Upgrade time!

Get a xp-m 2500+ for less than 100 buck + 6800gt

The xp-m will overclock to 3200 speed FOR SURE and maybe go to almost 2.5ghz on stock cooling.

You may need some pc3200 ram tho...

Click <font color=blue><A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">HERE</A></font color=blue> if you realy are an <font color=red>idiot</font color=red>.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by coylter on 09/12/04 01:42 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Yes, the xp-m chips are very nice. And yes, mine ran fine @ 2.4 However, they do make it hard to upgrade. I was stuck with it a long time (for me) because I didn't want to make such a small step (A64 3200+) and spend so much money.
Just grab a 9800pro, for a couple hundred, and start saving for a major upgrade in the new year.
Your chip, with ddr ram, and a 9800pro, will be better than 3/4s of the gaming machines out there.
By the way, xp-m chips only come oem, so no stock cooler. Just as well, since if you are getting one to OC you'll need a better hsf anyway.

He didn't say that he has a nForce2 mobo or a mobo that can handle 166 MHz FSB (without oc'ing AGP/PCI bus). What if he's limited to 133 MHz FSB.

Then I would recommend getting GeForce 6800GT first and then some time later, CPU+Mobo+RAM upgrade

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I really don't think you should go for an Athlon XP, like others suggested. Instead, consider the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Retail $170
Chaintech VNF3-250 $79
eVGA Geforce 6800 GT $395

Prices are from ZipZoomFly. I realise that this is $44 over your budget but compared to any Athlon XP system, it should perform much better, without even mentioning 64-bit, Cool & Quiet, NX Bit, upgrade potential (up to 3700+). Regarding memory, since you already have 1GB you can keep it for your new system, since performance hit will be minimal (PC2700 vs PC3200 on Athlon 64s).

If you prefer to drop below the $600 mark, you can choose a cheaper plain 6800 instead of the GT.

Agree with you.

But for shrinking cost, I think getting A64 2800+ instead of 3000+ is a better idea than getting plain 6800 instead of 6800GT.

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That would maybe be an even better choice indeed. However, I do realise that newer cards like the 6800GT are so fast that very often the CPU is holding them back. I don't really have any numbers in mind though about this, so I have no idea how much an A64 2800+ would hold a 6800GT from showing its true potential. Do you have a review in mind that compares CPU speed Vs graphics card performance?

I can attest to that personally, I have a BFG 6800gt in a rig with an athlon 2400+ @ 2.1ghz. Once in a while I will catch some lag in certain parts of games where there is a lot of monsters or other A.I. and I am almost certain that it's my cpu holding me back.

<i> If the creator of the human body is "The Ultimate Engineer", why did he put a recreation site right next to a waste treatment area? </i>

Have you guys heard about the *edit-PCIe* 6600 GT?? I don't know the costs, but it is nearly 20-30% better than a 5950 ultra in all areas. If the price is right, i might go with that. And i tend to agree with your 64 bit theory for future upgrading (although i want the performance now!) btw, spitfire should upgrade his vid card. its limiting his scores.

"If it ain't broke, fix it till it is."

First of all it is PCI-E and not PCI-X, those are two different things .. just to clear things up   You are right that this seems to be a great graphics card. It will be priced around $200 but the only problem is that it will not be available for AGP anytime soon. At the same time, no A64 motherboards featuring a PCI-E slot will be available anytime soon, so you have a dead end there! I believe you should stick with the following, and trust me, this will be a great setup:

Athlon 64 3000+ $170
MSI K8N Neo FSR $110
eVGA Geforce 6800 $278

That makes a total of $558. In case you don't know, the 6800's performance should be between the 6600GT and the 6800GT.

A 6800gt with a weaker cpu would be better

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Honestly I was in sort of the same situation as you a while back. I had a 2100+, 512 MB of PC2100, and a TI4400. I went a series of upgrade over about two weeks, the first of which was a 2800+, and a 1 gig of PC3200, running in dual channel. This helped quite a bit, even was playing Doom3 with my TI4400 (LeadTek version) in 800x600 in high quality with very little problems (Had no considerable slowdowns that would make me turn it down).

As far as the sound card, the onboard solutions are really good now-a-days. So I wouldn't particually worry about sound cards, and you always have the option of re-using your soundcard.

If you stick to Socket A I wouldn't go any higher than a 2800+ the price jump to the 3000+ isn't worth it. If you are going to spend that much money, you almost might as well go with an Athlon 64-bit chip. Everyone here really pushes the 64-bit chips, but at the moment you can still get very good performance out of a XP chip. With my 2800 XP/6800 combo, I manage to score 56,495 in AquaMark3.

A 6800 GT would be an excellent choice. Also you may save some money and consider the 6800, I purchased a plain 6800, as I could not justify the price jump of the GT. So far I have had no problems.


LOL! That sounds like me.

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