Upgrade options?

J

JasonG

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2003
Messages
202
Thinking of upgrading my PC and dont wanna spend alot($500~). Listed is the basics of what I have now. Mostly wanna improve my gaming performance and thats what I do 75% of the time with my PC. I've thought that the best thing for me to do is replace the MB and processor and reuse all the other goodies I have now would be the best bang for the buck and improve my performance the most.

Asus P4PE Motherboard
P4 3.06 533fsb
1gb ddr xms ram
74gb raptor hd
ATI x800xl

Now here are the questions... Do you guys agree? Other uppgrade options for performance boost within that price range? If you agree feel free to throw options out there as I'm willing to go amd or pentium. Also if I did just change the MB and Proc. and then hook everything else back up as is would it all work fine? Or would I have to reinstall windows drivers ect. As allways thanks for your input.

JasonG
 
I'd upgrade the mobo and proc. like you're thinking. Something like this and this would boost performance quite a bit. Those come out to about $450. And AMD is supposedly lowering the prices on the 64/X2 series as of tomorrow.
 
Motherboard I really wont reco bcause there are sooo many opinions. I've heard many good things from that EPOX but it looks like it would break if I touch it. I have an ABIT AN8 (chip olds me back) and am very happy with it. No problems at all from a reputable company. Lanparty' are good but you really need to tweak and play around with bios and that is too much of a hassle for me.

Do you know how to overclock???
If you do I would reco an opteron 144 or 146 (939 pins) if you can find them or an AMD 3k+.

I would also recomend 2GB of ram but with those XMS you may not get the best OC.
For memory I would go here.

You would probably have to repair windows though I highly reco a clean install.
Let us know what you get.
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys. I was really hoping to find a MB that uses AGP and has a PCI slot for future upgrades so I could save by not getting a pci graphics card. I've looked and can't seem to find many. Anyone have idea's for those type of MB's? Thanks again.

JasonG
 
ou mean PCI-E?

The only one I would use is an ASROCK.

Heard mostly good things about it. I would also mos def get 2GB of ram. I don't know if the Opteron' would work on this mobo though.... hmmmmmm

Crucial is the best ram and much cheaper than most.
 
Thats the only MB I've seen too thats fairy upgradable with pci-e. Thanks again... now to just deciede if I wanna splurge on a faster proc... hehe. Thanks.

JasonG
 
Oh, didn't know you had an AGP slot. Though I guess I probably could've found out if I'd researched a little more... Anyway, that mobo looks pretty good. THG gives it the tumbs-up, and the newegg reviews are all good (of course, they're known to delete negative reviews). I'm also wondering if you overclock. If you do, something like a 3000+ and/or Opteron 144 would be good choices.
 
I"ve played a bit with my P4 as I run it at 3.22 on the stock hsf without any problems. Dont nec. plan to overclock a new one... but I said that about my last one too. So yes it's a possibility. lol

With the asrock mobo would a new amd X2 work in it? Like link
Thanks again.

JasonG
 
It most definitely would, but i wouldn't recomend if you're just using games. All the money you save could be used for better use. Games probably won't use the 2nd core for a while.

GET MORE RAM!!! :p

If you play BF2 and upcoming games 2gb will help u A TON!!!

Persoanlly I like Crucial the best.

AMD is dropping their prices on chips within the next few days. You might get a 3200+ for the price of the current 3000+. You can then OC that one to a 2.4-2.6.

If you aren't in a hurry you can wait and see if the Opteron 939 pins, model 146 at least, will come out. You can then try and OC that to a potential FX!!!
 
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