Author Topic: Time for an upgrade (Read 1646 times)

Octavius · « **on:** December 08, 2003, 02:53:19 PM »

Yes, I know there are millions of posts every now and then asking "what should I do with my cash! I'm clueless!" Make an exception for me, but minus the clueless part

I know a fair amount, but I haven't done much reading in a while. The advances in CPUs and Motherboards/RAM in the last two-three years have been IMO fairly drastic and I'm having trouble sifting through the loads of text associated with it. The growth in computer technology seems to have left the linear path and decided to spread out in all directions... tough to compare things that seem apple-ish and orange-ish. Tom's Hardware is a good place and has a ****load of info, however, their articles refer to other reviews which describe older tech that I haven't yet read about... I missed the bus in the last year and the next bus is leaving once again this year. I need to catch up a bit so I can do my own research and comparisons.

Anyway, I'm just looking for a little direction.

My system as is now:
[list=1]1.2ghz T-bird
Elite Group K7S5A motherboard
^ 266 FSB
512 PC2700 DDR
ATi Radeon 9500 pro
Audigy Gamer
WinXP[/list]
Basically, I require more performance.

I want:
[list=1] - to run games like HL2 (when it comes out), FB (with 'perfect' landscape), Deus Ex: Invisible War, and of course, AH2 (which runs fine ATM).
- ^ with that, a higher FSB.
- Faster CPU; in the range of 2.4-3.0 - AMD or Intel, no preference. At present, my CPU is choking the video card.
- With the faster CPU, the ATi 9600XT is in my sights. I'd like them to compliment each other (also understand P4s have SSE instructions that aid ATi cards for a performance boost?)
- Other normal applications will run just fine with a beefier rig... intardnet, word processing, photo editing, etc...[/list]
That pretty much covers it. Again, I dont want to put the burden on anyone to shop or research for me. If you could point me in a direction, then punt my bellybutton outta here, that'd be cool. Throw some links at me perhaps?

Oh, and I've set a limit of ~$350. Thanks!

BB Gun · « **Reply #1 on:** December 08, 2003, 03:28:37 PM »

for an upgrade limit of 350, you're not gonna get it.

You need a radeon9700Pro or above, and a 2GHz processor or above.

card = 275-395 bucks
processor = 100-350 bucks
mobo = 100-150 bucks.

Right now, just grab the highest AMD processor your MoBo will support, and hold on for another 6 months.

BB

Octavius · « **Reply #2 on:** December 08, 2003, 04:11:05 PM »

Obviously not if you're including the video card.

~$350 for CPU/motherboard.

Reschke · « **Reply #3 on:** December 08, 2003, 04:26:41 PM »

Newegg has a "One Day" Sale happening right now. An AMD 2500+ Barton is going for $90. If you add an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe $121.99 you can get in with plenty of room for a new Antec SLK3700AMB $73 case from Newegg as well. Total of $284.99

Thats not counting shipping but many times they have free FedEx Express Saver shipping and I haven't had to wait for more than 2-3 days for the stuff. I often get the things within 24 hours with the free shipping option.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #4 on:** December 08, 2003, 04:43:07 PM »

i bet ya could up grade with

Asus A7N8X- deluxe mb 119-130
AMD 2400+ 2.0 ghz 85-90

and perhaps add another stick of ram

or get a good power supply and youll be right around 300

You 9500pro should be good enough for now ...

That would get ya running with a 400fbs and away from the limited ECS k7s5a .. If you do add much more cpu to the ECS mb you have to run a FSB/cpu clocking program to make it run smooth again ..

Ive got a 1.3 in my gammer k7s5a thats totally stable
and a 1.4 applebred in my other k7s5a thats oced to 1.6 /266 its stable most of the time but now an then games just wont start and ctd on me ,a reboot fixs it everytime though. ( it needs a good reformat though cause ive been messing with it to much)

you may get away with a 2.0 ghz cpu in the k7s5a for another year or so also ..

heres the amd forum if ya wanna read up http://www.amdforums.com/index.php?s=

and heres the forum for the k7s5a it has tons of great stuff in it for getting the most outta that mb .
http://pub140.ezboard.com/fk7s5amotherboardforumfrm5.showMessage?topicID=1200.topic

Octavius · « **Reply #5 on:** December 08, 2003, 05:26:49 PM »

hehe thanks.

I dont want to 'get away' with anything or 'hold out' any longer

I'm ready to indulge.

Another thing about the vid card. My current 9500 pro is a year old. I bought a one year return warranty type thing from CompUSA. It was a great deal on the 9500pro to begin with and I have one year (it ends in January of '04) to take it back even if it isn't my favorite color. So, full refund there. It will probably pay for the 9600XT as well, which is what I'm looking for. So, in otherwords, the video card is moot.

Thanks for the links =]

bloom25 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 08, 2003, 05:31:11 PM »

AMD Route:

Best bang for the buck at the moment is probably an Athlon XP 2500+, or for a bit more a 2800+, paired to an nForce 2 based motherboard. The Asus A7N8X or A7N8X-Deluxe would be good choices. The Deluxe has better onboard sound, Firewire, Serial ATA, and dual network built on. Since you have a very good soundcard, you might want to save a bit of money and go with the A7N8X, which lacks the Firewire and Serial ATA. It still has onboard network, but not two NICs like the Deluxe.

The 2500+ and 2800+ are both Barton core Athlon XPs, which both have 512kB of L2 cache and a 333 MHz FSB. This means you could reuse your PC2700 memory. The 3000+ is available in both 333 MHz and 400 MHz FSB types, and the 3200+ is 400 MHz only.
____________________________
Intel Route:

The P4 2.4 'C' or 2.6 'C' (800 MHz effective FSB with Hyperthreading) coupled to an Intel i865 (Springdale) based board like an Asus P4P800 or P4P800 Deluxe would be my picks here. Both of these boards have network onboard. The Deluxe has Firewire and Serial ATA as well.

Unfortunately, you really need paired sticks of DDR400 memory to get best performance here, so reusing your existing memory is out if you want to get top performance.
____________________________

The Radeon 9500 Pro is actually just about as fast as the 9600 XT, and actually a bit faster than the 9600 Pro. Since the 9600 XT is only a tiny bit faster than the 9500 Pro, I can't recommend replacing that card with a 9600 XT. You'd really have to make the jump to a 9800 Pro/XT to see anything worthwhile.

As for SSE optimizations in the ATI drivers, both the Athlon XP and P4 can support SSE instructions. It would be SSE2 optimizations for the P4 that the Athlon XP can't make use of. (The Athlon 64 3200+ and Athlon 64 FX Model 51 can, but they are still too expensive.) This isn't really a deal breaker though, as the ATI drivers have optimizations for AMDs 3dnow! in them as well.

If I had to compare relative gaming performance, I'd say the 2500+ Athlon matches up well with the 2.4 'C' P4. The 2800+ and 2.6 'C' are very close as well.

BB Gun · « **Reply #7 on:** December 08, 2003, 05:53:50 PM »

Don't replace the 9500 Pro with a 9600XT!!!!

See here for performance graphs:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTU2LDM=

the 9500Pro is neck and neck with the 9600XT. No significant performance upgrade in that trade.

BB

bloom25 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 08, 2003, 06:39:19 PM »

I just noticed the budget of $350. If you reuse the memory, soundcard, and videocard and go with the Athlon 2500+ and Asus A7N8X (non-deluxe) you should be fine.

You may need a bigger power supply if yours is under 350W. That board and CPU combination is going to run between $180 - $250 depending on where you buy it. That leaves around $100, enough for a decent sized harddrive.

As for review sites, I'd recommend Anandtech over Tom's Hardware. ( http://www.anandtech.com ) Tom's Hardware can often give the wrong impression in some of their reviews. I've seen motherboard reviews on Tom's between brands where a 0.5% difference amounts to "dominating performance advantage."

Octavius · « **Reply #9 on:** December 08, 2003, 11:02:59 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by BB Gun
Don't replace the 9500 Pro with a 9600XT!!!!

See here for performance graphs:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTU2LDM=

the 9500Pro is neck and neck with the 9600XT. No significant performance upgrade in that trade.

BB

oops

Even so, 9600XT runs cooler and, according to skuzzmeister, is very overclockable. That warranty I bought last year paid off tonight. Drove to CompUSA and exchanged it straight up for a 9600XT WITH a coupon for Half Life 2 inside. No cash spent or gained... but the game pays for itself. I originally paid $218 last January for the 9500pro. Eh, even if performance is neck and neck, it cost me a buck or two of gas to haul it out there

And the 'free' game to boot.

Bloom, thats exactly what I was hoping to hear =]. I shall do some research on the routes you provided and then some. I guess when it comes down to it I just tossed out a ballpack figure of ~$350. I can spend a little more. The money's here and I want to play with it.

Flit · « **Reply #10 on:** December 09, 2003, 11:24:36 AM »

I just upgraded to the P4800 Deluxe MB and P4 2.6c chip
It very easily O/c'd to 3.1 Ghz (in the bios)
The DDR ram is what cost the most $196
M/b was $127.25
P4c 2.6 was $171
Dropping my FX5600 and trying a ATI9600 XT to see what happens
(got all this stuff from pricewatch)

Octavius · « **Reply #11 on:** December 09, 2003, 11:53:56 AM »

$196 for dual sticks of the DDR?

Flit · « **Reply #12 on:** December 12, 2003, 08:52:39 PM »

Yep check out pricewatch.com
( 2 sticks of 512 )

bockko · « **Reply #13 on:** December 12, 2003, 10:21:30 PM »

whatever the budget is, always double it