upgrading comp help

[Morgeruat]

I'm looking at very soon upgrading my computer, it's a nice box, p3 500MHz, 512MB RAM, dvd player, cd burner, soundblaster live(16Mb) card, TNT vid card, great sound system, 19" flatscreen monitor.

I'm looking mainly at upgrading 2 things, the vid card, and the processor, what are the best (performance vs cost) options, I looked around and can get a p4 1.8GHz for about $166 US, if I pursue this will I need to upgrade my motherboard as I suspect? if so where is a good place to look for one, (my tower is a dell dimension tower, so compatability may or may not be an issue, I'm not sure as I haven't tried upgrading motherboards before)

also what would be a good, cost effective vid card to upgrade to (playing NWN is a pain as my proc. and vid card are at the bottom end of the specs)

[ 01-14-2003, 09:33 AM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Grungi]

yes swapping motherboard is a definate as p3 and p4 are radically different in both size and architechture, cant help you on the american prices, only know it in good ole pound sterling [img]tongue.gif[/img] as for the best value graphics card IMO thats the GeForce4 Ti 4200 (i think under 100 dollars and excellent performance way better than MX cards), you might find with a dell upgrading the motherboard is a problem, might be a good idea to a get a good generic case (try tsnumai virgo cases they are superbly upgradeable and cheap).

The P3 boards and chips go up to around 1Ghz or a bit more but not much, If you get a P4 get one that is several clock speeds down the price chart fromt he current top of the line...you will usually see a price break.

For a video card ..price vs performance you can not beat a GeForce4 TI4200 maybe even a 4400 now that the Radeon 9700 is getting into the market. BUT make sure it is a TI and not a MX card.

Edit: For a decent P4 motherboard, I reccomend the Asus P4B533-E it is a really stable board and I have had zero problems with it.

[ 01-14-2003, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Earthdog]

YEp its going to require a ne mainboard. Antec Lian-Li and Cheiftek all make superior cases with lots of spots for case fans, as well as windows for a super cool looking unit. http://www.newegg.com/app/manufactor...talog=7&DEPA=1 to check prices and products in cases.

I personally recommend the Asus V8420 Deluxe Geforce 4 ti 4200. Its the fastest ti4200 in the world and its only 1 frame per second slower in Quake 3 than a ti4400.

Most of it depends on your budget though. If you can afford a ti4600 or an ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, by all means go for it Even the ATi Radeon 9500 Pro is an excellant card.

Geforce 4 cards are easier to get setup and running (by miles) than the ATi cards.

www.hothardware.com for reviews and hit the forum to see other peoples opinions. also http://www.pchardwareforum.com/showt...&threadid=8215 to see a really slick looking case with side window.

[Grungi]

yeah if you want a parts lowdown of good bits to get:

graphics - nvidia

hdd - ibm, maxtor or seagate (dont ever buy fujitsu)

processor - athlon xp are value for money and fast but you'll find now top end p4's are actually becoming cheaper than top range athlon xp's question of if you need it or not

Ram - get ddr forget sdram, or rdram on p4 boards, get ddr compatible if possible

Mboard - Asus, Gigabyte, Pure Intel those 3 are the highest stablility builds, but not the cheapest

ati do have the best graphics card going, but compatibility problems which i havent found with nvidia, ti4200 spanks the competition in terms of power for your buck.

[Morgeruat]

Thanx for the advice, I'll probably be asking for more help when I actually do teh upgrades in a month or so (tax returns, yippie)

[Elif Godson]

Or go to http://www.pricewatch.com/newhomepage.htm
Good luck bud. If you can afford it get the more pricie NVidia
cards but if you cant the ATI 8500 128 DDR is a good deal, it beats out the GeForce 3 on all clock's.

[Sir Krustin]

My current recomendations:

AMD XP 2800+ cpu
Asus A7N8X motherboard - nForce2 chipset, everything but the kitchen sink
Two 256k DIMMS; 333Mhz DDR
nVidia GeForce4 Ti4400 video card

This is one KICKASS system, pretty cheap to build, too, compared to a P4 system.

[Earthdog]

Originally posted by Sir Krustin: My current recomendations: AMD XP 2800+ cpu Asus A7N8X motherboard - nForce2 chipset, everything but the kitchen sink Two 256k DIMMS; 333Mhz DDR nVidia GeForce4 Ti4400 video card This is one KICKASS system, pretty cheap to build, too, compared to a P4 system.

The AMD XP 2800+ has a FSB of 333MHz. AMD is just now starting to release the processors that run with that FSB speed. You'll get great performance but youll have to pay for it. If you get a XP 2800+ youll want the ram to match it. PC2700 is the 333MHz RAM. Getting PC3200 will effectively change the latency to a higher speed. Preferably get 1 stick of 512 meg so if you want to upgrade later you may not be so limited on your DIMM slots.

By all accounts the Asus A7N8X is the best MoBo on the market right now. I think it also has a built in LAN card that will transfer data at 1 Gigabit per second, or 10 times faster than a standard 100mbs network card. Thats smokin

I still recommend the Asus V8420 Deluxe ti 4200 video card. Its got the 3.3ns RAM that comes on the on the 64 meg versions, but its got the 128 meg of RAM. DOOM 3 will have 80 meg of just textures and a 64 meg card simply cant handle it with all the graphics maxed out.

Dollar for dollar its a better buy than a ti4400 because you get almost indenticle performance as a ti4400 but without having to spend the extra cash. It can also be overclocked to near ti4600 speeds I just wouldnt push that too much or too often because if you fry it you void your warantee. Throw in a 3 year warantee as apposed to a standard 1 year warantee. Best ti4200 in the world.
Heres a review for you to check out. http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/...ti_4200d.shtml
Note that the Asus uses the same PCB as the ti4400 and ti4600, consisting of 8 layers instead of the standard 6 layers used on normal ti4200s.

[Harkoliar]

if you want cheap mobo try ecs motherboards. i havent heard any bad things about them ......... yet !