need upgrade recommendation

[spiveygb]

I currently have a Shuttle KT266A motherboard with 128 mb RAM and an Athlon XP 1600+ cpu. Since installing Windows XP I've quickly realized that I need some more RAM. Then the rationalizations began. I started to wonder what other upgrade choices I could make and what ROI that would give me. I use my machine for the basic home related stuff along with some app development I sometimes bring home from work. I've come up with 3 scenarios and I would like to get your thoughts on which path I should take. #1) Buy 512mb of memory (PC2100), #2)upgrade the processor in addition to the memory, and #3)buy new motherboard, cpu, & memory. I don't want to spend unnecessary money but at the same time I don't want to spend $125 on upgrades that offer only marginal performance improvements as well as costing almost as much as upgrading to something that gives me some headroom. Thanks in advance.

 

[meltdown75]

Hi & welcome!

Hmm. It really depends on how much you are willing to shell out. At the very least, I would upgrade your RAM situation. That said, I would try to purchase some decent RAM that you can use for future upgrades. 128meg is just not enough these days - I can barely remember having only 3 sticks of 128meg PC133 and it was gawd-awful slow at times.

Your mobo is somewhat fsb limited... you could always get a new motherboard such as a cheap nforce2 board like the one I picked up and still use your old processor with a slight jumper setting change if need be (sorry I can't remember what the fsb of your proc is atm). That way you don't have to spend money on the proc as well as the mobo and ram.

 

[gamerj]

Your current set is really outdated..

If i were u > mobo, cpu, memory..

Go intel if u mostly edit photo's and multimedia and such

Go Amd if u game a lot...

 

[bobalong]

I think that processor has a FSB of 133

 

[spiveygb]

The documentation lists the FSB as 200/266