Budget system Advice?

[Veritech]

Beening planning my system for months. Got an extremely tight budget to work
too(£200). these are pretty much my final choices, what do you think?

2.4 Ghz Celeron 533mhz FB 256kb l2 cache
512mb DDR 3200
Asus motherboard with agp x8 and ati 9100 chip set and 5.1 audio
Powercolour Ati Radeon 9550, 256mb DDR

Reasons for choices<

Motherboard
due to my budget constrants i've no choice but to use my current micro atx
case so motherboard choice was limited, This also meant that boards with
PCI-E ports were either really expensive or hard to find.

Processor
I know P4 systems are all the rage, but the "eqivliant" p4 cost half the
budget, and if your gonna splash out you may as well get a better GFX card,
plus Got a celeron currently, does the job just fine thanks.

GFX card
Looked several reviews, they all said that the 9550 came out on top compared
to a FX 5200(might have been a different card, but the mid range eqvilient).
Plus i read that it can be easily overclocked.

The whole system
well just compare it to what i got now
1 Ghz Celeron
256mb Sdram
xfx Mx 440 64mb (PCI!!)
asus motherboard, without an agp slot!

Almost anything is a step up, I'm keeping the HDD and drives from my old pc
so that why i only need the four components.I'm not planning to be anywhere
near the cutting edge graphics wise, just wanna play half life(online of
course), call of duty, sim city 4 and most of the other good games you can
find for a tener at game, lol.

Thanks for the long read, and any help.

 

[Thomas]

Beening planning my system for months. Got an extremely tight budget
to work too(£200). these are pretty much my final choices, what do
you think?
2.4 Ghz Celeron 533mhz FB 256kb l2 cache
512mb DDR 3200
Asus motherboard with agp x8 and ati 9100 chip set and 5.1 audio
Powercolour Ati Radeon 9550, 256mb DDR

I don't understand why you go for the Celeron... Why not an AMD Athlon XP or
an AMD Sempron? These seem faster and even cheaper....

By the way, I wouldnt call the Ati 9550 middle range, it's low range... The
256 MB is overkill, the card is too slow to show anything decent in
resolutions where the extra memory gets to work. Isn't it possible to get a
faster card with less memory (128 preferably) for the same price?

Thomas.

 

[Veritech]

"Why not an AMD Athlon XP",
In my net research i found mirco atx mobo for AMD processors few and far
between When plus when i did find one, it was a little too expensive. also
my plan was to upgrade too P4 prescott when they fell a little more in
price.
As stupid as it may sound been a intel user since i was 10 (486 33mhz!!) got
a slight bit of brand loyality. you might term it as fear of change, you
might well be right, lol.

"256 MB is overkill"
I sorta guessed as much, but i thought that would hold my gaming attentions
until i got something more flashly, the system is more designed to fulfill a
current purpose and make room for future expansion hence the 478 socket and
my moan about no pci-e mobos, Have you got any "cheap" recommendations GFx
card wise?

Thanks for the advice, i'll take another look at amd compatiable mobos

 

[Clyde Anderson]

"Why not an AMD Athlon XP",
As stupid as it may sound been a intel user since i was 10 (486 33mhz!!) got
a slight bit of brand loyality. you might term it as fear of change, you
might well be right, lol."

Nice to be loyal to a brand. I am more loyal to my wallet, so I went with an
AMD Athlon chip over a Celeron because of better bang for the buck.

Clyde

 

[HockeyTownUSA]

Nice to be loyal to a brand. I am more loyal to my wallet, so I went with
an
AMD Athlon chip over a Celeron because of better bang for the buck.

Clyde

I was an Intel freak for a while myself. Then I went to AMD, and with my AMD
Athlon 64 I won't look back at Intel until they can provide a cheaper
competitive product. AMD had a rough start, but they are definitely the
better chip for the dollar in my book. I understand brand loyalty, but to be
honest, the Pentium system I was going to buy compared with my current
Athlon 64 system cost nearly $200 more for the P4 system!!! That's just
because of the processor and motherboard. Not to mention the future
expansion possiblity of the Athlon 64 versus the P4.

I would highly recommend considering an Athlon XP over Pentium, and while I
understand budget constraints, I would try to come up with another $30-$40
and at least go for a Radeon 9700 or 9800 Pro. It will serve you much much
better than that POS 9550 (sorry...) especially if you are going to be
playing some action games. The 9550 probably won't fare very well at all
even at 800x600 with minimal enhancements turned on.

 

[Gordon Scott]

Beening planning my system for months. Got an extremely tight budget to work
too(£200). these are pretty much my final choices, what do you think?

2.4 Ghz Celeron 533mhz FB 256kb l2 cache
512mb DDR 3200
Asus motherboard with agp x8 and ati 9100 chip set and 5.1 audio
Powercolour Ati Radeon 9550, 256mb DDR

Motherboard
due to my budget constrants i've no choice but to use my current micro atx
case so motherboard choice was limited, This also meant that boards with
PCI-E ports were either really expensive or hard to find.

Processor
I know P4 systems are all the rage, but the "eqivliant" p4 cost half the
budget, and if your gonna splash out you may as well get a better GFX card,
plus Got a celeron currently, does the job just fine thanks.

GFX card
Looked several reviews, they all said that the 9550 came out on top compared
to a FX 5200(might have been a different card, but the mid range eqvilient).
Plus i read that it can be easily overclocked.

The whole system
well just compare it to what i got now
1 Ghz Celeron
256mb Sdram
xfx Mx 440 64mb (PCI!!)
asus motherboard, without an agp slot!

Almost anything is a step up, I'm keeping the HDD and drives from my old pc
so that why i only need the four components.I'm not planning to be anywhere
near the cutting edge graphics wise, just wanna play half life(online of
course), call of duty, sim city 4 and most of the other good games you can
find for a tener at game, lol.

Thanks for the long read, and any help.

as the others mentioned, go amd, drop the putz 9550 and get a 9700 or
something dx9 ready. celerons are junk for gaming and so is the vid card
your looking at, 256 megs means nothing, 128 is fine.

 

[Mac Cool]

Veritech:

Powercolour Ati Radeon 9550, 256mb DDR

I'm not sure of prices in your neck of the woods, but here in the US, the
best bang for the buck is the 9600XT for ~$130. If you plan on doing any
gaming, I would really consider this a minimum.

 

[HockeyTownUSA]

as the others mentioned, go amd, drop the putz 9550 and get a 9700 or
something dx9 ready. celerons are junk for gaming and so is the vid card
your looking at, 256 megs means nothing, 128 is fine.

Exactly. 256 bit is much much more important than 128 bit however.

 

[Thomas]

<<I wrote between the lines>>

"Why not an AMD Athlon XP",
In my net research i found mirco atx mobo for AMD processors few and
far between When plus when i did find one, it was a little too
expensive. also my plan was to upgrade too P4 prescott when they fell
a little more in price.
As stupid as it may sound been a intel user since i was 10 (486
33mhz!!) got a slight bit of brand loyality. you might term it as
fear of change, you might well be right, lol.

Well, in Holland, i could find this mainboard:
Asrock K7S41GX, 741GX (mATX, Sound, Lan, VGA) € 34,-

Add a nice Sempron:
AMD Sempron 2600+ (S-A, 1,83GHz, 256KB, 333MHz FSB) € 66,-

And you're fixed for 100 euros.

If you have the budget, you can even throw in this:
AMD Athlon XP-M 2400+ (S-A, 1,80GHz, 512KB, 266MHz FSB) € 89,-

People have been known to get that last processor over 2.4 GHz.

"256 MB is overkill"
I sorta guessed as much, but i thought that would hold my gaming
attentions until i got something more flashly, the system is more
designed to fulfill a current purpose and make room for future
expansion hence the 478 socket and my moan about no pci-e mobos, Have
you got any "cheap" recommendations GFx card wise?

Like the other guy said, 9600 Pro is the least you should get if you want to
consider some gaming. But why dont you look into the second-hand market? I
see many 9700/9800 (Pro) cards being flushed onto the market, because many
people are upgrading to x800 cards...

Good luck on your quest

Thomas

 

[Veritech]

Thanks for all the help

Looked again at amd mobos, don't know why i didn't see them before but there
are tons, lol. Think i'll go for a AMD Athlon Barton XP 2500+ 1.83GHz Socket
A 333MHz, not sure which mobo yet, and i'll have a look around ebay for for
either a 9800 or 9600.

Thanks again

 

[Thomas]

Thanks for all the help

Looked again at amd mobos, don't know why i didn't see them before
but there are tons, lol. Think i'll go for a AMD Athlon Barton XP
2500+ 1.83GHz Socket A 333MHz, not sure which mobo yet, and i'll have
a look around ebay for for either a 9800 or 9600.

Thanks again

You're welcome

9700 is very nice too, please don't rule that one out It's nearly twice
as fast as the 9600....

Thomas

 

[Shawk]

Thanks for all the help

Looked again at amd mobos, don't know why i didn't see them before but there
are tons, lol. Think i'll go for a AMD Athlon Barton XP 2500+ 1.83GHz Socket
A 333MHz, not sure which mobo yet, and i'll have a look around ebay for for
either a 9800 or 9600.

Thanks again

NF7-S is a popular mobo and not too expensive as its been around a while
(about £62 inc VAT on Overclockers). I believe the 'S' denotes it comes
with Soundstorm sound technology which supports Dolby Digital 5:1
speaker support etc. Save you having to buy a separate soundcard when
you upgrade your speakers at a later date.

If you do go for a 9800Pro (and I'd recommend it if you can stretch the
budget or find a good second-hand one) then make sure that it is 256bit
not 128bit (that's 'bit' not 'MB'). As Hockeytown says - very
important. A 256bit 128MB card is fine for your uses.

Shaun

 

[GinTonix]

Thanks for all the help

Looked again at amd mobos, don't know why i didn't see them before but there
are tons, lol. Think i'll go for a AMD Athlon Barton XP 2500+ 1.83GHz Socket
A 333MHz, not sure which mobo yet, and i'll have a look around ebay for for
either a 9800 or 9600.

In addition to this, to pump up a bit your minimum budget, you might want to
sell your old stuff. The PCI vidcard should have kept its value pretty good
and you might get a few pounds for your other hardware as well. Check out
the street prices over there and plan your upgrading process good and you
might be able to get a little bit better system. If you end up with a 9600,
make sure it is not the 9600 non-pro, it is not one of the best gaming card
you can get. It has a few pluses, though. It does not draw the PSU (how good
was yours, cannot remember) dry and is is quiet (it only has a passive heat
sink, no fan).

If you are planning to upgrade your system even more a bit later, you would
probably get good enough system with second-hand hardware. Beware the used
9800's, there are lots of dead (and dying) 9800 Pro's out there. Don't know
why, but what I have seen (or read, to be more accurate), the dead ones seem
to be equipped with aftermarket cooling systems. Even some (quite a many) of
the the new 9800's arrive dead, but the guarantee covers it.