upgrade advice for friend

[Nextman916]

My friend wants to upgrade his computer to play the latest games. he basically named cod2 and others. His rig now is pretty weak here: Athlon XP 2400+@ 1.99ghz and only 224mb of ram(which is only pc2100 btw) and onboard video. My first question is if an athlon 2400+ is enough for todays latest games? im not really familiar with the whole athlon xp family. If so he should get a new motherboard right, supporting pc3200 and agp 4x/8x? Im really confused about which upgrade path he should choose because there are so many. He is kind of on a budget maybe $300 for the whole deal. Shouldhe just completely replace his whole system maybe with a athlon 64 300+ and maybe a cheap pci-e mobo and a value gig of ram, but then it leaves him with little to spend on the video card which is mainly what he wants this rig, to play games. See what i mean its hard to recommend what to do..........suggestions????

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

That's kind of a tough situation with only $300 to work with. Getting a new motherboard is going to eat up probably at least $75 of the budget if he goes A64, and a new A64 would bring the cost up to about $200.

If he wants to get the most out of his money right now, I'd say get another gig of ram and get a decent AGP videocard.

Oh wait... I just read it again. The current motherboard doesn't have AGP on it?

 

[mwmorph]

his curent motherboard supports at least agp4x right? the cpu will be fine, just overclock it a bit, get 768mb more ram($60? newegg) and the x850xt deal for $200.

 

[SuperSilicon]

I suggest comming up with some more $$

 

[Jaihahih]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
his curent motherboard supports at least agp4x right? the cpu will be fine, just overclock it a bit, get 768mb more ram($60? newegg) and the x850xt deal for $200.

 

[Nextman916]

his motherboard supports 4x/8x but he uses onboard video i would say he needs a new mobo because of his pc2100 ram! wouldnt that limit his performance alot

 

[Nextman916]

K well im getting what you guys are saying, so the cpu is efficient enough no need to change that
Mobos im looking at- http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...xPrice=&SubCategory=22&Submit=Property
Probably get him a gig of ram pc3200, i was thinking about getting him corsair value but if you guys suggest overclocking should i get something more expensive? Also i have an intel so can someone teach me or link me somewhere to overclock an athlon xp?
And im kinda confused on which video card, we bascially established he wants to play games on med-high quality(cs:source and cod2 mainly). But when i tried to explain aa/af he showed interest in it which most people would knowing they could get right of jaggies in game. He will be running all games at 1024x768 for sure, so i want to recommend a card that can push maybe 2xaa/4xaf or 8xaf.

 

[Mogadon]

Are you sure his mobo doesn't support faster RAM than PC2100?

You say his CPU is already overclocked with an FSB above 333MHz, seems to me that his mobo will at least support PC2700, if not PC3200.

Get the x850xt for a video card.

 

[gotsmack]

tell him to save his money for 3 months then buy into a new platform. if he goes s939 now he'll be stuck with a dead platform and have to buy a new power supply.

if he just wants something now 1 gig of valueram and a 6600gt would be fine, but this will be wasted money in a few months anyway when his cpu is not enough for newer games.

 

[Bonesdad]

gotta save more $$...parts are cheap, but when you need to replace the whole she-bang...it gets more expensive. He could consider a board with IGP, just to get him by until he can afford a true video card. Consider the Biostar T6100...

 

[ShadowBlade]

Impossible to build an entire current-gen gaming rig with $300. You can get some good upgrades though.

 

[Nextman916]

I am sure his rig wont support anything higher than pc2100, and why do you say his cpu is already overclocked? I really doubt it is unless his dad did it for him, who knows alot about computers but wont recommend anything to him because he doesnt want him to play games on it. So this will be coming from his money entirely. I thought games nowadays werent even that dependent on the cpu but on the gfx card itself.......why do you guys say it is? also note that he will be running games at 1024x768 which is low already and may drop down to 800x600 if needed. I realize he wont have a next-gen gaming system with $300 but ive seen people get by with a rig with the same cpu, maybe they overclocked it i dunno. I really dont want to tell him to save that much more because i think he could make a pretty decent system out of his current. Maybe out of $350? Im thinking new mobo $40, gig of ram $70, $200 video card, $40 psu, maybe 400-450watts? With a new system like that could he get away without overclocking his cpu or would it have to be? im tryin to avoid it because ive never oc'ed an amd before and fear messing up on someone elses system.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Just because it will run at pc2100 speeds doesn't mean you should get pc2100 ram. You could get pc3200 and run it at a slower speed. He would then be able to use it down the road if he upgrades to and A64, Opteron, or X2.

PC3200 should be backwards compatable with lower speeds so his motherboard should be able to run it with his current processor.

What is his current PSU?

 

[Nextman916]

I dont know what psu he has, when i was over ystrdy he was playing halo and bridging host for his clan, or something like that so his computer had to say on cuz he was using this program zone alarm to do it. I didnt want to open it when it was on but i will find out and post back.

 

[Nextman916]

Here is the list ive came up with for $350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817162005 -dynapower 430w psu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820220037 -2x512mb patriot signature
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102608 -sapphire x800gto agp
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186061 -foxconn mobo supporting all his needs
good?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Nextman916
Here is the list ive came up with for $350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817162005 -dynapower 430w psu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820220037 -2x512mb patriot signature
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102608 -sapphire x800gto agp
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186061 -foxconn mobo supporting all his needs
good?

not good. there is a X850xt for sale for $200 this week. get that. it's much faster.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1770043&enterthread=y

I dont understand why you are upgrading the motherboard? Same features. I mean, there is no reason if it supports agp8x, what could you possibly get extra out of it? just ovrclock with the current motherboard.

 

[Nextman916]

The ram how many times do i have to say it! the mobo only supports pc2100 even getting pc3200 and running at 2100 wouldnt do anything because its still pc2100. And for that x850xt deal on microcent i thought about it, however it requires a rebate which me and him discussed already and he didnt want to deal with it. Also his current mobo is a POS with no features what so ever.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Nextman916
The ram how many times do i have to say it! the mobo only supports pc2100 even getting pc3200 and running at 2100 wouldnt do anything because its still pc2100. And for that x850xt deal on microcent i thought about it, however it requires a rebate which me and him discussed already and he didnt want to deal with it. Also his current mobo is a POS with no features what so ever.

um buying pc3200 ram still wont run at 400mhz since his cpu's fsb is probably 266mhz fsb version(atthlon xps had many different cores thatran from 266 to 333 to 400fsb) that's why i recommend overclocking, only by overclocking by raising the fsb, will you be able to run the ram at 400mhz.

then get a x800gto2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102646

it has a 99.7 or something chance of unlocking and overclocking to a x850xt or even x850xtpe. very simple mod, very fast card after 30 minutes of work.

 

[Nextman916]

Oh my apologies morph i didnt understand that pc3200 wouldnt run on his system, this just got alot more complicated lol.....however that gto2 is pci-e and he only has agp. I think his cpu runs at 333(i think thats what i saw on cpu-z the other day but im not sure) so would you recommend me goin with pc3200 for overclocking? even if i didnt i would be good right? also do you kno how to overclock an athlon xp?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Nextman916
Oh my apologies morph i didnt understand that pc3200 wouldnt run on his system, this just got alot more complicated lol.....however that gto2 is pci-e and he only has agp. I think his cpu runs at 333(i think thats what i saw on cpu-z the other day but im not sure) so would you recommend me goin with pc3200 for overclocking? even if i didnt i would be good right? also do you kno how to overclock an athlon xp?

wait a second if his cpu is 333 native fsb then the memory should run at 333 mhz, not 266mhz.
This poses things
1. The memory installed now is only pc2100 rated and the motherboard is ruing the ram async from the cpu which is a performance and stability killer on athlon xps
2. there si something rong with the bios if the ram si pc2700 rated and runs at pc2100, try to download the most current one
or
3. It's just a bad board and probably deserves replacement.

either way, i would order everything but the motherboard and see if the ram runs at 333mhz on the motherboard, if it does fine, then try to oveclock to 400mhz(which would set the cpu at 2.4ghz and the ram at native 400mhz speed), if it dosent run at 333mhz, then ither the cpu is a 266mhz fsb core or yuo should get the new motherboard.

motherboard upgrades are usually giant hasses though. have fun trying to repair windows after a motherboard upgrade. It usually requires a fresh install of windows, or at least a repair install.

 

[Nextman916]

crap lol just wat i was afraid of.........hmm well im pretty sure i saw 333fsb in cpu-z but ill go over and check again, but im almost positive. Also im beginning to think that his dad did in fact mess with his cpu because there is no way a athlon xp 2400+ comes stock at 1.99ghz. But i know it has pc2100 in it or maybe its running at pc2100 speeds? Dont some people lower clock ram to get higher clock speeds on teh cpu on amd's? maybe its pc3200 down clocked who knows.....damit not i have to ponder some more

 

[gotsmack]

no, just because the cpu is a 333 bus doesn;t mean that it has to run the ram at 333. Motherboards have been able to use asynchronous timings for a long time now.

if the OP can figure the make and model of the motherboard he can see what it supports.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: gotsmack
no, just because the cpu is a 333 bus doesn;t mean that it has to run the ram at 333. Motherboards have been able to use asynchronous timings for a long time now.

if the OP can figure the make and model of the motherboard he can see what it supports.

it dosent have to but it should. Ram running async on amd xps really kill performance and cause a vareity of stability issues.

 

[gotsmack]

no, my best friend has run unmatched crucial pc 2100 on an athlon xp 1800+ with an abit ns7 s v2.0 mobo for something like 2 years and recently upgraded to an athlon 64 3000+ with an abit av8, using the same ram and he has never experienced any problems. I know because I built both machines for him.

I'll agree that it does hurt performance, but not enough to require buying new ram.

if you set the speed to auto detect in the bios it will be fine.

 

[Nextman916]

Okay well would pc2100 bottleneck a noticeable performance alot or no? with the parts i recommended