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  • Upgrade advice

    I'm wondering which element of my system to upgrade to improve performance. I have:

    G400 16MB SH vanilla
    500 Mhz Celeron @66
    Epox LX Motherboard, 66MHz only
    192 MB 66MHz SDRAM
    SBLive running APSLive drivers
    6 GIG IDE system drive
    4 GIG SCSI

    And a limited budget ! ( Say, £150 max )

    The limitations I am seeing at the moment are in games like System Shock, Thief 2 and Deus Ex - all of which have dodgy engines, I know, but the symptoms seem likely to be related to my system. ( And a few more FPS in Q3 are always welcome, anyway ;-) However I also use my PC for music, so if I could get a general improvement in system performance while I'm at it...

    So, given that I can't justify an entirely new setup, what should I change first ? A new motherboard would allow a faster FSB speed, but I'd have to buy new RAM to cope, hence going over-budget. I could get a 766 Celeron, but maybe the rest is holding me back too much for this to be worth it ? Plus a Duron would give me better bang for my quid. Reducing my RAM latency from 3 to 2 in the Bios gives a nice boost to performance, but I start getting instability, which doesn't go down well with the family, so maybe I should just buy 128MB of PC133 memory and solve that ? Maybe a new hard disc ? It'll make everything seem smoother, and the space would be nice, but probably won't help much with games performance.

    Or... sharp intake of breath - should I get a GeForce 2 MX ? Nice for games but no improvement at all in the overall system performance.

    Any opinions about which of these will be most satisfying for the outlay ?

    Tones

  • #2
    Phew with a budget of only £150 you haven't too many options. The G force card might get you a few more fps, but if I were you I would get in touch with technical help, say creative labs or guillemot who both do G force cards and make sure your Mobo can handle the load required before shelling out your hard earned. There are quite a few ageing mobos that cannot handle these cards.
    The other option which is far cheaper, unless it goes pear shaped is to overclock the hell out of your processor, just make sure you have stacks of cooling. Lots of folks successfully o'clock celerons to quite high levels.
    Do a search in google.com under overclocking, there is loads of stuff on the subject.
    The other option is to save your pennies and go for a new system or just wait a while as there are bound to be faster systems than yours but slightly dated coming up for sale at various outlets.
    This doesn't help really but here in the UK just for a new Mobo and say 850mhz cpu you gotta be looking at approaching £300.

    Best of luck.

    Dave

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    • #3
      Hmm, you could get a cheap FCPGA MB (with the option of running the memory at FSB-33 MHz for safety) and a Celeron II. And then clock it for what it's worth.

      ------------------
      ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
      "That's right fool! Now I'm a flying talking donkey!"

      P4 2.66, 512 mb PC2700, ATI Radeon 9000, Seagate Barracude IV 80 gb, Acer Al 732 17" TFT

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      • #4
        How about nothing? If you're tight on cash, you probably are better off spending it on something other than better gaming. If gaming really is your priority, consider holding off until you have more funds available to upgrade MB/RAM/CPU, then graphics card.
        <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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        • #5
          deejay,
          <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Do a search in google.com under overclocking, there is loads of stuff on the subject.</font>
          or ask right here! Many of us (myself included) know more about overclocking/cooling than virtually any/all hardware sites on earth! (not kidding)
          "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

          "Always do good. It will gratify some and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

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          • #6
            personally for performance i would say a faster and larger harddrive would do you the most good. prob is that mo'board probably only supports dma/33 so maybe a you might wanna find an add in card for raid 66 or 100 dma plus an inexpensive harddrive
            ... if you brought that 150.lbs to canada you could get away with it
            what speed and make is the 6gig HD?

            ------------------
            MSI K7TPro2 Duron 750@900
            256Ram G400DH32mb
            Pioneer SCSI 16xDVD
            DFI NFIIUltra 400
            756Ram ATI 9550 256mem
            Lite-On DVDR/RW/DL
            Windows XP pro
            msn messenger id: gchisel
            Be aware that a halo has to fall only a few inches to be a noose

            Comment


            • #7
              I'm with xortam. There's not much he can do with that LX-based platform. I think mrtones should save his money and do absolutely nothing until his limited budget increases.

              Then I think he should buy components similar to windigo's system: an MSI K7TPro2/Duron 750/PC133-based platform. Of course, if the KT133A chipset motherboards come down in price and fit into his budget, he should go for one of those.

              These are US prices. I have no idea of the "VAT consequences":

              MSI K7TPro2 - less than $120
              Duron 750 MHz - less than $70
              128 MB Crucial PC133 "7E" - ~$58 (Yippee!)
              Taisol Heatsink w/Delta 30 CFM fan - ~$30

              Total: Less than $280 or £191 (£1= $0.68034) sans VAT and differences in pricing. My point is a "night and day" transformation can be accomplished with just a little more money.

              Paul
              paulcs@flashcom.net

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              • #8
                Geeeeez. I always forget something.

                Antec 300W Power Supply - ~$50

                Sorry.

                Paul
                paulcs@flashcom.net

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                • #9
                  I don't know about the rest of the world, but in here Denmark the Soltek SL-75KAV KT133A board is cheaper than most other KT133 (not A) boards.
                  I'm very happy with mine, but have yet to check if it has the famous JP 17 (the jumper to set FSB/PCI ratio), running at 133 MHz FSB with AGP@89 and PCI@44 without any probs, and I can't be bothered to open my case until my new CDR arrives
                  "That's right fool! Now I'm a flying talking donkey!"

                  P4 2.66, 512 mb PC2700, ATI Radeon 9000, Seagate Barracude IV 80 gb, Acer Al 732 17" TFT

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hi Guys,

                    Thanks for the ideas. Paul's answer got me interested, so I did some very quick hunting, and came up with ( inc.VAT ):

                    Abit KT7 £108 ( or Asus A7V £122 ? )
                    Duron 750 £59
                    Cube ( ? ) SDRAM PC133 128MB £44
                    Heatsink & Fan approx £30
                    300 W PSU approx £40

                    Total £281 - so the combination of VAT plus US prices makes the deal a little less attractive. It's less a question of the money not being there, btw, than - am I prepared to spend that much on upgrading at this stage ?

                    Anyhow, it suprised me how cheap RAM is, and got me thinking. How about if I got ( say ) a P2B mobo for around £100, 128MB of PC 133 RAM and overclocked my Celeron 500 ? Then I could get a faster PIII or Celeron at a later stage - yeah, less bang for my buck, but also I only have to spend £170 now ( including heatsink & fan ) ... is there any milleage there ? I've never done any overclocking, so how far might I expect to push a 500, and what's the difference between a Celeron I & II ?

                    Windigo, the hard drive is a Seagate, Barracuda I think, ie. 5200 rpm probably, ie. slooow. Would DMA33 negate the benefits of a faster HD ?

                    Thanks again for the suggestions,

                    Tones

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                    • #11
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