Where to get best gain fro the buck? CPU or MB?

[DaveZeb]

Ok, I have in my budget the cash to either upgrade my processor to 850 on my BE-6, max speed for the board, or motherboard. Obviously there would be a guaranteed gain from going to an 850, but I wonder if in the long-run, you know, 6 months to a year, it's even worth it.

The reason I think about a motherboard instead is that with my current BE-6, I only have AGPx1, while my geForce2 GTS can handle 4x. As well, I can't overclock my chip very much as it only has adjustible ratio's on the IDE multiplier, not the AGP as well, thus my max is 560mhz, while I believe the chip is capable of more. The question arrises, of course, is it worth spending money on a slot1 MB for any reason right now, with DDR memory soon to be the norm, and the new more powerful chip designs........

Anwyay, if you had $225, what would you do? Buy the CPU, get a new MB, or keep the money in the bank and do a heartier upgrade in the near future.

btw, I primarily use my system for gaming, might be good to keep that in mind.

Thanks much!


here's my box:
PIII 500 (sometimes run @ 560)
NEW: 256MB Crucial pc100
WD 18GB 7200 ATA66
Maxtor 20GB 7200 ATA66
ABIT BE-6
Soundblaster Live! Platinum
ASUS GeForce2 GTS 32MB
Panasonic HV DVD
Acer CD-RW 32x4x4
3COM NIC
WIN98

 

[Arrow]

Why not go for a Duron and board combo?

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[Ncogneto]

Are you strongly commited to an Intel processor? seems like your board should do agp 2x. Not much difference in 2x to 4x at all so don't sweat that. A duron/t-bird is a nice alternative but you would want to go to pc-133 memory as well for maximum benefits, this is true for a I815 motherboard as well although the Ram you have can run in it if you set it up in bios.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[Crashman]

I would get the PIII 700 FC-PGA and a slotket. That way, you can try overclocking to 133FSB (your vid card should handle it) and get 933 on the cheap, and you'll have an FC-PGA processor handy if you ever do upgrade to a newer board. The Abit SlotketIII is avialable for $10 on Pricewatch and the PIII 700 FC-PGA for $130 ($142 in a retail box).

Suicide is painless...........