what's the best way to upgrade

Pages: 1 2

Index »
Community »
Tech »
what's the best way to upgrade

2007-03-30 10:39:27

Lucien: Fantasma Parastasie; +1,451|7119

current situation:

CPU
-AMD 64 3000
RAM
-OCZ platinum DDR400 1GB
video card
-ATI X1950pro (AGP)
motherboard
-msi K8mm-v (754/agp)
harddrive
-maxtor 200GB thingy, SATA 2
perhiperals
-1xDVD reader, 1xDVD burner
case
-Thermaltake Soprano
PSU
-Thermaltake Toughpower 600 Watt (48 amps)
sound card
-Creative audigy 4
OS
-windows XP

desktop: Samsung 19" widescreen monitor (940bw), logitech G5 + S&S steelpad, some random ass logitech media keyboard, Icemat Siberia headset & mic.

my aim: being able to play DX10 games on respectable levels, but first being able to play currently available games properly. In other words, my failing CPU and RAM need a kick up the backside. However, if I only upgrade those parts I will have to buy an AGP motherboard, and I doubt I can get an AGP motherboard that supports C2D (HINT, HINT). to upgrade to C2D I need new RAM as well, so if it is possible to get a C2D/AGP motherboard, a suitable processor, and a GB of DDR2 ram (ill buy a second stick later) is it the right thing to do? Or should I save up for a full DX10 system?

another thing that's bugging me is all this talk about newer processors coming out. I don't want to buy something for 200 euro's and then have it be yesteryear's tech after a month. Will the C2D 6 series remain strong for a while yet? same question applies to RAM.

help appreciated

2007-03-30 10:42:11

jsnipy: ...; +3,277|6988|...

another GB of ram ... but you really should make it a goal to get off of AGP.

Last edited by jsnipy (2007-03-30 10:42:32)

2007-03-30 10:46:54

Lucien: Fantasma Parastasie; +1,451|7119

jsnipy wrote:
another GB of ram ... but you really should make it a goal to get off of AGP.

yes, but then I'll have to upgrade my video card as well.

my idea was:

upgrade mobo, cpu, ram

then later, upgrade the mobo and video card

assuming that I can get a hold of that magical agp/C2d mobo

2007-03-30 10:49:04

jsnipy: ...; +3,277|6988|...

SargeV1.4 wrote:
jsnipy wrote:
another GB of ram ... but you really should make it a goal to get off of AGP.
yes, but then I'll have to upgrade my video card as well.

my idea was:

upgrade mobo, cpu, ram

then later, upgrade the mobo and video card

assuming that I can get a hold of that magical agp/C2d mobo

cpu, ram then, probally would not bother with mobo until ur ready to change video card

2007-03-30 10:51:06

Lucien: Fantasma Parastasie; +1,451|7119

but my motherboard is socket 754.. I cant really upgrade on that platform =\ which takes me back to the whole chain reaction..

2007-03-30 10:54:58

Cybargs: Moderated; +2,285|7182

Save up, then upgrade to a whole new pc.

https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png

2007-03-30 10:57:29

heggs: Spamalamadingdong; +581|6854|New York

you are definitely caught in a bit of a bind. I was considering doing something similar, but then realized my best bet was to build from scratch, considering i plan on going am2 next. if you're making such a drastic change, you may want to wait til you can do everything at once.

Remember Me As A Time Of Day

2007-03-30 10:58:23

Lucien: Fantasma Parastasie; +1,451|7119

bah, oh well.. I'll just have to hope that quake wars runs all right and that I can hold out till the end of this year..

2007-03-30 10:59:51

Bell: Frosties > Cornflakes; +362|7015|UK

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:
Save up, then upgrade to a whole new pc.

Agreed

2007-03-30 11:15:16

Nate_32: Member; +3|7199|Nambe, New Mexico

Yeah, buying plain DDR at this point is a waste of money. It sounds like you want to hang onto this video card for a while, but also want to go Core2Duo. My first input: Did you hear Intel will be dropping the price on their entire line of CPUs in about a month (April 22)? It will be quite a price cut, so it may be worth the wait.

As for your second question, ASRock has been making the board you are seeking for a while. It is called the 775Dual-VSTA. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6813157107
The problem is that overclocking, which is a big reason to go C2D, is not that great on the board. Here is an old thread discussing it. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview … erthread=y

If you were not planning on overclocking, then yeah, this mobo would definitely be the way to go, it is even really affordable, and my buddy has been using one (an AMD with the same PCI-e/AGP) for well over a year and it has been working great for him.

Until Barcelona comes, however, there really is little reason to go AMD unless you are on a very tight budget.

2007-03-30 11:17:12

']['error: Banned; +630|7110|The Netherlands

Bell wrote:
cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:
Save up, then upgrade to a whole new pc.
Agreed

2007-03-30 11:20:20

ShellShock.PwN: Member; +31|7253|Barrie Ontario

']['error wrote:
Bell wrote:
cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:
Save up, then upgrade to a whole new pc.
Agreed

2007-03-30 11:25:04

Lucien: Fantasma Parastasie; +1,451|7119

Nate_32 wrote:
Yeah, buying plain DDR at this point is a waste of money. It sounds like you want to hang onto this video card for a while, but also want to go Core2Duo. My first input: Did you hear Intel will be dropping the price on their entire line of CPUs in about a month (April 22)? It will be quite a price cut, so it may be worth the wait.

As for your second question, ASRock has been making the board you are seeking for a while. It is called the 775Dual-VSTA. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6813157107
The problem is that overclocking, which is a big reason to go C2D, is not that great on the board. Here is an old thread discussing it. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview … erthread=y

If you were not planning on overclocking, then yeah, this mobo would definitely be the way to go, it is even really affordable, and my buddy has been using one (an AMD with the same PCI-e/AGP) for well over a year and it has been working great for him.

Until Barcelona comes, however, there really is little reason to go AMD unless you are on a very tight budget.

I'm agreeing more with this guy With this motherboard I can upgrade my ram and processor, then later I can sell off the mobo and go full on PCI-e with a new videocard as well

thank you very much! and no, I'm not really into overclocking. I'd rather have a PC that can play games than one that can overclock but can't

2007-03-30 11:31:02

SteikeTa: Member; +153|7213|Norway/Norwegen/ Norge/Noruega

So if you were to buy a new computer, what specs would it be? I don't know much about computers........

2007-03-30 11:43:22

CrazeD: Member; +368|7138|Maine

You would be completely wasting your money to buy an AGP system at this point in time. I made the mistake last year and have been kicking myself for not waiting a little while longer.

I'm planning on a new build soon, and have narrowed it down to about $630. That's for an Intel C2D e4300, Patriot 2x1gb DDR2 800 RAM, Asus something motherboard, and an ATi X1950 Pro.

I'm going to have to use an old case from like 20 years ago, but it should suffice for a few months.

Good luck.

2007-03-30 11:50:57

r'Eeee: That's how I roll, BITCH!; +311|6914

get a new PC! Save up more money, then get all lthe C2D, 8800 ect...

2007-03-30 15:10:03

Nate_32: Member; +3|7199|Nambe, New Mexico

Wow, lots of people here that do not know what they are talking about, or just plain old did not read all the posts before responding.

To reiterate, there are motherboards that support PCI-e, and AGP.

The main problem is the RAM and CPU, and how soon you NEED to have them. As time increases, plain DDR is going to get more expensive, DDR2 prices will decrease. As I stated earlier, Intel will be cutting their CPU prices April 22nd.

Not to mention the new DX10 cards that should be out around the same time.

Yes, there is always 'something around the corner' that will drive prices down, but since this is barely more than 3 weeks away, I thought I would mention it. The normal refresh cycles are not nearly that short.

Anyhow, I personally would save and wait, but it seems to me like the beginning of May will be a pretty good time to build. Assuming that retailers don't try to siphon more profits from CPUs due to low supply, and that AMD/ATi gets their shit together with R600, and Nvidia actually has to compete again.

Last edited by Nate_32 (2007-03-30 15:11:06)

2007-03-31 01:18:18

Mad Ad: Member; +178|6976|England, UK

you could get a budget c2d mobo, one new stick of ram and a second hand pcie gfx from ebay (the 7800gt is dead cheap now and runs bf2 well on high) to tide you through until you can afford to sort a dx10 card/more mem.....its not like theres any dx10 out there and when nvidia refresh their 8800 parts then the old stock (whats out now) will drop quickly in price.

2007-03-31 05:01:20

Stormscythe: Aiming for the head; +88|7015|EUtopia | Austria

Ram comes first, then CPU.

So well, AGP won't last forever I think, and there'll be a drop in price of C2Ds in Q3 of 2007 and a lot of new models running on the Bearlake chipset.

https://www.overclockers.at/attachment.php?attachmentid=105586

So, as you can see, you should probably wait another 3 months (hell, yes!), especially since DDR3 will be kind of a big deal, I guess.

2007-03-31 05:28:28

Lucien: Fantasma Parastasie; +1,451|7119

Nate_32 wrote:
Wow, lots of people here that do not know what they are talking about, or just plain old did not read all the posts before responding.

To reiterate, there are motherboards that support PCI-e, and AGP.

The main problem is the RAM and CPU, and how soon you NEED to have them. As time increases, plain DDR is going to get more expensive, DDR2 prices will decrease. As I stated earlier, Intel will be cutting their CPU prices April 22nd.

Not to mention the new DX10 cards that should be out around the same time.

Yes, there is always 'something around the corner' that will drive prices down, but since this is barely more than 3 weeks away, I thought I would mention it. The normal refresh cycles are not nearly that short.

Anyhow, I personally would save and wait, but it seems to me like the beginning of May will be a pretty good time to build. Assuming that retailers don't try to siphon more profits from CPUs due to low supply, and that AMD/ATi gets their shit together with R600, and Nvidia actually has to compete again.

well, the problem is, my current system is massively bottlenecked, and I can barely get any modern game to run outside of the 40-70 FPS zone. It's very annoying because lower settings = lower fps, higher settings = higher fps, but no settings get me above 60 most of the time. I've OC'd my 3000 to 2.2 ghz, but still, I'm stuck. In fact, I got better framerates on some graphics settings with my old x1600. is there any way I could alleviate this temporarily? because if I can simply get CS:S to run above 60 non stop (something wich my video card is very capable of) then I'm happy for the moment.
What can I do? lower certain specific settings? underclock my video card?

If I can simply give my PC that last boost then i can wait, and save up.

and yes, I really do need 60+ fps. anything lower than that makes playing very unpleasant for me.

2007-03-31 12:33:50

CommieChipmunk: Member; +488|7035|Portland, OR, USA

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:
Save up, then upgrade to a whole new pc.

that's the only way to do it... otherwise you'll end up spending waaay too much money

And don't get a PCI-e AGP mobo combo, they suck seriously at life..

Just look at newegg (if you live in the US if not some other low priced site) and shop the deals until you have a new computer.

C2D then DX10 card,

Like this uber deal

MOBO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6813188011 (normally 249 and is the best mobo out there at the moment)

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6820220144 (normally 214)

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6819115003

GFX card, your choice... but that ram/mobo combo (ram rebate ends today) is awesome, and really cheap ATM.. good luck

2007-04-03 23:13:40

Nate_32: Member; +3|7199|Nambe, New Mexico

SargeV1.4 wrote:
well, the problem is, my current system is massively bottlenecked, and I can barely get any modern game to run outside of the 40-70 FPS zone. It's very annoying because lower settings = lower fps, higher settings = higher fps, but no settings get me above 60 most of the time. I've OC'd my 3000 to 2.2 ghz, but still, I'm stuck. In fact, I got better framerates on some graphics settings with my old x1600. is there any way I could alleviate this temporarily? because if I can simply get CS:S to run above 60 non stop (something wich my video card is very capable of) then I'm happy for the moment.
What can I do? lower certain specific settings? underclock my video card?

If I can simply give my PC that last boost then i can wait, and save up.

and yes, I really do need 60+ fps. anything lower than that makes playing very unpleasant for me.

Out of curiosity, what type of display are you running, and what is the refresh rate?

It is technically impossible, without adverse effects, to run higher frame rates than the refresh rate of your display. This is especially true of LCDs, which usually are around "60 Hz". I put this in parentheses because LCDs operate differently than CRTs when drawing the screen, which is why LCDs do not look like crap at "60 Hz" while a CRT does.

You can try forcing disabled VSync, but you will probably get tearing (a very noticeable image distortion) on an LCD. The best bet is to leave it on, and let the video card drop the extra frames, which will leave your frame rate at whatever the refresh rate of the display.

If you are running a CRT, then I really hope you are running higher than a 60Hz refresh rate, but even if the video card is pumping 100 FPS or more, the electron gun will only be able to draw the scene at it's refresh rate, so the extra frames will be dropped by the monitor anyways.

EDIT: And while the Commie has a freaking awesome sig, and a questionably good political philosophy, his tech knowledge is questionable. I have, first hand, seen these dual boards perform quite admirably, and the thread I linked too is certainly not filled with liars...

Last edited by Nate_32 (2007-04-03 23:16:18)

2007-04-03 23:20:35

CommieChipmunk: Member; +488|7035|Portland, OR, USA

Nate_32 wrote:
EDIT: And while the Commie has a freaking awesome sig, and a questionably good political philosophy, his tech knowledge is questionable. I have, first hand, seen these dual boards perform quite admirably, and the thread I linked too is certainly not filled with liars...

Questioning my techknowledge?!

I actually believe that I was wrong. My friend used one and said it did in fact work fine, but the overclocking sucked.

..then again I think he said it was an ECS board, so therein lies the problem. If you must I suppose you could go with a dual board but personally I'd recommend the one linked above.

2007-04-03 23:27:20

Nate_32: Member; +3|7199|Nambe, New Mexico

CommieChipmunk wrote:
Nate_32 wrote:
EDIT: And while the Commie has a freaking awesome sig, and a questionably good political philosophy, his tech knowledge is questionable. I have, first hand, seen these dual boards perform quite admirably, and the thread I linked too is certainly not filled with liars...
Questioning my techknowledge?!

I actually believe that I was wrong. My friend used one and said it did in fact work fine, but the overclocking sucked.

..then again I think he said it was an ECS board, so therein lies the problem. If you must I suppose you could go with a dual board but personally I'd recommend the one linked above.

Well, yeah, I stated way above that overclocking would not be very feasible on these. I was not aware of ECS making one, I have only heard of the ASrock models. While this is obviously a pretty lofty concern with these C2D chips that are hitting 2.9 GHz on air no problem, it is not like the chip can't be moved to a different board down the road.

Nothing personal about the tech knowledge, but I have been building computers since my Cyrix 233 days, and learned before that on my old 386/25, and frankly, I find some of the tech advice in some of these threads ill-advised. Please don't send me to the Gulag.

2007-04-03 23:29:41

TimmmmaaaaH: Damn, I... had something for this; +725|6905|Brisbane, Australia

Nate_32 wrote:
SargeV1.4 wrote:
well, the problem is, my current system is massively bottlenecked, and I can barely get any modern game to run outside of the 40-70 FPS zone. It's very annoying because lower settings = lower fps, higher settings = higher fps, but no settings get me above 60 most of the time. I've OC'd my 3000 to 2.2 ghz, but still, I'm stuck. In fact, I got better framerates on some graphics settings with my old x1600. is there any way I could alleviate this temporarily? because if I can simply get CS:S to run above 60 non stop (something wich my video card is very capable of) then I'm happy for the moment.
What can I do? lower certain specific settings? underclock my video card?

If I can simply give my PC that last boost then i can wait, and save up.

and yes, I really do need 60+ fps. anything lower than that makes playing very unpleasant for me.
Out of curiosity, what type of display are you running, and what is the refresh rate?

It is technically impossible, without adverse effects, to run higher frame rates than the refresh rate of your display. This is especially true of LCDs, which usually are around "60 Hz". I put this in parentheses because LCDs operate differently than CRTs when drawing the screen, which is why LCDs do not look like crap at "60 Hz" while a CRT does.

You can try forcing disabled VSync, but you will probably get tearing (a very noticeable image distortion) on an LCD. The best bet is to leave it on, and let the video card drop the extra frames, which will leave your frame rate at whatever the refresh rate of the display.

If you are running a CRT, then I really hope you are running higher than a 60Hz refresh rate, but even if the video card is pumping 100 FPS or more, the electron gun will only be able to draw the scene at it's refresh rate, so the extra frames will be dropped by the monitor anyways.

EDIT: And while the Commie has a freaking awesome sig, and a questionably good political philosophy, his tech knowledge is questionable. I have, first hand, seen these dual boards perform quite admirably, and the thread I linked too is certainly not filled with liars...

The thing is, if you are running at 90fs, you have 60 to work with before it gets unbearable. If you are running at 60 max, you have 30 to work with.

https://bf3s.com/sigs/5e6a35c97adb20771c7b713312c0307c23a7a36a.png

Pages: 1 2

Index »
Community »
Tech »
what's the best way to upgrade

Board footer

Jump to

BF2S Forums what's the best way to upgrade

jsnipy wrote:

SargeV1.4 wrote:

jsnipy wrote:

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

Bell wrote:

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

']['error wrote:

Bell wrote:

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

Nate_32 wrote:

Nate_32 wrote:

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

SargeV1.4 wrote:

Nate_32 wrote:

CommieChipmunk wrote:

Nate_32 wrote:

Nate_32 wrote:

SargeV1.4 wrote:

Board footer