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Yet another "Is this a good Upgrade?" thread

M

Mojo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
1,569
I've owned this machine for a little over two years, mind you the parts were not top of the line when purchased. They were 6 months old or more, and I went with SDram (yeah I don't know what I was thinking, I was more of a n00b than I am now). Anyways here's my full system specs:

CPU: Pentium 4 1.7ghz Willamette w/ 400mhz FSB Socket 478
Motherboard: Acer AX4BS Socket 478 I845 3DIMM 168pin @ 100mhz
RAM: 512mb (2 x 256mb) Generic PC133 SDram @ 100mhz
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128mb DDR
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Value 8mb
Hard Drive: 20gb Western Digital Caviar @ 7200rpm ATA100 2mb cache & 80gb Western Digital Caviar @ 7200rpm ATA100 8mb cache
Floppy: Panasonic 1.44mb Floppy Drive
CDROM: Aopen 56x CDROM Drive
CD Burner: LG 52x24x52x CDRW 2mb buffer
OS: Windows XP Pro
Keyboard: Microsoft Internet intelli-Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech Optical MX500
Monitor: Samtron 76V CRT 17" Monitor @ 1280x1024 60hz
Speakers: Aopen MS-810 2sat 1sub @ ~32 watts
JVC MX-K50 MiniStereo Speakers @ 200 watts
Headphones: Sony MDRG52 Stereo
Case: Aopen KF45A-P4 Mid Tower 6 Bay w/ 300w Power Supply

and, this is what I want to upgrade to, around April 2004:

CPU: Athlon 64 3000+ or Athlon 64 3400+ Socket 754
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS-7000a (Aluminum)
Motherboard: Asus K8V Deluxe
Ram: 1024mb Corsair Valueram DDR400 CL2.5
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128mb DDR (salvaged)
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live 5.1! (salvaged)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 80gb ATA100 (salvaged)
Floppy: Panasonic 1.44mb Floppy Drive
DVDrom: LG 16x DVDrom 48x CDrom
CD Burner: LG 52x24x52x CDRW 2mb buffer (salvaged)
Router: Linksys 4port DSL/Cable Router w/ 50ft Cat5
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 & Linux Mandrake 9.2
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech Optical MX500 (salvaged)
Monitor: Samsung 955DF 19" Flat CRT
Speakers: Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX speakers 280w RMS
Headphones: Plantronics Audio 90 headset
Case: Antec Lanboy w/ 350w Antec Solution Series PSU
Fans: 2 Antec Blue LED 80mm case fans
Fan Controller: Vantec Nexus Silver for up to 4 fans


Decent?
 
Since you have a 9500 Pro as it is, I assume that you play some games. If that's the case, I would definitely upgrade the video card to a 9800 Pro. This shouldn't be difficult to do - simply take the 3000+ instead of the 3400+ and you save about $200. You will notice that difference MUCH more than a 3000+ to 3400+ if you play at moderately high res. and/or use AA/AF.

I wouldn't normally mention this but your thinking of buying socket 754 processors in April, which is right around the date that the 939 mobos will be released, I believe. Why not pickup one of those instead? Assuming the 939s are not incredibly immature or expensive upon release, this would seem to be the wiser choice.

Other than that, it looks great.
 
why do you need headfones for? just use your old ones since you'll only be using it at the wee hours of the night.
but i recommend keeping the 3400+ because it performs very closely if not better than the FX-51. and some games do require a very fast cpu for bots or physics during the game. just try to save up some extra money for the 9800. although i would upgrade vidcards just yet. i myself will wait till the next gen cards come out which will push these card's prices to a new low.:D ;)
 
I just built my new system this weekend, but I took forever and won't fire it up until tonight. Oh yeah, about your system:

1. If you're set on the Athlon, then go for it. Also consider Thermalright heatsinks though.

2. I know nothing about the MB you're getting, but the RAM looks good, keep your present video card for a little longer as planned, if sound card still works......, get a second HD for backup (WD of course), as long as you're not planning on burning DVDs or playing DVD games then almost all the rest is fine.

3. I've heard people having trouble with that Samsung monitor, so I got the Viewsonic 19" G90F Flat CRT instead.

4. I'd get Klipsch speakers, but I bet the Logitech are less expensive.

Good Luck!
 
If you just want to run at 10x7 with a little IQ or 12x10 with no IQ, then keep the 9500 pro. If you could get that 3400+ to 3600+ or higher levels, you're going to be ahead of the game when socket 939 comes out. Unless you demand high resolution and AA/AF, I'd keep that R420 and wait for the next gen of cards.
 
sounds like a good upgrade
the 9800Pro can wait until the new line of vid cards come out rite?
im guessing the Prices of the Athlons will lower as socket 939 comes out?
 
Yea, honestly, I would wait till later and then get the new stuff like PCI express... DDR 2, the works. Buying a system now seems kind of a waste to me because it'll be blown away in just a short time.
 
up the power supplies wattage on your upgrade that is an important thing the more power the more you can do.
 
Originally posted by pbXassassinX1524
Yea, honestly, I would wait till later and then get the new stuff like PCI express... DDR 2, the works. Buying a system now seems kind of a waste to me because it'll be blown away in just a short time.
Click to expand...
No. Waiting is no fun. And this Willamette is really starting to get on my nerves. DDR2 isn't going to be too much faster at the start anyways, and a machine of that calibre will cost like 1.5-2x as much as the one I'm going to build.

About the s939's... I may get one, depending on if the 3400+ s939 is out by the time I want to buy. And if I can gain anything out of price vs performance from the s754's. If the extra cost isn't worth it I doubt I'll go s939.

About the video card. I'm not worried about upgrading it yet. I don't play as many games as I used to. I play a bit of Medal of Honor, Warcraft 3, Starcraft, and I've been playing the UT2004 demo (which is pretty good, try it). My 9500 Pro is more than adequate for these games. It should last me another year or so at least. I only bought it last March for $300 Canadian, so I want to get my value out of it before I upgrade, this Willamette system (running 512mb PC133 at 100mhz) has choked it for every minute of it's life so far. To give you an idea I only get ~8000 in 3D Mark 2001, and I get around 80-85fps in UT2003 Anatulus Flyby @ 1024x768. I should be getting at least 10000 in 3D Mark 2001, and around 100fps in UT 2003 Anatulus Flyby. My new system should bring my card to it's peak performance.
 
Hmph. How much can you spend?

First thing that HAS to go is the Willamette/845 setup. Your graphics card is fine, ignore all these naysayers—beats a 9600Pro (XT?) anytime.

Regardless of what you get, get a gig of PC3200; you can manage two 512MB sticks for about $150, with plain consumer-line (Corsair Value Select, Mushkin Basic, etc.).

Intel-side, an IS7 will run you about $100, and a P4 2.4C $160. (Retail box; you'll probably be able to get it up to 3.0-ish.)

AMD-side, a K8T800 will run you about $120, and an A64 3000+ about $230 retail. Not much overclocking there at all, though.

In conclusion, an Intel upgrade will work better for you, price-wise. Less future-proof, but it'll make a fine basis for a secondary machine. Or HTPC. ;)

On other hardware: get Cooler Master's LED fans, they're better. Power supply, get a Fortron 400W PN series power supply; it's about $55, and uses a 120mm fan.

Oh yeah, if you get a modern motherboard, ditch the SBLive!. XP drivers suck, and the onboard sound will be better anyway.
 
CoolerMaster LED fans eh....... all right.

I don't really want another Pentium 4. I want to give AMD a try, and the 3400+ is POWERFUL. It can definately beat overclocked Pentium 4s (not that beating other peoples computers matters to me). The other thing is I really don't want to overclock right when I buy my new machine. Kind of scared that if I did and something went wrong, then I would be out hundreds of dollars, piss of myself, piss of my parents, etc. I won't be overclocking until the time comes when I can pay for 100% of my computer, and I have money to spare afterwards if something does happen to go wrong. I just put a Zalman CNPS 7000a in there for longevity, not really for overclocking. Although I should probably consider the Abit KV8 Max3 motherboard, it has active cooling compared to the Asus' passive cooling. Thoughts on that?

I suppose if I got the Asus board and ever wanted to overclock I could always buy a northbridge fan of some sort.
 
Don't get the 3000... 512kb cache.
Don't get the 3400... too expensive.

3200 = yes!
 
Originally posted by plur
Don't get the 3000... 512kb cache.
Don't get the 3400... too expensive.

3200 = yes!
Click to expand...
The 512KB of cache rather than 1MB doesn't seem to hurt the A64 3000+, actually. The 3000+ is one of the best values on market right now.
 
You can't upgrade cache later and with so little between the pricing, it makes sense to get the 1024k over the 512k.

Obviously, your budget will dictate what you're able to go for in the end :)
 
Well, sure, but my point was that the extra 512KB of cache doesn't help the K8 (with its short pipeline—there's a reason lots of cache helps "NetBurst" so much) all that much anyway. $60 could be, like, a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, or a REALLY nice heatsink/fan (SLK-948 + Fan) combo, or even just dinner at a nice restaurant and a movie. For two.
 
Bumping this because I have a few further questions...


So, the s939 chips and motherboards are coming out soon, as are the new s754 motherboards with AGP/PCI lock... Anyone know when these will be available in Canada? I probably shouldn't get a VIA K8T800 mobo right now should I? A Nforce 3 250 board will last me longer. But, the thing that worries me is if I wait for the new hardware to come out, it *won't* be reliable because it has no revisions, etc. I'm kind of confused what to do, I will probably be buying within the next month or 6 weeks I hope. Lately I've been thinking, maybe I should go to Intel? Help me out.

Keep in mind that I have about $1500 total Canadian to work with, but I already have a sound card, mouse, hard drive, CDRW, and video card.
 
If you're willing, it'll probably be worth it to wait for K8T800 Pro (the newer, fixed PCI/AGP chipset) to come out. Otherwise, I'd still just go for K8T800 if you have the upgrade itch.
 
As far as the peripheral go, i suggest you upgrade there the soonest. Good peripherals can really make a system seem better. If you're up for it, you might want to look into a nice lcd, and some really nice speakers. (Klipsch maybe? Or maybe Gigaworks? I love my Creative Megaworks 550s, and i hear hte Gigaworks are better.) Also, i would recommend against the platronics headset. I hear they break quite often. I think decent headphones and a separate may suit you better.
 
Yeah I got a cheap Logitech headset, and I ordered Sennheiser HD477 headphones. I would've got 497 but they aren't available anywhere around here. The 477 should be pretty decent anyways. I'm not really that much of an audiophile, but I'm sure they'll sound better than these $40 Sony's.

For speakers I think I've settled on the Logitech z2200 2.1 THX 200w. They're pretty good speakers. I was going to get z5300 but I think I'll downgrade those because I don't need 5.1, I doubt I'll watch DVDs on my computer. The z2200 have just as good sound as z560s I've heard, only they're 2.1 not 4.1. What do you guys think about that?

The other thing is a monitor, I've been thinking about the Samsung 955DF 19" Flat CRT, but another competitor has popped up. The BENQ p992 19" CRT. It's a shadow mask with around the same refresh rates as the 955DF, maybe a little better. And it's $50 or so cheaper. Anyone know anything about the BENQ or BENQ in general? I've never owned any of their products.

Any further help will be appreciated. :)
 
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