Doing Some Upgrades, Any Suggestions?

[FryGuy]

With games like Doom3 and Half-Life 2 that run like shit on my computer I've decided to do some upgrading.



Here's what I have:



Motherboard- Epox 8rda+

CPU- AMD Athlon XP 1900+/266 FSB Processor CPU

Video Card- Albatron nVidia Geforce FX Model FX5200P 128MB DDR

Ram- 2x Crucial 512mb DDR





Here's what I'm thinking about upgrading to:



Motherboard- MSI K8N-Neo

CPU- Athlon 64 3000+, 512MB L2 Cache

Video Card-Albatron nVidia GeForce FX5700 256MB DDR





Anyone have any suggestions for improvements? I'm lookin in the $400-500 range and the setup I'm thinkin about comes to about $400.

[Fried Rice2003]

U really don;t need it except for the motherboard...the one ur looking at isn;t exactly the best in the world.



I'ed get one with a 133 mHz buss and compatible with scsi and raid drives/devices...makes a BIG differince



I got a comp with about the same specs as urs (except mother board) and it runs faster than my dad's which is a brand new gateway with a 2.8 gHz processor in it



The video card is deffinitially worth it tho

[yoaliens3000]

imo, you picked a good choice on the motherboard, if you into overclocking, that board is pretty stable afaik. the MSI K8N NEO PLATINUM is a good board, im not sure the one you are looking at is the "platinum" verison.



you should definitely think about getting the 3200+ clawhammer. with the right memory, im sure you can get that processor up to 2400mhz(240x10) with that motherboard.



and i think you should get a radeon 9700 pro instead of that motherboard... a 5200 to a 5700 isnt really much of an upgrade... having 256mb aposed to 128mb isnt really worth it. you will see minimal differences.



what about memory, what kind are you getting?

[MattMan]

go for at LEAST 2 gigs of RAM, it's the cheapest way to get the most out of what else you've got



also, the video card isn't really worth it, but the mobo and processor sounds like a good idea

[Sam!]

RAM at a gig or RAM at two gigs doesn't really matter.. I'd just get at least a gig.

[Skye]

If this is a homework machine...then I'd say get 512MB of ram.

If this is a gaming machine...then no less than 512MB of ram, recommended 1GB.

[yoaliens3000]

2gigs of ram is totally not worth it.

[FryGuy]

I already have a gig of Ram.

[yoaliens3000]

Originally posted by FryGuy@Nov 2 2004, 05:04 PM

I already have a gig of Ram.

u might already know this... but now im wondering bc of what you just said and because you didnt say what kind of ram you need...



you need pc3200 memory for athlon64. i assume you have pc2100 sence you have a 1900+. you cant use that memory.



or maybe you could use it but it definitely wouldnt run at its full potential. so that would be pointless.

[Onigami]

If u want a better graphics card, than u must get a new motherboard due to the buses that u currently have. The Geforce Fx5200 u hav is probably a PCI card, what u want is an AGP card or one of the ultra new, ultra awasome but ultra expensive PCI-E cards. Or, and this is risky, you could invest in a couple of liquid heluim coolants and over clock the hell out of your graphic card frequencies.

[FryGuy]

Well since PCI-E mobos and video cards are sooo fucking expensive I'm gonna wait a year or so until the prices come down. And you're right, if it isn't PCI-E it should be AGP and that's what I have already. I'm also against doing major overclocking, I'd rather my components have a longer life than have a few extra frames per second in a game.



After doing some searching I'm thinking I'm just gonna throw in a AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Barton. Along with a ATI Raedeon 6600 PRO. There's like a $300 difference between the 6600 and the 6800, with minimal fps improvement. I might possibly throw in another gig of RAM just for a little extra oommph...