a great performing seagate. I have seen western digital 8mb drives for 30 bucks at circuit city through these deal websites. Be sure to print out the rebate(s) and bring it into the store. Techdeals and slickdeals also have good deals on video cards too, and sometimes you'll find mistakes like video cards that are better than advertised on the box at fry's or compusa, etc (in other words, they put the wrong card / upgrade in the box and don't market it as such). I look at it this way. If you are lazy, get a great video card. For gaming, this is the most important bottleneck that you need to get over. If you really want a sweet system for 400 bucks, and are willing to do a little work, get the AMD 2500+ and KSI and overclock that sucker just through bios. Sell your Mobo / PIV (175-200 bucks probably). -150 - 200 Selling PIV/Mobo +160 AMD 2500+ and KSI Mobo +20 Extra case fans just cause you can't ever be cool enough +388 GeForce FX 5950 256 megs ram Totalling to about 400 bucks... I don't know if this GeForce is a good card or not.. Its just the one I saw on pricewatch for about 400 bucks. They list radeon 9800 pro for 325 And I am sure that you could add a cheap HD for 40 bucks if you just keep an eye out on techdeals and slickdeals. Probably 100 bucks with 60 bucks in rebates. I got a 120 gig one about 3 months ago, so maybe now you'd get 160 gig or so for the same price.

01-25-2004, 09:05 AM	#27 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	If someone has a 2.0 P4 and a GF3 videocard and wants to spend $400 to upgrade, a combination of both is what I'd still do. The processor will barely get by a year or so down the road. The videocard has the same problem. GeForce FX 5900 - $200 2.8 GHz P4 @ 533 MHz FSB - $200 Problem solved. A videocard that beats out the 9700 Pro, has DirectX 9 support, and a processor that won't be outdated for at least two years when it comes to gaming. Concentrating on only the processor or only the videocard will create a bottleneck, and bottlenecks are the worst in a computer system for gaming. PS: going AMD would be cheaper and yield better results, but selling a used motherboard and processor is nearly impossible (especially if you want a good return on it!). If da cheat can get rid of the motherboard and processor easily for good money, then it's a different story. He wants to upgrade though, not get a new PC. -Lasereth __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert Last edited by Lasereth; 01-25-2004 at 09:08 AM..