bang for the buck for gaming

[CMC79]

I'm looking to do an upgrade for no more than about $200 or so. I'm a moderate gamer, but I'm not sure what I should buy to increase performance--new video card or a new motherboard/RAM. Any recommendations?

I'm running:
Athlon XP 2100 Thoroughbred
Epox 8KHA+
2x256mb Crucial PC2100
Gainward Geforce 3 Ti 200 @ stock GF3 speeds

 

[Darkhawk28]

I would say first off, change your video card. I think that's your weak link of the items you listed.

 

[Arrowslinger]

I would go with the Radeon 8500 or 9700np, both are in your price range and both out perform the card you have now.

 

[Schadenfroh]

whats the highest fsb, your mobo can hit? i am not familiar with epox.

 

[muzz]

I would look to get a 9500 pro or a 9600 pro if ya cant find a 9700 non pro for < $200.....

 

[CMC79]

whats the highest fsb, your mobo can hit? i am not familiar with epox.

The BIOS runs up to 200Mhz, but I've not taken it above 145. When I did, I had problems with my network card and multiplayer games losing sync. The problem stopped when I dropped back to stock speed.

Here's a more detailed listing of my components, if that helps any...

Athlon 2100 T-Bred B
Epox 8KHA+ (KT266A)
2x256mb Crucial PC2100 CAS 2 (labeled CAS 2.5, but runs the most aggressive settings just fine)
100GB Western Digital HD
Linksys LNE100TX NIC
Soundblaster Live! 5.1
16X DVD and 12x4x32 Iomega CDRW
Enlight 7237 w/400W PSU

 

[xSauronx]

doh, nevermind

 

[nRollo]

You should buy a R9700np, for sure. It's far and away the best deal for ~$200, and it works great on an Epox 8KHA+. (I've done it- had issues with the 8500 though)

 

[Schadenfroh]

Here is an alternate idea

i think a good upgrade that would be simple would be to drop a 2500 barton into your system, they sould o/c pretty good also. the barton core would double your cache and that would give a very noticable improvement. Then pick up 2 sticks of 512mb cosair pc2700. that would make you have a 2500, which could possibly hit 3000 levels, 1 gig of ram. i think that would give you the same performance boost as a 9700, rember a 9700 is a video card and it would give you only an improvement in games, the upgrade i speak of will give you a performance boost not just in games but system wide in other apps as well. the software side will not be as bad; IE, no driver cleaning or reinstalling windows. The video card market, ATI versus Nvidia, is alot more competative than AMD versus INTEL. Prices and technology move faster than the cpu market and the cpu/memory upgrade would be better for the concievable future, considering the stuff nvidia is about to roll out, ATI will drop its prices.

if you purchase the chip and the memory sticks then your total should be less than 210 shiped.

 

[SilverTrine]

The 9700np is up to $229 at newegg, guess it was selling too well. Is it cheaper anywhere else?

 

[SilverTrine]

The Powercolor 9600pro Ultra looks interesting its memory comes clocked at 340mhz, given that the core overclocks so well that card is probably one of the best deals going.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: Rollo
You should buy a R9700np, for sure. It's far and away the best deal for ~$200, and it works great on an Epox 8KHA+. (I've done it- had issues with the 8500 though)

I had (3) different 8500's in my 8KHA+, and the only one it did'nt like was a retail card. The (2) others were modded LE's (heatsinks, mem/core voltage mods and loaded with retail 275/275 bios's) and worked with-out any problems. The retail one gave me fits.

 

[muzz]

Does the KHA even support Bartons?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: muzz
Does the KHA even support Bartons?

barton is socket A, all Socket A mobos should be able to support them with the latest bios.

EDIT: your in luck, they made a new bios less than 2 months ago, so it should be compatable, with a 2600 at least.

Download Your Latest Bios Before Installing Barton

from Epox's download page

"ID: 212
Article type: BIOS
Applies to: EP-8KHA+


4/25/2003 - 228KB"

 

[Corporate Thug]

i would go 9500 pro or 9600 pro, the latter is around $180 and oc's like a mofo. i got 11,XXX points in 3dmark2001 with the 9600 pro oced and a p4 1.6A oced to 2.0. actually, the 11 thousand and change was close to 12,000

 

[CMC79]

The 9500 Pro looks very promising, but it seems rather hard to get ahold of now. I initially read the reviews of the 9600P and wasn't blown away, but if it overclocks well that's a whole different matter. It'd still surely be an upgrade from my GF3. What's the opinion on the FX 5600 Pro? I've only seen it a few places, and for more money than it really seemed worth.

As for the Barton, my only question is how does it work if my MB only supports 266MHz FSB? I thought all Barton core Athlons were 333MHz FSB. (If this is getting to OT for this forum, I'll move it to the CPU forum.)

Thanks to everyone for their ideas and suggestions!

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: CMC79
The 9500 Pro looks very promising, but it seems rather hard to get ahold of now. I initially read the reviews of the 9600P and wasn't blown away, but if it overclocks well that's a whole different matter. It'd still surely be an upgrade from my GF3. What's the opinion on the FX 5600 Pro? I've only seen it a few places, and for more money than it really seemed worth.

As for the Barton, my only question is how does it work if my MB only supports 266MHz FSB? I thought all Barton core Athlons were 333MHz FSB. (If this is getting to OT for this forum, I'll move it to the CPU forum.)

Thanks to everyone for their ideas and suggestions!

my bro runs his 9600 pro at 520/360 with artifacts at all. both the 9500 pro and 9600 are better cards thab the 5600 ultra IMO

 

[muzz]

You can get a Sapphire 9500pro, or 9600pro at Newegg........... at least ya could when I posted that.
And they are 165-190 bux I think.... something like that.

 

[muzz]

Barton is 333 mhz fsb..... check Epox's website for compatibility.
The 2600+( not Barton) comes in 266 and 333 flavors.

 

[Killrose]

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: CMC79
The 9500 Pro looks very promising, but it seems rather hard to get ahold As for the Barton, my only question is how does it work if my MB only supports 266MHz FSB? I thought all Barton core Athlons were 333MHz FSB. (If this is getting to OT for this forum, I'll move it to the CPU forum.)

Thanks to everyone for their ideas and suggestions!

my bad, you are correct about it not being able to hit 333fsb, when i saw your post and you said 200, i thought that was 200 setting like my mobo, where you double it and it would equal your fsb. even without the 333fsb, a new CPU would still be a good upgrade. Like they said, check Epox's website for barton compatability, i am begging to think it might not work myself. if not you might want to look into the 2600. i cant seem to load epox's page right now for some reason or i would check it myself.

update: i looked on MSI's site, they had a mobo with the same chipset as yours and it said taht it would support athlon xp 2600 or above.

 

[Mem]

With the latest BIOS,the Epox 8KHA+ will support 2600+ (266mhz FSB) CPU.