Should i be upgrading?

pentak · Dec 9, 2004

Hi, i'm thinking of upgrading my computer, but dunno if i should wait a little longer or if i even need to upgrade at all. My specs:

Mobo: Asrock (dont even ask it's bad)
CPU: p4 2.8ghz
G-card: radeon 9200se (again very bad)
Ram: Kingston 512

I was thinking of upgrading all of these but then i would end up building a new computer pretty much costing $1700, i was wondering i should even upgrade my cpu? I mean i can switch the MOBO and the g-card right? Any thoughts and suggestion are welcome.

fishmahn · Dec 9, 2004

Thoughts:

If you can use the mobo and o/c the cpu, do it. If not, maybe spend the $ for a new mobo and oc the cpu.

More ram would be good for gaming, up to 1gig.

Definitely get a newer video if you game. If you dont' game, it's fine.

if the 2.8 doesn't do it for you cpu-wise, then get a new cpu, but 2.8 to 3.8 is only about a 35% increase in cpu speed, and under 25% if you go to a 3.4

If you can put up with the 'upgrade itch' a few more months, the newest technologies will be not as new and maybe performance will increase, or at least it will be stable, and upgrading should be cheaper...

Mike.

folken · Dec 9, 2004

If you want to play the latest greatest games I'd start with upgrading the video card. Get yourself at least a radeon 9800pro 256mb or if cash allows get a radeon X800pro or XT. What is the fsb on that 2.8ghz proc? if it is a 200(800)fsb proc hold onto it, that is still good. Even a 133(533)fsb is decent.
I've never even heard of Asrock before but if it it isn't giving you any problems you might as well milk it. What model is it exactly?

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

pentak · Dec 9, 2004

It is an asrock p4i45g, it's actually been pretty stable, no problems at all. I'm not sure of the FSB, is there a way to find that out?

HardWareBoss · Dec 9, 2004

2.8B or 2.8C will work with the Abit IS7 best mobo for the money. Buy another stick of ram. Now you have enough money to buy a top end vid card. Without spending $1700. How many watts is your PSU? What brand name?

pentak · Dec 9, 2004

Well right now the PSU is terrible i think it's only 300w, anyway i'm thinking of getting a new case with 500w psu so i would upgrade the mobo and cpu.

HardWareBoss · Dec 9, 2004

Make sure you get a good PSU. Why change CPU?

Crashman · Dec 10, 2004

It really depends on HOW BAD the board is. The CPU is fair (2.8 with 533 bus) to good (2.8 with 800 bus). If the board has an 865 or 875 chipset I wouldn't upgrade.

If you're looking for a cheap board to upgrade with, Gigabyte produced one for Fujitsu Seimens PC's that's a high quality unit with limitted BIOS features called the GA-8ISXT-FS. Fujitsu recently flooded the market with left-over boards and they're available for as little as $32 each. They use the 865PE chipset, allow dual-channel operation, and have just about every feature you'd want. But you don't get BIOS overclocking as you would with a retail board, and the BIOS chip itself is too small to hold those extra features (Yes, I looked into combining BIOS nodes from another board). So for as little as $32 you get a good, full featured board that has similar limitations to Intel's boards.

If you have a bit more to spend I'd suggest the Abit IS7.

You'll want a better video card.

If your RAM is 2 chips with the same specs, you can do Dual Channel with them. If it's one chip, you should consider adding another for Dual Channel operation.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

pentak · Dec 13, 2004

Hm...interesting but here's the problem.

I want to upgrade my vidcard to something faster which means i'll need a new PSU. However my case is smaller than normal i actually need a micro board to fit in the case, so i'll have to get a new case to get a new vidcard, which means i should get a new Mobo in order to compensate for the size, then the cpu i might as well upgrade since i'm pretty much upgrading everything else hahaha. So pretty much i'm upgrading a lot, iono what else to do, i heard i could get one of those trays to let the micro board fit but i heard it was a pain in the neck and my board doesnt support dual channel

Crashman · Dec 13, 2004

First, Micro ATX boards fit all standard ATX cases. There may be an oddball ATX case with the threaded holes missing for Micro ATX standoff placement, but I've never seen it.

So you could put your whole system into a larger case.

Also, have you considered upgrading just the power supply? Most compact midtowers use the SFX form factor, which are grouped together with the PS-III form factor as "Micro ATX" at Newegg. And Newegg has large capacity SFX power supplies, even if they're not smart enough to call them that

Well, you could go to a board AND case, which leaves me with a couple recommendations: If you only have $40 for a board, the GA-8ISXT-FS is full featured hardware wise and cheap (because it's a grey-market product). If you want the full set of BIOS options you'll want a full featured board, and the Abit IS7 goes for around $90.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

pentak · Dec 13, 2004

Ok this is some info i found that some people requested.

CPU: p4 2.8 ghz with 800mhz FSB
Mobo: Asrock p4i45g intel845G Chipset hyper-threading technology with FSB max of 800MHz Does NOT support dual channel.
Vid Card: radeon 9200 se
ram: kingston 512mb valueram
PSU: estimated 300w

I think the mobo and CPU is fine, just need some improvements on the ram, psu, and video card, what do you guys think?

Crashman · Dec 13, 2004

I'd just get one of those cheap Gigabyte boards too, just because it allows dual channel. Of course it has more features. And the fact you can't control memory timing manually nor overclock shouldn't bother you since it's so cheap.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

HardWareBoss · Dec 13, 2004

Don't waste your money on that vid card. What's your price range for a vid card?

knownalien · Dec 13, 2004

the good news is that buying a new psu is both cheap (compared to other components) and one of the very few parts that are nearly immune to future obsoleteness. I mean you can get and Antec 550 for $100!!! But which ever you get, try to make sure that is has at least 20A (+12V@24A for the antec true550) on the 12 volt rail. And it doesn't matter whether you go AMD/Intel. Power supplies are valuable investments. For that matter, cases and monitors are very important too in terms of future upgradability (or rather immunity from it). If you have the room for it, don't do LAN parties, and don't mind the size, then always go for bigger cases with plenty of room. For monitors, well, I have an LCD and it is great for gaming no matter what anyone tells you. NEC made a great gaming monitor in the LCD 1760NX. Bigger screens would be nice, but I am fine with a 17"monitor. It is uses the DVI and I can see no reason why I would want to upgrade this monitor. I guess my point is is that there are some parts that you will not have to upgrade for probably 3-5 years. Cases, PSU, and monitors (assuming you got high end ones to begin with). Optical drives will almost certainly fail within a few years. Esp. with heavy CD/DVD burning. Floppy drives (hope they just go away) will last forever. And HD's last a long time too. I got a 10,000 rpm Raptor, and it is still the fastest drive around in non-RAID mode. It should be that way for a while, but even so, HD's don't represent a bottle neck in a system per se. Anywho, I've been babbling. sorry.

K8T Neo FIS2R
Athlon 64 bit 3400
2 X 256 Corsaire
Maxtor 40, 120
Western Digital Raptor 74 Gig
ATI AIW Radeon 9700 Pro
NEC LCD Monitor 1760NX
Antec Tru Power 550
Windows XP

pentak · Dec 13, 2004

These are the specs i have right now and i'm wondering what i should be upgrading to, not what i will be upgrading to.

CURRENT SPECS:
CPU: p4 2.8 ghz with 800mhz FSB
Mobo: Asrock p4i45g intel845G Chipset hyper-threading technology with FSB max of 800MHz Does NOT support dual channel.
Vid Card: radeon 9200 se
ram: kingston 512mb valueram
PSU: estimated 300w

UPGRADE SPECS:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 512K, L2 Cache, Socket 939 Windows Compatible 64-bit Processor - Retail
Mobo: GIGABYTE "GA-K8NSNXP-939" nForce3 Ultra Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
Vid Card: EVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Video Card With Free Doom 3Bundle, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, TV-Out/DVI, 8X AGP, Model "256-A8-N349-AX" -RETAIL
ram: CORSAIR XMS Xtreme Memory Speed Series, Xtra-Low Latency 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 w/ Heat Spreader, Model TWINX1024-3200XL - Retail
PSU: 500w

would this be a good upgrade and not require me to update again for atleast a year or two or are there different specs i should be going for if it doesnt.Edited by pentak on 12/13/04 11:20 AM.

pentak · Dec 13, 2004

bump, just need a few opinions please.

endyen · Dec 14, 2004

That should keep you well within the top 50% of gaming rigs for at least 2 years. Great setup.

knownalien · Dec 14, 2004

it looks great. that's not even an upgrade . . it's like starting from scratch with some of the best stuff out there.

not that you don't do this already, but you might want to research that MOBO and the intended memory at both Corsaire's and the MOBO maker's site just to see if there are issues. It's more common for the 754's, but as a precaution.

K8T Neo FIS2R
Athlon 64 bit 3400
2 X 256 Corsaire
Maxtor 40, 120
Western Digital Raptor 74 Gig
ATI AIW Radeon 9700 Pro
NEC LCD Monitor 1760NX
Antec Tru Power 550
Windows XP

pentak · Dec 14, 2004

hm...ok thanks guys

pentak · Dec 15, 2004

I havent found any issues with the mobo and ram situation but that may just be bad luck, has anyone had any bad exprience with them?

Anyways here are two specs i'm thinking on getting, can someone tell me which is better and if they will work out? They are the same except the mobos are different.

system 1: <A HREF="http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=1165332" target="_new">http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=1165332</A>

system 2: <A HREF="http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=1150348" target="_new">http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=1150348</A>

which is better and are there any problems? Like hardware compatibiltyEdited by pentak on 12/15/04 03:37 AM.

Should i be upgrading?

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