upgrade

[Dark cowboy]

ok i have this board
here
an evga nvidia mx 440 video card
an amd xp 2000 overclocked to 1.67
1 gig ram
im looking to upgrade video and Processor cheap as possiple looking to play doom 3 and mabey shorten video reincoding time
im on a very tight budget any help is appreacited

Cowboy

 

[jameswhite1979]

Here you will find a range of cards running Doom3

http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-07.html

and the same for cpu

http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html?modelx=33&model1=57&model2=53&chart=26

What is your budget is the next question?

 

[Dark cowboy]

id like to keep it under 200 if possiple preferably under 150 problem is im limited to agp 4x

 

[Dark cowboy]

oh the also limited to socket a cpu but i can't afford to do a complete rebuild

 

[DaveSimmons]

Your processor is OK, it's the video card that is really hurting you. A used geforce4 ti4200 - 4600 from the FS/FT forum here ($50-65) is one way to make a huge jump for cheap.

Next up would be a used 9500 pro, 9600 XT, 5900. Then a 9800 Pro which would also be great for half-life 2.

You can get a new Radeon 9800 Pro for $149 from newegg.com, that's your best use of a $150 budget. (newegg Item #: N82E16814102477, or go to video cards section and search for Radeon 9800PRO GPU)

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Dark cowboy
ok i have this board
here
an evga nvidia mx 440 video card
an amd xp 2000 overclocked to 1.67
1 gig ram
im looking to upgrade video and Processor cheap as possiple looking to play doom 3 and mabey shorten video reincoding time
im on a very tight budget any help is appreacited

Cowboy

Welcome to AT.

Isn't 1.67 the xp2000+ default speed

$150 to $200 isn't going to get you a whole lot....

That videocard is the weak point of your system I'd say. I think you might be better off just spending money to get a significantly better videocard than trying to get everything at once. Getting a mobile barton would probably be what you would want to do if you upgraded your CPU, but your board might not support them or you might have to do a BIOS flash to get support for them. Even if you did that, it would cost you around half your budget and it wouldn't be all that much faster than your current CPU.

On the other hand, if you invested it all in a videocard, you could afford something like a 6600gt for $158 after rebate. It would be a little limited by the 4x AGP speed, but it would only be something on the order of 10% for the latest games, and with older games it wouldn't have any performance hit at all.

If you go this route, down the road you'd already have a nice videocard and you could spend a future upgrade all on the CPU/motherboard/ram combo and go for an A64 or something.

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ if you don't mind rebates, that Hot Deal 6600GT is a better choice than the 9800 Pro I recommended. About the same speed in Half-Life 2, but much faster in Doom3.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Doom^3 comaparison chart for you

 

[kini62]

Doom III is not worth the cost of an upgrade. The game is BORING.

Upgrade for HL2 or Far Cry- definately worth it!

 

[Dark cowboy]

 

[Dark cowboy]

Isn't 1.67 the xp2000+ default speed

nope cpu origanally clocked 1.25

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Dark cowboy
Isn't 1.67 the xp2000+ default speed

nope cpu origanally clocked 1.25

?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

All you did was correctly set the FSB to 133 instead of 100 that your motherboard started with for compatability reasons.

If you were overclocking, you'd have to have the processor running faster than 1.67ghz.

 

[Dark cowboy]

oh ok i feel silly now thank you so much for your help

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Dark cowboy
oh ok i feel silly now thank you so much for your help

That's cool. At least you've had it running at the right speed all this time and not underclocked

 

[imported_fatal]

6600GT is the best bang for the buck right now under $200

 

[Edzard]

IMHO, the best advice you've been given so far is to get the 6600GT (you'll need the AGP version - NOT the PCI-Xpress flavor). But the possible downside of this approach is that, due to the size of your your investment in this card, it will somewhat lock you into future motherboards having an AGP slot.

But if you decide to go for a cheaper video card, keep in mind that the TI4XXX cards mentioned above are Direct X 8 (DX8) cards - not Direct X 9. This could be a negative re other modern games and even some games that are 12-18 months old.

Since your original post mentions "mabey shorten video reincoding time", it certainly would make sense to thoroughly investigate the overclocking potential of your motherboard/processor combination.

I suggest you do the following (1) Download CPUID from

http://www.cpuid.org/index.php

Run it, select the "CPU" tab, and report to us what the "family", "model", and "stepping" are for your processor. And hope for "681".

I have looked at the manual for your motherboard and it MAY have the overclocking features you need, but the manual is not clear. Find the option labeled "CPU clock" which appears as an option under "Frequency Control" in your BIOS setup (it wouldn't hurt to read your manual or download one from the link you provided and read it) and let us know what options are available for this particular feature. But don't change anything in the BIOS - not yet.

If you go forward with overclocking, at some point it would be helpful to know what heatsink/fan arrangement you are using on the processor.

 

btw this is the origanal poster i screwed up my origanal account changing the email addy locked myself out i have tried to over vlock but as im using the origanal hsf my temps hit mid 50s with my case hitting 70's for a few seconds and then droping to the mid 30's and then going back up i got a little scared so i reverted back to my origan clock speed im running a side fan and a fan in the back of my case plus psu iv had it up to 1.8 gig motherboard overclock lets you ajust fsb

---

YGPM about your account.

AnandTech Moderator

 

any tips

 

[Dark cowboy]

Ok heres the deal I tried to overclock the cpu but when i did my temps shot to 55 cpu under load
and the case was temp was changing from 30 degrees to mid 70's and back down by the second got scared and changed it back im running 2 case fans one on the back and one on the side window plus the psu fan oem hsf I got it to 1.8 before I changed it back , the bios allows ocing by upping fsb
i would appreciate any advice

tia

Cowboy up
ps oh i read the manual it isnt very clear about a lot of things
love cheap boards

 

[Dark cowboy]

ok
family = 6
model = 8
stepping = 1

ok what does this mean

 

[Dark cowboy]

bump

 

[Dark cowboy]

bump for info

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Are you looking for info on overclocking or something else?

 

[Zebo]

$157 6600GT AGP also comes with Far Cry and Call of Duty.


http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1582999&enterthread=y

/thread