Fellas WTB (Upgrade Help!!!!)

[~M@kaveli~]

Ppl I lost as to what to buy, The specs on my PC now are below -
Athlon XP 2000+
MSI nForce 2 K7N2 MOBO
512MB DDR 266Mhz
64MB 440MX Gfx ETC
So I thinking if it would be wise to go to a
ATI 9800 Pro  
Athlon XP 3000+ 333Mhz, and maybe 512 - 1GB DDR 400Mhz memory  
OR maybe go Athlon 64 3000, MSI NEO 2 Platium MOBO, 512MB DDR 400Mhz, AGP Ge Force 6600GT or a ATI X700 Gfx Card.

Wah allyuh think?? Any useful input would be Appreciated.
Bless                    

[Rampage]

go with the 6600gt
and a athlon 64 instead of a normal xp 3000+                    

[unforgiven]

the x700 gfx card is pci express only ....your main board need to have to support if u using that                    

[W1nTry]

So I thinking if it would be wise to go to a
ATI 9800 Pro
Athlon XP 3000+ 333Mhz, and maybe 512 - 1GB DDR 400Mhz memory
OR maybe go Athlon 64 3000, MSI NEO 2 Platium MOBO, 512MB DDR 400Mhz, AGP Ge Force 6600GT or a ATI X700 Gfx Card.

Ok... I agree with Rampage to some degree... go Athl0n 64 for sure... however maybe A64 3200 (939, 90nm), I think thats a real sweet spot for a processor. Consider another mobo, one with the nForce 4 Ultra chipset maybe a Chaintech VNF4/Ultra or whatever MSI or Asus variant there is...
Also that chipset will be PCI express so the cards will be a lil cheaper than the AGP variant, and just to note, the MSI Neo Plat is more expensive than that chaintech whereas the chaintech will offer PCI Express and SATA 2. So it cost less with more performance.. a win win situation really. With luck the price difference will be enough to cover the overhead on the A64 3200.

I agree with  the 6600GT... although... I myself was thinking 6800 Standard (12 pipes for about 270US 128Mb version, or 335US for the MSI 256MB version). Ur prolly better off with the 6600GT which is about 50-100 US less....depending on brand.

I would also say definitely go 1GB, take advantage of the dual on die memory controller. Esp with the level of graphics u'll have, you'll want the memory...                    

[Czar]

Totally agree with w1nTry here...right on the money imo.                    

[~M@kaveli~]

Ok fellas thanks for the input so far, but as far as a ATI gfx card what would be a good buy right now in a AGP card?? And this is the board I was thinkin about MSI MOBO                    

[W1nTry]

Yeah well, it doesn't make sense to buy into old technology. The mobo I was talking about is Chaintech Mobo you can compare the specs, you'll see that this board's specs are comparable and BETTER, for a lower price. Also there are no AGP X700 cards as far as I know and there will be none anytime too soon, PLUS they are going to do away with the X700 soon anyways, so it really doesn't make sense to go with that card. If anything you will have to go X800 for AGP and thats still RARE and much more expensive.                    

[~M@kaveli~]

Thanks, The only thing with that board is that its PCI-X and I think I can just go with a AGP board for now cause the PCI-X cards alil to expensive but the chaintech look good. So I will still look and see what else allyuh suggest                    

[TrinireturnofGamez]

i suggest you wait another 3-4 months, till then get a nice GFX  card for AGP ( 9600 pro ,9700 etc) that you can sell over, prices are gonna drop alot, will save you at least 2x the cost of a vid card .                    

[thrillseeker]

i doh know but like me i built up myself a semi-average system
cause i got my parts sponsered and had to buy in a big store (CompUsa)...so i got as cheap but somewhat good

here are my specs :

Amd Athlon XP 3000+; FSB 333mhz
COSAIR TWINX512-3200C2 [DUAL CHANNEL] 256MB X2 (512MB TOTAL)
ATI RADEON 9600 ALL-IN-WONDER
MSI KM4AM-L MOBO
120gb HDD MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX PLUS 9 SATA 120GB (150MB/s)

(upgrading to newer model memory 1gb soon)

***but basically my advice is stick with wat u have for d while...maybe change graphics........alot of stuff to be released this year...and then wat hot now would get cheaper...dat wat i doing right now.....
doh know if u go follow my way but is just an opinion                    

[TriniXaeno]

excellent advice W1ntry!!

makavelli, the PCI Express cards are CHEAPER than their AGP counterpart so don't let that deter you from a PCI Express mobo.

My only concern is the quality of chaintech products. Unlike Biostar, as a "value" brand, chaintech's products have not stood the test of time in my personal experience.

Trini, buying a cheap card now and reselling it for "small money" isn't going to gain you anything at all. Prices will always be falling on vid cards, always...so you aren't getting ahead of the curve with that strategy.

Going for the best price/performance part at any time of purchase is still simply the best rule of thumb for anyone on a budget.

If you've won lotto, then you buy the best of the best, irregardless of cost.

Standing orders.                    

[Synth]

Wait a bit for PCI-E a64 mobo then

Get the cheapest a64 cpu for it then

Get a radeon X800XL.


If you must buy now:

Athlon64 3000/3200 + Cheapest 939 mobo + 6600GT (AGP).


@ Baego - I totally agree. Its pointless worrying about future upgradability nowadays. And waste buying top end of anything.                    

[~M@kaveli~]

Yea fellas, making sense I figure I will wait (if i could) maybe a month again. By that time to I will save some more money up to help buy the parts.                    

[W1nTry]

Just a note, but its worth waiting on the revision of the 90nm A64's as they are supposed to add SSE 3 instruction support, a stepping revision as well as change over the entire line to 90nm which consumes a significantly lowered amount of power and operates at a lower temperature. But thats just a thought... that may not happen till end of Q2 when Win 64 launches... up to you.                    

[TriniXaeno]

and then it will be worth waiting for the next revision, due out two quarters after that, which will add more *insert technical jargon here* and increase the *insert more technical jargon here*

Wash rinse and repeat.

Nice note though. Heat is an issue for me and anything on the radar that lowers it, the better.

lol                    

[Synth]

a64s and xp already run "cool". Well at least by Intel standards.

Die shrinks do not equate automatically to lesser heat if just because the surface area to apply cooling to, becomes smaller as well. The main heat lowering (if any) comes from the reduced voltage needed to power the smaller dies.

SSE3 or whatever ISNT a reason to wait for 99% of people. Neither the potential cooling benefits.

They are in the end all minor tweaks at best.

Intel will always run these instructions faster than a comparable athlon due to higher clock speed. So the additional benefit to athlons will not be on the same level.

Nonetheless the increases are cumulative and until AMD get there act together on the mhz, its something to tide the hardcore AMD fans over with.                    

[W1nTry]

A64's run cool, AXP's are not all made equal... I can safely say that having owned at least 3 of them and worked with many more they do not all run cool. Also most improvements are all marginable a lil here a lil there, but in the end it all adds up, true its not the ONLY reason one should have for waiting for said features, however the die shrink also has inherent better  (even if small) performance from the reviews i've seen (3500+ 13nm to 9nm comparison) and it does consume less power which in todays systems with ur GPU eating up in excess of 90Watts is a good benifit to have. And also AMD will catch up in clock cause last I checked the FX-55 was beating intel in some encoding benchs which is for AMD a first in a long time. Oh also I hear those 3200+ (90nm) overclock with stock cooling by a great amount... i'd say thats a good enough reason to get a 90nm chip.                    

[TrinireturnofGamez]

besides , later this  year ( Q2 ) Intel is supposed to release its dual cores for the desktop and 64 bit prescotts.... and some optimizations to cool their P4s , decreased power consumption by 15 watts , etc. etc. If microsoft can patch windows to utilise dual cores, it will be more than worth the money ( $225 for a 2.8ghz Dual core ) .
     imagine having one cpu  unzip a 1 gb file at full speed, and another to play a game.. its all supposed to be possible due to intel's and AMDS 'virtual machine' software .                    

[W1nTry]

Even so, dual core will fall into the strict enthusiast markerts replacing the P4 Extremely expensive edition and the A64 FX... so it would not be in the normal persons price range... when they do drop the dual core cpus.. it would make sense to get the single core A64 as the prices should drop a bit.. besides why would I want a dual core P4 that operates at say... MAYBE 120W compared to an A64 which would be substantially less... also a Prescott with EMT64 come on man... no 64-bit extensions... I want a native 64-bit solution. You've let me down Trini... (from an @MD fan point of view)                    

[TrinireturnofGamez]

The intels are supposed to release in the DESKTOP MAINSTREAM market first, with a 2.8ghz dual core going for 225 USD MSRP , 335 for a 3ghz, 445 for a 3.2 . AMDs 64 bit is also just an exenstion , you forget AMD and intel share research , if intel wanted to , they can start making A64s themselves...