Computer Hardware...

xioutlawix

<div class="IPBDescription">Upgrade questions</div> As it stands, starting to feel the age of my computer components with some of the newer games, so since I'm working full time this summer, I'll have a good deal of money saved up. I guess I should start off by saying what my current specs are;

I've got a p4g8x deluxe motherboard by asus
A gig of pc2700 ram running dual channel (but probably underclocked by my motherboard, since the specs for it say it only does pc2100).
Intel pentium 4 2.4B ghz processor
Radeon 9700 pro.

I was thinking, for the summer, I would go ahead and treat myself to a 3.06ghz processor and the ati x800 video card. My question is, since I have little experience with varied components, I might not see a problem beforehand. Anyone able to see where the system might not perform at optimum because a bottleneck occurs, or where some sort of incompatability might arise?

Any help you guys can offer is greatly appreciated, thanks <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

xioutlawix

Bumpage, for persistence <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->

DOOManiac

IMO, its a bit silly to upgrade anything besides your video card. If you're getting bad performance on that system, I'd bet its a software problem. Try reinstalling your OS and/or other cleaning methods. Learn to tweak some stuff. 2.4ghz should be plenty of CPU power for anything out today except the newest MMORPGs, and even then going up to just 3.0ghz wouldn't let you see that much improvement.

The 9700 could be improved upon though. You sound like you have a pretty big budget, so I'd recomment the x800 super ultra whatever when it comes out.

Swiftspear

Ya, tweak stuff, you don't exactly have a lacking machine there.

Talesin

I'd recommend swapping over to an ASUS K8V Deluxe mobo, with an Ath64 3000+ (budget) or 3200-3400+ (got cash?). The 3400+ runs faster than a P4 @ 4GHz. Also, when you're doing that you can toss in some DDR400 (preferably DDR 4000, but 3200 if you can't find it) and get a very respectable speed boost.

At that point the X800 won't be *as* CPU-limited, and the CPU won't be as RAM limited. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

xioutlawix

Good tips, thanks guys <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

I may have to hold off on your suggestions there talesin, the budget isn't *that* big <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Talesin

How big is the budget? I can tell you if it'll fit. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> Heck, with off-the-shelf parts out here, the mobo, CPU and RAM would cost all of about $350, total. Hit up a computer show and make a package deal with a vendor, cut off $50 easy, $100 with a hard-sell. With the current plan though, you'll end up paying a good chunk of that just for the new CPU, which your current mobo may not be able to handle, will still leave you RAM-bottlenecked, and your mobo will likely not have half the features of the new one.

xioutlawix

Hehe, yeah, I'm thinking a budget of maybe $500-$700 ish or so, considering video card and all. I'll have the definite by the end of the summer, because I also have to save for a bahamas trip around the end of july, and the amount of money I'll have for equipment is directly proportional to the intensity of my substance binge.

Talesin

Hmm. $400 for the card (if you go for a non-XTPE.. if you do, $500) which will end up mostly waiting around for your machine to feed it more...
Though I'm one to talk. My IDE bus is my biggest bottleneck right now, but it's not so easy to swap over to a RAID system (Which the K8V-D includes <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->) unless you're just getting the machine started.

Ugly_Jim

<!--QuoteBegin-Talesin+Jun 6 2004, 09:24 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Talesin @ Jun 6 2004, 09:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> The 3400+ runs faster than a P4 @ 4GHz. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
waht

Zel

<!--QuoteBegin-Ugly_Jim+Jun 7 2004, 10:46 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Ugly_Jim @ Jun 7 2004, 10:46 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Talesin+Jun 6 2004, 09:24 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Talesin @ Jun 6 2004, 09:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> The 3400+ runs faster than a P4 @ 4GHz. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
waht <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
he said the AMD64 3400+ gets better performance than a pentium 4 overclocked to 4000 megahertz.

do you read english as poorly as you write it?

Codeman

The Athlon64 is pretty damn fast, my boss recently moved from a P4 2.4 (overclocked to 3000mhz) to a 3000+ Athlon64. He thinks the athlon is "a lot" faster (I can't quote directly here, the censor thing would pwn me >_<)

Also, it won't eat power like a P4 would.