what to upgrade next?

[jharsh]

ok I have a spare $200 for my computer and want to know were would be the best place to put it. I have noticed in bf1942 I get low framerates sometimes so now is the time to do something.

My system as it stands now

Abit kg7 board(old(1998/99) but rock solid)
athlon XP 1700+
512mb pc 2100 ram (all brand name)
gainward geforce 4 ti 4200 64mb
sb live 5.1
10/100 3com nic
30gb ata100 7200rpm drive (plenty of room for me)

Anything here a real bottleneck? I was thinking of getting a ti4600/128mb card (So I can really kick some butt in the next lanparty).

BTW
I did get this system to do over 10000 3d marks in 3dmark 2001 by overclocking the bus to 145mhz.

[Edited on 6-21-2003 by jharsh]

[ZWarrior]

My quick answer would be that the mobo is your bottleneck.  But you didn't include info regarding your HD.

It is possible that I/O is you bottleneck as well.  But I think that you should look at a newer mobo, if all you have is $200.  Otherwise, 521MB of RAM would be good as well.

[opiesilver]

The mobo is the bottleneck IMHO.  Upgrading the RAM would help, but it will be extremely hard to find 521 MB of ram.  I'd suggest going with 512 MB of ram instead.

[jharsh]

I did post information on my hard drive (30gb ata100 7200rpm drive ) I know thats not the bottleneck as loading is fast, its while playing thing slow down (ata 133 is no faster than ata100 in most tests so I see no reason to waste money on a ata133 drive).

 I already have 512mb of ram so I don't need more ram(as I have never used 100% of my ram).

 I do plan on getting a new board at some point. right now the Asus A7N8XDeluxe looks to be what I will get.

[Edited on 6-21-2003 by jharsh]

[n1c]

No there talking about what kind of HDD

There is a huge difference in the brands!!!


Also ID say get the MOBO but if you looking at Vid cards dont get one without looking at the ATI cards ( better bang for your buck!!! trust me:))

[jharsh]

it's an ibm. I plan on junking the drive before it dies as ALL ibm drives I have ever had have all died early. I am really looking hard at Samsung drives. They have had problems in the past but get high marks today. But as I said that can't be the problem as loading is fast. (that and drive speed rarely affects framerate)

As for the video card I am waiting for the 9700pro to get to $200. Until then I'll stick with nvidia cards. (tradeing my 4200 for a 4600 plus $50. so I have $150 for the motherboard).

[Edited on 6-21-2003 by jharsh]

[Edited on 6-21-2003 by jharsh]

[Morpheus]

I would have to go with mobo as well.  The ASUS A7N8X Deluxe has a very good reputation, and for $130 at newegg, it's a good buy.

I assume that your RAM is 2 sticks of 256mb?  You will want 2 sticks of the same size/speed ram if you upgrade to the ASUS board to take advantage of the dual channel memory.

You might want to test your RAM, I think Opie has a program to do that.

So, with a updated mobo, and video card, you should be running better.

[Boomslang]

Beter make shure the bios bug is fixed I been reading about it. Go to boot up and the bios is out to lunch.

[Edited on 6-24-2003 by Boomslang]

[jharsh]

ok I got my new video card and things seem to run much better. I ended up getting a real nice card. It's a MSI G4Ti4600. It has 128mb ddr ram and a good heatsink. sadly even with this new card my 3dmark score only went up 300 points(to 96??) without overclocking.

As for ram I have one stick of 256mb (not sure if it's pc2100 or better) and 2 sticks of 128mb pc2100 ram. Because of current prices I can sell my ram and get 2 sticks of 256mb pc 3500 ram cheap.

[Morpheus]

Something to think about.. the nVidia chipset runs best with memory set syncronously to the cpu speed, so unless you plan on running your cpu at 433 mhz, then you don't need that fast of ram.  It is much better to get ram that has a better cas rating than just speed.

[jharsh]

ok I ended up going with the Abit NF7-S motherboard.(http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3422084441&category=42010#BID1) I really wanted the asus but this board is only slightly slower and costs $40 less(which I can use tward a better cpu or more ram). For now I'm sticking with the same processor (1700+) and ram (pc2100).

I plan on getting an athlon xp 2600 with my next paycheck. Problem with that is I assume I can't use my pc2100 ram with that cpu so I'll have to wait another 2 weeks for my next check to get ram(which I plan on getting a gig worth as even with 512mb I hit the swapfile to much in bf1942).

Can't wait for the next lanparty! No more slow framerates!

[jharsh]

Ok I got my new cpu. It's an athlon xp 2600+ 333mhz fsb. For now I want to run it on a 266mhz fsb do to my slow ram(pc2100). will this cpu run on a 266mhz fsb just fine? I do plan on pushing the multiplier up to get it near 2.08ghz(my board unlocks the processor).

[Wolverine of Ambush!]

i would just run it at 333mhz...and when you can get the ram....get pc2700...

[Boomslang]

Originally posted by jharsh
Ok I got my new cpu. It's an athlon xp 2600+ 333mhz fsb. For now I want to run it on a 266mhz fsb do to my slow ram(pc2100). will this cpu run on a 266mhz fsb just fine? I do plan on pushing the multiplier up to get it near 2.08ghz(my board unlocks the processor).

 

Supports up to AMD’s Barton Core Processors
AMD’s latest processor, however it was a paper launch, you can now rest well at night knowing that when this new processor core comes out this motherboard will be able to support it.
Dual DDR 400
By using two separate, independent memory controllers’ memory speeds can be greatly improved up to a maximum bandwidth of 6.4GB/sec.

You want to get pc 3200 that’s what the board wants. You can run pc2100 in duel and still get a good bandwidth. Spend the money now or you will regret it latter.Get the fastest ram you can afford.

[jharsh]

I plan on getting faster ram but it will be 2-3 weeks before I can get it.

thanks!