"someone" said:
Hi all -
I currently have the following machine:
Asus P4T533-C mobo with Intel 2.26 (533FSB) retail
2 x Kingston ValueRAM 256MB RAMBUS (PC800)
PNY 128MB GeForce 4 Ti4400
Adaptec 19160 U3 SCSI card with Fujitsu 18GB 10Krpm
yada yada yada
My issue: I need more memory to play games at a nice resolution (or a
resolution I would like better). The problem is... that RAMBUS memory is
kind of obsolete now.. and much more expensive than DDR. So my question
is... do I ditch the motherboard and keep the CPU and get another 533FSB
mobo that has DDR - or do I get more PC800 memory for this board?
I haven't had any issues with the P4T533-C and has been very good. It's not
worth a flip for overclocking - but it has been very stable. I want to get
the best gaming performance... without spending a fortune.
Thanks everyone!
A Broke Gamer
That motherboard is still a respectable platform. Moving from 4X to 8X
AGP won't do anything for you. A more capable video card never hurts,
but with the high end ones sometimes being $500, that really isn't
much of an option for A Broke Gamer.
In the video card, resolution eats some of that onboard 128MB of video
ram (for the frame buffer). Not much, but some. Where resolution might
affect system memory, is if all the necessary textures were stored in
system memory before a level begins.
Since you have two RIMM sockets left, you could buy 2 x 256MB PC800 from
Kingston for 2 x $118.
Now, what will you see with the additional memory ? If a given game
already fitted into the physically available memory, then nothing.
If some of virtual memory had to be swapped to disk, then you would
be saving the delay of that memory coming back off the disk. If the
disk light doesn't do a lot of flashing during your gaming, then
maybe the extra memory isn't going to make an appreciable difference.
I would say the purchase of memory now, would be "insurance" for your
next large-memory-footprint game, more than anything else.
A 3.06GHz processor is the max the board can take, according to:
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
and at $479 at Newegg, that is not a cheap upgrade either. One of the
P4T533 family boards had Vcore problems with the top end processors,
so you might want to check groups.google.com for information about
which revs of motherboard had problems, before investing in a 3.06GHz
processor. (I cannot remember whether it was the P4T533-C or the
P4T533 that had that problem.)
Your memory could also be running at 1066 rather than 800, but
4 x 256MB of 1066MHz memory is 4 x $134.00. Games aren't necessarily
all focused on memory bandwidth, so even this purchase might not make
a lot of sense.
I guess that brings us back to the video card. A current gen card
will give you DX9 compatibility, which might help with new games.
There are some refurbished Radeon 9700 pro cards at newegg for
around $200. (9800 pro cards are around $300, not as bad as I
expected.) Note that a video card upgrade is sensitive to how good
a processor you've got. This chart from Tomshardware shows what
happens to frame rate improvement with a "good" and a "bad" processor
choice. Your processor is somewhere in between.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/vgacharts-04.html
As far as overclocking goes, I think I see the problem already.
It looks like there is a ICS9250-AF controlling the FSB. (I'm
looking at the picture of the motherboard in the manual.)
http://www.icst.com/products/pdf/9250-08.pdf
That will only do 150MHz, which won't give much of an overclock
compared to the nominal 133MHz used for the 533 processor. Since
the PCI bus would be run at 37.5MHz, that might cause some of your
PCI devices, or even the IDE interface, to crap out. The only
other choice is 140MHz, and as you say, "It's not worth a flip".
So, as money permits:
1) New video card.
2) Buy a better processor, then sell the old one on Ebay.
3) If you win the lottery, 4 x 256MB of 1066MHz memory.
Now, say you bought a new P4P800 deluxe at $127 and 2 x 512MB PC3200
(CAS3 to save money, $87 each Crucial.com), you would have spent $301
for a better platform. Better in the sense of being more adjustable.
That would allow you to overclock the processor a bit further, and
after you've tested it, then you can decide whether another video card
is needed or not. For info on how far a P4 2.26b
can be overclocked, have a look here in the Intel section:
http://www.cpudatabase.com/CPUdb/
With the PC3200 (DDR400) memory, you can overclock to 2.26*800/533,
so you'll probably hit the processor's limit, before hitting the
memory limit. Yes, you could buy slower memory, but the few dollars
saved wouldn't be worth it in my opinion.
All the options look pretty expensive.
Being happy with what you've got is the other option
I've got no money for new stuff, and I'm stuck with a P4 1.8Ghz.
HTH,
Paul
