[Advice] £200 or so to improve my PC?

O

Ono

Guest
My soon outdated system consists of:


  • ASUS A7V Socket A Mobo with VIA Apollo KT133 Chipset
    AMD Athlon TB 900 MHz
    384 Megs PC100 DRam
    32 Meg GeForce 2 GTS card
    30 Gig HDD (half full)


What should I change bearing in mind the budget?

I think my mobo takes up to an Athlon TB 1.4 Gig and I could get a GeForce 4 Ti-4200 for the price I reckon.

Does that seem sensible?
 
S

S-Gray

Guest
well what you wanna use your computer for?

Games?
Word Processing?
Pr0n?
etc
 
O

Ono

Guest
Originally posted by Super_Gray
well what you wanna use your computer for?
Click to expand...


Slaughtering your fat arse on CS :p and getting ready for Unreal 2003 and Doom 3 :clap:

Basically gaming. :)
 
S

S-Gray

Guest
Well id upgrade your CPU, you can get a 1.4 Athlon for around £100 now, Memory seems ok, but i would have thought 512mb would be a nice fallback for later upgrades, thats about mmm £60? Your Graphics seems fine for CounterStrike, but im sure it will be a tad slow when the new games (unreal / Doom) come out.

And no money in the world could make you kick my arse :p
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
Originally posted by Ono

Does that seem sensible?
Click to expand...


no.


it seems to me that you have two real choices there Ono:

-[as SG says] evaluate what it is you really use your pc for and build it towards that end. perhaps a larger monitor [or LCD]? perhaps higher standard peripheral devices?

-save up a bit and really upgrade heh. new/faster/better everything.

I don't think upgrading 'just' one component will get you where you want to go. Sorry if that's a bit of a downer mate, just my opinon.


EDIT: heh me is slow
 
S

S-Gray

Guest
Also, when you get the stuff your after, will you be plannin to sell the hardware your replacing? im sure that could add a big of dosh to your Kitty for hardware
 
S

Summo

Guest
If you're running XP, Ono you'll notice the biggest difference upgrading to at least 512MB RAM. You have an odd amount of RAM too, so you might want to ditch it all and buy one or two sticks of the fastest, branded memory your board can handle.

I agree with TdC about the rest. Save up and upgrade everything. I'm not convinced about what the practical performance difference between 900MHz and 1400MHz will be. I'm sure in benchmarks it looks great, but nothing really uses that much CPU power yet. Yer GeForce 3 will no doubt be fine for UT2003 (it's the card it was designed for after all) and why spend that money to make the relatively slight jump from GF3 to low-range GF4?
 
E

Embattle

Guest
Ram wise you're fine imho 128->256 is a good increase but 256->528 really doesn't make a great difference. The two upgrades you're thinking of, GF4 & 1.4Ghz would seem reasonable since the GF4 could be shifted into another motherboard in the future, as could the 1.4Ghz TB depending on replacement.
 
O

Ono

Guest
OK.

Just to clear things up.

My PC is used mostly for Gaming.

I will buy a brand spanking new PC in a year or so but this is a stop gap upgrade.

I already have a 19 inch monitor and am quite happy with it.


So you guys saying that adding an Athlon 1.4 and a GF4 ti-4200 would not be worth it??



ps. Yes the components sold would be ploughed back into the new purchases

pps. SG is gh3y at CS anyway.





;)
 
E

Embattle

Guest
I think they would be fine for a year and give your PC some extra legs.
 
O

Ono

Guest
Yeah? OK, cheers.


So if I buy a new CPU is it just a matter of tugging one out and jamming the new one in?



Think I'll get someone to install it. :)
 
X

Xavier

Guest
The install reall is simple :)

If you're after one or other now and the next in a couple of months I'd go for the GF3 personally... The appearance of the pixel and vertex shaders in your rig will make all the difference ;)

Xav
 
O

Ono

Guest
So?


If I got a 1.4 gig Athlon is it just a case of simply swapping the CPUs over or do I have to mess around with the Power Supply, Fan, BIOS, Jumpers and shit?


My mobo is **jumperless** apparently.
 
T

throdgrain

Guest
Damn must be cold without a jumper m8 :)
For what its worth ono I'd say increasing your processor together with your video card would improve your pc no end . My mistake in the past has always been to replace the video card but not the processor.
 
O

Ono

Guest
Yeah, thanks Throd.

I know that if I only got a GF4 the bottleneck would be my CPU therefore I want to do both.

I think the 1.4 Gig TB and GF4 Ti-4200 is quite a well matched combo. :)
 
S

Summo

Guest
I still say memory upgrade would be best. I ran XP on 256MB for a while and although it was fine, 512MB made a big difference, particularly loading games, and closing games returning to Windows.

Why by a new CPU if you're going to get a faster one in a year's time anyway?
 
T

throdgrain

Guest
Because he'd have to spend a year playing games slower than he should silly man summo :)
Dont listen to 'em Ono, you'll see a noticeable difference I think !
 
S

S-Gray

Guest
i need more DDR Memory for my Comp, only have 256mb ,and its running pretty sluggish on Win2000,
 
O

Ono

Guest
Originally posted by SomeGuy
Why by(sic) a new CPU if you're going to get a faster one in a year's time anyway?
Click to expand...


Well, because it is very cheap to buy an Athlon 1.4Gig (hear that Xav matey ;)) and I have the funds now.

My next system could be up to 2 years away and Doom 3 and Unreal 2003 aren't.

As for the Ram upgrade - I have never been convinced that it makes much difference to games. I think that 384 Megs is plenty.


PS. How much would you guys pay for a second-hand Athlon TB 1.4Gig ?
 
O

Ono

Guest
Originally posted by Ono
So?


If I got a 1.4 gig Athlon is it just a case of simply swapping the CPUs over or do I have to mess around with the Power Supply, Fan, BIOS, Jumpers and shit?


My mobo is **jumperless** apparently.
Click to expand...


Can anyone answer this bit please? I could pay someone to fit it but I'd rather not.
 
S

Summo

Guest
Actually, I'm convinced. With flash upgrades, my ABIT KT7A-RAID supports up to 1.4GHz (pre-1.3 version motherboard) so I'll join you in a new CPU, Ono. :)

My mobo is also jumperless and has the SoftLink III pages in the BIOS which allows you to enter which CPU you have without the need for jumpers. You'll be fine, as indeed, will I. :)
 
S

S-Gray

Guest
Well 1.4Ghz are hmmm, £100 now i think, a second hand one would be priced around £70/£80
 
S

Summo

Guest
Not too many around, it seems. Scan have one at about £90 (inc. delivery). None suitable on Overclock UK and co.uk, it seems. :/
 
O

Ono

Guest
Originally posted by Super_Gray
Well 1.4Ghz are hmmm, £100 now i think, a second hand one would be priced around £70/£80
Click to expand...

Only £76 at Ebuyer.com

So I would not pay more than £50 for a used one. :p
 
O

Ono

Guest
ASUS A7V Socket A Mobo with VIA Apollo KT133 Chipset
200MHz FSB




Can someone confirm that the 1.4 Athlon TB is actually the fastest I can get on the mobo?


I have the lastest BIOS (1.3).
 
O

Ono

Guest
Ah Bollox.

Just been over to the ASUS site and it seem like the max I can get on this shitty thing is a fecking 1 Gig!!:(


Not worth the upgrade if I already have a 900MHz.


FS :mad:
 
S

S-Gray

Guest
well my "supplier" got banned from Ebuyer, so im buggered on that front :/ heh

at my Local Computer Shop, they sell the AMD TB 1.4 for £94, not that bad i s'pose
 
S

Summo

Guest
Ooh!

Um... this may be a silly question, but is the Athlon 'Thunderbird' a step up or down from the standard Athlon?

*shame*
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top Bottom