thinking of upgrading

Cheese · 06-29-2006, 10:16 AM

ok, my computer is 3 years old now, its a dell Pentium 4 2.8 HT with 768 mb PC3200 (i believe, thats the 400mhz right?) and ait radeon 9800 pro 128mb version. i've built my own computers before so im not clueless and not afraid to go into messing with them. however, the past several years i've spent a lot of my free time reading more about car stuff than computer stuff so i really dont know much about what's out there right now. i just tried to read up a little bit to see what top of the line is and what is decent for the money, but there's a lot of info to take in.

i just sold my integra and i've been wanting to upgrade this computer for a while now because it feels like it's lagging with some things, bf2 is slow and i have to turn down hdr and some of the other fancy things in css. i'm not looking to spend a huge amount, maybe like $500 bucks. i had been looking at athlon 64s earlier in the year, but now dual cores are out. would dual core be something to go with now or should i stick with an a64 chip? i know i need more ram, do i or should i get some new stuff or should i just use my old pc3200 stuff?

i read something earlier this morning about being able to overclock a pentium D 805 to 4ghz and outperforming pentium E something or other chips that cost like a grand. that sounds like something i'd want to do, they used a zalman fan to cool up to like 3.8ghz and then had to go water cooled for 4.1ghz. but i think 3.8 would be good enough for me, especially for the price of the chip. the motherboards they listed though were all like 200+ boards and i dont know if i want to spend that much on that. i wasnt sure if you could still get away with overclocking like that with a cheaper board. i think they used the 975x and 955x intel chipsets. would any board with those chipsets work or no?

also, is the 9800 pro outdated now? should i get another video card or just stick with what i have for a little more time?

here's a link to the overclocking of the 805 chip, it's tomshardware, which i know chem doesnt like, but i dunno, seems legit to me. http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/..._41_ghz_cores/

Capt. Insane · 06-29-2006, 11:01 AM

My new rig is really good, and I love it. Granted, it'll cost you probably more than the $500 you want to spend, but it'll be good for years to come, I think. Probably I'll just need a new gfx card in the next year or so when the R600 series of Radeon cards comes out (I think that's what they're called, the DX10 compatible ones). But even what I have now will be fine at least until next summer when I might have money to buy a new card.

dudio · 06-29-2006, 11:02 AM

I'm out of touch on technology too Cheese,
but as to your question about the 9800 pro,
I'd say 'ya, it's outdated'.
I have the same card. Pretty nice thing,
but it has been surpassed many times now.

Cheese · 06-29-2006, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt. Insane

My new rig is really good, and I love it. Granted, it'll cost you probably more than the $500 you want to spend, but it'll be good for years to come, I think. Probably I'll just need a new gfx card in the next year or so when the R600 series of Radeon cards comes out (I think that's what they're called, the DX10 compatible ones). But even what I have now will be fine at least until next summer when I might have money to buy a new card.

well i mean, i have a dvd-rw, hdd space is enough for me and i have a spare case...all i need to buy is mobo,cpu,memory,gfx...i think 500 is easy to do for a decent setup if i dont include a gfx card...i dont know what i want to do in regards to that right now. my friend has some new SLI nvidia card and it does look sweet. i've totally lost track of all the new video cards, no idea what is good or bad. seems all the budget cards have the same numbers as the good ones now. not like it used to be with like the MX series stuff

edit- oh and i'd probably need a new P/S because i doubt the one in the dell is 500w and i know i dont have a 500w laying around anywhere

Capt. Insane · 06-29-2006, 12:24 PM

Well, I got my mobo, cpu, memory, and gfx for I think $600. It's a Gigabyte K8 SLI-Pro mobo, a64 x2 3800+ cpu, 2x1gb Corair RAM, and an overclocked nvidia 7600gt 256mb gfx card. The mobo/cpu were maybe $350, gfx card was $189, and ram was 100-something. Though, this was at a computer show.

Cheese · 06-29-2006, 12:42 PM

wow, ram is cheaper than it used to be 3 years ago, lol

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145098

Dynamic · 06-29-2006, 12:47 PM

are you going with AM2? if you are, that RAM will work. If you are using the older AMD mobo's and procs then you would need standard DDR RAM. PC3200 DDR400.

DDR2 RAM will not work with older AMD motherboards, and if you plan on going Intel, i highly suggest against it...lol

ChemicalWarrior · 06-29-2006, 01:22 PM

Dyn, all of the current AM2 dual cores would be far to expensive. The 3800+ starts at just under $300, leaving nothing left for him.

As for the Tom's, its completely disregarding the fact the equipment they used is way above what a person who was going to buy such a processor would have. They always put products in much brighter pictures than they really deserve.

As for a system, I do however think a Pentium D 805 would be wise, as long as you're willing to overclock, because if you dont, you'll have a slow as *** processor. Know that if you're going to be using stock heatsink you'll most likely only reach something at about 3.4Ghz~3.6Ghz.

I'd suggest this setup:

Pentium D 805 ~ $110

Asus P5ND2-SLI ~ $90

Antec SmarPower 2.0 SP-500 ~ $65

Gecube Radeon X1600 Pro ~ $110

Corsair ValueSelect 2GB (1GB x 2) DDR2 667 ~ $147

Total: ~$522

A bit over budget, but well rounded. Weak points are the processor and graphics card, but the X1600 Pro is probably the best value in all of graphics cards right now, and the 805 is a great value if you can OC it.

Dynamic · 06-29-2006, 01:43 PM

i was just pointing out, that unless he goes with intel or am2, that ram will not work.... i didnt state that too clearly...lol

Cheese · 06-29-2006, 06:59 PM

heh, you also said to not go with intel. and i had the same thinking as chem. the only dual core setups they have are expensive as hell, which is unusual for amd. i usually build with amd, but since they're not cheaper, sucks for them, i want intel, lol.