upgrading my cpu and motherboard

[zemuron]

I'm looking into buying the best cpu and mother board for my comp.

Right now my cpu is a P4 1.60GHZ and I have a ASUS P4B motherboard.

I don't want any choppy framerate for my games. I use my comp mostly for games and to go on the net.

Can some suggest me the best cpu and motherboard? What's the most powerful cpu and motherboard?

 

[Carnecerro]

Any idea how much you are looking to spend? The "best" CPUs on the market currently run about $750 for the Athlon64 FX-51 and $950 for the Pentium 4 EE 3.2. Mobos for these chips can run $100 to $250. You need to have a clue for what you want to spend because you are probably going to need ram and a new vid card to see a high performance increase.

 

[markgun]

I don't want any choppy framerate for my games. I use my comp mostly for games and to go on the net.

What's your current video card? You'll still get choppy framerates if you're using something like a GFFX 5200 with the fastest CPU available.

<b>Qui habet aures audiendi audiat</b>

 

[zemuron]

Currently these are my specs:

P4 1.60GHZ
Audigy 2 zs platinum pro
Radeon 9700 pro
768mb of ram

I'm playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City and sometimes it gets choppy. I want to COMPLETLY STOP choppy framerate in my single player games. For GTA VC I installed the no-cd crack and I still sometimes get choppy framerate. So it's maybe my cpu that is too slow. I will spend WHATEVER I need to spend. I just want to COMPLETLY stop choppy framerate in my games.

 

[jammydodger]

Well you could get:
Radeon 9800XT
P4 3.2EE
Abit IC7-Max3
2x74g WD raptor drives in RAID 0
1GB OCZ PC4400 gold

But we are talking huge ammounts of money here for a system that wont perform much better than one that will cost you half the ammount.

GTA3 and vice city are PS2 ports as far as I know, which means that the run slowly because they are not optimised for PC's, a faster CPU will help this game but for most others the graphics card is the important thing.

[Insert witty comment here]

 

[pauldh]

Well, your Willamette P4 paired with PC133 SDRAM is honestly very slow. Honestly, Your not really any better off than TBird 1.2GHZ or PIII 1.0GHZ systems. I only say this to caution you into not going way overboard thinking you need the very fastest chip money can buy. Any system I mention below will absolutely blow your system away. Anyway, Your Video card will not needed to be upgraded as it is still considered high end.

Since money is no object I'll rule out the NF2/ XP2500+. IT is a great value! But since you want a FAST CPU and almost any cost, the faster Athlon Xp's make no sense as P4's offer much better performance for the same price.

You have two reasonable alternatives that offer much better performance. Basically, you want either a Pentium 4 i865pe or i875 motherboard with at least a 2.8C processor. Look only at the "C" chips. The 2.8C is the best value in a P4 now, but it sounds like you are a candidate for a 3.0C or 3.2C. Mind you, you are paying a premium for a little boost in performance.

Next option is the Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ chips. Without considering the super expensive P4 EE or the Ahtlon 64 FX 51, these are currently offering the most speed for gamers and a bonus of having a 64bit chip. Problem with these is that there will soon be a new socket 939 version with new chipsets and better motherboards. I know I will be waiting until probably June let these new options come out before I go the Athlon 64 route. They are fast for gaming. But if I may use a little sportscar comparison, it would be like buying a new Corvette in July for full price, when you already know that the next model is soon coming out sporting many improvements. Tough to justify. But since you mentioned it is for Games, An A64 really will currently win the drag races against all but the exotics. ie, most gaming speed in the sub $300 CPU range. But it won't be as polished and nice to own as some of the other choices that are 1-2 car lengths behind. Forgive the analogy, It just seemed to make sense right now. There are other areas that the Pentium 4's are faster than the A64, but gaming isn't one of them.

I can't really recommend an Athlon 64 motherboard for you as I am avoiding them for now. But the ABit IS7 is an outstanding 800 bus Pentium 4 motherboard that is fast and stable. I have built many of these systems and they never have dissappointed me once, nor have I had one come cack with any issues needing my attention. That is worth $$$ right there. The Abit NF7-S is a great choice if you want to save some money and buy an Athlon XP/ NF2 system. But for you, only go this route to save money and if you are willing to overclock for some more free speed. With either of these, you want to go with some good PC3200 or higher dual channel DDR.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[redface]

Since money is not the issue. Get a 2.8C with 875PE chipset, 1GB of DDR533 and a case with phase change cooling and OC the hell out of it.

A fine day!

 

[zemuron]

I think I'm going to get the ABit IS7

But now I can't decide if I should get a 2.8C a 3.0C or 3.2C cpu. Will future games, maybe next year. Will they need a 3.2C cpu?

Will my Dimm memory sticks fit in the ABit IS7 motherboard? I already have 768mb of ram.

Oh and I played Call of Duty in single player with the same specs and sometimes the framerate was droping. Graphics and sound where at full. Is my cpu causing these drops in framerate?

 

[jammydodger]

The performance difference between a 2.8 and a 3.2 is diffinatly not worth the money. Your graphics card will be far more important than your CPU. Just make sure you get the C version on the 2.8 and for the love of God dont get a 2.8e

If you want you could even over clock the 2.8 a little, apparently they overclock pretty reliably on stock cooling. As long as you dont go mad.
My recommendation:
Abit IS7 or AI7
P4 2.8c
Geil 2x256Mb PC3500/3700

BTW I think the RAM you have in you current motherboard is SD RAM, if this is the case if wont work in your new MB (no matter which MB you get). Anyway even if you could use it PC133 has a thoertical bandwidth of 1064Mb/sec compare that with the 6400Mb/sec bandwidth you can get with dual channel DDR400.

[Insert witty comment here]

 

[zemuron]

Wow a Abit IS7 is just 90$ US? And a Intel Pentium 4 w/ HT Technology - 2.8C GHz Processor is only $179.00US sweet

What's the pin size of the memory you recommend. I'm trying to do a google search and I can't find the price.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Zemuron on 03/17/04 05:26 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[jammydodger]

What you want is 2 matched 256MB DIMMs, this allows you to use the memory in dual channel mode (twice the speed). Ok if your going to overclock you want PC3500 or faster, if not the get some PC3200. Cosair, OCZ, Kingston and Geil all do high performance memory as well as selling matched pairs speciafically for dual channel boards.
I live in the UK so I cant really link you to any US sites because I dont know any.

[Insert witty comment here]

 

[pauldh]

Corsair, Geil, and Crucial have all worked well in Dual channel for me on an IS7.

If you don't want to overclock than these have worked very well and are priced low.

<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-144-512&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-144-512&depa=0</A>

I agree with jd that if you are at all considering overclcocking, buy PC3500 or faster as that geil PC3200 (DDR400) seems to max out around 204fsp (408MHz) setting when i tried it. For Intel P4C oc'in, I'd lean toward PC4000 and up as you really want to keep that 1:1 cpu/ram ratio.

And the 2.8C is a much better deal than a 3.2 now. Everyone is different, but i hate spending alot more for a small performance increase. I'd ratrher put that extra money into buying 1GB ram kit instead. Anyway, don't go 3.4C at least, way to overpriced. You could always buy the higher speed ram so you can OC someday, or maybe even upgrade the CPU way down the road instead if they are still available and the prices fall bigtime. The performance difference with an IS7/2.8C compared to your current setup is night/day.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[pauldh]

Oops, forgot. get a real IS7 not an IS7-E. Priced so close, the plain IS7 outfeatures the lighter E model.

<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-155&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-155&depa=0</A>

Last thought and only warning about an IS7. You may not be happy with the integrated sound. Usually gamers want to avoid it anyway as integrated sound robs performance. But you may find some background noise in the integrated sound. I have always used an Audigy 2 or Santa cruz, but a friend of mine tried the onboard and had some weird noises that could be heard during mouse clicks and such. real annoying. His problems went away with a $31 SB live 5.1. Just a warning, so you budget a little for an SBLive!, Audigy 2, SantaCruz, etc. You'd be better off in a gaming rig just going that route anyway.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[zemuron]

Like I said above when I listed my specs. I already have a audigy. It's a audigy 2 zs platinum pro.

So should I still buy an IS7 motherboard? Huge gamer here remember. I don't want crap. But I still don't want to go to much overboard.

 

[pauldh]

Shoot, my bad. I checked your initial post, but missed your system specs down lower. So the IS7's biggest downfall won't matter to you. Good deal. Not sure if it is still the case, but all the plain IS7 mobos I have bought have come with the 3Comm gigabit ethernet like the G model as an unadvertised added bonus. Not sure if you still get that lucky now.



ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[zemuron]

Will upgraging my cpu, motherboard and memory to the ones you guys recommended. And with the audigy 2 zs platinum pro and the 9700 pro. Will there still be noticable framerate drops sometimes with max graphics, sound settings in the single player mode in games being released?

I was thinking maybe there will still be noticable drops of framerate because of a game not being fully optimized even with the best rig.

 

[pauldh]

I don't think even the very best video card... the 9800XT, can play every game at max resolution and details and remain playable. But with your card you'll be much better off than most people.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[blah]

me personally would stay away from Abit, especially IS7.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[pauldh]

Blah, why do you say that?

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[zemuron]

I don't think you guys understood. Not just with the best video card. But with the best sound card, memory, cpu etc (the best gaming rig). Will there still be noticlable drop in framerate in the new single player games?

 

[endyen]

Wth an A64-FX53 and a Radeon 9800XT, maybe only a little.

 

[jammydodger]

Why would you stay away from the IS7?

[Insert witty comment here]

 

[Unolocogringo]

Some games are coded poorly. So no matter what comp you have it will still lag somewhat, If you turn all graphics detail to max.



I aint signing nothing!!!

 

[zemuron]

"me personally would stay away from Abit, especially IS7."

Why stay away from it?

 

[endyen]

Maybe cause he's Blah,, doesn't like performance.