Where's the bottleneck?

[Home Built]

I'm "not ready" to make the jump to an Athlon 64 setup "yet" but would like some "opinions" on what hardware I could add/change to my current system to get the most out of it.

I have successfully assembled all my own systems for the past 4 years but I get lost in some of the technical aspects of the hardware.

If anyone sees any obvious areas where I might be getting a bottleneck in performance, that in itself would be the most important to me.

The particulars of my current system is in my sig.
Thank You

 

[The J]

If you play a lot of games, then the GeForce FX 5200 will definately hold you back.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: The J
If you play a lot of games, then the GeForce FX 5200 will definately hold you back.

 

[Home Built]

What's the next step up from the FX5200 without breaking the bank and also without moving the bottleneck to another peice of hardware.
In other words wouldn't a 6800GT be overkill and wasted on the med-low performance system I have?

 

[Mik3y]

how much do you have to spend total?

 

[dc5]

the best card for your system without substantial bottleneck from your cpu is the 6600gt.

 

[Home Built]

Price isn't as much of an issue as long as I don't end up playing dominos (one upgrade leads to another then another, then another etc.). If you know what I mean. Everything in this machine is brand new and anything I remove from this system will end up being used in one of my kids smaller machines so nothing goes to waste.

 

[karnick]

i agree with dc5, if you want to just fix your gaming bottleneck get the 6600gt, otherwise, dont hesitate to go with an Athlon64 if you decide to spend.... also id fix the 512K ram line in your sig

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: dc5
the best card for your system without substantial bottleneck from your cpu is the 6600gt.

True, but you also have to plan for the future. The keys to upgrading are:

1. What's most important to you?
2. What do you have to spend now?
3. When and what is your next likely upgrade after this one?

When you can answer these questions, it helps direct your path instead of dealing with everything at the same time.

 

[Home Built]

With 5 kids, my computer budget does have a ceiling. Soooo.... I usually try to build my systems with technology that the prices have been reduced on substantially(usually a year or two old).
When and if one of the kids require a system to play a new game I remind them that they will also have to buy a system to play it if mine isn't big enough.
With MB and CPU prices for the Athlon 64's still being a bit steep I can wait 6 months to a year for the price reductions (that "will" come).
I think it will take longer than that for the video cards like the 6600GT to come down in price to the FX5200 levels ( I only paid $20.00 for the FX5200). But, if this single upgrade will increase the FPS and give their games a more life like action I will bite the bullet and buy it now.

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: Home Built
With 5 kids, my computer budget does have a ceiling. Soooo.... I usually try to build my systems with technology that the prices have been reduced on substantially(usually a year or two old).
When and if one of the kids require a system to play a new game I remind them that they will also have to buy a system to play it if mine isn't big enough.
With MB and CPU prices for the Athlon 64's still being a bit steep I can wait 6 months to a year for the price reductions (that "will" come).
I think it will take longer than that for the video cards like the 6600GT to come down in price to the FX5200 levels ( I only paid $20.00 for the FX5200). But, if this single upgrade will increase the FPS and give their games a more life like action I will bite the bullet and buy it now.

Beyond a doubt, the 6600GT will give you a really good bump. Though they are over priced right now in the AGP version because ATI has nothing in that price rang that can compete. Prices on 6600Gt's should fall to below $200 by late Jan. or Feb. and faster than that if ATI can get on the ball with some mid range AGP cards.

And you got me beat by one.

 

[Home Built]

Newegg has 3 128 MB 8x 6600GT's:

Apollo=$229 Leadtek=$216 Chaintech=$225 The only other one an XFX doesn't have VGA out.
With out any respect to the price, which 6600GT would be the better fit to my machine? I really don't see any significant performance difference of one over another?
Thanks once again.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

its a matter of brand preference, cards with the same GPUs usually perform on par with each other, unless one is factory overclocked or has a monster cooling solution. the XFX has two DVI ports, so if thats useful for you, i'd take it, but for a couple bucks more, you could get a 6800LE

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: Home Built
Newegg has 3 128 MB 8x 6600GT's:

Apollo=$229 Leadtek=$216 Chaintech=$225 The only other one an XFX doesn't have VGA out.
With out any respect to the price, which 6600GT would be the better fit to my machine? I really don't see any significant performance difference of one over another?
Thanks once again.

The Apollo, its the only one in stock. Really any of those would be fine but I would stay away from the Chaintech because the memory is underclocked by 100Mhz. Faster memory is very important on a vid card. I don't know Apollo as a brand but I know Leadtek generally has a good rep.

 

[Home Built]

Newegg also had a MSI 6600GT Card that I missed that is in stock. Model#NX6600GT-VTD128. It's the same specs as the Apollo card and it's $215. MSI is a big name MB builder with decent support so that's the one I'm going to order.

Thank you to all who responded. This has been a pleasure.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

The 6600GT is your best bet but wait till the prices go down

and by the way, for the XFX card, you could easily get a DVI to VGA adapter

 

[Dough1397]

it probably woudl coem with one and do you good in the long run

 

[Rike]

MSI is a good chioce. They have preaty good bundles. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Nice find by the way.

 

[Home Built]

Ordered the MSI 6600GT card from Newegg. It has both DVI, VGA and Svideo outputs. It also comes with a mess of different game software Cd's? Now I just have to wait for delivery.
Thanks again everyone.