AN35N Ultra ultimate gaming set up with windows vista

[osc82]

I recently have windows vista. I'm using a Shuttle AN35N Ultra as my base. I need to know what is the fastest CPU, best ghraphics card, and best memory\memorysetup I can support on this board. Any cooling and gaming boosting advice along to go with this would be cool. My rig is as follows.

Windows Vista Ultimate
Athlon xp(1.09 mhz)
ATI Radeon 9600
512 Crosair
WD Hard drive

I mostly just need to know to what limits I can take this mobo. Does anyone know if I can use an 8x agp card with this and if so which is the best one. NVidia or ATI? What are their new names if they have changed names. I know these cards are older.

Basically I need to give this rig a little boost.
Thanks

 

[jonsy2k]

Whats your budget, and also what resolution are you running at?

From the get go though, its probably not worth searching for agp graphics, if you have a substantial enough budget, you should just start from scratch.

Even a sub 500 budget should net substantial gains from your current setup.(assuming no OS or monitor)

 

[osc82]

Well the reason for this is that I don't have that much money to spend and I mostly play counter strike source. Butt I think I can spend 300 to 350. I have a monitor and OS. What did you have in mind? I don't know anything I can do with that money. I run like 800X600, which I know is low but I don't mind it. Maybe I could bump it up a bit.

 

[amdchuck]

That board supports the 200Mhz FSB Athlon XP's which were pretty good for wringing every last drop of power from and that Shuttle board ain't no slouch in the OC'ing dept. either.

You can find those CPU's on-line for anywhere between $20 and $70...top of the line would be the AMD Athlon XP 3200+ - AXDA3200DKV4E....that runs stock at 2.2 Ghz (400Mhz FSB). Of course you could probably just get like a 2500+ and oc it to 3200+ specs with that board.

AGP cards are getting tough to find as all the new stuff will be PCI-Express but you can still find good AGP cards that performance-wise will make that Radeon 9600 look pretty cruddy.

If you pair that with some matching DDR400 and go Dual Channel you can get a fairly respectable set-up...of course that mobo lacks SATA so hard drive speed might be the biggest bottleneck.....not sure, I am no guru.

For the 300-350 you have, you could easily upgrade to a CPU and graphics card that would be twice as fast plus maybe invest in some high quality matching DDR400 for added performance....although I wonder what sort of monitor you have and whether or not that might limit any sort of benefit a new graphics card would offer....although even if you run at low resolution, it should still be much faster.

Complete systems are getting pretty cheap but for 300-350 your options are limited....


I am still using my socket A setup and it works just fine...I stream HD movies, play the latest games etc. I would rather have higher end product that is a few years outdated then a brand new e-machine or some such garbage....plus I need to pay rent and eat and stuff more than I need a brand new top of the line pc.

Shuttle AN35N Ultra
Athlon XP 3200+ (@400 MhZ)
Radeon HD 3850
2GB PC3200 (@400 Mhz)