what to buy

[Brynn]

Exams at uni have just finished - and im going to treat myself to some computer upgrady parts. I have £600 - but only gunna spend £400 just so the missus doesn't get touchy about me spending my money for her present.

Current spec :
2.4 Pentium X(cant remember )
512 Meg Ram (this is being upgraded)
GForce 4 4600
16/12/40 CD Writer
DvD Drive
120 Gig HD
20 Gig HD
21" Flatscreen (not a TFT)

Oh great wonders of the Technation advise me :worthy:

 

[TdC]

Exams at uni have just finished - and im going to treat myself to some computer upgrady parts. I have £600 - but only gunna spend £400 just so the missus doesn't get touchy about me spending my money for her present.

Current spec :
2.4 Pentium X(cant remember )
512 Meg Ram (this is being upgraded)
GForce 4 4600
16/12/40 CD Writer
DvD Drive
120 Gig HD
20 Gig HD
21" Flatscreen (not a TFT)

Oh great wonders of the Technation advise me :worthy:

hmm, perhaps you could find out what the fastest CPU is that fits your mobo and get that? with a nice silent cooler maybe? then take the rest of your dosh, the missus and yourself off for a nice weekend away? that's what I'd do, but I'm strange like that

 

[old.user4556]

I would say a new graphics card, perhaps a the new X800 Pro so you can play Farcry/HL2/Doom3 (a GF4 won't cut it at all).

I agree with Teeds too, a new CPU wouldn't go amiss either.

X800 Pro - £300 inc vat
P4 3 GHz - £152 inc vat (if the mobo allows)

£452 all in, a bit over your budget but it will inject a fair bit of pace into your PC.

 

[Brynn]

Ta Lads - think i will get the video card, and cpu upgrade.

got an anniversary coming soon might be able to convince the gf to get me some ram

 

[Custodian]

Personally, I'd save £150 and get a Rad 9800 Pro rather than the newest and most expensive X800 cards. The Rad card should be able anything that comes out for the next year or two.
I agree with buying the biggest CPU that you can fit into your motherboard though.

 

[SoWat]

I second the 9800Pro suggestion. It's a real bargain and will handle anything you'll throw at it for a good while yet.

 

[SawTooTH]

Naw wait for the X300pro it wont be that more expensive than the 9800 pro but a lot more powerful. You're only talking a few weeks wait.

 

[old.user4556]

I'm not convinced with the "get a 9800 pro" stance, he's got a 21" monitor so you're looking at 1280*1024 resolutions at the vert least. Farcry at 1280 needs quite a beefy card, and if you're wanting to play with anti-aliasing on the 9800 Pro won't cut it.

It depends on what you're wanting to play on it, but if you're upgrading and wanting to play todays and tomorrows games the X800 Pro is a cracking performer, regardless of how much of a steal the 9800 Pro is. I'm already looking at selling my 9800 Pro and upgrading because on the contrary to what i've read on this thread, I don't think the 9800 Pro is going to cut it with HL2 and Doom3 at high resolutions (as per the 21" monitor) with FSAA cranked up.

Heres a link showing performance with fsaa http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040504/ati-x800-31.html

 

[TdC]

ah, but that may not be what Brynn wants. on a personal note, I'd never get X800 in whatever form unless I had at least a 3Ghz cpu to help it along. if it's going to be one or the other I'd rather get a faster cpu and a decent gfx card at once. your graphs are well and good, but Tom's test machine has a big cpu and fast ram to go with the cards. it's quite true the x800XT doubles the 9800XT's performance though oO

 

[old.user4556]

True teeds, it's horses for courses.

I just didn't see much point in spending £400 on a serious upgrade when you're gonna let it down with a 9800 Pro - which is still a great card, yes - but i'm looking ahead towards Doom3, HL2 and the current Farcry.

On that note Brynn - what are you wanting to be able to play/do? If you say "play DaoC", i'll be force fed my words by TDC .

G

 

[TdC]

hehe nah, the eating will be of your own choice we're dependent on what Brynn wants to do to advise properly. if there's Farcry and D3/HL2 (if they ever really get done -I'm still a sceptic at heart) in it then there should be a fast cpu and gfx card in the equasion, and that might mean a new mobo/ram and the costs will mount.
I have to admit I'm a tad jealous, as it's going to be next year before I can upgrade still, gfx card prices will have dropped slightly by then and D3/HL2 still won't have been released....

 

[Brynn]

On that note Brynn - what are you wanting to be able to play/do? If you say "play DaoC", i'll be force fed my words by TDC .

G

given up the olde daoc - play UT2004, Halo warcraft 3.

 

[JBP|]

the only problem i see with buying an X800 is the fact that PCIExpress will be available in a month or two therefore making it out of date within weeks of its release

if you can wait and get PCIExpress kit then hang on,if you cant a 9800pro would handle the games your playing atm and you could afford some memory too

 

[Xavier]

Getting a PCI Express X800XT would mean buying a new motherboard, CPU, RAM AND graphics card... A total waste of money...

The first chipsets to support PCI Express are the i915 and i925 from Intel. Both are DDR2/Socket-T based and most of the reference boards don't have a single old-school PCI slot, so he would need to replace every other PCI card he uses.

The performance benefits from PCI express itself is minimal - think of it as bi-directional AGP16x, we're not hitting the limits for AGP8x yet, so the only substantial performance bump you'll see is from any increased clock speeds used on the PCI Express part.

Intel are making such a radical shift I think it will be months before their latest offering becomes viable in terms of $$$ for the majority of users.

Xav