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Opinions needed...band-aid solution

R

Rajun_Cajun

n00b
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
9
Originally posted this in the general section, but it is probably better for the video card section as most questions revolve around the video card and my options.

From the other post...

Here's my predicament. I'm looking to upgrade my aging AGP gaming machine.

Let me start out by saying...with a new baby on the way I really don't have the $1000 - $1500 I would want to spend on a new machine. With that said, I'm looking for some opinions on a band-aid fix/upgrade while utilizing $150 in BestBuy money.

Here's my current rig.
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
ATI x850xt AGP
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
WD Raptor 74G 10,000 RPM
OCZ 450W Modstream PSU (26A 12v)

My options:
1) a. Get a used or refurbed PCIe 939 board along with a 8800gt from BB. Total cost for the upgrade, after using gift cards, would be around $200.
b. Get a used or refurbed PCIe 939 board along with a 9600gt from BB. Total cost for the upgrade, after using gift cards, would be around$100.
2) Get the VisionTek HD2600xt from BB and stick with everything else in my current rig.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8521076&type=product&id=1188558965642
3) Get a 3850 AGP. Only problem here is that my current PSU has 26a on 12v. From the sounds of it this wouldn't do. So now I need to get a new PSU plus the 3850.
4) Don't do anything and live with what I have until funds are available to get a completely new machine.

My fear of doing a or b is that my CPU will cause a bottleneck that will not be able to take advantage of an upgraded 9600gt or 8800gt or even the HD2600xt. I'm not looking to run Crysis on ultra uber settings here either. Just a nice upgrade from my current set-up.

Any suggestions/opinions?
 
The 3850 hardly sucks any power at all. That is more than enough juice for it.

If you absolutely need to upgrade right now, the 3850 AGP would be the cheapest solution. Otherwise I'd wait until you can replace the whole enchilada. As far as your CPU being a bottleneck, probably. But I would imagine you'd still see a decent boost.
 
I have to agree with NKDietrich, if your going to upgrade, get the 3850. Your psu should be plenty for it.
 
+1 for the 3850, and as stated your PSU should be fine. Wait until you can do a full upgrade before getting on the PCIe train.

No point shelling out money to get on the 939 platform which is outdated as it is. You would just end up in the same predicament very very soon.
 
Sell your BB giftcards for 135 + ~200 ish you have to spend = 335.
That can buy you

e6300 - 70
Abit IP35-E - 70
2GB DDR2 800 - 45
HD3850 - ~120

Of course at used prices but you could also sell your old parts for another 150-200+.

Other than that I wouldn't bother upgrading to the HD3850 AGP, but if you HAVE to then that would be your best idea to go with.
 
I'm selling $172.77 worth of BB gift cards if you're still looking to buy from Best Buy. I'm selling them for about 87% of their value if you can order online (choose in-store pickup if necessary).
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1275359

Someone is interested in buying about $100 worth, but it's still pending.
 
well I know how you feel with teh baby situation. But, you want to spend your $ on somthing worth while. The only video card worth your $ right now is somthig along the 3850/9600gt/3870/8800gt or higher line. But in order for you to run those you would need to upgrade mobo, cpu and ram. Thus I would bank the $150 and make due. If its going to be longer than 6 months I would make an attempt here to do somthing but your pc is so old that it would be almost impossible to use them in any current systems.
 
I was in this situation last year. I had an Athlon XP 2800+ and an NF7-S v2.0. While I had a Radeon x800 GTO (unlocked to 16 pipes), I was getting tired of having an out-dated system.

I went with this ASRock board (sig.) because it has both an AGP and a PCI-E slot, and it has DDR and DDR2 slots. It was a good bridge into newer technology. It supposedly supports any LG775 CPU, but I'm not going to bother putting in a C2D. :D

I eventually replaced my DDR memory with DDR2, and sold my x800 to help pay for my x1950Pro.


Congrats on the baby. What do you think your actual, ultimate budget would be? You probably won't have much time to game when the baby comes anyway. Something to think about (if you haven't already :D).
 
good idea there, sell the best buy gift cards and add them to your $150.

To the poster that references the asrock board that runs ddr & ddr2 ram as well as the agp and pci-ex slots, my buddy had that board and it gave him tonnes of trouble. Also, not many sites mention it but the pci-express slot is only x4 not x16, it is listed that way on the asrock site.
 
hossdaddy said:
good idea there, sell the best buy gift cards and add them to your $150.

To the poster that references the asrock board that runs ddr & ddr2 ram as well as the agp and pci-ex slots, my buddy had that board and it gave him tonnes of trouble. Also, not many sites mention it but the pci-express slot is only x4 not x16, it is listed that way on the asrock site.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's the only ASRock board I'll ever own. I haven't had much trouble with it though.
 
it would be a $60 intermediate board that he would need to replace due to the x4 pci-express slot so kind of a bad buy really.
 
It isn't that bad, not to someone who's used to not running games at super-high settings. I'm not recommending the board. I stated my situation and what I did for it. Granted, I didn't have a baby on the way. I don't think he's gonna have any time to game, so I think saving the cash is the right choice.
 
yeah I hear ya! Gl with the baby man! Btw I must say that my gaming increased by 50% when my kids were born. Mainly becuase I did not have the money to go out to the bar or anything. I am always down in my man cave with my son, pc, tv, and beer fridge! Its the only way to keep thigs balanced!
 
hossdaddy said:
yeah I hear ya! Gl with the baby man! Btw I must say that my gaming increased by 50% when my kids were born. Mainly becuase I did not have the money to go out to the bar or anything. I am always down in my man cave with my son, pc, tv, and beer fridge! Its the only way to keep thigs balanced!
Click to expand...

If its anything like my brother at least it'll give you something to do when you're up at 3:00am feeding the baby.
 
Thanks for the info/opinions guys. I'm thinking I have a buyer for my BB cards so I'll probably dump those and get a 3850. I'm not even sure when I'll be able to build a complete new machine so it is what it is for now...a band-aid solution that boosts performance for a little while. Besides, it will end up costing me $70 of my own money to get the 3850. Initially I didn't think this was going to be possible due to my PSU, specifically the 12v rail at 26A.

As for my gaming time when the baby comes. It'll take an obvious hit for the first three months probably, but then return to normal game play. This is #2 as I already have a 4 year old son. Put it to you this way... I go out way less than before and I have perfected operating at 100% on 4 to 5 hours sleep :D

Thanks again guys!
 
hold on man, you said you had $150 and were going to sell your bb cards. How much in total would you have inclusing what you get for the bb cards? I was able to build a new amd X2 dual core, mobo and 2 gigs ram for $147 on newegg without rebates. All you would need is about another $75 and you could get a current model pci-express card. Just for giggles,

GIGABYTE GA-M61SME-S2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD $47.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128045

Open Box: MSI NX8600GT Twin Turbo GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 $78.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127306R

Transcend 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $32.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208344

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor $71.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103751

Total: $231.96 - $10 mir $221.96 + shipping.

Not totally high end but good enough for now.
 
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