New Mb and CPU

[STP]

Considering upgrading my PC.
Recently purchased a new video card. ATI9800pro 265MB
It allows me to play the new games, but the performance
is still shaky when playing FarCry, Painkiller.
Thinking about new mobo, cpu, and memory.
Not sure as to what to get. $400-500 to spend.
Want to play Doom3, HL2, FarCry at decent framerates.

My current outdated machine.
ASUS A7V133
1.2G AMD CPU
512Mb RAM
40 gig hd
creative cd/dvd
plextor cdrw
pci521 sb sc

This Asus board has served me well. Maybe stick
with the same brand or is there better out there.
Still want to stay with AMD(maybe 64bit).
1 gig of ram sould do.
Any suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
STP

 

[Cybercraig]

You certainly have the right card for Doom. The 256mb cards do a better job at high quality. You could go ABIT NF7-S and an XP-2500+ and have plenty of gas, or jump platforms to an A64-3000 and your choice of boards. Chaintech makes a couple of good boards for that as well as MSI and EPOX. ASUS makes a decent XP board in the A7N8X-E Deluxe but I haven't heard anybody rave about their A64 boards.


Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.5ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[Mr5oh]

The 64-bit chips are better for gaming right now. However if you can't bring yourself to spend the money right now, and XP setup would work great.
A new motherboard and CPU should be prority. What speed is your RAM currently? Everyone seems to be big on the 2500+ chips, however, a faster chip (2800+, 3000+) don't cost that much extra, and may be worth a little extra cost (Stay away from the 2700+, has the smaller L2 cache). I am running a machine with an XP chip (setup is in the link at the bottom) and in FarCry I play in 1280x1024 with everything set to very high, including audio, with no problems. Doom3 also runs great, 1280x1024 at high quality.

Probably for a high end motherboard, and XP chip, you could get out of a local computer store for about $250, probably about $200 online.

The 64-bit chips you are probably looking at a good $300.

You have an awesome card, now all you need is a better processor, decide how much money you are willing to spend, at the moment the XP chips are cheaper, but you will give up a little performance (not bad though).

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[endyen]

For a socket 754 board, get the Asus K8N-E Deluxe.
Chances are pretty good that you are using pc133 SDram, so It's time to buy DDR. To pinch a few pennies, the samsung pc3200 works well with most boards. Spend whatever is left to get the best chip you can.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

I recommend:

Athlon64 3200+ (Newcastle, 2.2 GHz, 512k L2 cache)
MSI K8N Neo PLatinum
1 x 512 MB or 2 x 512 MB DDR400 RAM

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[Obtuse]

For $400, you could get an A64 3000+ on the Chaintech V-NF3 mobo, with 2X512 MB of Corsair value ram. That'd put the rest of your gear into parity with that video card.

"It's too late now anyway. That song is stuck in my head and the only way to get rid of it is to blow it out. With a bullet!! - Carl