need opinions on an upgrade

[ams30gts]

ok. right now i have a duron 800 + fic az11 mobo. ive had it for a pretty long time, but i now realize that i need more. im thinking about going to frys today and purchasing the athlon xp 1800/Shuttle ak31a combo for $179. any opinions on if i should get this combo? i currently run:

300W power supply
FIC AZ11 mobo
Duron 800 cpu
GeForce 2 GTS 32mb video card
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 sound card
384mb Cruicial PC133 CL2 ram
60gb IBM Deskstar 7200rpm hard drive
30gb Quantum 7200rpm hard drive
Sony 12x 8x 32x CDRW

 

[AndyCunningham]

Hmm, you seem to have forgotten the fact that the new motherboard is DDR based. There's little point IMO not getting a DDR motherboard since it'll give a decent performance boost. But adding the cost of at least 256mb PC2100 on to the price for the new motherboard and CPU, it may change how good value the upgrade sounds.

If it were me I'd get that Duron overclocked to 1 GHz, and at least get it running on a 133 MHz FSB (I'm assuming 8x100 now). Running at more like 7.5x140 will increase your performance substantially. Crucial PC133 CL2 will easily take 140 MHz FSB, but I'm not sure what your motherboard will allow.

 

[ams30gts]

from what i have heard, my mobo FIC AZ11 is a no-go for overclocking.

 

[Athlon4all]

<< mm, you seem to have forgotten the fact that the new motherboard is DDR based. There's little point IMO not getting a DDR motherboard since it'll give a decent performance boost. But adding the cost of at least 256mb PC2100 on to the price for the new motherboard and CPU, it may change how good value the upgrade sounds.

If it were me I'd get that Duron overclocked to 1 GHz, and at least get it running on a 133 MHz FSB (I'm assuming 8x100 now). Running at more like 7.5x140 will increase your performance substantially. Crucial PC133 CL2 will easily take 140 MHz FSB, but I'm not sure what your motherboard will allow. >>

Unfortunately, I believe the AZ11 is KT133 and does not support 133fsb.

ams30gts, where is performance lacking now? Office apps? Games? Or What? A CPU+Mobo upgrade may not help as much as you think

 

[ams30gts]

performance is lacking mostly in games. i am a current beta tester for war craft 3 and its lags big time in big fight scenes. i know of people with the same video card and same amount of ram than i got, and theirs run much better than mine

 

[Athlon4all]

Well, the truth is that your GTS is prolly being maxed out on even just a Duron 800. You really need a video Card upgrade, but unfortunately a article has shown that a GF3 does rather badly on Duron 800+KT133. Take a look at Upgrading to eXtreme Performance by Ace's Hardware. You make the decision. i really think that you won't get a good performance increase with just a CPU upgrade, and in order to move up to a GF3/4, you need to get a CPU+RAM+Mobo upgrade as well.

 

[ams30gts]

and also, the main reason i want to change is that my comp keeps freezing up. i still have mouse control, but everything else is frozen. i dont know what it is, but i have narrowed it down some. RAM is all fine.....new HD.....complete reformat of HD (froze right after a clean install of WINXP)......its very annoying. first of all i wanted to upgrade for gaming purposes, but this freezing is really horrible.

 

[AndyCunningham]

Well, from what I've found, computer stability is pretty much directly related to the quality of motherboard you buy. My Asus CUSL2-C keeps my PC perfectly stable, even using generic RAM and network card. With a much cheaper AOpen AX63 Pro, I got occasional crashes, and with my first motherboard, PC Chips based on an (old) Sis chipset (I can't apologise enough for this!) it crashed daily. I think I'm convinced enough that my next motherboard will be Asus almost regardless if it's not got quite the top performance of features.

Most motherboards get reported to be stable in reviews, but from seeing my friends computers, once a couple of unbranded components are thrown in and an OS has been running for a few weeks, they lose a bit of stability.

I built my parents a computer based around an Asus A7V133 (KT133A based) and it's excellent, except neither of them knows how to use it. If money isn't too much of an issue, then maybe go for a full upgrade. Otherwise, it's likely you can get an A7V133 or similar for very cheap now people are upgrading to DDR motherboards. I've seen a couple of them as B-Grade stock for about £50 and about £45 second hand. Good for overclocking too, should handle a good 140-150 MHz FSB. Might be worth a look.