upgrade time! where do i go now?

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Manaknight

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jun 6, 2005
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I am thinking of upgrading my system on a budget, i would call it a baby upgrade i guess. i currently have an athlon xp3000, abit nf7-s and a 6800 vanilla unlocked, the rest of the system isn't terribly important (though i will say i have the good model of the 500w xconnect psu so my power needs are good for now)

now originally i was just going to drop a 7800gs into the rig and call it a day, but considering its the twilight of agp systems and the fact that a 7900gt pcie is cheaper than the gs i got to thinking, perhaps its time to take the step up.

That being said where do i go? i saw am2 systems, but everything i saw relies on ddr2, which is extra money i do not have (i would be selling the current processor/mobo/card for around 250-280, please let me know if i should get more). so i'm leaning towards 939.

i'm probably going to have ~400-450 to spend overall, the video card is my primary concern, i would like the 7900 sitting on the egg for i think 260 after rebate, but the mobo processor is where i am lost, i usually prefer abit over all, but dfi has been a name i hear dropped of late, a name i'm not terribly familiar with simply because i've had my nf7 since before the new sockets existed.

also processor wise, what is better than a 3000xp without breaking my bank? it doesn't have to be a major upgrade, in all honesty the processor is the lowest priority for me, i'm sure i can surpass my 3000 by just a bit now and upgrade to something sexier when i have more money. so that leaves me with what to do, sempron? a64? and what are the different cores i should watch for?

or am i just being stupid and should i just drop on the 7800gs and shut up?

please help ;)
 
I have almost the same setup and just got the 7800 GS, it has been factabulous for me going from a EVGA 5900 se. However, in your situation, if you really want a new build, I would wait for the dust to settle on the Conroe, DX10,Vista stuff. You don't want to build a new budget system with parts that'll be roadkill in months. I would get the 7800 GS and save up for a real powerhouse build. Go all out on your next one and keep it for awhile.

They say AGP, is dead, they are right, but so is s939 now, and I wouldn't jump out and build a new rig with all the tech on the horizon ( I mean a couple months, sure there is always something coming). Socket AM2 has yet to be proven to be an upgrade as far as performance goes from s939, but Conroe is looking to be KILLER. I am going to wait and see what all the fuss is about. Right now, I am happy as I can play all of my games at 1280 x 1024 (my monitors max) with max settings.

See if you can find a Gainward bliss 7800 GS+ as they are 20 and some even 24 pipes with 512Mb RAM!
 
belmicah said:
I have almost the same setup and just got the 7800 GS, it has been factabulous for me going from a EVGA 5900 se. However, in your situation, if you really want a new build, I would wait for the dust to settle on the Conroe, DX10,Vista stuff. You don't want to build a new budget system with parts that'll be roadkill in months. I would get the 7800 GS and save up for a real powerhouse build. Go all out on your next one and keep it for awhile.

They say AGP, is dead, they are right, but so is s939 now, and I wouldn't jump out and build a new rig with all the tech on the horizon ( I mean a couple months, sure there is always something coming). Socket AM2 has yet to be proven to be an upgrade as far as performance goes from s939, but Conroe is looking to be KILLER. I am going to wait and see what all the fuss is about. Right now, I am happy as I can play all of my games at 1280 x 1024 (my monitors max) with max settings.

See if you can find a Gainward bliss 7800 GS+ as they are 20 and some even 24 pipes with 512Mb RAM!
Click to expand...


This is all good advice but he is working on a really tight budget from what I understand. The new Conroe builds and dx10 cards/vista are going to cost a fortune when they hit the market. Not to mention that it will be some time before we see dx10.
 
thanks for all the advice, i'm still a bit torn, there is a good point about 939 already starting to wane,

what i may do is this, can get a sempron and a decen't mobo together for about 110-120 (it would be a used 754 mobo, buddy is giving me an awesome deal on it), and then get the gs, which if i recall i can purchase an adapter to move it over pciexpress until i can get a killer pcie card. is this a smarter move for where the market is?

and would the sempy not be worth dropping in over my 3000xp? it would be a 2800 build on the 64 architecture (palermo i think it was) and overclockable

heh btw thanks for being my research guys, i've been building budgets and just repairing current systems for so long i'm pretty far out of the market...that and those college bills are hurting the splurge fund
 
AFAIK, there's no AGP to PCI-e converter. You might have been thinking of the AGP to PCI-e bridge chips present on the actual video cards themselves... but nothing external.
 
I am/wasin almost the exact same position. I had a Athlon XP 3000, Asus AGP mobo, and a very weak GPU. I also thought of popping in a 7800GS and upgrading the RAM but AGP being almost dead and the high price of them, a aging XP proc. and outdated graphics card I have decided to buy a AMD or Conroe(depending on release times) Velocity Micro system which will run about 1800 buck but will be somewhat future proof. :rolleyes:
 
i'm a bit too poor to go that route, looking at a 939 board and proc right now, not bleeding edge, but hell, as it is i'm stubborn about giving up hardware thats been out of production for what? almost 3 years now?
 
ok this is what i'm looking at

athlon 64 3500+ venice retail at the egg for 114
asus a8n sli deluxe - 90 from f/s forums
7900gt evga 248 after rebate (which is cool since its going on my newegg card anyway)

all my other goodies carry over, 550 ultra xconnect, high end corsair ddr400, audigy, blah blah

thoughts and feelings

could also get a 3000+ venice for 80 from the f/s too, but i'm thinking the extra cash is worth starting at speeds above what i have now before my overclocks
 
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