advice on an upgrade please

[couchwarrior]

I'm looking to upgrade my computer spending about £300 maybe upto £400 if it really makes a difference. I want to use it mainly for gaming but i dont know what my money is best spent on. I just dont want to buy things that arent used properly because of bottlenecking etc.

Current specs are:

PSU 350W
msi k7n2g mobo (maximum 333 fsb but max pc3200 ram)
athlon xp 2500
512ram (cant remember what kind but maximum 266 maybe even slower)
ati 9600xt

Think im gonna have to get some better ram but not sure what type to get.

Any help you could give me would be great.

 

[ChristopherP]

If you REALLY need to - Upgrade to a 400w PSU, get an AMD Athlon 2800+ Barton, 512Mb (2x256mb dual channeled PC2700 or PC3200 pref lower than CAS3), get a Radeon 9800pro 128mb AGP 8x...

you should find you still have some change.

im not sure if all that is worth it however - its a nice system as it is and it should run anything fine!

 

[psd99]

Definetly try to look into getting a good graphics card because as you stated you are lokking to play games.

The Radeon 9800pro 128mb AGP 8x is definetly a good buy. But I have always stuck with NVidia. I just always liked them for some reason. I have a fx5200 its a super graphics card, but a bit outdated now. Try to get a card with 256mb ram on it, as most cards are on the 128mb range in this era.


The second thing I would go for in your situation is getting some more RAM. Get 1gb of RAM at least pc3200 is good stuff I think.
I woulndt bother getting a better CPU because along with this you will probably need a new CPU Fan aswell. So you can save yourself money there.

And with regards to a new CPU, get a silenced one if you do. But I would only get this if you really need to.

p.s try to keep away from Chun Li!

 

[ChristopherP]

Definetly try to look into getting a good graphics card because as you stated you are lokking to play games.

The Radeon 9800pro 128mb AGP 8x is definetly a good buy. But I have always stuck with NVidia. I just always liked them for some reason. I have a fx5200 its a super graphics card, but a bit outdated now. Try to get a card with 256mb ram on it, as most cards are on the 128mb range in this era.


The second thing I would go for in your situation is getting some more RAM. Get 1gb of RAM at least pc3200 is good stuff I think.
I woulndt bother getting a better CPU because along with this you will probably need a new CPU Fan aswell. So you can save yourself money there.

And with regards to a new CPU, get a silenced one if you do. But I would only get this if you really need to.

p.s try to keep away from Chun Li!

You will find that unless you pay over the odds, the good 128mb ones will actually outperform the 256mb ones. The 9800 with your price range would be your best buy.

there is no point in getting PC3200 memory because it can only run at PC2700 speeds because of the FSB of your processor. If you get a 400FSB processor then yes you will need PC3200 but stick with PC2700 because it tends to have a slightly lower CAS timing.

1 gig should definatly be enough but as its a socket A motherboard you could get 2x 256mb modules and then 1 512mb module of the same memory as i think it only has 3 slots. You could i guess just get 2x 512mb sticks, whichever is cheaper i guess.

dont mix memory speeds though, it can only run at the slowest in there so dont use your old memory with some new stuff if its faster.

as with a new CPU fan, just get the retail package of the CPU and it will include a decent stock cooler.

 

[Spooky Mouse]

You could always save your money.. and buy a crate of beer..
Then after drinking a few pints the games you play will seem faster than they actually are!!..

Sorry dude i cant help much with that question

 

[psd99]

You will find that unless you pay over the odds, the good 128mb ones will actually outperform the 256mb ones. The 9800 with your price range would be your best buy.

humbug dont agree with you there mate . how can 128 outperform 256? its double the memory.

128 is the requirement for most of todays games , and im very sure that 256 will be the requirement for tomorow's games!


ive reached the 150milsetone!! yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sorttedd!

 

[Reefsmoka]

Well i would go for:

And Ati Radeon 9800 Pro which you can get for £125 delivered from here:
http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/DisplayInfoMain.asp?e=2F99A0AD-B9A8-470B-B643-2A672531F699

Then i would bump me processor upto a 3000 XP from here (for less than £100) :
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=123282&cks=PRL

You will need a nice 400 Watt + PSU, ive found a good one here (About £30 delivered):
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=51352

Then a matched pair of 512 DDR (PC3200) from here (£140 delivered):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/GeIL_Value.html

Then try and sell your old compenents on eBay, im sure youll get around £100 for them all.

With all them in your comp you will be able to run Doom III, Half Life 2 and Far Cry with no problems.

 

[Reefsmoka]

humbug dont agree with you there mate . how can 128 outperform 256? its double the memory.

128 is the requirement for most of todays games , and im very sure that 256 will be the requirement for tomorow's games!


ive reached the 150milsetone!! yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sorttedd!

I have actually seen on toms hardware a radeon 128 outperform a radeon 256 in 1 test. But it was only by about 2 frames per second. The 256 got the better out of it overall, but again only by about 2-5fps in each test.

 

[ChristopherP]

humbug dont agree with you there mate . how can 128 outperform 256? its double the memory.

128 is the requirement for most of todays games , and im very sure that 256 will be the requirement for tomorow's games!


ive reached the 150milsetone!! yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sorttedd!

i think the 128's also use faster memory than the 256's. its not the qantity its the quality mate.

 

[couchwarrior]

Hey people, thanks for the advice. You've given me a few things to think about. I think that RAM for £140 is going on my shopping list and as for a graphics card, i think i might leave that for a bit to see what delevopments happen with the new range of cards.

Thanks again

 

[Reefsmoka]

The 9800pro paired with a decent processor and a gig or memory/ram will handle any game out today with no problems.

There are the new breed of card out, them being Ati's X800's and the 6800's from Nvidia. These are very expensive, and are un-needed because there are no games out there that can really take advantage of them.

The top end from them both are the X800XT Platinum Edition which is around £350-£380 and the 6800 Ultra which is about £380-£400.

From the benchmarks ive seen so far the 6800Ultra beats the X800XT PT in more areas (only about 60-40 though), but it is still early days and theres gonna be loads of drivers to boost both there performances.

 

[couchwarrior]

I've just been reading through my motherboard manual and have found that i can put my fsb upto 400. My cpu is a 333 fsb but i think i can remember reading somewhere a while ago that these chips can normally take 400 fsb fairly easily. Just wondering if anyone had any advice on overclocking in this way?

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've just been reading through my motherboard manual and have found that i can put my fsb upto 400. My cpu is a 333 fsb but i think i can remember reading somewhere a while ago that these chips can normally take 400 fsb fairly easily. Just wondering if anyone had any advice on overclocking in this way?

I'm really not sure about this but I think if you set your fsb to 400, it probably wouldn't boot with a 333 CPU in it.

You'd have to set your fsb to 333 initially, then raise by increments. And things will get hot.

I think. I've forgotten now Let me have a recall....

Or you could just buy an XP3200 for about £105.00.

 

[floppybootstomp]

OK, if the board can go to 400fsb, then how's about this:

1 Gig ( 2 x 512) Corsair Value PC3200 memory - £130.00
Athlon XP3200 (2.2Ghz, 400fsb) - £105.00
ATI 9800 Pro 128Mb - About £130.00

Total: £365.00

Things should cook nicely with that lot

You may also want to consider a different cooler for the XP3200, they run hot. I'd suggest the Thermalright SP-97 with a decent mid flo 80mm fan, something like a Pabst or Panaflo. Which would bring your budget to just a little over £400.00

And don't forget the Arctic Silver Thermal paste.

Or you could get the retail version of the XP3200 I suppose, has a cooler with it and works out a bit cheaper than buying a seperate cooler.

 

[Thermaltke]

wont be sopme for a while mate, the X800 is still pretty new although its time to save up for some top of the range cards