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Upgrade?

DruSi3r

Gawd
Joined
Nov 4, 2002
Messages
937
Guys,
The good side of knowing about computers even a little is all your friends think your bill gates. My friend wants me to make his computer fast (doom3 ready). I was going to do the nice think and sell him shit from my current setup (which all works great). This may save him some money and allow me to upgrade at the same time. So, I sell him my 9700pro and look for an upgrade. Is it going to be the 9800pro or the 9600xt. I want to stay away from nvidea (no flames). I really can/dont want to afford the 9800xt. So which to get? Are there any comparision of these to on the net? Not being lazy just in a hurry.
Drew

PS the rest of the upgrade will be it7 max3 and cosair 2x256 pc4000, the HT chip will come later (even though that the purpose of upgrading)
 
9800 will blow a 9600 away easily. A damn 9500 is fast as or faster than a 9600 anything.
 
Selling a 9700pro to get a 9600XT is generally thought to be a step backwards. Shoot for a 9800Pro/XT or forget it.
 
a 128mb 9800pro all the way. they are cheaper and for some reason faster. at my last lan party my aiw 9800 pro was getting better speeds than another guys 9800pro 256 and our rigs are very similar. i was told because the memory controller on the card is optimized for 128 and not 256 but this is an unreliable source so take it with a grain of salt.

anyway get a 9800pro over a 9600xt and stick with the 128 mb version havent seen any advantage of getting the 256 mb version.
 
Cool, thanks guys...now i just have to convince my friend this is a good deal and a worthy upgrade, if you guys could go to the "general hardware" section and leave some feedback about the deal it would be greatly appreciated. Thread name is "Upgrade" too. Oh and is one brand of 9800pro better than another, Ive been happy with my "made by ATI" btw. I will be overclocking on air and maybe soft-modding. I dont care about software as I have BT.
 
Originally posted by DruSi3r
worth the xtra 80 buck for the 256 version, links to comparisons?

You did mention doom3 didn't you? I think the extra 128Mb of video RAM would help doom3's performance.
 
well actually my friend wanted to play doom3...lets just say doom3 is playable on my current setup :D so anything would just be an improvement. However you are right the xtra ram would help out.
 
You want guaranteed DOOM3, wait for Doom3 to come out....thats only a DUH! thing.
 
Yes going from a 9700pro to a 9600xt is a step back....go for a 9800pro and overclock it to hell :D
 
Why are you getting an it7-max3? Don't bother with 845pe boards, go for a nice 865pe board like the Asus p4p800 or Abit is7. I would also go for the 256mb 9800pro, they're not much more money than the 128mb ones, and future games (including some already out games like KOTOR) will begin to oversaturate the 128mb cache.
 
Originally posted by EarthwormJim
Why are you getting an it7-max3? Don't bother with 845pe boards, go for a nice 865pe board like the Asus p4p800 or Abit is7. I would also go for the 256mb 9800pro, they're not much more money than the 128mb ones, and future games (including some already out games like KOTOR) will begin to oversaturate the 128mb cache.

Yeah dude dont' screw your friend with an old 845pe board, thats pretty much sayin bend over while i stick this motherboard up your ass because once doom3 comes out you're gonna realize this board sucks.
 
Originally posted by Flipside
Kepp in mind that the 9800Pro 256 uses DDR II...This is kinda neat.

Even if it was DDR IV wouldn't make a shits worth of difference. DDR II is still too early, runs hotter than shit.
 
Yeah when I first saw DDR II, i though sweet that must be better.....nope its not any better, at least not yet.
 
the IT7 Max2 was/is a great board IMHO. Listen he currently has a Gateway with 256mb pc800, 1.8Ghz P4, Win98se; so anything will likely be a huge upgrade. I would like to stick to Abit but what is a good board now-a-days??! w/HT, onboard audio, dual channel memory, on-board lan, and OC-able.?>?>?> I notice some of you have the Asus P4C800 something a rather send me a link so I can compare to It7 3 max2...
drew
 
Originally posted by oVerCaffeinated
You did mention doom3 didn't you? I think the extra 128Mb of video RAM would help doom3's performance.
Doom3 ain't out so who knows.
 
Originally posted by DruSi3r
the IT7 Max2 was/is a great board IMHO. Listen he currently has a Gateway with 256mb pc800, 1.8Ghz P4, Win98se; so anything will likely be a huge upgrade. I would like to stick to Abit but what is a good board now-a-days??! w/HT, onboard audio, dual channel memory, on-board lan, and OC-able.?>?>?> I notice some of you have the Asus P4C800 something a rather send me a link so I can compare to It7 3 max2...
drew

Yeah it was a gread board over a year ago. Its outdated and not something to buy. My recommendation for best bang for the buck is the Abit IS7. Its an 865 board that is much more advanced than that damn 845pe board.

You can't use a 800FSB proc on the 845 boards, thus your HT options are ONLY the 3.06 and who wants that???? Nobody.

You don't have dual channel memory on a 845pe board either. Don't waste your money on a 845 board unless you absolutely hate the guy.
 
Originally posted by obs
Doom3 ain't out so who knows.
I do believe Carmack himself said Doom3 uses something like 80megs of textures.
The more memory on the card the better.
 
well, some of it is out...but I hope no one bases actual game performance on some leaked code.
 
The P4C800 is an 875P board, it's rather expensive at $170+, and is really meant to be an enthusiast board. Here are two nice Abit 865PE motherboards: IS7 and AI7

The AI7 is a slight improvement over the IS7 and includes more overclocking features. If you plan to overclock your friends PC, go for the AI7, if not then go for the IS7.
 
I think ive created some confusion in my hasty typing. He will be getting my motherboard and ram (Abit IT7Max2 and Ram) and I wil be the one upgrading. He is on a limited budget and knows little about computers. I would like to upgrade to a HT, DC mem MB and get 1000Mhz FSB. So by upgrading his computer (with my equiptment) it will allow me to make the first step MB and 2xsticks of ram and add the proc later. He is cool with the parts I have after seeing how it performs. I always wnat better and faster.
Secondly, I dont mind spending 150+ on a MB as it really is the "body" of one's system. My requirements are onboard audio, LAN (if possible), HT, DC mem , and OCable to 1Ghz FSB. Suggestions...
 
I really suggest you don't go with onboard audio unless you plan on making an AMD nforce-2 system. Anyways, almost all motherboards have onboard sound, although it's rather craptacular compared to a good PCI sound card.

As for motherboards, go for either the Asus P4C800-E deluxe (don't get the non E version, it doesn't have raid and is only $10 less) or the Abit IC7-Max3. Either one will easily get to 250mhz FSB. They usually top out at around 300-310mhz FSB, so there's plenty of headroom to spare.

About your friends upgrade, do you already own the ram you're giving him, or is he buying it new? If he's buying it new, try to get him 1GB of DDR-400 instead of 512MB of DDR-250. Most low latency DDR-400 sticks will outperform most DDR-250 sticks because of the higher latencies they use.
 
he will be getting the ram in my sig and I will be replacing it with 2X256 MB of some fast ass stuff. Proally XMS but I will read some reviews. I need to get to 1Ghz FSB on a1r
 
Originally posted by batotman

You can't use a 800FSB proc on the 845 boards, thus your HT options are ONLY the 3.06 and who wants that???? Nobody.

Most of the 845PE boards have a BIOS patch that allows the board to run P4Cs, yet be it with DDR 400 only.
 
Originally posted by Flipside
Most of the 845PE boards have a BIOS patch that allows the board to run P4Cs, yet be it with DDR 400 only.

Please tell me which ones because I haven't seen one yet.
 
Originally posted by batotman
Not to me it isn't worth an extra 80. Its overkill.

256 MB of video RAM is overkill for older and most current games. It is most definitely NOT overkill with games that are coming out now, and for games that will come out in the next 6-12 months. Hell, even Call of Duty needs 256 MB to run smoothly at the maximum texture quality setting. It's in the readme.

Also, there is Far Cry, HL2, Doom3 etc. If you want to run those at high quality visual settings, you'll NEED 256 MB of video RAM.
 
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