Budget Upgrade

[chaosarchitect]

Hello people! First post here at anandtech, and first venture into both building a system and some light overclocking. Hope you can help with the hardware choices!

I did search for the low budget threads on this forum but many were very light on the details, so perhaps when you help me the template will be useful for others. ^_^

About me...
Competative Gamer - I prefer to run games at optimal graphic levels for competition, best visibility and reaction times, and don't really care about the extras. I do care about my eyesight however, so above medium resolutions and anti-aliasing are desired, but other settings are likely to be set to medium or low.

The horror...
6 year old PIII DELL with 384mb RAM and upgraded with Radeon 9600XT 128mb.
I plan to salvage the 80Gb WD 7200rpm HD and the drives, perhaps the SB PCI if its better then onboard. Haven't decided whether to keep the Video.

The goal...
My primary field of competition is GuildWars, and the game is quite light on the requirements. I need a system to last a year or so playing GuildWars, the occasional venture into current FPS shooters at low-medium and working with CAD/Photoshop.

I prefer to keep the budget under $300 (under $200?) and don't plan to upgrade the system again. When the time comes I'll salvage the new case and HD.

What I found so far...

Case:
Antec NSK 4400 w/ 380W PSU - $65 - seems optimal


Option 1) Keep the AGP Radeon 9600XT
- AMD Sampron64 3100 (socket 754) ~$90
- ASUS K8N-E Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb ~$65
- OCZ Platinum 1GB SDRAM Unbuffered DDR400 (PC3200) ~$90

Total: $310 + shipping ~= $350

Enough for work and GuildWars, but the 9600XT is minimal for anything else. Even with overclocking, I'm thinking the card might be too low for the system.

Option 2)... suggestions?

I'm looking for the optimal configuration where all parts are about the same level compared to each other, within the goal and budget.

Its sub optimal to have an overclocked system dragged down by the 9600XT, and its also sub optimal to get a new card thats is too fast for the system - no upgrade plans. Can this budget sustain such an upgrade with a new card?

I can increase my budget till $350+shipment, if that will result in significant improvement in preformance and a more elegant match between parts.

Hope you can provide some guidance!

 

[GML3G0]

PSU

I bought one a week or two ago with free shipping for about $50, so watch out for some deals. It's quiet and should be more than enough for your system.

You can get an A64 3000+ 939 for just a few bucks more at zipzoomfly.

If you're not overclocking, the Gigabyte K8U-939 is a good board. I have the 754 version and I don't have any problems with it. You can pick up a 6800 (vanilla) or 6800XT for under $100 after a rebate.

Biostar Tforce 6100. This one has a PCI Express slot instead of an AGP slot.

 

[Powermoloch]

you can check the AMD64 3000+ w/ motherboard deal on fry's. They cost about $99. or you can save more on a 3100+ combo deal at the same store.

 

[chaosarchitect]

Thank you for the replies. I found Fry's outpost and there are no such combo's there at the moment.

Checked out the video card suggestion:

eVGA 256-P2-N381-TX Geforce 6800XT 256MB 256-bit DDR PCI Express x16 - $80 after a $40 mail-in.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130261

Very tempting, and your BIOFORGE Mobo suggestion actualy has a Socket 754 version, so the Sempron remains an option.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138268

The Athlon64 3000+ venice Socket 939 is $115, which is +$25 above Sampron
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

If I keep the Sampron option, get the BIOSTAR mobo you recommended and the 6800XT with that rebate, I can stay close to the budget.

Questions
- Is it worth to consider 939 and the Athlon64 for the $25 price increase? (Over %25 price increase for CPU. Will performance be %25 better?)
- Is the 6800XT card I linked above worth the price and better then sub-$100 ATI competition?
- Will I have problems with a Micro Motherboard in terms of cooling / spacing?
- Do I really need a bigger PSU for this micro system? The 380W Antec comes with the case.

 

[alimoalem]

pick up a monday (5/22) newspaper and you'll see the fry's add. comes with an ecs nforce3 board but oh well. u still get the 3000+ at a good price and you can sell the mobo if it sucks.

 

[pkrush]

I'd go with the outpost.com Nforce4 motherboard and Sempron 3100+ combo ($99), 1 gig of RAM used from the forums here (around $50), and a Geforce 7600gt for around $160. You'll only go a little over budget if you get that Antec case. In the end, you'll be a little CPU limited, but not much. X-Bit Labs did a comparison of CPU speed versus gaming performance http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/cpu-games2_2.html ,and they found that even with a more powerful video card then what you'll be getting, most games still weren't very CPU limited.

 

[chaosarchitect]

Thats an excellent suggestion... the problem is that I can't locate that $99 deal you keep referring to. Could you do me a big favor and find that link? I've tried.
If its another reference to a paper ad - which papers? I live in NYC.

I'll try to call fry's, outpost.com, and see if its availiable.

The 1Gig memory, tempting to buy used and save on what is likely to be a quality and tested hardware, but handling, shipping and the transaction itself remains a risk.

The main problem with 7600GT compared to 6800XT, is that considering the recent rebate its 100% more expensive, even though its might be 100% faster. $160 compared to $80.
Much bigger price difference then when most comparisons were written.

I'll do some research to see if 6800XT is even worth the $80, perhaps paying double will be the better choice since I do read alot of good feedback about 7600GT.

 

[cparker]

I'm also in NYC and I found the deal it last week on the hot deals forum and ordered it right away. It just arrived. A venice 3000+ with the ECS motherboard for 99 bucks plus 7 or so shipping. Nice, both in boxes, retail. I would keep checking the hot deals forum every day to see when/if it turns up again. I had planned on getting the Sempron 3100+ deal with same mb for 79 bucks, but they had my order on hold. When I saw the new deal I just cancelled the Sempron and went for the Venice. Customer service was great. You might want to call them about the Venice deal. They will probably let you know if it's on order.

 

[chaosarchitect]

Well, according to their sales person that combo is no longer availiable. Was indeed real good considering the Venice alone is $115 now. *envy*

The rebate on the 6800xt is significant, even though its the not-unlockable weaker version of the series. I'm considering exploiting that instead and getting a better rated PCI-E mobo as suggested above. They just renewed the rebate and its extended till mid June.

 

[2Dead]

i've seen 6800xt rebates ending and restarting. i don't see the prices for those going much higher.