Author Topic: well, with 1.08, i gotta upgrade.. (Read 1290 times)

-ammo- · « **on:** October 05, 2001, 06:20:00 PM »

Hi guys, some advice please. I want to build a new machine and I will go with a 1.4Gh T-Bird processor. I was looking at MB’s and was curious if ECS MB’s are good. They are cheaper than Asus and Abit. Also, Would a Geforce 2GTS 64 Mg DDR suffice for AH? Or chould I spend the money for a <gulp> Geforce 3?

Also I could save money by buying SDRAM instead of DDR ram. Would this be OK?

ammo

[ 10-05-2001: Message edited by: -ammo- ]

SOB · « **Reply #1 on:** October 05, 2001, 11:27:00 PM »

If it were me, I'd always stick with an Asus or Abit. That GeForce 2 should do ya just fine...I think the GeForce 3 is still a little overpriced for what it gives you in AH. And I'm running one.

Is there really that much of a difference between SDRAM and DDR?

SOB

1776 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 06, 2001, 12:16:00 AM »

Guess what? You only live once so buy, buy, buy the most your credit will allow!! Get that GeForce 3!! Get the best MB, CPU and JS. Don't skimp, this is your money and like I said you only go around once!!

Remember money is round to roll not flat to stack!!

Buy and enjoy because if you don't I will

and am heheeeeeee

-ammo- · « **Reply #3 on:** October 06, 2001, 06:59:00 AM »

Wow, that Geforce 3 is a pile of money for a gaming accesory

SOB, Hey mate, could you tell me about your system, and how well it performs in AH (FR's, stability, anything else you can think of)

Also, anyone have a comment on the performance aspects between the DDR and SDRAM memory?

Gunthr · « **Reply #4 on:** October 06, 2001, 07:50:00 AM »

I'm also upgrading soon, and getting the 1400 mhz AMD CPU at 266 mhz FSB and getting PC2100 RAM...its so cheap now. I'm waiting for the Via 266A chipset to arrive at resellers in about a week. Should have significant performance increase over Via 266, so if you are going with Via, try to wait a week or so. I believe Abit, MSI and Shuttle and others will have boards with this chipset.

As far as DDR... don't even think about, get a DDR board.

For video, I'm sticking with my GeForce2Pro for a while. That will be my bottleneck I guess.

G'luck Ammo

Ghosth · « **Reply #5 on:** October 06, 2001, 08:03:00 AM »

Ammo I'd guess that your Gforce 2 GTS should do you for now. It's an easy upgrade if needed further down the road.

For now I'd spend the extra dollars for DDR ram & a rock solid MB.

Vermillion · « **Reply #6 on:** October 06, 2001, 08:45:00 AM »

Well, I just bought a Tbird and I got the ECS motherboard. And they are rock solid and very good performers.

I also checked reviews at tomshardware and anandtech, and both sites gave glowing reviews of the boards when it comes to stability, speed, and of course price. The only place where they are somewhat lacking is a few of the overclocking frills.

But hey, do you really think your going to be overclocking a 1.4ghz Tbird much?

I would go with the DDR memory, at least 512megs, but would probably skip the GF3. The GF3 is still too pricey for the performance, so I would go with a good GF2 Ultra or the ATI Radeon 64meg card. Significant savings by skipping the GF3. If you already have a GF2 GTS I would just use it, because it should do just fine with that CPU.

Last night I also just put a new Tbird 1.4 together for a friend of mine, and he went with the ECS motherboard. His is just like mine, great performance for a nice price.

Oh ... just remember there are two ECS motherboards for the DDR memory, the one with the Ali chipset and the SiS chipset. Make sure you get the one with the SiS chipset.

SOB · « **Reply #7 on:** October 06, 2001, 06:13:00 PM »

My system is as follows:

PIII 1ghz
512 MB PC133 RAM
Asus CUSL2 Motherboard
Asus 8200 Deluxe GeForce 3
ATI Rage Pro PCI (for second monitor)

I don't really pay much attention to how high the frame rate goes, because past 32fps or whatever it really doesn't make much difference. The good thing is that I never drop below about 23fps...even when diving through a large field that is completely destroyed and covered in smoke. I run at 1600x1200 with 32-bit color and mip mapping on.

My last system was a PIII600E/Asus CUBX/Voodoo 5 5500. That ran nicely in 1024x768, 32-bit color and 2xFSAA turned on. As far as picture quality, the Geforce 3 is the only thing that's able to beat the Voodoo 5 that I've seen (imo, of course). But the V5 really does look nice with 2xFSAA and 1024x768.

I'd be curious to hear what guys with the higher end GeForce 2 Ultra cards are getting for FPS at the res I'm running. I'd bet they're getting close to the same.

SOB