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help me pick my upgrades

J

jfb9301

[H]ard DCOTM x4
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Jan 11, 2005
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I was a member here about 3 years ago and drifted away and lost my login info so it looks like it's back to my first post for me, but I'd like a hand with choosing some upgrade parts for my computer (and making sure that things are compatable, stable, reliable, and have some [H]eadroom for overclocking).

I have a dual P3 1G @1.1, DDR2100 and a Radeon 9600Pro Lite @ 481.5/256.5 300Watt Sparkle P/S and about 10 fans in the tower. It has served me well, but it is definitly showing its age. Yea, the Radeon is new I'm getting respectable FPS in HL2 (no matter what resolution) as long as there are not 50 things going on at once... but if I get attacked by a storm of drones the world goes to crap (about 3 FPS). Master of the obvious, I'm guessing the P3s just don't cut it. oh and Doom 3 generally abysmal, high or low resolution.

So I've poked around at newegg and found what I think I'd want. So I figgured I'd post my selections here and get some direction if I'm making a big mistake. BTW the price point is $1000 and with my current selections I'm a mere $31 over budget (not including shipping). Color coordination is not required, I've got an old full tower that I have already done a mod or two on, and I have all the drives, fans and cables that I could need. This upgrade is targeted at getting a faster CPU and video in an existing tower. also I'm looking at the 939 based on the future looks best for this platform for things like the FX and dual-core AMD.

CHAINTECH NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU, Model "VNF4/Ultra" -RETAIL

Model# VNF4/Ultra
Item # N82E16813152049

$149

AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+, 90nm, 2.2 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - OEM

Model# ADA3500DIK4BI
Item # N82E16819103494

$325 (I'd rather the FX but I just don't have the dough)

Thermaltake PIPE101 3 in 1 CPU Cooler for Intel P4 and AMD K7 & K8, with Heatpipe Cooling, Model "CL-P0006" -RETAIL

Model# CL-P0006
Item # N82E16835106045

$38.50 (I've got a stack of 80mm fans I could use so not buying a fan)

ABIT ATI Radeon X700 PRO Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI-Express, Model "RX700PRO-256PCIE" -RETAIL

Model# RX700PRO-256PCIE
Item # N82E16814123148

$207 (do the NF4 chipset and Radeons play well?)

Kingston HyperX 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200

Model# KHX3200A/512
Item # N82E16820144112

2x$134.50=$269

COOLMAX Black 450W 14cm Silent Cooling Fan Switching Power Supply, Model "CR-450B" -RETAIL

Model# CR-450B
Item # N82E16817159031

$43

Total $1031.50

PS I hope I'm putting this in the right area of the forum, If I'm not please point the way and I'm sorry
 
That setup looks like quite a nice upgrade for the most part. I'd possibly change 2 things. First off, are you planning on overclocking? If you aren't then you can save some money by spending a little less on RAM. To be honest corsair value select @ about 150 is all you need to run at stock speeds.

If I were upgrading with $1,000 I would go with the cheaper ram and then put a bit more money into the video card. In this round of cards it seems that Nvidia beat ATI pretty well. If you aren't a die hard ATI fan then a 6xxx series card is probably a better buy. The direct replacement to your x700 would be a 6600gt for around 190. However, if you went with the cheaper ram you could get a 6800 non ultra for about 340 that would be probably the best value.
 
I intend to overclock. :) I have overclocked EVERY processor I have onwed since and including my 486SX25...... LOL :D

the large money on the ram is based on having a Gig of ram. I've noticed that running XP Pro and all my other stuff that I have in the back ground while I am playing HL2 works out to be 950-1000 Meg (or even more I've even had to gasp... dig into my page file on some levels). So ram must be 1 Gig of dual channel and have room to over clock.

Tho I just noticed this

Mushkin Dual Pack 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail

Model# 991145
Item # N82E16820146299

$136.25 (the CAS timemings are not as good as the kingston tho)

Good suggestion on the video card. I'm not exactly brand loyal and I took a look theoretical fill rate and memory bandwith the 6600gt looks like it smacks the snot out of the x700. not to mention the 3.0 vertex and pixel shader support vs the 2.0 on the x700. I Fully plan to OC this as well...... :D again I've OCd every 3d card since my Voodoo (one that is) tho I can't remember all the frequencies.

there seems to be many selections of 6600gts for PCIx-16 right around $200 but they all seem to be 128 meg cards instead of 256. Would the difference in memory size make that much difference? One more qualifier... the Video card MUST support dual head.


Does any of the ram look like it is the right stuff? It looks to me like it should be 184 pin ddr non ecc non registered for this setup but I could be wrong. And does anyone have experiance with Chaintek (please speak up) I've never used them. I've stuck to ABIT, ASUS and MSI with one Epox board tossed in (rather didn't care for that one, but it was supersocket 7 anyway.)



PS To date overclocks each one is a different computer 486SX25 @33 and finally to 133overdrive, K6-2 300 @ 350, K6-2 400 @ 450, Celeron 300a@450, P3 Katami 500@ 550, Cel2 600 @927, Cel2 600@965, P3 700 @933, Athlon clasic 800@880, dual P3 1.0@1.1, and dual P3 1.0@1.133
 
I'm guessing no news is good news, and that the tax-man is going to be nice to me in about a month.
 
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