I will be building a secondary computer system pretty soon...

[E4g1e]

Remember the paragraph that I made as part of my post in the "Your Favorite Motherboard?" thread in the Motherboards forum?

Among the AMD systems that I had, the best one by far had been my previous AXP 2600+ Barton and Abit NF7-S V2 combo. Unfortunately, I had RAM that wouldn't work properly at any clockspeed slower than 200MHz (DDR400) - but the 2600+ is only a DDR333 (166MHz FSB) CPU! That caused some instability, pauses, slowdowns and hiccups. Nonetheless, I may re-build that AMD setup as my secondary PC, this time doing it right with PC2700 DDR memory modules.

That's right. I will build that rig in a couple of months. It will be in a new, smaller case such as an Antec Sonata. As soon as I get some more cashflow, it will comprise of the following components:

1. 512MB PC2700 DDR
2. WD 1200BB hard drive w/2MB cache
3. Radeon 9800 Pro (if I get a GeForce 6800GT for my main Intel rig)
4. My present CD-RW drive (if I upgrade my main rig to a DVD+/-RW burner)
5. Onboard nForce Soundstorm audio

Or, should I keep my Radeon 9800 Pro on my current main Intel rig, and downgrade my AMD setup to a cheaper videocard or my old GeForce4 Ti4400 card (since that AMD setup will be used strictly for Internet access)? I am planning to play some of the newer games on my main Intel rig.

Questions or suggestions?

E4g1e

 

[EnderW]

If you aren't playing games on it, you don't need a 9800 Pro. Sell it and get a cheap 9200 like this

you can get the same thing for even cheaper if you don't need DVI out

 

[E4g1e]

If you aren't playing games on it, you don't need a 9800 Pro. Sell it and get a cheap 9200 like this

you can get the same thing for even cheaper if you don't need DVI out

Actually, I will be playing games on my current Intel rig. And I may be using an old Radeon 8500 or a GeForce4 Ti4400 on my AMD rig.

So, EnderW, do you still recommend selling the 9800, and getting an upgraded card for my Intel system?

 

[EnderW]

Actually, I will be playing games on my current Intel rig. And I may be using an old Radeon 8500 or a GeForce4 Ti4400 on my AMD rig.

So, EnderW, do you still recommend selling the 9800, and getting an upgraded card for my Intel system?

yes, the next generation of cards are MUCH faster, even the regular 6800 would be a significant upgrade

 

[Tigerbiten]

If the AMD box is only for internet access and your putting it in a small case then you would probably be better downgadeing the vidio card.
I would even think going as low as a GeForce2 card.
Lower heat output so get one with passive cooling so less noise.
Less power draw so lower powered psu could be used.
That way it will be quieter and cheaper to run.

Luck......

 

[E4g1e]

If the AMD box is only for internet access and your putting it in a small case then you would probably be better downgadeing the vidio card.
I would even think going as low as a GeForce2 card.
Lower heat output so get one with passive cooling so less noise.
Less power draw so lower powered psu could be used.
That way it will be quieter and cheaper to run.

Luck......

Unfortunately, I cannot use old-generation 3.3V cards in that AMD system. It will accept only 1.5V AGP cards.

 

[E4g1e]

I never got that secondary AMD XP2600+/NF2 system built. It just sucked not to get another case for it. And the only other case that I have is one similar in design to what Dell/MicronPC et al. used to use in their upper mainstream PCs.

Thus, the secondary system (for guest use) ended up being the AMD XP2000+ rig ("Guest Rig") that's in my sig.

By the way, I am getting back into gaming on my main 2.8C P4 rig - in a pretty big way, with FarCry and UT2004 (and in the near future, HL2). I had spent too much time at work and online over the past year or so. So, which would be my best choice (assuming that I won't upgrade CPU or mobo in the foreseeable future)?

1. Upgrade to a GeForce 6800GT AGP
2. Upgrade to a Radeon X800XL AGP
3. Keep my existing Radeon 9800 Pro until I can afford an upgrade to PCI-e