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Cheapest upgrade path to get me into the PCI-E era

murphy55d

murphy55d

Lifer
Hi guys, been about 3 years(at least) since i've done a major upgrade on this system...way back in the KT400 days. 🙂

With my tax money comin back, I was curious to see what the cheapest way would be to get into the PCI-E era. I do not need bleeding edge, as I do only light gaming(NWN2 and Civ4 are the only 3d games installed on my system).

My real issue is that when a part goes out now, its getting expensive to replace. I had to get a new AGP card and paid considerably more than I would have for a much better PCI-E card, and DDR400 is much more than the new DDR2 stuff I see in Hot deals, etc.

I've read many threads, including the stickied ones. I'm very out of the game...my last CPU/mboard upgrade was to an Athlon XP Barton 2800+ and a Soyo Dragon Platinum KT400.

Don't really care about amd/intel or nvidia/ati. no brand prefs at all. ive always had amd but im open to whichever.

i will be reusing my psu/optical drives/case/hdd. all i need is a cpu/cooler, mobo, ram and video card.

i dont have a budget other than cheapest quality available. i'm hoping to recoup some of the build money by selling these parts off.

currently have:

athlon xp2800+
1gb patriot PC2700
soyo kt400 dragon platinum
ati 1650xt AGP

hope i posted all necessary info. i dont even know where to start ive been out of the game so long.

thanks. 🙂

 
Budget would be nice to know. Yuu can get a gigabyte ds3l and e2180 for 160$ at clubit.com as a combo:

http://www.clubit.com/product_...l.cfm?itemno=CA1938263
http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4830813

Throw in 2x2gb of ram for 70$, and you're up to 250$ Depending on your budget/needs and monitor resolution, you buy a videocard. I'd prolly get a HD3850 256/512mb if you're really such a light gamer, a step up from there would be the HD3870 512mb, and then there's the 8800GT 512mb which might be slight overkill for your needs. The HD3850 256mb can be had for as cheap as 150$, 170$ for the 512mb, Hd 3870 costs 200$ or so, and the 8800GT costs 230$ or so.
 
I'd recommend going with whatever flavor of DX10 capable PCIe video card. NVidia: 8xxx series; ATI: 3xxx series.
Thus avoiding "immediate obsolescence" when going with older DX9 cards.
 
i didnt post a budget because i didnt know what kind of money i was even looking at. i found an xfx 8600GT for 75 after rebate which i think would be sufficient enough for my light gaming.

i think with jackmds' suggestions and my video card i will come in at a nice price, upgrade wise. especially after the rebates and such.

do you guys think the abit+ e2180 + 8600GT is a noticable difference over what i have now?
 
Originally posted by: murphy55d
i didnt post a budget because i didnt know what kind of money i was even looking at. i found an xfx 8600GT for 75 after rebate which i think would be sufficient enough for my light gaming.

i think with jackmds' suggestions and my video card i will come in at a nice price, upgrade wise. especially after the rebates and such.

do you guys think the abit+ e2180 + 8600GT is a noticable difference over what i have now?
Click to expand...

The E2180 would be around 35% faster than your 2800+ Athlon XP with both being at stock speeds. The 8600GT on the other hand is about on equal ground with your 1650XT. It wouldn't be worthwhile IMO with that GPU.
 
processor wise the difference will be dramatic (especially for multitasking), gpu wise it will be there but smaller (you may want to wait for the new 9600 (replacement for the 8600) it should be close to the same price (maybe around $100) and roughly twice as fast).
 
when is this 9600 coming out?

i had thought it would have been more worthwhile to upgrade... i figured the 1650 was considerably slower than the 8600GT with the ddr3.
 
i just checked again the price jump from the 8600GT to the 8800 series is pretty significant.


do you recommend just waiting til this 9600 comes out? i dont want to spend money if its not going to be worthwhile.
 
Get a HD3850 256/512mb ? Videocard prices are at their very best, never in history have we gotten this good bang for buck with videocards and you are doubting wether you money will be wasted ? You can always cheap out of course, but yeah, then you might as well stick with your current PC.
 
There's a hot deal for a 7600GS for $32, I don't know how that stacks up against the 1650XT, but it would be a cheap option to get now and wait for future video cards to be released.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
There's a hot deal for a 7600GS for $32, I don't know how that stacks up against the 1650XT, but it would be a cheap option to get now and wait for future video cards to be released.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
If you need to save some cash, you still can, by using your old parts. Just to let you know, you can still use your old AGP card and DDR ram, and still have the ability to upgrade to PCI-E and DDR2 RAM, if you're still interested. The AsRock 4CoreDual-VSTA or 4CoreDual-SATA2 supports both AGP and PCI-E, as well as DDR and DDR2. AT did some reviews on that board:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3024

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2813
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2814

Summary: The board is a good, budget stopgap solution for people who want to get more life out of their DDR and AGP stuff. DDR400 is still fine for today's applications, and only high end NVIDIA graphics cards will be affected by the 4x speed of the 16x sized pci-e slot, but not by much (PCI-E Scaling Review).

Pair it with an E2180 and you'll be all set.

Otherwise, if you do get enough cash for JackMDS' build, go for it!
 
Originally posted by: engiNURD
If you need to save some cash, you still can, by using your old parts. Just to let you know, you can still use your old AGP card and DDR ram, and still have the ability to upgrade to PCI-E and DDR2 RAM, if you're still interested. The AsRock 4CoreDual-VSTA or 4CoreDual-SATA2 supports both AGP and PCI-E, as well as DDR and DDR2. AT did some reviews on that board:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3024

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2813
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2814

Summary: The board is a good, budget stopgap solution for people who want to get more life out of their DDR and AGP stuff. DDR400 is still fine for today's applications, and only high end NVIDIA graphics cards will be affected by the 4x speed of the 16x sized pci-e slot, but not by much (PCI-E Scaling Review).

Pair it with an E2180 and you'll be all set.

Otherwise, if you do get enough cash for JackMDS' build, go for it!
Click to expand...

so for $158 + shipping at newegg, i can get that ASRock board(open box), an E2180, and 2GB of Kingston DDR2 667, re-use my AGP card for now, and down the road be able to upgrade to a PCI-E gpu?
 
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