1.9 Athlon

[Auden]

I'm building a new computer and received a 1.9 athlon from a friend to start it off. I've got a 21" Hitachi SuperScan 812 that will carry over from my old computer, all other items will be new. I have a $700 budget with which to work. My current plan is to get an nforce 2 motherboard, preferably one with the via APU rather than the realtek. Two of the 512 mg sticks of ram (not certain if I should use 333 or 400 mhz). I'd love a radeon, but I looks like its over my budget, so I'm looking at a ti 4200 8X 128 mg card. I've found an antec case with removable air filter and 430w antec true power that I'll probably use. I'm looking at a western digital hard drive 7200 rpm with 8 mg buffer. I had a few questions:

What's a good nforce2 board with 10/100 lan and via APU?

Both Chaintek and Leadtek had ti 4200's for sale for $120-130, which would you recommend?

What's the best ram option for overcloaking the 1.9 athlon slightly, which board makes this easiest, and what settings would I need?


Thanks for any help, it's been 2 years since I've played with any of this.

 

[Auden]

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AMD_me]

Get an A7N8X/Deluxe. DO NOT GET A TI4200! For nearly the same price you can get a Radeon 9500Pro, and the Ti4200 is one of the slowest cards (not counting tnt2s and geforce 2s) still for sale today. And, it will be incompatible with almost all games within a matter of months.

eBay, kick ass!

My 3DMark2001 Score: <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6288493" target="_new">http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6288493</A>
-
I bought from Best Buy once. Once.

 

[Rubberbband]

I'd also look at the 9500 Pro because it's hardware DX9 compliant therefore it will be a better investment. The Ti4200 is a good video card (not as slow as one of our newest members here: AMD_Me would have you believe (ignore his status most of his posts are questionable)).

I own the Leadtek and I'm happy with it. If I had lots of money to throw around I'd get the 9500 Pro myself. It's just not enough of a performance jump for me to justify it. I'll wait until I can no longer play the games I enjoy before upgrading (right now I'm playing: NOLF2, Project IGI2, and American Army Ops). As for the Ti only lasting a few more months, there's still lots of guys out there running GF2 Ti's and GF3 Ti's. It's all a matter of how much you want to spend and how much benchmarking means to you. If a card plays all of your games at medium plus details it's good enough for me.

The aim of military training is not just to prepare men for battle, but to make them long for it. <A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=327&s" target="_new"><b>MY SYSTEM</b></A>

 

[mac404]

With what you have already, I think you could afford a Radeon 9500 Pro (or maybe a 9600 Pro if it comes in soon and has a reasonalbe price). Also, do you really need that much ram for your price range? What would you be using it for? Let's look at the prices of a few components... (from newegg.com...)
<b>Motherboard:</b>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=Asus+A7N8X+Deluxe" target="_new">Asus A7N8X Deluxe-$135</A> (you can easily change this to a different one, such as the Abit NF7S (make sure 2.0, though, and not 1.0-1.2)
<b>RAM:</b> (you're gonna pay a lot for a gig)
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=Corsair+2700+LL" target="_new">1gb pc2700 Low Latency (512mbx2 Twin Pack)(picked from the list, you can go a lot cheaper)-$251</A>
For another option, from the same page:
512mb pc2700 LL (256x2 Twin Pack)-$139 or
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=3200+LL+Corsair" target="_new">pc3200 512mb (256x2 Twin Pack)-$159</A>
That last one might make more sense, as they could possibly be used later when upgrading.
<b>Graphics Card:</b>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=14-102-258&DEPA=1" target="_new">Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro-$177 (not in stock at the moment, though)</A> (but it looks like FIC's is,<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=Radeon+9500+Pro" target="_new">right here</A>
I'd suggest either a 9500 Pro or a 9600 Pro if you can find one. These would make your system more future-proof with DX9 support.
<b>Hard Drive:</b>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=WD+120+Caviar" target="_new">Western Digital 120gb "Special Edition" 8mb cache-$115</A>

With 1gb of ram, this comes in at $678. However, with 512mb of the 3200 ram it is $586. I might be forgetting something, but I can't remember it right now. Also, you can make the 1gb pc3200 for about $50 more, putting you just barely over your price limit.
<b>Edit:</b> You probably want a case, huh? I'll let someone else tackle that one...

You can help. Just send money to the bad motherboard relief fund, for those suckered into a KT166 and SDRAM with their new Athlon...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mac404 on 04/18/03 10:44 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[fiask0]

Are you stupid or something? Have you not read any benchmarks, or any articles recently? A ti-4200 card is an awesome mid-level card. It will play any game you want no hassles. I have an MSI ti-4200, tbred 1800+ overclocked to a 2000+, 512mb pc2400, 2 80gb SE W.D. hard drives, and im pushing 10,500-11000 on 3dmark 2001. So the card really sucks eh?

 

[Auden]

Thanks for all the information. I'll definitely consider bumping the ram down to 2X256 of the 3200.

 

[tombance]

Dumbass, click the link in my sig to see what a Ti4200 can do. And also, which games currently exist that use DX9? the only 'thing' I can think of is 3dMark 03 which is not a game unless you enjoy sitting infront of an endless loop rather than playing a real game.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5467618 " target="_new">Almost Breaking 12k!!</A>

 

[LeoLeal]

With the Radeon U can get those Scores with FSAA and ANISO turned on...

 

[jihiggs]

the ti 4200 is not bad, its almost on par with the 9500 pro. look at the benchmarks. though i do agree with getting a dx9 video card. you can buy a video card and have it last 2-3 years. you might as well get the newest technology you can.

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[tombance]

Yeah but where I live the Radeon costs about $70 more.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5467618 " target="_new">Almost Breaking 12k!!</A>