System Upgrade

NeilV

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Oct 3, 2006
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Hi All,
Hoping you can help me, my systems spec is as follows;

P4 650 OC'd to 4.08Ghz
Asus P5P800S Mobo
1.5 Gb OCZ DDR OC'd at the same %
Sparkle Geforce 7600GS 512Mb (AGP)
SATA II 250Gb HDD

I am looking to improve my system, the Hardest workout my system gets at the moment is Oblivion which is NOT on Max graphics and still chuggs a bit at times & also has some graphics issues on occasions.

Is there a bottle neck in my system? I am inclined to replace the 7600 as this has V.Slow ram and cannot be OC'd by very much, but AGP cards are V. Expensive (well they are in the UK). I don't have a large budget right no so I considered a Dual Graphics slot & Memory MOBO so that I could replace a bit at a time.

Any thought/Ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance :) :)

Neil V
 

Evilonigiri

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Dual graphics slot? Like SLI? There is no SLI for AGP I'll tell you that. And it isn't worth it on your system.

You should save your money for a whole new build. However, if your really want to upgrade, you should upgrade to a better vidcard. The most powerful AGP vidcard is the HD3850, which will cost a lot. The second most powerful is the X1950XT, which takes tons of power and very difficult to find. The 3rd most powerful is the X1950Pro, but it takes up a lot of power. The 4th is the 2600XT, which isn't a huge upgrade over the 7600GS.
 

basketcase

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Yes, a new video card would help, immensely. But, as you said, finding reasonably priced AGP cards that are better than yours is difficult to do. Like the last poster said, there are a few AGP options. I will add a few more... Nvidia 7900 and 7800 series cards are available in AGP. I actually have the 7800 GS, and it isn't a bad card. It would be a bit better than the 7600 that you have, and is a decent OC'er(from what I have heard). Though, finding them new can be difficult. But, there a few on ebay. Otherwise, the 7900 would be even better.

As for a motherboard, I think you are asking for one that has both PCI-e and AGP? Those are pretty hard to find. Most of them use what is called XPG (instead of AGP) and are not all that stable. Most of them only work with certain AGP cards, and their performance is usually gimped on the PCI-e side (usually max of PCI-e 4x, or less). My best advice would be to wait until you can get a good mobo, some DDR2 Ram, a PCI-e video card and a dual core CPU (AMD or Intel would be good). Otherwise you are really throwing money away. If you do a little looking, you could get a decent AMD x2 build together for about $300 (US$).

Good luck!
 

NeilV

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Thanks basketcase, yes I was reffering to AGP & PCie not SLI but I still value you opinion Evilonigiri, I am pleased that you have both identified the Graphics Card as the 'most in need of replacement'. I'm still not that a dual core would be a great improvement as I am still running XP SP2 which is NOW stable. Does XP get the best from dual core or will it be wasted. I've looked at an ASRock or ASUS board with AGP & PCI-e support & DDR/DDR2 support but I'm not sure whether the PCI-e was crippled, thanks for bringing that to my attention.
 

NeilV

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Also on the subject of resonably priced graphics cards I have seen an AGP version of the
256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600XT £63
or
Nvidia GF 7900GS 256MB DDR3 AGP Graphics Card £60
Are either of these worth the money??
 

basketcase

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The 7900 would be a pretty nice upgrade for you. The 2600xt would not be much faster.

How much does £60 in US dollars... is that like $120? If so, that isn't too bad. You really couldn't find a much better deal.

A dual core in itself would be a huge difference, but getting something better than a P4 would be a big help. Dual core helps with multitasking and specifically with programs that are written to utilize more than one CPU. So, even a midrange AMD x2 CPU would be better than what you have. P4's are pretty gimp when it comes to CPUs these days. But, the video card is going to make the biggest difference. Now, the questions you must ask is, do you want to throw money at one more AGP upgrade or wait and upgrade the whole deal. New MOBO, Ram (DDR2), PCI-e video card, etc... You would see more gains going with a low-mid AMD x2, some fast DDR2 ram and an 8600 GT, than you will going to the 7900 that you referenced. How much more, I am not exactly sure, but the full upgrade path would allow you to have future upgrades too, as PCI-e is not going anywhere anytime soon. Plus going to a build like that (assuming you reuse things like PSU, Harddrives, optical drives, case) run you about $300 bucks, depending mainly on what CPU you get.

Hopefully this helps, and didn't confuse you too much. I tend to ramble on this stuff sometimes :)
 

NeilV

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Thanks basketcase, I do see your point but as a family man I don't V. often get £300 in one go. Also I'm looking at the fact that DDR3 is on it's way (or even here!). I know you can go on forever waiting. Yes the £ is about $0.50 but buying over here is normally expensive so components normally work out about £1 to $1 to buy, unless I find a good deal.

Also I only upgraded the P4 about 14 months ago and @ 4.08 Ghz it's doing quite well i.e. Don't tell the Mrs. that I wasted the money when I bought it. LOL. Thanks for your help though, especially on the AGI issue, most of the MOBO's I was looking at were limited to 4x on the PCIe or 1.5V on the AGP equivelent.

Thanks Again

NeilV
 

basketcase

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No problem. And don't get me wrong, I don't think you wasted money on the P4, especially if you bought in over a year ago. It is just going to be a limiting factor with video card upgrades. For example, if you were to get a PCI-e mobo and a 8800 GT (or the like), the P4 will not be quite fast enough to keep info flowing to a GPU like that. The 7900 is probably your best option for an upgrade and you will probably be very happy with it. I think it would be better to get a good, final upgrade to your AGP than it would be to invest in a dual slot mobo. There are some out there that are good, they are just very expensive and hard to find.

I understand the money issue, as I also have a wife who monitors my PC spending very closely. I have to plan my upgrades very well, to get the most of my money.
 

NeilV

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Yes, Upgrades are difficult to justify when things are actually still working at the moment. I tried to be very cautious when I bought the 7600GS in fact I posted a couple of threads around here and I wish I had listened to the responses then, unfortunately I didn't realise that SOME manufacturers cripple their cards with cheap slow RAM to get the price down.

I'm not a cutting edge gamer but I do like Oblivion & NWN2 and my 7600 is struggling just a bit, so thanks again for the help & Enjoy life!!

NeilV