AthXP 2100+/GF4 Ti 4200/CHAINTECH 7NJL6 Upgrade

[ronkmd]

Hi

I currently have a system with an Athlon XP 2100+ CPU, Geforce4 4200Ti Video, and Chaintech 7NJL6 Mobo/512MB x2 RAM. I'd like to move these components to another box and upgrade the original machine to a HalfLife2-capable machine without spending an arm and leg. Any recommendations for upgrades?

Thanks,

Ron

 

[Cerb]

Define "not spending an arm and a leg", and give us the PSU model.

 

[ronkmd]

Let's say under $500. PSU is 350W Antec.

 

[WW2Planes1]

Have you tried playing HL2 yet with that rig?
I'm running HL2 w/ a Ti4200. It doesn't look fantastic (DX 8 codepath only), but it runs pretty smooth at 10x7. (don't bother trying for AA/AF either)
However, I've also got an AMD64 3000, with 1GB of RAM and a K8N-E mobo, which is a BIT better than your rig.

It all depends on what level of performance you want. If the mobo will support it, you could probably just upgrade to a 3200 Barton. That would be a good processor to pair with your 4200.
If in the end you want to have 2 machines, look at a skt 939 A64. Prices for the 939s have fallen enough to make it the choice over skt 754, unless you want a really cheap machine.
Get some other opinions, but I'd say you prolly want to stick with an AGP motherboard, PCI-Express for AMD is still too new and too expensive to make that much sense.

It really all depends on how well you want the game to perform. I'd say you could probably play it at 10x7 simply by upgrading the processor.

good luck

 

[ronkmd]

Thanks. Yeah, the goal is to end up with 2 machines - upgrade the other one from Celeron 400/WinME so my kids can run WinXP/Call of Duty/iTunes and my wife and I can have our mchine to ourselves! I've been out of the upgrade "scene" for a while.