Upgrade graphics card or motherboard

[comrade53]

I've got a 3.06ghz P4, with the Intel 850 chipset motherboard, 533mhz FSB and 512MB of RDRam. It's got two, 200GB, 7200 RPM hard drives and a Radeon 9700Pro video card.

I've been looking at upgrading by buying a new video card, and I've actually ordered an ATI X800XT Platinum card. However, every time I look at the shipping date, it keeps getting moved back. It's now back to Sept. 20'th. It's also a pretty expensive item.

I'm wondering though, if I could more bang for the buck by buying a new motherboard which uses cheaper memory and keeping the current video card for a while.

I could buy a motherboard with a faster FSB, 800mhz, but I'm not sure if my CPU would work with that, or would it require the motherboard to run at 533mhz?

With a new motherboard, I could by cheaper memory, perhaps doubling the amount I have.

I could also buy a new board with an AMD chip and try that.

If I got a new board that supports SATA, I could buy a relatively cheap SATA drive, and use that for the OS and the other two drives for data storage.

I'm pretty sure that the new board route would be more money than just the video card, but how much...., I'm not sure.

What sage advice can I get from wizards on this forum?

Thanks!

 

[priyajeet]

Rambus DRAM has always been faster than DDR theoritically. (When I say faster I mean comparing old gen with old DDR, and new gen XDR with new gen DDR2/3). Rambus = BUS of RAM, created by Rambus corporation.

For desktops is way too expensive. Price/perf ration is better for DDR. 9700Pro is a good card but not as good as u ordered. XT PE from HIS arrive at superpcmart this thursady.

I would suggest going in for a mobo that supports 800mhz, and it is backward compatible with 533 MHz.
Goto <A HREF="http://www.pricewatch.com" target="_new">http://www.pricewatch.com</A> and u can find cheap prices on stuff. I think it should come down to the same price as a XT PE, unlesss u go in for WD raptors as SATA drives.

AMD is the other option and I am not an AMD user, so somebody else will advice about that.

<i> <font color=blue>Futile is resistance,</font color=blue><font color=red> assimilate you we will.</font color=red> </i>
<b>Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off now.</b>

 

[marneus]

Go for a mainboard upgrade, a 9700pro is still fine for gaming for any game this year (now next year... u never know)

Trust me I know what I'm doing... ooops, grab the cat...

 

[blackphoenix77]

Motherboard upgrade wouldn't be nearly as expensive as a graphics card upgrade, ecspecially compared to a x800xtpe, I would get a mobo upgrade with a x800pro, they are avaible and you save money.

<font color=blue>AthlonXP-M 2500+(12x211)</font color=blue><font color=green>Abit NF7-S</font color=green><font color=red>Kingston DDR400 2x256Mb</font color=red>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Upgrade your graphics card. I recommend GeForce 6800GT

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[endyen]

Spitfire is right. Upgrade your mobo, and get 0 more fps in Doom3? or upgrade your graphics card, and double your framerate. Seems a no brainer to me.

 

[Mitch007]

If your really itching to Upgrade, and don't want to wait a little for the maturity of PCI Express, change your G-Card, But saying that a mobo supporting 800/533/400 FSB such as ABit IS7, is a good upgrade and affer a little more flexability if overclocking's your thing. boards like this are fast coming down in price and could add some life to your processor.

MIS645Ultra/2.4G A-Pent/2*Corsair 256MBit CL2-2-2-7XMSLLPT PC3200 DDR RAM/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Wes-Dig/1*20Gig 7200 Hitachi Disk/GeF3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz.

 

[Crashman]

If you replace your motherboard:
1.) You'll have to replace your RAM
2.) You'll be stuck at 533 bus (or slightly higher if you overclock) until you get a newer CPU.

So replacing your board is looking more like a system replacement.

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