CPU/Mobo Upgrade Recommendations

[ep66]

There's something crippling my system, and I have this *small* ahem... suspicion that it might be the processor. My current setup

Celeron 400
Legend QDI Advance 9 Motherboard (VIA Apollo 133)
192 mb Ram
Elsa Gladiac Geforce 2 32MB

You would think with a gf2 you could at least run games? Not for me :-(. A whopping 782 (!!!) in 3dMark 2001, and I can hardly run any games smoothly (latest one I tried was Nhl 2002, choppy as heck even on lowest settings)

http://gamershq.madonion.com/compare2k1.shtml?2315023

I tried the latest drivers, etc, but still giving me this very low score (should this be expected? for those with experience with 3dmark)

I think I'm going to do my graphics card some justice and get a new cpu mobo. I was looking at an Athlon XP 1600, and need a motherboard to accompany it. (Here's where I was planning to make my purchase http://www.ncix.com/USA/ fast local delivery).

In USD

AMD ATHLON XP 1600+ 1.4GHZ 256K FSB266 OEM $142.87
EPoX 8K7A+ AMD760 SOCKETA 6PCI ATA-RAID 2DDR $140.00

2 Questions

1) Can I get better "bang for my buck" with a different setup? I'm willing to sacrifice mhz for $$$, wihtout taking too much of a performance hit.
2) Is the store I'm considering ordering from offering a good deal?

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[EdipisReks]

i would go to www.newegg.com and get the shuttle ak31a for $80, and an athlon xp 1700+ for $145. that would be cheaper and faster than what you chose. also, you will need some DDR ram, so i would just go to www.crucial.com and order as much pc2100 as you need or can afford. if you really need onboard raid, then i would suggest the msi k7t266 for $129. newegg is a great company, and they have very reasonable prices and shipping charges. i buy almost all of my computer components from them, and a lot of other people on the at forums do the same.

--jacob