Time to Upgrade pt 2

[Martin Francis]

Sorted out the missus (no dirty jokes ) with her Radeon 9000 Pro and
soon it will be my turn.

One of my two main PCs will be getting an upgrade in the new year (I'm
perfectly happy with the Radeon 64 VIVO in my PII-400) - they are:

XP2600+, Shuttle SN41G2 barebones system (nForce2 mobo - 8x AGP), 1Gb
DDR333 with a GeForce4 Ti4200

and

XP2100+, Asus a7v333 mobo (4x AGP), 512Mb DDR333 and a GeForce4 Ti4600

I am considering moving to an ATI* - what would be the best card for each
machine e.g. would i get much benefit from a 9800 Pro on the XP2100+ etc?

MF

* not a foregone conclusion but I know better than to crosspost to this
group and the nvidia group asking for what card I should buy Radeon or
GeForce? ;-)

 

[Ben Pope]

Sorted out the missus (no dirty jokes ) with her Radeon 9000 Pro and
soon it will be my turn.

One of my two main PCs will be getting an upgrade in the new year (I'm
perfectly happy with the Radeon 64 VIVO in my PII-400) - they are:

XP2600+, Shuttle SN41G2 barebones system (nForce2 mobo - 8x AGP), 1Gb
DDR333 with a GeForce4 Ti4200

and

XP2100+, Asus a7v333 mobo (4x AGP), 512Mb DDR333 and a GeForce4 Ti4600

I am considering moving to an ATI* - what would be the best card for each
machine e.g. would i get much benefit from a 9800 Pro on the XP2100+ etc?

There probably would be an improvement in frame rates if you were to stick a
9800 Pro on the 2100+ instead of a 9600 Pro, how much would be a good
question, and whether or not replacing the cpu for a faster one would be
more cost effective is a good question.

It looks like the two machines you have are fairly evenly matched... I'm
surprised you don't have a "gaming machine" and an "other" machine (which to
me would require swapping the video cards) - if you play games over your
network, then I understand where you're coming from.

It all depends how much you want to spend, but I can tell you that a 9800
Pro is outstanding... that on the 2600+ will impress the hell out of ya'.

MF

* not a foregone conclusion but I know better than to crosspost to this
group and the nvidia group asking for what card I should buy Radeon or
GeForce? ;-)

ATI is the best, obviously.

Since this is not cross-posted... In my opinion based on what I've read and
what I've seen, both image quality and speed (when you enable AA and AF) are
better on the ATI than on the GeForce, when comparing similarly priced
cards.

Ben

 

[Martin Francis]

There probably would be an improvement in frame rates if you were to stick a
9800 Pro on the 2100+ instead of a 9600 Pro, how much would be a good
question, and whether or not replacing the cpu for a faster one would be
more cost effective is a good question.

Without a motherboard replacement I'm apparently can only upgrade it as
far as a XP2600+ (thoroughbred - which seem to be getting harder to find
now) - if my A7V33 was a revision 2.0 board and not a 1.01 - up to a
3200+ would have been possible.

It looks like the two machines you have are fairly evenly matched... I'm
surprised you don't have a "gaming machine" and an "other" machine (which to
me would require swapping the video cards) - if you play games over your
network, then I understand where you're coming from.

I built the PC which has the XP2600+ in August mainly for PVR functions
(thanks to a Nebula DigiTV digital terrestrial television card in the
single PCI slot), video capture and editing.

I also use it for emulation-based gaming MAME (which increasingly
requires a lot of horsepower in the CPU department), ZX Spectrum,
Commodore 64, PSX, N64, Megadrive (aka Genesis), SNES, NES and Master
Systems.

The size of the box is rather handy for moving it from a desk in the
computer room and hooking up to the bedroom tv (for that real nostalgic
feel when running emulators!) or the home cinema.

The XP2100+, which being a full tower case and therefore not so mobile is
mainly used for gaming.

It all depends how much you want to spend, but I can tell you that a 9800
Pro is outstanding... that on the 2600+ will impress the hell out of ya'.

I suspect however that the XP2100+'s card will be the easier of the two
to replace as the size of the XP2600+ PC's shuttle case limits the
graphics card to something that won't have a fan that will hang over the
single PCI slot or prevent me from putting the top of the case back on!
The Ti4200 card in this has only a small amount a space between it and
the case as it is.

thanks

MF

 

[Martin Francis]

There probably would be an improvement in frame rates if you were to stick a
9800 Pro on the 2100+ instead of a 9600 Pro, how much would be a good
question, and whether or not replacing the cpu for a faster one would be
more cost effective is a good question.

Without a motherboard replacement I'm apparently can only upgrade it as
far as a XP2600+ (thoroughbred - which seem to be getting harder to find
now) - if my A7V33 was a revision 2.0 board and not a 1.01 - up to a
3200+ would have been possible.

It looks like the two machines you have are fairly evenly matched... I'm
surprised you don't have a "gaming machine" and an "other" machine (which to
me would require swapping the video cards) - if you play games over your
network, then I understand where you're coming from.

I built the PC which has the XP2600+ in August mainly for PVR functions
(thanks to a Nebula DigiTV digital terrestrial television card in the
single PCI slot), video capture and editing.

I also use it for emulation-based gaming MAME (which increasingly
requires a lot of horsepower in the CPU department), ZX Spectrum,
Commodore 64, PSX, N64, Megadrive (aka Genesis), SNES, NES and Master
Systems.

The size of the box is rather handy for moving it from a desk in the
computer room and hooking up to the bedroom tv (for that real nostalgic
feel when running emulators!) or the home cinema.

The XP2100+, which being a full tower case and therefore not so mobile is

mainly used for gaming.

It all depends how much you want to spend, but I can tell you that a 9800
Pro is outstanding... that on the 2600+ will impress the hell out of ya'.

I suspect however that the XP2100+'s card will be the easier of the two
to replace as the size of the XP2600+ PC's shuttle case limits the
graphics card to something that won't have a fan that will hang over the
single PCI slot or prevent me from putting the top of the case back on!
The Ti4200 card in this has only a small amount a space between it and
the case as it is.

thanks

MF

 

[Martin Francis]

There probably would be an improvement in frame rates if you were to stick a
9800 Pro on the 2100+ instead of a 9600 Pro, how much would be a good
question, and whether or not replacing the cpu for a faster one would be
more cost effective is a good question.

Without a motherboard replacement I'm apparently can only upgrade it as
far as a XP2600+ (thoroughbred) if I risk a BIOS upgrade - if my A7V33
was a revision 2.0 board and not a 1.01 - up to a
3200+ would have been possible :/

It looks like the two machines you have are fairly evenly matched... I'm
surprised you don't have a "gaming machine" and an "other" machine (which to
me would require swapping the video cards) - if you play games over your
network, then I understand where you're coming from.

I built the PC which has the XP2600+ in August mainly for PVR functions
(thanks to a Nebula DigiTV digital terrestrial television card in the
single PCI slot), video capture and editing.

I also use it for emulation-based gaming MAME (which increasingly
requires a lot of horsepower in the CPU department), ZX Spectrum,
Commodore 64, PSX, N64, Megadrive (aka Genesis), SNES, NES and Master
Systems.

The size of the box is rather handy for moving it from a desk in the
computer room and hooking up to the bedroom tv (for that real nostalgic
feel when running emulators!) or the home cinema.

The XP2100+, which being a full tower case and therefore not so mobile is


mainly used for gaming.

It all depends how much you want to spend, but I can tell you that a 9800
Pro is outstanding... that on the 2600+ will impress the hell out of ya'.

I suspect however that the XP2100+'s card will be the easier of the two
to replace as the size of the XP2600+ PC's shuttle case limits the
graphics card to something that won't have a fan that will hang over the
single PCI slot or prevent me from putting the top of the case back on!
The Ti4200 card in this has only a small amount a space between it and
the case as it is.

thanks

MF

 

[Dark Avenger]

Sorted out the missus (no dirty jokes ) with her Radeon 9000 Pro and
soon it will be my turn.

One of my two main PCs will be getting an upgrade in the new year (I'm
perfectly happy with the Radeon 64 VIVO in my PII-400) - they are:

XP2600+, Shuttle SN41G2 barebones system (nForce2 mobo - 8x AGP), 1Gb
DDR333 with a GeForce4 Ti4200

and

XP2100+, Asus a7v333 mobo (4x AGP), 512Mb DDR333 and a GeForce4 Ti4600

I am considering moving to an ATI* - what would be the best card for each
machine e.g. would i get much benefit from a 9800 Pro on the XP2100+ etc?

MF

* not a foregone conclusion but I know better than to crosspost to this
group and the nvidia group asking for what card I should buy Radeon or
GeForce? ;-)

How Powerfull is your PSU? If you got a 250W PSU ( wich is normal in
shuttles ) you'll have problems with it before you know!

Nowadays videocards require some extra energy..and I guess your PSU
can't take that!

 

[Martin Francis]

How Powerfull is your PSU? If you got a 250W PSU ( wich is normal in
shuttles ) you'll have problems with it before you know!

Nowadays videocards require some extra energy..and I guess your PSU
can't take that!

Actually it's about 200W :/

Looking at some website forums people have had mixed results with a 9800
Pro and had more problems with the AIW equivalent

I wonder if not having a floppy drive installed will help?

MF