Worth upgrading?

[Ferran]

Hi people

I've got a pair of old computers, and I was wondering if they were worth making some minor upgrades.

The newer one has a 3200+ Athlon 64 CPU, Asus K8N-E motherboard, 9600-XT PowerColor AGP Card, 1GB DDR400, 160 Seagate ATA hard drive, and I use it mainly for gaming (although not Crysis, as you may imagine).

The older one has a 2400 P4 CPU, a P4i65G Asrock motherboard, a 440-MMX Geforce Card, 1GB DDR400 and a 40GB Seagate ATA hard drive (which is starting to fail), and I use it mainly for surfing the web and low-level programming.

Both motherboards have AGP and SATA-I sockets (although they accept SATA-I, but only at 150mb/s speed).

I was thinking on buying a better graphic card for the newer one,something cheaper than 120$ but significantly better than the 9600-XT (which would end on the older computer).

For the hard drive, i was thinking on buying a 7200.11 320 GB SATA Seagate hard drive, though for 6 or 7 more bucks I could get the equivalent capacity in a WD Caviar, so I'm not sure which should I get.

Maybe 512 or 1GB DDR for the newer system too?.

Do you think that this upgrades will be worth the money spent?.

Thanks in advance.

P.D: Excuse any grammar errors, I'm not a native English speaker.

 

[Zenthar]

I think both systems are really reaching the end of their useful life; anything you put in there will be CPU limited for gaming. If you insist on upgrading, I suggest the 7600GT, ~80-100$. If I were you, I would just save my money to buy a new barebone system.

 

[evongugg]

It's a ATI Radeon 9600XT

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-192-1.htm

 

[rodney_ws]

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeon9600/radeon9600pro/compare.html

 

[Zenthar]

Ive never heard of a 9600XT. I think you got something else....
I wouldnt put money into either system. You will probably get your biggest boost in gaming by adding another gb of ram to the 3200 system.

People tend to forget their not-so-distant past; the cars is what, 5-6 years old?

To return to the subject, I look at the "Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money", and, for AGP, you might want to take a look at the ATI HD 2600 Pro/XT (depending on how much you want to invest). But I still think you should just save for a new PC.

 

[WR2]

Ive never heard of a 9600XT. I think you got something else....

9600XT http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/9600xt/index.html
I used one of those as an upgrade to my Geforce2 MX400.

Ferran; you'd need to look in the $75-$85 range to get an AGP card with a respectable performance upgrade over the 9600XT.
Something along the lines of a Radeon HD 2600Pro or 2600XT. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16814131081,N82E16814161208,N82E16814131097
For a bit more you can look at the Radeon HD 3650. There is even a $135 HD 3850.
If you want to spend a bit less there is the Radeon X1650Pro.

You can move any SATA HDD over into your next PC and so thats an easy investment. The Seagate 7200.11 would be an excellent choice.

 

[Ferran]

Something along the lines of a Radeon HD 2600Pro or 2600XT. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131097
For a bit more you can look at the Radeon HD 3650. There is even a $135 HD 3850.
If you want to spend a bit less there is the Radeon X1650Pro.

You can move any SATA HDD over into your next PC and so thats an easy investment. The Seagate 7200.11 would be an excellent choice.

Yeah, I was also thinking into something on those lines. I'm not very fond of FPS, and last-launched games in general. The only games I'd very like to play will be NW2 and Mass Effect (even in low res), so I guess one of those cards will do.

What I'll need to find is a shop that sells those cards, as most of them in my country only sell PCI-E cards (I'm spanish). Could anybody recommend me any web site with reasonable prices? (if I need to import it from USA, I could also afford the taxes, since the exchange rate euro-$ is now positive for me).

 

[cah027]

I say sell em both and get as much as you can for the next build.

 

[Ferran]

I've found the following cards in a store close to my house.

Club 3D GeForce 7600GS
Velocidad de reloj del núcleo 400 MHz
Memoria de vídeo instalada (máx.) 256 MB - GDDR2 SDRAM
Price 65.19 euros

Sapphire Radeon HD 2600XT - 256 MB
Velocidad de reloj del núcleo 800 MHz
Frecuencia de reloj del RAMDAC 400 MHz
Memroy (máx.) 256 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
Price:65.36 euros

ASUS AH3650 SILENT/HTDI Radeon HD 3650 - 512 MB
Velocidad de reloj del núcleo 725 MHz
Memoria de vídeo instalada (máx.) 512 MB - DDR II SDRAM
price: 73.22 euros

Club 3D NVidia 7600GT - GF 7600 GT - 256 MB
Velocidad de reloj del núcleo 560 MHz
Frecuencia de reloj del RAMDAC 400 MHz
Memoria de vídeo instalada (máx.) 256 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
Price 86.51 euros

Sapphire RADEON HD 3850 - ATI Radeon HD 3850
Frecuencia de reloj del RAMDAC 400 MHz
Memoria de vídeo instalada (máx.) 512 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
Price 109.81 euros

Club 3D HD 3850 AGP Edition
Velocidad de reloj del núcleo 668 MHz
Frecuencia de reloj del RAMDAC 400 MHz
Memory (máx.) 512 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
price 125.85 euros

I would'nt like to spend more than 100 euros, but if it's worth it, I could go for the 3850. Would I notice the difference?
What's more, will my 3200+ Athlon 64 limit the performance of any of these cards?

 

[WR2]

This will give you an idea of the relative strength of those cards:

The HD 3650 would actually be a bit less than the 2600XT
My guess is that the 9600XT would be about 6-7 on that scale.

If you're interested in the HD 3850 you'll need to think about if your PSU can provide enough power.
The other cards should probably be OK in the power requirements.
Except for the more modern games your CPU should work well with any of those cards.

 

[theunknown145]

no they're both outdated