Upgrade

[jlpicard1413]

I want to upgrade my system ... currently I have a lowly Athlon T'bird 1.33 GHz with 512MB PC2100 (266MHz) DDR RAM on an FIC AD11 motherboard ... and several other things attached. The graphics card I have is a Gainward "Golden Sample" Geforce 4 Ti4800SE. I am going to upgrade the motherboard, CPU and memory (on a budget of £250).... the new mobo would be a Gigabyte GA - K8NS (or K8NS Pro) with nForce 3 250 Chipset, an AMD 64 3000+ CPU and 2x256 (or 1 x 512MB) Corsair Value Select PC3200 DDR RAM. My intention is to keep my current graphics card. This is because I think I would have to invest a further £150 in a new graphics card to really notice a difference over the Ti 4800 .. albeit a Geforce 4 and not FX ... what I want someone to tell me is that although Geforce 4 is Direct 8 and FX is Direct X 9 that the Ti 4800 will be OK for a while longer ... and will give good performance with the above CPU and memory ...can anyone help on this please?
Thanks
JLP

 

[Coyote]

For good performance in today's games (ex. Doom 3 & Far Cry) you need to upgrade both (cpu/mobo/ram and graphics card).

If it were me, I'd go ahead with the 64 bit cpu upgrade now and save for a future vid card purchase. No need to put better vid card in the current rig. I think it would be too "bottle necked" by the cpu.

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
Win2K sp4

 

[Schmide]

Assuming exchange rates and comparable purchase power, I would say your best $450 (£250) upgrade, with the most FPS for the buck, would be.

EDIT: REMOVED SEE BELOW (6600GT $208 (£115) (Hard to find but performs about 15% less than a 6800))

ATI RADEON 9800 Pro (128 MB) $200 (£111)
Athlon 64 3000 $145 (£80)
A64 Cooler $20 (£11)
<A HREF="http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=67&page=1" target="_new">DFI K8M800-MLV</A> $84 (£47) (Cheap mATX with IEEE/SATARAID and crappy integrated graphics. NF3 boards can be found for 15% more)
Old Ram (loose 10-20% CPU performance and may not work (but that’s a very small possibility))

$449 (£249) but it will probably end up costing much more across the pond.

You need to have a good Power supply with a 4pin ATX power connector or if you think your PSU is powerful enough 350w+, a $10 adaptor may do.

Dichromatic for your viewing plesure...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Schmide on 10/17/04 10:04 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[endyen]

Looks like a good plan to me. Your Ti card still plays well enough. You might want to see if you can find a person to take your old stuff off your hands. You might be able to get enough to get an R9800pro.

 

[DonnieDarko]

the 6600gt is only pci-e for right now. So if he wanted that card he'd have to go with intel and a lga775 mobo.

Watch out for the <b><font color=red>bloody</font color=red></b> Fanboys!

AMD64 2800+ :: MSI Neo-Fis2r :: 1024mb Kingmax ddr400 :: Sapphire 9800pro 128mb :: 10K WD Raptor

Addicted, finally.

 

[Schmide]

No wonder its so hard to find. Guess I'm a dumbass of the class. LOL

Dichromatic for your viewing plesure...

 

[jlpicard1413]

So my current 300 watt PSU won't be much use?
JLP

 

[RichPLS]

Actually, that would be DD

_____________________________________________
<font color=red> And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign </font color=red>

 

[RichPLS]

Maybe if you have a good quality 300 watt, it would be minimal. You could try and see if stable.

_____________________________________________
<font color=red> And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign </font color=red>