upgrade

primus

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Mar 14, 2001
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hello to all THG members. I have a question in mind that I thought your advice might prove useful.

I was intrested in buying a new computer but abandend the idea due to the fact that i get drafted to the army in less then a year and so i want to upgrade.
well what's the problem you ask?

1.I own an intel 850mv rdram mobo with 2X128 memory modules and i plan on installing another 2X256 in the second bank do you have better ideas in mind?

2. i was thinking on buying GF6600 or GF6600GT only problem is my mobo is AGPX4! is the extra money for the GT worth it?
is buying 6600 worth it at all?! im really nervous about spending money and finding out the X4 bottlnecks the entire thing

i would really appreciate your skillfull advice
thx again
primus
 

Black_Cat

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First of all [die]newbie[/die]!

Second, it's generally a bad idea to mix and match RAM. It's always best to have the <i>exact</i> same modules if you're using more than one bank. So I wouldn't do that.

Lastly, there is very little performance difference between AGP 4X and 8X. Depending on the card the difference may be as little as 1-2%. Your bottleneck may actually be your processor.


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primus

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well i decided to ad another 256 only problem now is i'm not sure if a 350w PS will work with my graphic card any body can help on the mater
 
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What is the make/model of the PSU and what are all of your system components?

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primus

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i have 2X128 KINGSTON RDRAM
INTEL 850MV MOBO
P-4 1.7 GHz
INNO3D GF-3 300TI
TSUNAMI GYRO 350W
and audigy 5.1 live but that is irrelavant.

the thing is i want to add another 2X128 RDRAM to the second bank and a GF 6600GT but i have no idea if the lousy PS will hold up...
 
Actually ALL of the parts in the system are relevant - including HDDs - when it comes to power and figuring out whether or not a PSU is capable of supplying sufficient power.

I'm not extremely familiar with the Tunami Gyro series PSUs, but 350W (rated on continuous and not peak power) should be able to handle the 6600GT and extra RAM.

How much is the RDRAM going to cost you? That GT will more than likely be bottlenecked by that CPU.

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cleeve

Illustrious
The cheapo PSU's usually rate at peak, and I've never heard of Tsunami power supplies so I'd reckon you might be skirting the edge with that one.

Worth a shot, but if your system is unstable (especially when you play games) you might want to invest in a stronger PSU.

As for my opinion about the video card, well, the 6600 GT is very nice, and definitely worth the premium over the vanilla 6600.

4x AGP doesn't really matter, you wouldn't see a difference between 4x AGP, 8x AGP, or PCI-Express on a 6600GT.
Not more than a couple percent, anyway.

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rasputinj

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I would go for the 6600GT, and I would upgrade the PSU to something more non generic. 350 watts should be fine for your setup, might want to go with 400watts for more overhead and space to grow.

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pauldh

Illustrious
I agree the 1.7GHz P4 Willy is going to be the bottleneck quite often. That's when I question putting money into more than one upgrade, (ram & video), and wonder if the end result will be worth the money. Not sure what that rambus will cost, but I'd assume 2-256MB rambus will be more money than 1GB PC3200. I'd be weighing the cost and considering a cheap Asrock Uli AGP/PCI-e mobo, A64 3000+, 1GB(2*512MB) Corsair value and and either an AGP or PCI-e card depending on the best deal found. We may be talking $300 for RAM and video card in a 1.7GHz P4, vs. $450 for a Asrock M1695, A64 3000+, 1GB PC3200, and a new video card like a 6600GT or X700 pro. Oh yeah, and then a power supply. :eek: But this system would destroy the other and even support high end PCI-e and Dual core A64 later someday if he desires an upgrade.



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pauldh

Illustrious
You can read my above post. I just thought I'd also add, the AGP4X won't bottleneck the 6600GT, but your P4 1.7GHz will big-time in many games.


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primus

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first off thx for the conclusive opinion

but just so you know..here in israel a cheap amd +3000 setup you mentioned will cost about 950$ in total... so that's a big ouch for my pocket. it's not that i can't afford it, it's just that im going to the army in less then a year and will have no time to enjoy my investment..

and so for now..
if you say 6600GT is too much for my good old willie what card do you recomend that my CPU can keep up with? (also will sulve the problem of the PS... unless it's a GF5800 X__x)
 

primus

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just though ill add this

2X128 cost 100$+
2X256 cost 200$+

i alredy have two 128 so just though ill add some memory and a decent graphic card so my system can hold just a little bit longer games like eve and WOW(which by now run..well terriblly).
 

pauldh

Illustrious
Ah, yeah location can make a big differnce.

It's tough spending the bucks on rambus that you won't reuse, but you need more than 256MB of ram for games nowadays. You can get by with 512MB but it will take more to smooth some games out. Tough call but I couldn't spend $200 on 512MB of memory any more. I don't know all your prices on all hardware or how comforatable you are upgrading it yourself. But if you are comforatable doing it, I'd still look what mobo/cpu/ram combo you could get within budget compared to adding $200 of rambus. Of course we are then talking OS reinstall,, etc., ie alot more work on your part.


As far as video card, it depends on price. The 6600GT is nice if priced reasonable. If a 9800 pro 128MB 256-bit was priced much cheaper I'd do that instead. Seems a cheap used 9700 pro/9800 pro would be a good fit and bang for your buck. Add 256MB more memory and a cheap used but good card and it may keep you happy for the next year.

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