Best way to spend $500 on an upgrade

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BeyondGomer

Member
May 19, 2002
55
0
0
I am not an extreme gamer but I do play World of Warcraft all the time (more than I probably should, but oh well LOL).

My goal is to up my frame rates and decrease load time that isn?t due to server lag.

Current parts (the ones that matter)....
CPU: AMD 2600XP (333mhz)
Memory: 2x512mb (CORSAIR TWINX1024-3200C2 1GB KIT)
HD: 160gb SATA
Video: ASUS 6600GT 128mb
MB: ASUS A7N8-E Deluxe
Powersupply: Antec Smart Power 350watt
Monitor: Dell 20? widescreen (I run at full widescreen resolution)

I have $500 that I can use to upgrade the system. Is there anything I can do that would make a significant difference, or should I just save up another year till I have $1000 for a larger overhaul? I currently hit 30fps at best, but usually am at 1/2 of that in busy areas.
 
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jc9970

Senior member
Dec 2, 2005
263
0
0
First of all, before offering assistance we need to know if your either Ally or Horde. Because Alliance are not welcome here. Especially pallies ;)
 
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BeyondGomer

Member
May 19, 2002
55
0
0
LOL...well, I am alliance...but definately not a pally. How about a cute, puntable gnome warlock that started a year ago before the buffs :p

Do you realize how depressing it is to be punted by a Tauren at 2fps....I mean, I don't even get to enjoy the free flightpath.
 
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jc9970

Senior member
Dec 2, 2005
263
0
0
Well, since your not a pally, here ya go :D

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester
$179.00

MB - EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra
$105.00

Graphics Card - eVGA Geforce 7800GT
$275 after MIR

Total $559.00
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you can afford to dish out a little more $, upgrade the power supply to a Fortron AX450-PN
$49.99

Then later on when you can afford it, upgrade your memory to 2GB.

 
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acole1

Golden Member
Sep 28, 2005
1,543
0
0
Hey I have an alliance pally! :brokenheart: .... but I got bored at 44 and started a rogue.

I run an Athlon XP 2800+ (@ stock speeds)
1.5GB Kinston HyperX
ATi 9600Pro (128MB)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 (250GB 8MB buffer 7200rpm SATA)
Gigabyte GA-7n400Pro2 (motherboard)

And I run it pretty well if i drop back the terrain distance and one other thing which I don't remember right now.

Looking at your system specs your bottlenecks seem to come with your RAM (WoW is an amazing RAM hog) and your video. If you wanted to upgrade just do something minor to an X2 3800+ and 6800GS. That should keep you close to your $500 but I haven't priced it up.


Destromath server: Anduil (Pally) and Appolyon (Rogue) :thumbsup:
 
D

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
4
81
3200 Venice ~$160 or less hardly any speed (that can be made up for with overclocking) and go for a 3000+ Venice for $120
7800GT $270 AR
Epox 9NPA3 Ultra $85 if you dont need so many USB, SATA connections and Firewire, otherwise its the same thing as 9NPA+ Ultra


Just over $500 after shipping. Later after you save up another $100 or so, a larger PSU like the suggested 450W Fortron and some more RAM would be best after those things.
 
cKGunslinger

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,408
57
91
An example:

$95 - DFI NF4 Ultra-Infinity
$175 - A64 3200+
$80 - Crucial 1GB PC3200
$245 - Asus 6800GT
(-$80) - selling your 6600
-----
$515


I'm not sure about that 6800, there may be a better deal on a different card. I was going to suggest a Sapphire x800GTO2 for $195, but they are no longer listed on newegg. :confused: (I see where you can get an x850XT for $220, however.)

I also have no idea how much you could sell your 6600 for, but these are some rough numbers to give you some ideas. WoW is OK with 1GB memory, but I think the true sweet spot is ~1.5GB. You should be safe for a while with 2GB.
 
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alimoalem

Diamond Member
Sep 22, 2005
4,025
0
0
Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
upcoming
Click to expand...

?

Originally posted by: i1o0i
Epox 9NPA+ Ultra
eVGA 6800gs (490/1100)
AMD 3200+ Venice

Total- $473
Click to expand...

i would say this is the best deal. your psu would be being pushed so once you hit $50, i'd get a new PSU. you'll also need a 2x1gig kit for ram (value ram would be perfect) in the next year so i guess that would be it. you'd be set for a while
 
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Madwand1

Diamond Member
Jan 23, 2006
3,309
0
76
FWIW, I did some benchmarks in a couple of specific areas with a 3800+ X2 2 GB DDR400 dual-channel and single-channel, dual-core and single-core, with a 6800 GT OC (BFG, AGP), comparing the results with an Athlon XP 2600+ DDR333 single-channel both limited to 1GB of RAM. The same video card was used on both. I also used a lesser video card, a 4400 Ti for comparison.

All of: CPU, dual-core, dual-channel, video card made a performance difference. The 3800+ and 6800 were somewhat synnergistic, as performance was much lower when either of these were reduced. I.e. it was not possible to significantly improve the performance of the 2600+ by just replacing the 4400 Ti with the 6800 GT, and running the 3800+ with a 4400 Ti brought down its performance to near the level of the 2600+.

Moreover, it was not possible to improve the framerate with the 3800+ and 6800 GT combination by reducing the resolution (in some places at least) -- this indicates to me that the 6800 GT was not the bottleneck at that point.

The degree of improvement with dual-core and dual-channel memory was slight; nowhere near what you might hope for.

I concluded from all this that, for WoW, for the tests that I did, with the version that I tested, etc., it might be worthwhile to go for a faster processor than the 3800+ (2 GHz), and that going for a faster video card than the 6800 GT without a faster processor would probably not be worthwhile (*), and that a dual-core processor at around twice the cost of a single-core processor would not be worthwhile.

That said, I found the gaming experience with the 3800+ and 6800 GT combo to be entirely fine. The lesser combo had been OK for the most part, but had given big problems in certain raids.

AnandTech actually did a WoW benchmark, and my findings, where the testing cooincided, agreed with AnandTech.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2381.

(*) This is a tricky point, and contradicted by AnandTech's video performance and resolution scaling graphs. It's probably settled by considering that at some places at least, e.g. Ironforge, frame rate was either limited by my CPU, or by something unrelated to my hardware, obviously networking for example. In any case, performance would not have been improved using a faster video card.

I'd like to add that for the hardware combinations that I tried, I found good correlation of WoW performance with 3DMark2001SE, and very poor correlation with 3DMark2003 or 3DMark2005.
 
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BigLan

Member
Mar 10, 2004
138
0
86
You could try the ASRock dual mobo, keep your 6600GT and grab a better chip (maybe an x2) and probably have some cash for more memory or a new hard drive. Once you have some more cash (or sell your existing stuff) you can then get a 7800gt.
 
cKGunslinger

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,408
57
91
Originally posted by: BigLan
You could try the ASRock dual mobo, keep your 6600GT and grab a better chip (maybe an x2) and probably have some cash for more memory or a new hard drive. Once you have some more cash (or sell your existing stuff) you can then get a 7800gt.
Click to expand...

I initially thought to suggest that, but since he's running a Dell 20" WS LCD (the 2005fpw, I assume), his video card is probably a potential bottleneck at that resolution (1680 x 1050). I think he probably needs to up them both (CPU + GPU) at the same time to see a real improvement.
 
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