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Best upgrade for <$200...

Danzilla

Danzilla

Platinum Member
Okay. I'm thinking of upgrading my Dell 8250.
Haves:
intel 850e MB
GF4 4200 64MB 8x
512MB PC1066
80GB 7200
2.4GHz P4@533
cdrw, dvd, etc, etc.

It's not that the system is running too slow for most things, just I need an upgrade fix.
It looks like it will run just under $200 for either a P4 3.06@533 or for a Radeon 9800 Pro. While I could always use a little more HD space, that's not so much a performance issue.
If it was just 2.4 -> 3.06 straight Ghz, I might be able to get my head around it better, but there's also the 'hyperthreading' issue with the 3.06. Not sure what kind of performance gain that brings.

While I don't go in much for FPS games, most game these days use a good bit of 3D. I first started thinking of upgrading when I was playing Beyond Good and Evil and had to drop down to 800x600 for good game play.

Any opinions/suggestions? 🙂

Thanks,
Dan.
 
I think you should go with the video card. I'm running a P4 2.6c with 1gb PC3200 and a Radeon 9800Pro and Farcry plays great @ 1280x1024.
 
Originally posted by: shabby
Why dont you overclock the cpu a bit and get the 9800?
Click to expand...
From what I understand, need a modified bios to do that with intel MB and I'm not sure I want to take that chance.
 
Originally posted by: Danzilla
Originally posted by: shabby
Why dont you overclock the cpu a bit and get the 9800?
Click to expand...
From what I understand, need a modified bios to do that with intel MB and I'm not sure I want to take that chance.
Click to expand...

It's because of Dell, not Intel.
 
9-0 so far. 😛 Guess no one cares for hyperthreading. Hehe. With the Best Buy deal this week and pricematch to Fry's, I think the Radeon is it.
Still would like to see any further comments, one way or the other.

Thanks.
 
The gf4 is still a good card, but the 9800 Pro is twice as good.

Your current P4 is already maxing out the capability of the gf4, so a faster processor won't give you any better performance in most games.

Hence the 12 : 0 vote. What more do you need ?
 
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