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Advice on upgrade for friends computer....$150 or less

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Here are his specs:
xp 1700+ tbred (b chip) @ 2400xp+
epox 8rda+
sound blaster live value
512 (2 x 256) pc2100 ram ram is topping out around 160 fsb (give or take i forget exactly)
radeon 8500
western digital SE 80 gig

He plays battlefield 1942 almost exclusively, and wants to juice up the little bit of lag he sees at 1024x768.
I was thinking either the ram or the video card since his ram is limiting his chip (pretty sure he can get more).
If you guys can offer some sort of upgrade under $150. Thanks in advance.
-Matt
 
Get 2x256MB of Corsair PC3200 or something of that quality. That way the chip may be able to run at much higher speeds and 200MHz FSB (say 200*10.5 for 2100MHz, comparable to an XP3000+), boosting overall system performance by a very significant amount. The video card should be saved for the next upgrade IMO as it will only help game performance, and $150 won't get you anything that's a good enough improvement over an 8500 to justify the cost right now.
 
I wouldn't reccommend doing anything right now. Gaming performance is mainly dependent on the graphics card; overclocking your CPU more isn't going to produce a large gain. Save up money and upgrade to a 9500pro/9700/9800 video card later.
 
Would getting a 9500 pro (a little more than he wanted to spend) be a bit improvement over the 8500? I know you can softmod it but i dont want to count on it because of the 50% success rate......
 
Originally posted by: Phocas
Would getting a 9500 pro (a little more than he wanted to spend) be a bit improvement over the 8500? I know you can softmod it but i dont want to count on it because of the 50% success rate......
Click to expand...

a 9500 pro will wield a nice performance boost. btw, it is the 9500 NON pros that you can softmod and it is more like 1 in 3 success rate
 
The 9500 pro would be a nice upgrade; some Best Buys have them on clearance for $130ish, so that'd be a good place to look.
 
Originally posted by: Phocas
Would getting a 9500 pro (a little more than he wanted to spend) be a bit improvement over the 8500? I know you can softmod it but i dont want to count on it because of the 50% success rate......
Click to expand...
The improvement from the 8500 to 9500PRO is absolutely not worth the price tag IMO. The softmod that can be performed on the 9500NP (cheaper than the pro) is a gamble, but if it works you've got a BIG improvement over the 8500.
 
Originally posted by: brettjrob
Originally posted by: Phocas
Would getting a 9500 pro (a little more than he wanted to spend) be a bit improvement over the 8500? I know you can softmod it but i dont want to count on it because of the 50% success rate......
Click to expand...
The improvement from the 8500 to 9500PRO is absolutely not worth the price tag IMO. The softmod that can be performed on the 9500NP (cheaper than the pro) is a gamble, but if it works you've got a BIG improvement over the 8500.
Click to expand...

Toms VGA Charts

A 9500 pro will get you significantly better framerates than an 8500. 122 FPS vs 65 FPS in the Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmarks linked above. A radeon 9500 pro will also perform exponentially better w/ AA and AF on. As you said, the softmod is a gamble, only do if you are willing to take a risk.
 
Originally posted by: sellmen
Originally posted by: brettjrob
Originally posted by: Phocas
Would getting a 9500 pro (a little more than he wanted to spend) be a bit improvement over the 8500? I know you can softmod it but i dont want to count on it because of the 50% success rate......
Click to expand...
The improvement from the 8500 to 9500PRO is absolutely not worth the price tag IMO. The softmod that can be performed on the 9500NP (cheaper than the pro) is a gamble, but if it works you've got a BIG improvement over the 8500.
Click to expand...

Toms VGA Charts

A 9500 pro will get you significantly better framerates than an 8500. 122 FPS vs 65 FPS in the Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmarks linked above. A radeon 9500 pro will also perform exponentially better w/ AA and AF on. As you said, the softmod is a gamble, only do if you are willing to take a risk.
Click to expand...


a risk of ruining the card, or a risk of it not working?


(i know it doesnt deal with thread, but i need to know, lol)

 
Originally posted by: David101
Originally posted by: sellmen
Originally posted by: brettjrob
Originally posted by: Phocas
Would getting a 9500 pro (a little more than he wanted to spend) be a bit improvement over the 8500? I know you can softmod it but i dont want to count on it because of the 50% success rate......
Click to expand...
The improvement from the 8500 to 9500PRO is absolutely not worth the price tag IMO. The softmod that can be performed on the 9500NP (cheaper than the pro) is a gamble, but if it works you've got a BIG improvement over the 8500.
Click to expand...

Toms VGA Charts

A 9500 pro will get you significantly better framerates than an 8500. 122 FPS vs 65 FPS in the Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmarks linked above. A radeon 9500 pro will also perform exponentially better w/ AA and AF on. As you said, the softmod is a gamble, only do if you are willing to take a risk.
Click to expand...


a risk of ruining the card, or a risk of it not working?


(i know it doesnt deal with thread, but i need to know, lol)
Click to expand...

There is no risk to the card with the softmod, the risk is that it won't work, and you'll have a 9500 non-pro which really isn't that fast.

 
DEFINITELY a better video card. What they suggested would work fine., 9500Pro. I remember playing BF1942 on my GF2. Horrible. After going to a 9700Pro, I can now run it at 1600x1200 beautifully.
 
I played BF1942 on a
-------------------------
XP1600+ OC'ed to 1.5Ghz
512 DDR2100 @ 148Mhz
R9000Pro 64Mb ver.

Just basec specs, anyway i would hit 100fps @ 1024x768 in some areas, and it wouldn't drop much below 30-40fps during play. (lots of stuff going on)

Use console ( ` button) and type "show.fps 1" w/o quotes.. i think google the cmd if it doesn't work. Might need to press F8 to hide the top thing (forget the name of it) so you can see the fps readout
 
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