I need advice....upgrade solutions

[AndrewPaulNet]

I wanted to go ahead and do a minor upgrade - I wanted to go from a KT333 to an Nforce2 Ultra400, I'd get the Asus XXXXXX-E Deluxe board, a gig of DDR400 ram (2x512 sticks cheap cheap cuz' I don't plan to OC) and probably spring for a 3000XP processor. This would run me about 300 to my calculations.
Later on, I planned to get an ATI 9600 256meg video card - just for 2 reasons primarily - DX9 and lots of Ram on the card. This would be another 100 bucks and prolly obtained April/May.

Some things have thrown a wrench into my moving spokes however.....those things are called PCI Express and also the loom of the new Video Card chips that are coming up.

My question is: Is it worthwhile to do the upgrade now? Or should I wait until Summer? I got my board when it was fresh, that's how I generally do it...I spend some cash for the stuff when it comes out....but my problem was that I did this kinda prematurely with KT333 as I myself didn't realize it was like a 1/2 and 1/2 thing....I mean, the boards are really just 266fsb with mem going to 333 which does have it's pro's but not significant enough to cost me that much more when KT400 was like 4/5 months around the corner. I don't want to make the same mistake, especially with AGP *possibly* going extinct *despite VIA's roadmap for 2004*, I'm wondering what the best thing would be to do? Stick it out, or go ahead and do my upgrade.

Is there anything significantly better coming than the nforce2 ultra400? And will it be within that pricerange? I don't like spending more than roughly 100 on any given PC part EXCEPT the mobo. I am not an oc'er per say and I have no desire to be the one with the most expensive/fastest/newest thing on the block. I DO however demand stability and performance, and I like to be able to get updates for my products.

What do you recommend I do? And yes ---- I know if I waited to get new stuff I'd wait forever because new stuff comes out almost every 3 months nowadays, but what I'm asking about are the significant changes......

A few months after I got my KT3 Ultra 2, MSI stuck it into the archives! Imagine that .... you can now find KT266a and KT400 boards in the current archives, but the KT3 Ultras are in the 'discontinued' section, like they're ashamed of it or something....LOL

As I said...I just Do Not want to make the same mistake twice.

 

[johnjkr1]

You need to stay away from the radeon 9600 256 for two reasons. First, the 9600 is not that fast. Second, most of the 256 cards use the "EZ" chipset which comes with must slower ram. You would be far better served to get a 9600xt or pro. I purchased a 9600 and had to sell it for a 9600xt because it was far too slow in games. You could do a much cheaper upgrade and still get some great performance....barton 2500's are very cheap, and good quality nforce 200 ultra motherboards are going for less than $65 these days. I went from a 1800xp on a kt266a motherboard, to a $90 2500+ barton and a $59 nforce2 ultra 400 mb and have noticed a pretty great increase in speed

 

[DaveSimmons]

For that much you should save a bit more and move to A64. Even an A64 3000+ would be faster than an XP 3400+ - 3600+ if they existed (for gaming).

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

I only play Neverwinter Nights/Dungeon Siege/Starlancer/Freelancer type stuff. If my 9000 Pro is handling them with ease, I'm sure the 9600 will. I'm not going for a gaming monster. Just something to last me comfortably for a year and a 1/2 or so; that is reliable/stable and fast enough to handle stuff.
A board is the most important part of a system in my eyes - so I really wanted to get something that's stable with some nice features. Just wanted to know if I should do it now, or later.