Tweaking an Abit BD7?

[jigsaw]

Need some advice from you experts to see if there are any tweaks I can do to extend the life of my current system.

Setup:
Abit BD7
Pent 4 2.4, 400 FSB (mb will not do 800)
1 gig mem
NVidia FX5700 ultra
ATA 7200 RPM drives


Nothing is overclocked. I'm clueless on how to do that and since I also use the box for work, can't risk a system failure. Therefore, any overclocking advice would need to be fairly conservative.

Thought about just adding memory, but at the cost of about $500.00 without being able to port it to my next system, that doesn't seem very wise.

Next system is probably a year away, via buying a mb/cpu/case (maybe new vid card) combo and moving the current guts over.

Main uses for box is gaming (duh) with the biggest production application being PhotoshopCS.

Any tips greatly appreciated.

[streetstang]

Heya Jig,

My best advice for you would be to upgrade your videocard.

I had that exact card a year ago maybe.. Maybe less. It is very nice, but if you dont want to overclock, the card will be your bottle kneck.

I spent alot of time overclocking my older systems but those wer all or mostly AMD, which almost beg for more after being pushed.

I had a little AMD 2500 moble reach speeds that would rival the 3200+. But again those are AMD chips, and overclocking is not a generic process in any sence as you proabably know.

Your system looks to be faily stout. Again the only thing I would upgrade if I absolutly needed/wanted to upgrade would be the video card. And you can always toss that newer card into your next new system.

I'd recomend the X800 from ATI or the 6800 from NVIDIA I've had both and the only reason I am with the ATI is out of curiosity in the x800's performance and the fact that I was able to sell the card to a friend without losing much money.

Either are excellent choices and will still be fairly up to date for you when the time comes for a new system.

[jigsaw]

Thanks Morph. I'll look into the card.

-edit: Is there a significant performance difference vs price in the 128 vs 256 meg card? Had people in the past tell me that the 256 meggers were mainly for CAD.

p.s. I want a rematch , or at least email some pointers to the squad list.

[streetstang]

In all honesty Jig you can survive with a 128mb card as of now in the Aces High. I know from experience that the 5700 Ultra which you have can be OC'd to the moon and remain stable. I put that card through its paces and where most cards would have rolled over and died that card kept on chuggin.

The biggest gain you will find with a 256mb card will be in performance when your detail settings are maxed. Basicly what you will get is the ability to view better looking eye candy. As far as gaming goes thats about it. Right now that is.

You know as well as I do I'm sure that games and their graphics are advancing almost on a daily basis. So it is only a matter of time before the actual need arises for a 256mb video card to game with. Right now its still an option, but it wont be for too long.

I was trying to remember how the 6800 i had did in Aces High. It was a hell of a card that is for sure. But I am growing partial to the ATI cards more and more every day. Its basicly a thing of prefrence but I've tried both and was once a die hard Nvidia supporter. I am just more impressed with the X800.

As far as price goes vs the two. Well, you can get a fairly good deal on a 265mb card that is near or = to the cost of a 128mb card but, that same 128mb card may out perform that 256 card in certain areas of graphic processing.

Let me put it like this.

Basicly when you get right down to it, you get what you pay for. But there are exceptions.



hehe, I'll spend all the time you'd like in the DA with ya. I need to brush up just as bad, beleive me. I'm sure we could both help eachother in that respect. Btw, I'm not on the email list yet

Maybe my probation period isn't up?