PC upgrades

[HyperTek]

man so playin doom3 makes me wanna upgrade.. yes I know its been goin on everywhere.. I dont feel like droppin mad cash on buildin a new system yet so Ill list my specs and would like suggestions on improvements...

windows xp pro
Abit BD7 II mobo
Pentium 4 1.6 oc @ 1.93
Abit Siluro gforce 3 ti200 64mb oc (latest forceware drivers)
sb audigy 2 soundcard
512 mb (1 256 stick of kensington, 1 stick of either crucial or generic i forgot)
40 gig hd and a 7gig hd..

Im not worried about hd cuz they are dirt cheap.

Ive been thinking about a new video card, but everyone tells me that if you dont throw at least 200 at a vid card, its probably wack.

Anyone got hook ups on vid cards?

[nismo skyline]

get a least a gig of ram, and a 256mb vid card.

i'm running a nvidia 6800 ultra and 1gb of ram and doom 3 is killer on high mode

[HyperTek]

haha gettin my ass beat in d3.. haha.. cant jump around fast enough.. lol

hehe i modified ur avatar to match my car.. hehe.

hey ok im debating to pick up a ati 9600 256mb or like a gforce fc5600 256... they are pretty resonably priced. But I heard that the ATI stuff is really good now?

[citizen]

i say ati 9600xt in that price range

[cali240sxdrifter]

Nvidia sucks, just look how bad their stocks droped lol, but it be good to buy some stock =D their PCI stuff looks really nice.

Just upgrade your RAM and 3D Card. Whats your budget for Ram and Vid Card?

[zero.counter]

i say ati 9600xt in that price range
I have heard of some problems on Ars Technica and Anandtech about the Doom3/ATI 9600 series combination...

[cali240sxdrifter]

damn internet

[cali240sxdrifter]

i have 9600 Pro Turbo, no problems... its all driver related, ATI should have it fixed with their upcoming 4.9 drivers

also the 9600xt can be found for 146bucks, really good buy.

[HyperTek]

i figure in a few weeks ill upgrade vid card, maybe pick up a p4 2.6 or 2.8 and oc it to 3 gig, pick up more ram and maybe another 40gig hd as second hd and Ill be good to go for a while. I dont feel like building a new system.

[mjjstang]

I got a 9800 pro AIW for pretty cheap at the time, I paid like 300 or something. but yah Ram isnt that expensive, you might want a bigger processor, they are cheap as hell. Well I dont know bout intel but amd is like 100 bux for a 2800 or maybe less but still not bad at all.

[citizen]

2.4c will o/c to 3ghz too.

[twitchy]

what do you think of this

I have an AMD Athlon 1600 with 256 megs of ram and i just bought a 128 meg video card (radeon 9200 SE)

Im going to get another 512 of ram, possibly 2 sticks of 512 and i was thinking of possibly swapping the CPU out for a faster one (like a 3400 or something) if I could find one cheap

i know ill never run it full blast but i want some kind of decent gameplay

half life 2 soon, doom 3 and painkiller

any opinions? ram is the best bang for your buck upgrading right?

[aznpoopy]

you don't need that much to run d3 well.

the most important thing is getting your system memory up to 1 gig. besides that, 2ghz processor is fine. i've heard of ppl running on 1.6 without too many issues, but on low resolution.

check techbargains.com ... i got a ati radeon 9800 pro 128MB for 160 bucks. they also can get good prices on MB and processors. just gotta look for a sale. doom3 runs great @ 1024x768, P4 2.4ghz 400Mhz FSB, 1gig RAM.

[sykikchimp]

just an fyi - using the "Latest" nvidia drivers isn't usually the best idea. Most Geforce cards run better on the display drivers that were released when the card was.

For example.. I have a Gainward Ti4600 Geforce4. Excellent card.. I have to run like V.45 (or similar) for best performance. The newer like V.52 drivers work, but degrade performance.

[ZK]

As far as ATI video cards go, get the Radeon 9700 Pro. It kicks the 9600 Pro's ass and not quite as fast as the 9800 Pro but that costs more.

The biggest thing is price, for the cost it'd be hard to find a faster card.

They are having a great deal on refurb ones at crucial for $149. I got one and it works great. http://www.crucial.com/store/refurb.asp

As far as newest ATI drivers, the Catalyst 4.9 Doom3 beta release is out and it raises performance by 5-8fps over the 4.7 version they have now.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=842

[JtWo]

All this computer talk is confoosing me...


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/supraman/bunny.jpg

[HyperTek]

I think imma order a 9800 pro 256, read u can flash the bios and hack it to a 9800 xt or something..
anyone know where i can get a boxed version or referb?

oh yah I want a p4 2.4 if anyknow knows any good cheap spots.. let me know.

[citizen]

newegg.com
pricewatch.com
right now im running a 9800np flashed to pro, really easy, too bad i have the sumsung 3.3ns ram or i might try flashing to xt, roofles. actually i still may try that. basically all the 9800 series cards are the same and can be flashed to other versions, BUT they do have diferent ram modules that might not work with the diferenent bios (ala infineon chips). some, like the 9800se may have damaged pipelines (that's why they're SEs roofles).



as for twitchy the 9200se is a sort of lowend card. i would upgrade that and get more ram. actually i would buy a new computer roofles.

[twitchy]

9200 se is kind of low end i know...well its not the best one you can get but for my criteria it is okay. I dont play that many video games and im going to hopefully wind up with 3 sticks of 512 megs of ram plus the vid card.....i hope it will play decent.

[HyperTek]

citizen, do you know which 9800 card can be converted to pro then or either to xt?? I want 256 just to be safer down the road.. or is it just a matter of luck?

[HyperTek]

nvm... so the 9800 SE can be modded to the pro.. and a pro can be modded to a XT... umm maybe Ill go with teh SE.. thanks!

[citizen]

NO

the SE has a lower chance of being modded because many of them were damaged and then made into an SE.

9800non-pro (not SE) can be modded into PRO and possibly (remotely) an XT, barring any ram incompatibility.
9800SE still has a chance of being modded, but I wouldn't take the risk.
9800pro can be modded into XT succesfully.
the best bang for you buck would probably be a 9800non-pro

[HyperTek]

ok.. Ill just get a Non-pro. if it doesnt work, its ok, the mod will just be an added bonus.. as comparing the price to the XTs...

[aznpoopy]

nooooo if you're going for a 9800 get a PRO. they can be had for 150 bucks or so.

techbargains.com and look for deals. also try to 'find lowest price' system.

[citizen]

aznpoopy they are the same cards! just diferent bios and ram chips (although some non-pros even came with the same ram as the pros).

[aznpoopy]

NO

the SE has a lower chance of being modded because many of them were damaged and then made into an SE.

9800non-pro (not SE) can be modded into PRO and possibly (remotely) an XT, barring any ram incompatibility.
9800SE still has a chance of being modded, but I wouldn't take the risk.
9800pro can be modded into XT succesfully.
the best bang for you buck would probably be a 9800non-pro

based on what you yourself said, why not go for the pro? they're all floating around the 150ish dollar price range now anyway; if you know how to shop. there 9800pros are on sale much more often as well.

[HyperTek]

i want 256mb tho!!

[aznpoopy]

why are you deadset on 256MB? the bottleneck in your system would probably be the processor anyway. i don't even know if they make a plain jane 9800 with 256. just did some quick shopping... the only 256 card i see in a 150 dollar price range is the ati 9600 standard.

well, imo the 9800pro is the best buy at the moment. just my 2cents.

[HyperTek]

i got a 2.53 p4 cpu on teh way... planin to hopefully oc somethin over 3gig

- Edit- Your signature has my attention.. :eek2:

[citizen]

the 2.53ghz is the old 533mhz bus, no hyperthreading. the 2.4c mhz bus is where is at.

[HyperTek]

read hyperthreading doesnt to jack for gaming..

[HyperTek]

weeee got my 2.53 gig p4 today... im runnin it at 3.2 right now...

Im hyped.. imma pick up a BFG 6800 GT this weekend.. I think that will last me a while...

[aznpoopy]

sounds great... let us know how doom3 runs for you.

[S14RB]

Since were on the topic.

I have a few questions.

I have a HP 3.2 gig p4 (ht), 512 ddr, 128 ddr ATI 9200 SE. XP HOME.(misc: dvd burner, 160HD,)

For some reason it feels JUST as fast as my old Compaq 750mhzAMD, 768sdram, 64ddr geforce 3 ti. With XP PRO.

Why do you guys think that it doesn't "feel" super duper fast. Like I was expecting rocket speeds. If I simply upgraded to XP PRO, you think that may "use" my hardware better? I know I don't have the top o line stuff, but I think xp PRO, may utilize my 3.2gig, 512ddr more.(?) I have a funny feeling Hewlett Packard stuffed my system with a bunch of misc apps, that take up my ram, whenever I sign on. And I only know compaq (apps), so its hard for me to goto msconfig, and disable the HP crap I don't need.


BTW the 9200 SE (128DDR) isn't so great. I think my geforce 3 64 ddr is better than it. I lag when ever someone throws a smoke grenade in cs.

I'm thinkin of boosting the ram to 1gig ddr, getting that 256ddr geforce card, and xp PRO. That should fix the problem I would hope LoL.

Side Note: How risky is O/C proccessors? Does anyone know what my 3.2 my be able to accomplish( while being safe).?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate this. Sorry for the long post:P

[aznpoopy]

for doom3 you must upgrade to 1gig of RAM. your processor is fine as it is. you can o/c it but you don't really need to. the bottleneck in your system for games right now is definitely that 9200. if you just upgrade to a 9800 or so it should be fine. 256MB is always nice but not very necessary. xp pro vs xp home, ive run both and havent noticed a difference in games.

[HyperTek]

i took the plunder and picked up the bfg6800 gt and a antec 350w power supply... came out to $500 at best buy... i know i coulda saved more if i got it online but oh well.

hehe its sick.. love this card.. i already got it oced to 6800 ultra speeds no problem. Its just my mem and harddrive are bottleneck. There is a computer show today, unfortinutly D1 Drivers search is today, but I dont feel like goin to it.

fawk i need to get broadband dammit!!