On a Budget Need Upgrade Advice

[Jadow]

Hi All,

I want a new video card, cpu and mobo with PCI Express, I want SATA onboard, but I'd like to keep my current IDE hd's and PC3200 DDR ram, what can I do? I've been out of the loop too long!

 

[aelfwyne]

To keep that RAM you'll want to stay with socket 939. Best bets there are for the CPU choice to go with a dual-core Opteron 165 or 170. Motherboard choices, there are many if you want PCIe. DFI LanParty NF4 series is good from what I hear, and is what I've ordered to replace the lousy ASRock I was suckered into getting to start with. You'll need to decide if you want to ever do SLI or Crossfire. If you do, be sure to get a board that supports one of these (SLI for nVidia or CrossFire for ATI). If not, then you don't need to pay the extra for an SLI board. As far as the video - check out the buyer's guide at TomsHardware. For under $100 you can't beat the x800 series, slightly over it is hard to beat the x850 series. nVidia is only competitive, IMHO, when you start hitting the high-mid range cards and up.

 

[Jadow]

Thanks for the quick response. CUrrently I have a Radeon 9800 Pro, is X800 or X850 a big step up from that?

 

[aelfwyne]

I would have to say "Mostly" to that. I upgraded from a 9800 Pro to an x800 GTO (that I then flashed to 16 pixel pipes). There was a significant difference in framerates, and games such as Oblivion were much more playable than before. I would definitely consider it an upgrade. The x850 is yet again an upgrade... The mistake to avoid is the 6000 series nvidia cards. Your 9800 Pro is honestly close to a 6600GT in performance, and the x800/x850 series just obliterates anything below an nvidia 7800 series or better. Also, you would be better off with an x800/x850 than with an x1600/x1650 if you stick with ATI, since the x800/x850 were top of the line, while x1600/x1650 are mainstream products, despite being newer.

You can get a quick-n-dirty comparison here: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

 

[Ayah]

Originally posted by: Jadow
Thanks for the quick response. CUrrently I have a Radeon 9800 Pro, is X800 or X850 a big step up from that?

Yes, you can see up to double the performance.

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: aelfwyne
I would have to say "Mostly" to that. I upgraded from a 9800 Pro to an x800 GTO (that I then flashed to 16 pixel pipes). There was a significant difference in framerates, and games such as Oblivion were much more playable than before. I would definitely consider it an upgrade. The x850 is yet again an upgrade... The mistake to avoid is the 6000 series nvidia cards. Your 9800 Pro is honestly close to a 6600GT in performance, and the x800/x850 series just obliterates anything below an nvidia 7800 series or better. Also, you would be better off with an x800/x850 than with an x1600/x1650 if you stick with ATI, since the x800/x850 were top of the line, while x1600/x1650 are mainstream products, despite being newer.

You can get a quick-n-dirty comparison here: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

While buying a 6600GT may not be the best option today, the 6600GT handily beats a 9800 Pro. The 9800 Pro is closer to a 6600 non GT, but still slightly behind. The GT is significantly faster then both.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Jadow
Thanks for the quick response. CUrrently I have a Radeon 9800 Pro, is X800 or X850 a big step up from that?

Not really. It is faster, but not that much faster. The X800 is the next step up, from the 9800 Pro, and the X850 is just a hair faster than the X800. I don't think you'd want to get anything slower than a 7600GT, especially at the price they're selling them for now. And you'd really be much better off with at least an X1950 Pro, which is as fast as an X1800XT.

Of course, you could always do what I did, and buy a ~$60 vanilla 6600, then keep saving your money, so you can buy a really good card, like an X1950 XT.

 

[Jadow]

This is good info guys, thanks. I see that socket 939, I can get a single core athlon like 3500+ for under a hundred dollars, I'm starting to wonder if dual core is worth it.

 

[Jadow]

Meh, I decided to punt till Vista comes out and revist this.

Thanks Guys!