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Need Advice! Storage or CPU upgrade?

D

DescX

n00b
Joined
Feb 21, 2004
Messages
7
Good day! I haven't exactly kept myself up to snuff on the hardware scene for a little over a year now... so I'm seeking some purchasing advice!

I've got approximately $300 CDN (XE.com says $222 USD :)) to blow, and I'm looking at doing an upgrade. Right now, I'm on a 1700+ with an ECS K7S5A mainboard and a paltry 40GB drive, as well as a Radeon 9600XT. My problem is this: I'm running short on space for a lot of stuff, but I'm also not getting up-to-par framerates in the "next generation" physics/bandwidth intensive games. I was originally just going to get the hard drive and a small CPU upgrade, but then I realize that it'd probably be a waste of money to go for a new CPU unless I bump up to an AGP 8x, DDR400 mainboard as well.

So pretty much, my question is this: is it worth dropping money on a new CPU (looking at a 2700+) and mainboard (looking at a Asus A7V8X-X), or would I get more milage out of more disk space? What it comes down to is that I've got the itch to spend, and I'd like to go for a speed boost... but I also don't want to drop cash on something I'll regret in 3-4 week's time :).

...Thoughts? (And sorry for the long post ;). I can be a windbag sometimes)
 
Personally I would be looking at a new motherboard and RAM. Get a NForce 2 Ultra 400 and see how well that CPU overclocks. This will also help in your gaming experience. The 9600XT is a very nice card and should last for a while.

When you get some other spair cash, upgrade to a 120GB drive or so.
 
Yeah I second the notion for a new cpu and mainboard, the problem is RAM, 512 is I think the minimum, and opting for 1 gig really helps.
 
Thanks for the reply, CentronMe [EDIT: and UltimaParadox, too :)].

RAM is not something I'm terribly worried about. I've got 768 megs of PC2700 (if I remember right), which so far has worked just dandy. I was pretty much under the impression that once you hit DDR333, unless you're trying to get 2-3 extra FPS in a game or are a complete hardware nut, there's not much point in going for faster RAM. Correct me if I'm wrong though ;)!

Also, I'd love to go for a higher quality motherboard that I can overclock on, but I'm really not much into actually geeking out with hardware anymore. As I understand it, that's pretty much why people go for the nForce boards (mad OCing), which unfortunately would make it a bad choice for me :(.

What's the general verdict on the sub-$100 Asus boards? Is there anything inherently wrong with them, or are they just not "cool" :)?
 
Its not really that they are not cool its just the Via AMD chispets do not perform on par with an Nforce 2 chipset, and are actually not that different on price.

As for RAM speed, if you are running at a 1:1 ratio you should be fine since a 2700+ Barton runs at 333fsb.
 
DescX,

If your motherboard supports 333 mhZ FSB, I would just save some money and keep it. I'd buy an AMD Athlon XP "Barton" 2500+ processor to go in it (you can get a retail one for 80 dollars USD here in the US, or, if you have no use for the retail heatsink, etc, you can get an OEM one for like 70 or 75). Since it's a 333 fsb processor, it will work fine with your current pc2700 ram, and you will need no other upgrades except the processor. Then, I'd slap an 80 or 160 GB hard drive in there (between 65 dollars for the 80 gigger and 95 for the 160 (USD)).

That leaves you with between 87 and 47 dollars left over. If your motherboard has any extra memory slots free, I'd spend the extra money on another stick of 256 mb RAM to bump it up to a gig. If not, 768 should be plenty anyway, spend the extra on upgraded cooling for your graphic card so you can overclock it or something.

Don't fall for the whole AGP 8x thing, it's purly marketing. Really. Jumping from AGP 4x to AGP 8x shows a 1-2 fps change at the most. Current graphic cards just don't need that much bandwidth. And yes, it's true that a DDR400 mobo will be faster than a DDR333 mobo, obviously, but IMHO it's really not worth buying a new motherboard for.


I was pretty much under the impression that once you hit DDR333, unless you're trying to get 2-3 extra FPS in a game or are a complete hardware nut, there's not much point in going for faster RAM. Correct me if I'm wrong though
Click to expand...

If you have an AMD processor, you really need to do whatever it takes to run your FSB and memory speed in a 1:1 ratio. Running at a 1:1 ratio with your FSB and your RAM at 333 mhZ is usually faster than running a 5:4 ratio with your FSB at 400 mhZ and your RAM at 333. It's just how AMD processors are, they really like being 1:1. Intels are a different story, however.

But, of course, if you don't go over 333 FSB, you won't have any problem. Just thought I'd comment anyway :)


That's just my opinion. I think you'd get more out of a new 2500+ processor and a new hard drive (and maybe more RAM) than a new motherboard and, say, a slightly faster processor, and no new hard drive. Right there is a happy medium, and a 2500+ is plenty fast for playing todays games. Plus, you should have enough hard drive storage to get you by.

Just my two cents. Good luck, bro :D
 
A Shuttle AN35N NForce 2 Ultra 400 motherboard is a good choice. Two sticks of 256MB PC3200 RAM. I like Kingmax for the price and have built several systems using said board and Kingmax memory. Set the CPU at 10 x 200 for an instant 2GHz CPU with a 400MHz bus. Depending on your 1700+ you may need a slight bump in voltage. We are assuming that your 1700+ is a T-bred and not a Pally.

Your statment about using PC3200 giving only slight gains is a little off. Its not that you are using PC3200 RAM, but rather a bus speed of 400MHz. These two things together increase the total amount of bandwidth available to the CPU and the video card. The whole machine will be more responsive when using a 400MHz FSB.
 
CentronMe - gotcha on the FSB bit, which I was actually somewhat aware of already. Mind you, like I said, I'm not much into the OCing side of things anymore, plus my cash stream is pretty limited... :).

RS3RS - this K7S5A only has a 266MHz FSB, and only supports up to the 2600+ CPU apparently :). Definately sucks, because ideally I would love to do the processor and hard drive (like you said, good happy medium), but I'm not really going to gain much on the CPU-cycles side of things unless I bump up the FSB as well. Also, I'm glad you mentioned the 2500+. I don't know why, but I never bothered to check the prices and actual GHz numbers on anything below a 2600+... and it seems like the 2500+ is probably the best balance between money ($110 CDN ($80 USD) locally) and, err.. speed. So, thanks :).

I should also say here though that I'm not 100% sure if I'm running PC2700, or PC2400 (which I'm wondering if there's a tool out there that'll do that for me - the stickers on the RAM that had the numbers printed on them fell off). So, another question here: in practice, if I do have PC2400, would bumping myself up to 333MHz FSB be a bad descion?
 
More than likely you are running at PC2100 which is DDR266, and if you are not wanting to o/c right now.

Your best bet is sadly going to be buy a new mobo + cpu + memory, if you want to take advantage of a faster FSB.
 
Gotcha Ultima...

Did a look through my purchase history, and found that I'm actually running a stick of PC2700 (512mb) and PC2400 (256mb).

Knowing now that my RAM isn't all the way down at 266MHz and rather 300MHz, would the 333MHz FSB be feasible without buying new RAM? I should clarify that if all I need to do to overclock is fiddle with BIOS multipliers, I'm game... It's the cooling issues and actual electrical hands-on that I really don't want to deal with :).

Also, taking CentronMe's advice on the nForce bit, I'm instead looking at an Asus A7N8X-X which is the cheapest nForce board I can find locally... and it's only $20 CDN more expensive than the previous one I had in mind. Good board? Bad board? :).
 
DescX said:
]
RS3RS - this K7S5A only has a 266MHz FSB, and only supports up to the 2600+ CPU apparently :).
Click to expand...

Ah, sorry... I somehow had the idea in my head that it was a 333 mhZ FSB board. Label me a flaming noob. :p
 
Yeah since its PC2400 your not too far behind PC27000, I think you should be able to make up the difference, hopefully without having to set back the timings if you got a good stick.

As for the Asus Nforce 2 board, I havent heard many people complain about it. I built a system with one for a friend, and he seems to like it.
 
Go to your bank/credit union and "buy" a certificate of deposit with a 1 year term. Six months from now, buy another with a 6 month term. Six months later, take it all plus another chunck of money and upgrade your entire system to the low end of whatever seems to be a long(ish) term platform, say Socket 939. By then, I'd think that the major transitions will be well underway (PCI Express, 64 bit computing, etc.) and you won't be paying out the ass for the new tech nor would you be left with a bunch of newish hardware that can't be carried along into future systems.

If you MUST buy something concrete NOW, you'll get more mileage out of a hard drive than a Socket A processor... and you won't have a "leftover" either.
 
Cardboard Hammer - you've hit my dilemma right straight on the nailhead :). Thinking now about PCIE, it probably would be a good idea to wait. Something as big as a new bus type is not something I'll want to miss.

Thanks for the input Hammer :).
 
DescX said:
Cardboard Hammer - you've hit my dilemma right straight on the nailhead :). Thinking now about PCIE, it probably would be a good idea to wait. Something as big as a new bus type is not something I'll want to miss.

Thanks for the input Hammer :).
Click to expand...

Glad to help.

Gladder still not to have to apologize for being the voice of reason. :D
 
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