What to do now?

[AngelOfDeath]

Hey there

I have a P4 2,4GHz w/1Gb memory and a Radeon 9800. I'm looking for an answer to what next step I may have with regards to upgrade.

Is there any great performance gains by upgrading CPU today? Should I instead upgrade my Radeon 9800 or?

Is there anything worth waiting for atm. within the short-run that is?

Suggestions to hardware is welcome too

In advance tx

AoD

 

[ribbon13]

A new AMD system would be a lot faster. Is that DDR or DDR2?

 

[AngelOfDeath]

It's DDR...But what is a lot faster?

 

[ribbon13]

What games do you play?

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/pentium4-600/index.x?pg=6
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/pentium4-600/index.x?pg=7

 

[AngelOfDeath]

I play Battlefield (waiting for BF2 now ) Far Cry

In general I like 1st person shooters the most

 

[amol]

yeah, definitely go AMD (you also need a new motherboard, though)

 

[AngelOfDeath]

Yeah I figured that too. What AMD do I get the most for my cash? I don't think it's wise buying Athlon 64 4000+ atm. So what should I go for were I get most power for the fewest money ?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The 3000+ gives by far the most power for the cost.

 

[Blain]

* What MB are you running right now?
* What's your HD situation right now?
* Are you looking to increase just your gaming performance or overall system performance?
* Do you want to throw cash away or get the biggest bang for your buck?

 

[Jeff7181]

If you plan on playing Battlefield 2 I'd say a video card would probably do the most for you... then overclock your P4 2.4 and you should be in decent shape.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
If you plan on playing Battlefield 2 I'd say a video card would probably do the most for you... then overclock your P4 2.4 and you should be in decent shape.

I agree depending on the mobo you have...intel mobo?? Forgetaboutit!!!

Is that a 2.4c 800fsb or 2.4b 533fs or 2.4 400fsb model???

A lof of questions...

Also is that a 9800 non pro???

 

[ShadowBlade]

AMD!!!! anything between 2800+ and FX-55...2800 to 3200 can overclock to 3500 or 3800 speeds

 

[stevty2889]

If thats a 2.4c and you have a decent motherboard, you should get a nice overclock out of it. I had a 2.4c that ran at 3.1ghz. If it's a differant 2.4, such as a 400fsb or 533fsb that doesn't have hyperthreading, then I would say go for an A64 3000+ and a new motherboard. A 6600GT or 6800GT would be a nice video card upgrade if you have the budget.

 

[AngelOfDeath]

It's an Asus P4B533-V mobo
Right now I have 60Gb and I don't use much space anyway. I do though considder buying new HDs with SATA if a new system is the way

I'm looking to increase gaming performance generally

I never throw cash away I rather get the most for my money

My CPU is a 2,4Ghz@533 fsb I bought it just before the Hyper tech arrived and overclocking isn't normally what I do the most in except for the old Celeron 300A days

My Radeon is a 9800 Pro Ice. I hate it since it gets hot for no reason and then closes the game. It's not often but even the problem is there annoys me since I never experienced that with a Nvidia.

Hope this gives an idea of my system and tx so far, new info might give new answers

 

[ribbon13]

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-11.html

Looking at the bottom chart, the 9800 Pro is still kicking very well.

$459 Sapphire X800 XT AGP

$370 XFX GeForce 6800 GT AGP

$260 eVGA GeForce 6800 AGP

 

[AngelOfDeath]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-11.html

Looking at the bottom chart, the 9800 Pro is still kicking very well.

$459 Sapphire X800 XT AGP

$370 XFX GeForce 6800 GT AGP

$260 eVGA GeForce 6800 AGP

Then it's a new CPU I'm looking for or?

And what about dual systems is that not usefull anymore?

 

[ribbon13]

Well if you have decent DDR already, you could upgrade to A64 + AGP.

$215 AMD ADA3400AXBOX
$85 SOLTEK "SL-K8AN2E-GR"

The cheaper Socket 754 whipping 939s

 

[ribbon13]

Well, if you get a socket 939 with nF4 you could upgrade to Toledo dual-core A64 when it comes out this fall. SMP feels far more snappy in general multitasking, but it won't help your gaming much.

 

[AngelOfDeath]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Well, if you get a socket 939 with nF4 you could upgrade to Toledo dual-core A64 when it comes out this fall. SMP feels far more snappy in general multitasking, but it won't help your gaming much.

Dual core? So it will be like having Dual processors or just huge amount of powers? If like dual I suppose all software has to be written to it or?

 

[Blain]

Dude, you better just stick with your 2.4 for now. Just buy a nice cooler for the CPU and OC it as far as you can (and stay stable).
That way, you get your CPU bump for less than $50.
If your video card is getting hot and causing problems, find out why and fix it.

 

[ribbon13]

It's two processor's one one CPU die. Programs have to written to take advantage of both CPUs, but when your running more than 1 app, windows automatically spreads the processes among the CPUs, and that's why it feels so much more snappy in general multitasking. Video encoding and photoshop take advantage of SMP readily.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_11787,00.html

 

[AngelOfDeath]

Originally posted by: Blain
Dude, you better just stick with your 2.4 for now. Just buy a nice cooler for the CPU and OC it as far as you can (and stay stable).
That way, you get your CPU bump for less than $50.
If your video card is getting hot and causing problems, find out why and fix it.

As I say I don't OC and as far as I can see my production CPU isn't exactly one of the winners. I have crancked it up to a little above 2,5Ghz which isn't worth a while. So when You say stick with my current CPU u say that I don't get much performance by bying a new system or?

 

[ribbon13]

If you don't overclock than the 754 3400 & nForce3 250Gb combo would be your best bet.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: AngelOfDeath
As I say I don't OC and as far as I can see my production CPU isn't exactly one of the winners. I have crancked it up to a little above 2,5Ghz which isn't worth a while. So when You say stick with my current CPU u say that I don't get much performance by bying a new system or?

For $50 or less (CPU HS/fan), you can OC your P4. If you can't tweak your 2.4 up close to 3GHz, why would you want to sink big bucks in a new combo?

You have a good OCing CPU in the 2.4. Tweaking your CPU & AGP card requires minimal cash output. It does require some reading on your part, to determine exactly what may be holding you back.

"I never throw cash away I rather get the most for my money" Did you really mean that, or did it just sound like a good thing to say?

 

[AngelOfDeath]

Sorry but I don't see how OC'ing and me not wasting money has anything to do with each other. I rarely OC simply for the fact that I don't like OCing unless it's bulletproff and it's something OCing rarely is.

I don't buy new hardware unless I can see a purpose a need or a good reason to spend my cash on it. But comparing that with my lack of amusement with OCing is like comparing apples and bananas.

So I ask in here for an advice and I think I state it rather clearly that I don't OC. Since that's the conditions for my question, I still don't just waste money I wants to get the most for my cash without OCing. And if the advice is to wait buying new mobo and cpu then that's the advice