Another "what do you think I should upgrade to"...

[edmicman]

Well, I want to play HL2, plus haven't upgraded my PC in ages, and am looking at where to go from here.

My current setup is a 1.333Ghz T-bird, 512MB PC133 RAM, Iwill KK266 mobo, and a Ti4600 128MB vid card.

I'm planning on getting a new CPU, motherboard, and RAM, but if possible I would like to keep the video card since I don't do THAT much gaming and I figure I should be able to still run some of the newer games with that, just without all the settings cranked to the max. Anyway....

Should I go with an A64 or the Intel P4 route? It seems the A64 would work best with my current card, but if AGP video cards are dying out, I'm not going to be able to upgrade to a better video card in another year or so, am I? If I get a mid to high end P4 motherboard, which has the PCIe slot, I'm going to need a new video card and I don't really want to shell out for that right now....at least I don't have the need for a bleeding edge video card. I'm thinking I'll start with 512MB of pc3200 RAM and then add to that when I can. Is it still worthwhile to stick with AGP? From what I can tell, it seems that if I'm upgrading my CPU I shouldn't bother looking at anything other than an A64 or a P4.

I'm looking to keep the whole thing under $400, hopefully closer to $350 or so if I keep my eyes open for RAM deals.

Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[cyberfuzz]

Well CS is known for not being a high graphic demanding game so you shouldnt have a huge problem with HL2 if you run it at like medium settings.

 

[Hajime]

Wait for the Nf4 to come out later this month.

You'll be able to get A64 goodness + PCIe .

 

[edmicman]

if I wait for PCIe, I'd have to get a new graphics card, though, wouldn't I? Heh, they don't make boards with both AGP and PCIe, do they? . How long would an A64 board and AGP last me? A year maybe?

 

[Hajime]

Tops. Likely, less.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: edmicman
if I wait for PCIe, I'd have to get a new graphics card, though, wouldn't I? Heh, they don't make boards with both AGP and PCIe, do they? . How long would an A64 board and AGP last me? A year maybe?

Actually, I have seen boards that had an AGP and PCIe, but the benchmarks were horrible when using the AGP, something about they just doubled the speed of a PCI slot and made the slot an AGP

 

[edmicman]

hmmmmm well, maybe i'll just get an xbox and halo2, and wait a few months for a complete revamp of my pc. heh, i've just let it slip too far!

 

[Arcanedeath]

You could get one of the Chaintech Nforce 3 250 boards @ around $70 + an A64 2800+ and some memory and go from their shouldn't be to pricy and would be a nice upgrade and you would be able to use all your old parts except CPU, MB, Memory which should keep costs down.