Author Topic: Upgrading, need some sugestions. (Read 284 times)

medicboy · « **on:** December 21, 2003, 09:40:54 AM »

I got the ok from the wife to order a new puter but got to thinking if I upgrade mine it should be fine.

I have currently:

p4 1.7
512 mb pc2100 ddr ram
60 gig hd
geforce 4 64 mb 440

I was thinking a new video card and some more ram should hold off a new puter for a while, just have a few ?'s.

Video card: Many different kinds, what the heck do I need?? I am looking to spend around $200 on the card and was thinking a nivida 5700, or a ati 9600 pro, both 128 mb, are these ok? Is one faster/better? Is there something else in that price range that is better?

Ram: DO I have to stick with pc2100, or can I get 2700...ect. I would like to get another 512mb. What is a good brand, I have been told crucial is the best.

Thanks for your help!

BOb

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #1 on:** December 21, 2003, 02:48:10 PM »

my 9600 pro does real nice and ive seen it as low as 169.00.
Id start with that and see what happens.
The gf mx440 is very low end for quality vid cards. It really chokes up on the smoky stuff.
I had a similar system except I was ball and chained with pc133 ram, but I upgraded from mx440 to a ti4200 which is still not as powerful as ati 9600, the ti4200 really filled in the gaps that the mx440 couldnt do.

Tarmac · « **Reply #2 on:** December 21, 2003, 05:11:20 PM »

Memory: I bought Crucial based on recommendations of friends, and have been perfectly happy with it. If you mix 2100 and 2700, it will all function at the slowest speed; in your case, 2100 (266 mhz). So you'll see no performance increase buying 2700 unless you mothball the old memory.

I don't know what kind of apps you run, but 1gb of memory is probably overkill. You might be better off buying 512 of the higher speed memory and scrapping the old 2100 stuff. I don't know pentiums very well, so make sure there aren't any FSB or motherboard issues there. Both your board and your CPU must support 333 FSB speeds to get any benefit from pc2700 RAM; but I doubt this is a problem even with the older Pentium 4's. Check though.

Video Card: I'd go ATI, but I don't know model numbers anymore. They come out with XT's and Pros and Ultra versions so fast that I don't bother keeping up anymore. Ask Skuzzy.

medicboy · « **Reply #3 on:** December 21, 2003, 08:05:15 PM »

Thanks alot guys, I have some research to do.

Can I find out about the front side bus my mother board can take by lookin under the device manager in the control panel or is there some other way? I am at work right now so I will have to check in the AM. Thanks guys.

Tarmac · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2003, 09:18:56 PM »

You can do it through BIOS. You can also grab Belarc Advisor

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

It'll tell you lots of stuff about the hardware and software on your computer.