System Upgrade....what to do?

Paindriver · Post by **Paindriver** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 2:10 am

I'm looking to make a little upgrade to my current system with $400.00 to spend. What do you think i should upgrade...here is the current system:

-AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Volcano 9)
-Epox 8k3a+
-Albatron Geforce 4 TI4200
-Samsung 512mb PC-2700 DDR333
-80gig Western Digital Special Edition HardDrive
-DVD-ROM
-Cendyne CDRW
-Sound Blaster
-WinXP

I use the system mostly for gaming...so i was thinking of a 9800pro or adding some RAM.

What do you all think?

Immortal · Post by **Immortal** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 2:17 am

The vid card is almost a must upgrade.

I'm kinda torn if you should upgrade your cpu. I'm not that keen on amd and their boards so I don't know how far you can go with it.

is it dual channel?

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 7:25 am

Originally posted by Immortal
The vid card is almost a must upgrade.

I'm kinda torn if you should upgrade your cpu. I'm not that keen on amd and their boards so I don't know how far you can go with it.

is it dual channel?

probably not because he's only running the single stick. upgrading down that path would be difficult because the ram would be to far out of spec to add anther pc2700.

buy the radeon 9800pro. You can pick them up for 224 from newegg.

you'll be amazed!

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 7:51 am

What do you do now that you think pushes your system too hard?

Play some games that require more RAM or a stronger video card?

Running out of hard drive space, or current drive too slow?

Once you tackle CPU...you're most likely looking an a newer motherboard also...which brings along with it new RAM requirements. Unless you just get the fastest CPU that your existing motherboard/RAM can support.

qball15j · Post by **qball15j** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:25 am

Everything looks fine except the video card.

Mytflyguy · Post by **Mytflyguy** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 10:00 am

Originally posted by zooner

buy the radeon 9800pro. You can pick them up for 224 from newegg.

you'll be amazed!

First step ....

Then See how fast of a processor you Board will handle ..

Or if you want a major upgrade .....

You might be able to squeeze in a new MB AMD 2500+ ( easily overclockable to 3200+ speeds ) and some new PC3200 ram for under $500 ( Go with a lesser Vid card like a 9600 XT and you might get it under $400 )

maroon · Post by **maroon** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 10:47 am

I'd grab a 9800 Pro now and save the rest for a socket 939 + Athlon 64 proc.

Paindriver · Post by **Paindriver** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 11:06 am

buy the radeon 9800pro. You can pick them up for 224 from newegg

Where did you see this....the 9800pro i saw at newegg had a cost of $279.00

What do you do now that you think pushes your system too hard?

hmm.....honestly i don't think i do anything to push my system that much. Still have 64gigs of HDD space. The only thing i can think of is the Video card. I don't really know how much of an impact adding more RAM would be. System seems to be running smooth/fast. But if i do go with just buying a Video Card would the 256mb XT be worth the money?

**and thanks to everyone else for suggestions.

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 11:22 am

Originally posted by Paindriver
Where did you see this....the 9800pro i saw at newegg had a cost of $279.00

hmm.....honestly i don't think i do anything to push my system that much. Still have 64gigs of HDD space. The only thing i can think of is the Video card. I don't really know how much of an impact adding more RAM would be. System seems to be running smooth/fast. But if i do go with just buying a Video Card would the 256mb XT be worth the money?

**and thanks to everyone else for suggestions.

Eh...I don't know about the 256 XT...Seems to me like buying top of the line stuff is never a good idea. I'd go with the 9800 Pro. The one they are reffering to is the Saphire and is most likely out of stock which would put it on the last page at the bottom.

How high of a CPU can yoru board handle?

Mytflyguy · Post by **Mytflyguy** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 11:27 am

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.a ... =4632,3668

wow It's come down even farther now ($215) and 2-3 other models with it ....

I'm beting somethign is about to happen , Either a new release , or the XT's are about to drop in price or something.

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 11:48 am

All the athlons proccessors went down in price.

You can get a Barton 2500+ for $83, retail.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:09 pm

It's ALL about how much money you have/want to spend.

If you're not going to worry about it, a 256 MB XT card is THE way to go, period.