New Upgrade

[im_going_bald]

I have just ordered the following upgrade.

Original system:
AMD Athlon 1800+, (some compatible mobo), 256mb SDRAM 100mhz, NVIDIA Geforce 2 MX/MX 400 32mb, 40gig hard drive, floppy, CD-RW

New System:
Intel P4 Prescott "Ë" 2.80Ghz, 512mb RDRam 3200 400mhz, GeXcube 256mb 9600 Pro, Retaining 40gig harddrive, new liteon burner, new 400W psu and case...

The cost for the new parts is $1150 Australian, and I'm selling the old tower for $400 Australian so its costing me $750 Australian total.

What do people think of this system? The upgrade good/worth it? The video card ok?

 

[endyen]

Too bad.
G-cube cards are not great, though some had good memory.
You are getting DDR-SDRAM not RDRam.
If possible get them to send the P4c 2.8 instead. The P4c is faster, cooler, and OCs better.

 

[Coyote]

You should really see a big improvement in gaming. The 9600 pro is very good card. In fact if you just added that card and some more ram you would see a big improvemnt in gaming.

Enjoy

Mobile XP 2600+ (11X200)
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
BBA 9800 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE

 

[amd]

"Original system:
AMD Athlon 1800+, (some compatible mobo), 256mb SDRAM 100mhz, NVIDIA Geforce 2 MX/MX 400 32mb, 40gig hard drive, floppy, CD-RW"

I would have checked if the motherboard supports the Athlon XP 2400+ (2Ghz 266Mhz FSB, costs like 50$ and is still a good upgrade from what you have now).
Then I would get another 256 or 512megs of sdram (perhaps get it second hand for cheap?), finally topping it all out with a 9800pro (200$, will eat that poor 9600pro you ordered for breakfast). Cheaper and a lot faster in gaming oh well...
And BTW im pretty shure your RAM is 133Mhz...

"You should really see a big improvement in gaming. The 9600 pro is very good card. In fact if you just added that card and some more ram you would see a big improvemnt in gaming."

Yea his CPU is decent so just upping the RAM and a new GFX card will do wonders (in fact in 3d games your current rig with a 9800pro gfx card will be faster than that new comp with the 9600pro which is too GPU limited IMO for gaming).
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by amd on 07/02/04 00:41 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[HardWareBoss]

You should have gone to the graphic forum before buying that vid card.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

For gaming, Athlon64 2800+ is a much better choice.

GecCube isn't a good brand for grphics card. Try getting Sapphire/Gigabyte card.

Even if you only upgrade your graphics card, you should see significant performance increase in gaming

------------
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[im_going_bald]

I'm feeling like crap now...bit late to turn the order around. I looked up heaps on reviews and stuff but choosing a video card was hard for me because there wasn't such a great range at the price I was looking at and it also depended on the dealer I went through. I went for the 9600 Pro because it was recommended but I couldn't find a 128mb version and couldn't find a good review on the actual GeXCube card...so i went with it. The CPU I stuffed up on but the performance difference isn't major after looking at a review - and I'm not lookin at overclocking the things so will they stay at a ok temperature? The Mobo will support up to 3.6Ghz so when they come down in price I'm gonna up the CPU to that. Also, there's another slot for ram which I can use to up it and also there's two serial ATA channels in case I up the hard drive. So is there nething else u can now say to make me feel worse?


Oh by the way I'm getting a ASUS P4P800S motherboard so if you can tell me I've gone wrong there as well, I'd be pleased!
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by im_going_bald on 07/02/04 02:32 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Mr_Nuke]

Yes there is, but even if, your PC should be running fine:

ATI has an awfull software team. You have a problem in a game, ATI launches a new driver, you install the new driver, the problem's gone, but new others emerge, that you didn't have with the old driver.I have a friend that was very pissed off by the GeForce4 MX serie and switched to ATI. He now has a R9600 SE. Every time I meet him he tells me of another problem. I recommended him Halo:Combat Evolved and guess what he told me: "In Win 98 I can't get a decent framerate and in Win XP I get an awfull quality". I have a GeForce2 MX400 Pro, but I can play halo with no problem.

And if you think ATI has got the lead, you're wrong, ATI is struggling to survive. It's not doing things like the GF4 MX serie, but worse. It's lying about it's products and it's attacking "competition's cards" in a very cheatfull manner. I've got all it takes to proove it. Read the "ATI's optimized texture filtering called into discussion". Sorry I don't have the link.

And don't worry. When you will upgrade again, I'm sure you'll get S939 PCI-E graphic card and will consult the forums prior to the final decision.

 

[im_going_bald]

Ok thanks for that...

Now can someone tell me please whether my system will run fine, run games to a decent standard, and overheat or run at a hotter enough temperature to impede performance?

 

[hogfather]

Whoa...lets get some things straight here!

You'll be happy with the system. The 9600 Pro is a good card, it'll play new games really well. Its no 9800 pro, but its the best sub £100 bang for the buck.
Prescotts run hot, but the board makers know this, and as long as you have a nice fan and heatsink, you'll be fine. Its a fast cpu so you'll see some good framerates.

Now that ATI stuff. No offense but if your friend bought a 9600 SE then what does he expect? Its an awful card! ATI do offer MX esque cards - the 9000 or 9200 are both low end, cheap options, and in fact both are faster than the MXs. Have you got a short memory? Because I seem to remember nvidia cheating a while ago 🙄 now I'm not saying its ok to cheat, but its not unheard of and besides, I can't see the difference tbh. Again, not saying its right, but nvidia have also done it.

My next card will be an ATi 9700 Pro, and I certainly wouldnt be foolish enough to think an SE card would be very good.

XP2000, 512 ddr 2700ram, GF4 MX440, XP Pro

 

[slvr_phoenix]

I've got to agree with hogfather. What you have there is a nice upper-mid range system. You should be able to enjoy it just fine. So enjoy and be happy. And <i>if</i> one day you find that it's just not making you happy anymore, then upgrade.

<pre><b><font color=red>"Build a man a fire and he's warm for the rest of the evening.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Steve Taylor</font color=red></b></pre><p>

 

[Zoron]

He now has a R9600 SE. Every time I meet him he tells me of another problem. I recommended him Halo:Combat Evolved and guess what he told me: "In Win 98 I can't get a decent framerate and in Win XP I get an awfull quality".

He got an SE card... that explains the lower-than-expected framerates. If you want decent quality with decent framerates, you should get the Pro or XT versions of the card.

I have a GeForce2 MX400 Pro, but I can play halo with no problem.

Take a close look at the game running at his system and running on yours. I'll bet you'll notice a huge difference in terms of visual quality. That 9600SE is suffering because of all the eye candy DX9 cards are capable of displaying... your GeForce2 is a DX7 part. Which means no extra eye candy for you... which also means you'll get higher framerates. Tell your friend to turn down the detail level and he should get better framerates on that card.

And if you think ATI has got the lead, you're wrong, ATI is struggling to survive.

Nope. You're wrong. ATi is so far ahead of nVidia they felt they didn't need to completely redesign a new GPU core ala nVidia and the NV40. When you're a market leader and not playing catch-up, you can afford to make such choices.

It's lying about it's products and it's attacking "competition's cards" in a very cheatfull manner. I've got all it takes to proove it. Read the "ATI's optimized texture filtering called into discussion".

Apparently you've been living in a cave for the past year. nVidia cheated with the NV30, seeing as their performance wasn't up to snuff. ATi's cheating is on their new X-series of cards... cheating which doesn't affect image quality nearly as much as nVidia's cheating did.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[AggressorPrime]

You might not want to go Prescott, they run hotter than AMD's Palominos. If you have to go Intel, try to stay Northwood. They run better GHz to GHz. If you want true performance, try the Athlon 64 2800. It gives you the performance of a Pentium 4 3.0GHz EE.
The extra bucks are worth it.

 

[endyen]

Looks like you lost a couple of fps, oh well.
Too bad you cant get the P4c. Spend a little on cross-ventilation, and you will be fine. (esp if you're not OCing). Same is true of the video card. It is a nice system, you will love it. Check first next time though, and it will be just a little better.
Truth be known, your new system will be better than most.