$250 To Upgrade My Computer. . .

[MisterRaven]

Hello, all. I've got $250 available to apply to computer upgrades, and I was wondering exactly what I should get. Here are my specs:

Power Supply: Antec 420W
Motherboard: Albatron KX18D Pro II
Hard Drive: Western Digital 120GB, 7200 RPM, with 8MB cache
Processor: Athlon XP Barton 2500+ running at stock speed (1.8 GHz)
RAM: 1GB of dual Channel PC3200 DDR (two 512MB sticks)
Video Card: Radeon 9800 (this is not the Pro version)
Sound Card: Soundblaster Live! 5.1

I use this computer primarily for gaming, by the way. Any suggestions would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.

 

[tbates757]

Not really much you can do with $250, I mean a new cpu would require a new motherboard, you have enough RAM, and your video card is good enough not to upgrade unless you are getting one of the 400 dollar cards. Tough call but I'd say either save your money or get an Athlon 64 and a cheap motherboard.

 

[Corporate Thug]

6800 oc?

 

[nick1985]

buy an athlon 64 and and a motherboard, then flash your 9800 into a pro.

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Maybe a processor upgrade to an A64 or are you open to OCing that 2500+??


If you really had to spend the money get a 6800NU or a
3000+ and a mobo

 

[kyparrish]

Shuttle AN35N Ultra mobo - 58.49 shipped

Mobile Barton 2600+ $95 shipped

That's like $150 bucks. Overclock the living crap out of this (buy a good cooler if you need to), then save the other $100, and sell your 9800 for $120 or so, and and buy a 6600GT AGP.

Keep in mind, you don't REALLY need to upgrade to this. You aren't going to see the biggest difference ever between what you have now and this. Your best bet would probably be to save a little more and get an A64 solution, but, I'm just trying to give you options

 

[uOpt]

What kind of games?

If it's new FPS games, a better video card is clearly the smartest thing to do. For $240 you can get a 6600GT right now. (EDITed for typo)

Don't get a low-level AMD64 board and CPU. I went from a 2500+ barton to a 3400+ 2.4 GHz and even with just a 5900XT video card it was clearly not worth it from a gaming standpoint. A 3000+ will certainly not be noticable in games like Doom3 on your existing card. And I mean not at all.

If you want more CPU for less graphically intensive games or other tasks, a sempron for your existing board might be nice.

 

[RussianSensation]

Get 6800OC for $250 from outpost.com and try to unlock the pipelines.

This card will give you improvements in Doom3, HL2, Far Cry and Halo (sometimes 2x the score of 9800Pro). A new cpu will go a long way but I dont think it'll give you as much in those games.

See if you can overclock that cpu to 200FSB to make it XP3200+

 

[imported_Bleh]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
What kind of games?

If it's new FPS games, a better video card is clearly the smartest thing to do. For $240 you can get a 6800GT right now.

Don't get a low-level AMD64 board and CPU. I went from a 2500+ barton to a 3400+ 2.4 GHz and even with just a 5900XT video card it was clearly not worth it from a gaming standpoint. A 3000+ will certainly not be noticable in games like Doom3 on your existing card. And I mean not at all.

If you want more CPU for less graphically intensive games or other tasks, a sempron for your existing board might be nice.

I assume you mean a 6600gt. If you can find a 6800gt for $240 please tell me where

 

[uOpt]

Sorry, 6600GT of course.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
Sorry, 6600GT of course.

that would be about the worst thing he could do with the money.

 

[biostud]

save the money for a later upgrade

 

[crimson117]

Save your money. If you go A64 now, you'll have to get AGP. If you go PCI Express, you won't have money for a graphics card to put on it. So save until you can do both.

 

[FFactory0x]

oc what you have now

 

[meltdown75]

I wouldn't upgrade. Save for a major upgrade in the future.

 

[uOpt]

Well, I dunno, the 6600GT might not be the end up it all but it certainly isn't a waste of money.

If he plays the right games (unfortunately he did say) that will be a pretty nice computer for a while.

 

[dnuggett]

I would save your money until you have enough for a A64 Solution with PCIe. The next step after that upgrade would be a X800XT. I would try to match the upgrade times closely together.

 

[masshass81]

I concur with everyone else. It's better to save and upgrade to an A64 PCIe solution instead of spending $250 and falling short within a couple of months. You can only buy an AGP card right now. Then in about 2 months, you'll have enough money to buy a cpu/mobo combo and guess what, you have to buy an AGP mobo. This means you won't have a flexible upgrade path since youre stuck with an AGP slot and you'll be stuck in the same situation youre in right now.

 

[Hajime]

What happened to the outpost.com 6800NU for $250 deal?

(Edit)

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4082672

There you go. Best upgrade for $250.

 

[MisterRaven]

Originally posted by: nick1985
buy an athlon 64 and and a motherboard, then flash your 9800 into a pro.

Due to feedback in this thread, I think I'll just try overclocking my processor to 400MHz FSB. I like the idea of flashing my 9800 to a Pro, but I don't know how; I've never tried overclocking a videocard or flashing a BIOS or anything like that.

Tips, anyone? How would I go about flashing my Radeon 9800 into a Radeon 9800 Pro? Also, what temperature range is okay for my Barton? How hot is too hot? Also, are there any programs that will let me do a stress test on my CPU while monitoring the temperature so I can check the temp while it's under load?

Thanks for suggestions everyone, and thanks in advance for any tips on overclocking should you give them.

 

[masshass81]

You shouldnt worry about your CPU unless it gets to over 60C under load, or at least I'm not comfortable with it going that high. Use prime95 to stress your cpu and monitor your temps with Motherboard Monitor.

 

[Omizzle]

new video card