Athlon Upgrade

Flyboy

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
737
0
18,980
Hey fellow tech-weenies!

I just joined the community and look forward to squeezing all the info I can out of you guys!

I'm interested in upgrading the following system:
Motherboard ASUS K7M
CPU: 500MHz Athlon
RAM: 128Mb PC133 SDRAM
Video: GeForce 256 (ASUS)
Sound: SB Live! Value
HD: 20Gb WD (7200rpm)

Now, I really would like to purchase a new socket A motherboard and buy a T-bird, but being a student my finances are already extremely tight. So, what are the tradeoffs between purchasing a Slot-A T-bird or Slot-A Athlon. Would I be better off overclocking? Because I've tried to overclock (FSB set to 110) and only achieve 550Mhz. I'm basically dissappointed with the K7M because of the issue between the Irongate 750 chipset and the GeForce card (AGP1X) and that my board doesn't support sideband addressing. I thought about purchasing a new 900 or greater Athlon from Ebay, but I'm concerned about the possibility of getting screwed (getting what I pay for). Any suggestions would be appreciated...

Thanks.
 
G

Guest

Guest
You seem to know enough about the possibilities. Your system isn't bad at all, so if your on a tight budget then I think you are set. If you must upgrade, I would suggest a new socket A mobo, and a descent Duron. I can't give you any price unless you want them in Canadian currency. Your graphics are pretty good, and your sound should do(SB-Live what?). Unless you want to wait a bit for 760 (it might already be out, but it sometimes takes about a month or so for parts to reach the great white north) and DDR-SDRAM, but it would/should cost a little bit more. In my opinion, you arn't in bad shape already though.
 

Flyboy

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
737
0
18,980
Thanks for the reply Ulysses.

I know that my system could be lot worse, but you know how it is...when all your buddies are getting the latest and greatest. This is especially painful when your the one building it for them. Anyway, the last time I played Age of Kings with a friend over LAN-about two hours in the game, I got the turtle symbol next to my name (STATS) and my computer became almost unplayable. We were playing against 5 computer opponents on HARD which does mean my Athlon was probably working overtime. I'm going to be holding a LAN party in December and want my system to run the game with ease. I wasn't sure where the bottleneck is...my CPU or RAM? My guess is CPU.

I have heard/read a lot of positive feedback on the AMD Duron, namely that it offers the best PRICE vs. PERFORMANCE ratio and is highly overclockable.

I'll be building my brother's PC for him in late December- that is IF the 760 mobos are out yet. I'm really looking forward to seeing how his system will perform. I think I'm going go with:

ASUS socket-A mobo with 760 chipset
T-Bird 1GHz
128Mb PC2100
GeForce 2 GTS
SB Live! ("Value" was on my box...dunno what exactly it means!)
30 Gb HD (probably WD, ATA100)

Sorry bout' being long winded...kinda overly excited I suppose.

Thanks!
 
G

Guest

Guest
I play alot of AoK (zone name: MKT_sliceNdice). The slow down you are seeing is probably you're video card. I have a TNT2 Ultra card with a 300Mhz RAMDAC, but still see slow downs during large battles. AoK is purely a 2D game but can still stress a card. I have played AoK on just about everything AMD has to offer (I work @AMD). K6-III 450, K6-III 500, K7 500/550/650/700/850/900 (slotA) and Tbird 850/900/1000/1200 (KT and 761-DDR platforms). I also have a Voodoo 3 3000 that shows the same slow downs in action as my Ultra TNT card. Of course, both of these cards have the same speed RAMDAC.

<font color=green> slice-N-dice </font color=green>
Nothing travels faster than the speed of pain
 
G

Guest

Guest
that seems like NO tight budget, be more realistic, look to what you really need, I really think with your K7 athlon 500, you're better of keeping it as that, an get a OC card. maybe OC to 800mhz, not too bad.

save the money and look around and wait for the ddr board and ddr Ram to go down. then look around for the next gen AMD processor and see how they OC.

if you go for a 1ghz or ANY athlon processor(OC)NOW, all you'll get is 1.2 MAX to 1.4maybe if you are extremely lucky. IF that what you like to settle on than go for it. IT a pretty big jump from K7-500 to TB1.2 but don't expect more from it.

I would really look into the next generation AMD processor, the current ATHLON is coming up to it's architecture limit soon. for YOU.
 

SoulReaper

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
194
0
18,680
If you want a board and chip that will last you, pick up a ABIT KT7 with a t-bird. Your other system components will run a lot better with the new one than with what u have now. Especially the GeForce. The KT7 has 4x support. I'm a college student myself, and i find that if i upgrade every 3 months i spend the least amount of money over the long run. I tend to invest about $100 every 3 monts vs $2000 for a whole new system every year. you might want to think about it.

"upgrading is no longer an option...it's a necessity"
Visit www.elitehunters.com
--SoulReaper =)
 

Ncogneto

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
2,355
53
19,870
well the key fraze here is you are on a tight budget but you need something faster by christmas. That leaves your options limited. Ideally you would want a new mobo and processor however you probably dont have the moola for that just now.
That leaves you with only one option really. I would opt for a 650 internally modified CPU OC'ed to around 800 from a reputable dealer on ebay. You an get one now for around 120 bucks. It a shame about your MOBO the k7m just didn't quite cut the mustard. To bad it is not a k7v. When you acquire more funds you again will be faced with a difficult decision sell the cpu and get a tbird mobo or settle for a slota mobo like the k7v. Again that all comes down to the money you have. You should however be able to sell the CPU without taking to much a hit. I myself would probably do it in the following fashion.

1) get a new cpu
2)sell the old cpu
3) get a new MOBO
4) sell the newer cpu and mobo and get a t-bird mobo combo
5)get a new video card