Hi!
I am about to blow all my cash on an upgrade for Halflife 2. I have about 450 UKP or 830 USD to spend and I am planning on making this upgrade last for a while.
I currently have:
2Ghz AMD Athlon
Gigabyte GA7VAXP Mobo
512 MB PC133 RAM (I hope its pc133, though I'm not sure)
XFX Geforce 4 ti4200
SB live 1024
I am thinking of buying the following:
1) A sappire (they seem to be priced well and get decent reviews) Radeon 9800 128MB (probably not pro or XT because I hear that the performance increase is quite slight, however if the performance increase per dollar (or pound) is worth it I'd be happy to spend the extra) Also I see that the sappire "all in wonder" 9800's are priced quite a bit higher than the regular ones, but can't seem to find out why. Any thoughts?
2) A new motherboard with 8X AGP for the 9800 & onboard LAN & maybe the new nvidia APU. Any recomendations? I can't seem to find good advice for buying new motherboards and I don't want to gamble. I want this to be my most well worked out upgrade ever!
3) (If not decent onboard sound) A turtle beach santa cruz sound card, because I am begining to wonder if creative labs really are the way to go.
That should leave me with a bit of cash to spare. Any suggestions on where it would be best spent? Anything I really should be spending more on? Aside from beer and pot?
Sorry if this seems like a bit of a ramble, but I'd like to make this upgrade last and am keen to spend my money wisely. I value your help, even if its just posting a URL to some source of information I have missed.
I want Halflife 2 to *gleam*. Then I will be truly happy.
thanks!
Also (I nearly forgot!) any cooling suggestions for the 9800, considering that I have shaky hands and bad eyesight ?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by eyemessiah on 01/10/04 09:56 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
I am about to blow all my cash on an upgrade for Halflife 2. I have about 450 UKP or 830 USD to spend and I am planning on making this upgrade last for a while.
I currently have:
2Ghz AMD Athlon
Gigabyte GA7VAXP Mobo
512 MB PC133 RAM (I hope its pc133, though I'm not sure)
XFX Geforce 4 ti4200
SB live 1024
I am thinking of buying the following:
1) A sappire (they seem to be priced well and get decent reviews) Radeon 9800 128MB (probably not pro or XT because I hear that the performance increase is quite slight, however if the performance increase per dollar (or pound) is worth it I'd be happy to spend the extra) Also I see that the sappire "all in wonder" 9800's are priced quite a bit higher than the regular ones, but can't seem to find out why. Any thoughts?
2) A new motherboard with 8X AGP for the 9800 & onboard LAN & maybe the new nvidia APU. Any recomendations? I can't seem to find good advice for buying new motherboards and I don't want to gamble. I want this to be my most well worked out upgrade ever!
3) (If not decent onboard sound) A turtle beach santa cruz sound card, because I am begining to wonder if creative labs really are the way to go.
That should leave me with a bit of cash to spare. Any suggestions on where it would be best spent? Anything I really should be spending more on? Aside from beer and pot?
Sorry if this seems like a bit of a ramble, but I'd like to make this upgrade last and am keen to spend my money wisely. I value your help, even if its just posting a URL to some source of information I have missed.
I want Halflife 2 to *gleam*. Then I will be truly happy.
thanks!
Also (I nearly forgot!) any cooling suggestions for the 9800, considering that I have shaky hands and bad eyesight ?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by eyemessiah on 01/10/04 09:56 PM.</EM></FONT></P>