Small budget for a small upgrade...

[amd_03]

I have a pretty small budget, but I really need to upgrade parts on my computer. The main two things are the hard drives and the graphics card. I have a MSI KT4V motherboard with a AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (at 1.8GHz) and 1.5 Gb SDRAM. My two hard drives are Western Digital, main one is 40Gb and secondary is 80Gb. The secondary sometimes turns on when the computer turns on and sometimes doesn't. The videocard is a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128Mb. Basically I need some advice on two new hard drives and an AGP 8x video card. I am leaning towards Seagate for the drives, and I could go either ATI or Nvidia for the video card. I need the drives to be IDE and the card to be AGP 8x. Thanks.

 

[shadowduck]

I have a pretty small budget, but I really need to upgrade parts on my computer. The main two things are the hard drives and the graphics card. I have a MSI KT4V motherboard with a AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (at 1.8GHz) and 1.5 Gb SDRAM. My two hard drives are Western Digital, main one is 40Gb and secondary is 80Gb. The secondary sometimes turns on when the computer turns on and sometimes doesn't. The videocard is a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128Mb. Basically I need some advice on two new hard drives and an AGP 8x video card. I am leaning towards Seagate for the drives, and I could go either ATI or Nvidia for the video card. I need the drives to be IDE and the card to be AGP 8x. Thanks.

Seagate will sell you 200GB IDE hard drives for arond $90 at Newegg..

Video Card: 6800ish $150ish

 

[MrsD]

I recommend upgrading your whole computer when you have the money. It's not worth throwing money into an old junker. You can get western digitals 250gb, 16mb cache for $95 at newegg but they are sata. You board doesnt have sata ports. Then throw in another $150-200 to upgrade your video card. Probably will need to upgrade your power supply as well......do you see where im going with this?

 

[amd_03]

I have a 500 watt power supply in the system. Sorry I forgot that. It wouldn't be a waste if I upgraded this because I would probably use it for something else (i.e. a linux box or a server) after I make a new system. I am planning on making a new system by the end of this summer after I generate enough funds. I am liking the Nvidia GeForce 6800 GPU, specifically the Asus N6800/TD/512M. It has 128Mb more memory than my current card and is clocked faster. It also has 12 pipelines while mine has 4. So I would assume that this card is a pretty good step forward compared to my current card. I think I will go for Seagate drives unless anyone can suggest something else. Thanks.

 

[parlee]

agreed. if u feel the need to waste money, dont get faster than a 6600gt... anything else is just bottlenecking the entire system, meaning a waste of money... also if one of ur hd's "sometimes turns on" then either the drive is messed or the psu is crap, if this 500 watt psu was under 40 bux... its crap. and for the asus 6800, dont get it... if i remember right it has a 128bit interface, meaning the regular 6800's will be faster 99% of the time, 512 memory isnt used in most games today, and at the settings ud be using its deff not going to be used. 6600gt, compusa had/has and 80gb harddrive for 10 bux... i think 90 for a new hd is a bit too much if ur just gonna upgrade later, and wont want to use the ide drive in ur new comp with sata... id say go for a 160... dont get 2 drives its cheaper/more efficent to get 1 big drive... hope that helps

 

[amd_03]

Alright, so if I get a card that has 128Mb of memory and 256-bit memory interface is that good? The Apollo 6800 128-RD-COD2 is the card that I am looking at then. Its only a couple of dollars more than the other card that I was looking at, and it comes with Call of Duty 2. And I see what you are saying about only getting one big drive. I am used to having a small(er) main drive and then a added on a large drive. I have never used a hard drive larger than 80Gb. Honestly I don't know which brand is better - Western Digital or Seagate. I have used WD drives for as long as I have used my computer. Also I have heard that with larger drives there are gigabytes that are "lost" due to something with the operating system, will this happen with a 160 gig? Thanks.

 

[shadowduck]

Alright, so if I get a card that has 128Mb of memory and 256-bit memory interface is that good? The Apollo 6800 128-RD-COD2 is the card that I am looking at then. Its only a couple of dollars more than the other card that I was looking at, and it comes with Call of Duty 2. And I see what you are saying about only getting one big drive. I am used to having a small(er) main drive and then a added on a large drive. I have never used a hard drive larger than 80Gb. Honestly I don't know which brand is better - Western Digital or Seagate. I have used WD drives for as long as I have used my computer. Also I have heard that with larger drives there are gigabytes that are "lost" due to something with the operating system, will this happen with a 160 gig? Thanks.

As long as you have 48-bit drive addressing turned on (default in XP SP1, a registry key in 2000/XP Pre SP1) the full 160GB (minus space lost from formatting) will show up. Otherwise you will only see 127GB of the drive.

 

[parlee]

SP2 recognizes it automatically too... western digital is a very good brand, if u know them id go with em... link me for that applo... if it has a 256 bit interface id say go for it, also whats the price?

 

[amd_03]

You can try this link. If not just copy and paste the part number I used above into the search on Newegg.com. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814140070
It's $175

 

[parlee]

i was actually lookign at that card instead of my 7800... i decided to get the 7800 but at the time that card was only 150... its a good deal still IMO, it should overclock to gt speeds and MAYBE unlock the other 4 pipelines, even if u dont its still a pretty fast card, especially for the price

 

[mdd1963]

If gaming, I'd just slap in an 6600GT, x850XT, or 6800GT (6800GS is a bit slow for most agp renditions, being clocked a full 100 MHz or so slower on teh gpu/mem clocks) and call it a day.....

vastly faster than a 9600Pro...

(faster drives will load levels faster, but, comparing 23 seconds to 28 seconds is not really a huge perceived difference....; save the drive money for when you get a Conroe mianboard!)

 

[Bear_San]

I was thinking about putting money into an AGP system too... I decided against it and built a completely new computer for 1500. I'm glad I just decided to bite the bullet and go all out. Point being: Stick with the old machine, and save up. Or, buy the parts as you get the money. If you see that half built dream machine of yours sitting in the corner, you be more inclined to finish it then to get the newest MMORPG (which I don't condone in the first place) and try to play it on your old comp.