a small delimma...

ir_efrem

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my current system is a Duron 900mhz 512mb (pc133)
voodoo3 video card (my newer card died and i had to fall back to this one)
concidering the age of my system not much needs to be said about the exact details...

as of this moment this computer actually does play the games i want it to..
but at the same time its showing its age very badly

i have in another computer (emachines, gag) a celeron 2.7 with 512mb of PC2100 - what i want to do is upgrade my duron system to something a little more usable - my upgrade options are get a new motherboard/power supply/video card for the celeron processor - or just start from scratch and perhaps just filch the memory outta the emachines

perhaps you can tell from my statements so far that my budget is very limited
so im kinda leaning towards a socket 754 if im going to start from scratch
esp concidering the price/performance ratio

but concidering budget/performance ratio the celeron in a new mobo might be a tad better

my question here is such, would using the celeron be *that* much of a performance gain over the duron (besides adding in the upgraded video card)

at this moment the duron just seems to plain run better - benchmarks aside

i know emachines are complete crap - so mabey some one with some hands on knowledge about these cpus and how crappy emachines are would shed a little light on this small dilemma of mine

dont bother with comments on new greatest/best hardware - i simply cannot afford it - dont really care about the best either - i never play any games above 1024x768 sometimes even less - my poor vision is the cause of this, things in alot of games get smaller when reso is bumped up
also not to mention i dont play ANY first person games at all - mmo's mostly some telnet (which doesnt need any kind of CPU/vid card) some straight RPGs - im looking at the now, what i could use to get me by etc etc
btw im not much of an intel fan the emachines was $200 and was a get me by complete system for cheap heh
i got the itch to upgrade (i know you can see why) just dont wanna waste to money if i dont have to

thanks in advance for your comments.......
 

endyen

Splendid
If that celeron uses a 133/533 fsb, it would be okay. That would make it a celeron D. If it uses a 100/400 fsb, it's a celery, not a processor at all.
If it's a "D" get an abit IS7 board, and a new gfx card. though you will have to go agp.
 

slvr_phoenix

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Dec 31, 2007
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Basically? You're screwed. Reusing any of your old hardware isn't going to make your life better. You've got to start over from scratch here.

Some people will say "don't go with socket754 because it's going away", but to that I say fudgesicles. 1) Obviously you're not the kind of person to do much upgrading anyway, so who cares what your upgrade path is or isn't? 2) Socket939 isn't going to end up living much longer than socket754 anyway.

So all in all, I'd really suggest that you scrape up what money you can, and build yourself a system from the best low-end (by today's standards) parts that you can afford. That, or just buy a 'new' (refurb, clearance, whatever) complete system.

And if in your search for a new box you find a system with the keywords "Celeron" or "Extreme Graphics", kick the salesman in the nads and move on to something better.
 
"Socket939 isn't going to end up living much longer than socket754 anyway" - you have a good point there, just thinking paying out a few small extra dollars (if any) will give em an extra mem channel to work with and should allow a cheap X2 (if they ever get cheap) way later down the track.
 

ir_efrem

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after much searching i think ive settled on a socket 754 dtr chip
theres a decent overclocking ability with this chip from what ive read
price seems to fall in line pretty well, plus 1mb of L2 cache(yes i know that some heat sink retention mods need to be done)

i might even go with one of them snazy mobo's that have the future socket upgrade um ... asrock makes em... thats it

part of me says why bother worry'n about future upgrades, in all likelyhood when i upgrade again neither socket 754 or 939 will be used. but i might be a little more likely to upgrade if all i need is a daughterboard
again the price is right on this mobo as well

my HD's both 7200rpm drives will more than likely make the move along with my optical drives

if i can afford it i want to try to get something in the 6600 family
by the time late january hits hopefully everything im looking at will have droped in price a lil more...
 
Last time i waited for something to drop in price it disopeared lol

Wouldnt bother with the asrock board - i have a feeling they will stuff up the compatibility or max capable performance of it or something
 

K8MAN

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If u get a sckt 754 3700+ you will get the performance of a 4000+ for much less money. They might still have that $230 3700+/mobo deal on newegg....
 

ir_efrem

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well dtr chip can be had for $115 (give or take a couple bucks)

i can prolly get a fairly good mobo for $50 (doesnt have to be feature rich - i have zero plans on using most newer features, sata, firewire, etc etc)

looking at about $75 for a vid card

thats $240

im sure that i will get alot of use out of this settup, like i said it dont need to be the best - just need to get the best outta my money (which is rather low right now)