have 100 to spend on an upgrade, need suggestions

[Nitemare]

Was looking to spend 75-100ish on a component to my primary system and then exchange it with something in my secondary system. I was thinking about getting a geforce4 mx 440 128 mb memory on the primary. Then taking the geforce2 and stick that in my secondary system.

Current primary system
1.2 266 TBird
384 MB PC2100 Crucial
Geforce 2 MX 32MB
ECS k7s5a motherboard
onboard sound
IBM 60gxp 60GB HD
12x dvd player
W2k Pro

Secondary system
900 TBird
512 KB PC133 cas2.5
Visiontek 16mb rage N64 video card
MSI K7 mb
onboard sound
32 speed burner
40 GB 7200rpm maxtor hd
6.8 GB 5400rpm maxtor hd
NIC card
WinXP Pro

 

[bGIveNs33]

geforce 3 ti500

it is better than the geforce4mx series.

 

[spaceman]

a geforce3 ti200 and an sb live

 

[teqwiz]

Originally posted by: ncircle
a geforce3 ti200 and an sb live

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: ncircle
a geforce3 ti200 and an sb live

Sounds nice, but that would knock it up to a hundred or so. The speakers I have for the primary have just two satelites and a subwoofer, nothing special hence the onboard sound. Just use the sound for playing some games and watching dvd's

thanks for the suggestions so far

 

[FoBoT]

that isn't that big a jump in video, gf4 mx series are hopped up gf2 cores (from reading posts in the video forum)

why not go for a cpu? $71 will get you a XP 1800+ from newegg, or for $87 you could hit 2000+

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
that isn't that big a jump in video, gf4 mx series are hopped up gf2 cores (from reading posts in the video forum)

why not go for a cpu? $71 will get you a XP 1800+ from newegg, or for $87 you could hit 2000+

that's what i am talking about..alternate suggestions.

Wanted to do the video card so i would have a geforce 4 in my promary and a geforce 2 in my secondary. I play games on both and watch dvd's on primary, i think the 16 mb video card on the secondary might be bottlenecking(would go from a 32 and 16 meg video card to a 128 and 32, maybe a 64 and 32)
your suggestion would change cpu from 1.2 and 900 to 1.8+ and 1.2

 

[LAUST]

Definantly Video.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: teqwiz

Originally posted by: ncircle
a geforce3 ti200 and an sb live

Just found out I'm getting more money than I thought back, so could probably do this. So which soundblaster live card? 4.1, 5.1 or the Audigy not looking to spend over 100 total now.

 

[Squisher]

I hear the audigy2 is the only way to go, this guy has one for $100

 

[oniq]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Secondary system
900 TBird
512KB PC133 cas2.5
Visiontek 16mb rage N64 video card
MSI K7 mb
onboard sound
32 speed burner
40 GB 7200rpm maxtor hd
6.8 GB 5400rpm maxtor hd
NIC card
WinXP Pro

Why not upgrade the ram in the secondary? 😀 But seriously, I'd suggest the video card too. Matters what you plan on doing though, if you aren't going to game a lot, there is no point in getting a video card and you could upgrade some other component (maybe a bigger hard drive, theres never enough space! 🙂).

 

[Migroo]

Why is this in Off Topic?

 

[RossMAN]

14" CRT capable of doing 800x600@16 that gets my vote!

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Migroo
Why is this in Off Topic?

And it would go???

it is a general computer question. There is not a "How can I get my computer faster" forum

I've got 17" monitors on both of these and do play games, war3, sims, baldur's gate 2, and a few others

 

[Kelvrick]

Get a radeon 8500 or a Geforce 4 ti4200. Hit the For/Sale forum for good used ones. Dont' get the GF4 MX, its a load of crap. If you're going to get a sound card, get the TBSC, it beats pretty much anything but 100+ cards. You can get it for about 50 shipped.

<== monkey dance

 

[Tripleshot]

For less than $100 you can get a CD-RW. That would give you the ability to do data back ups, and create your own music CD's and other good stuff. No system should be without a CD-RW, IMHO.😉

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Tripleshot
For less than $100 you can get a CD-RW. That would give you the ability to do data back ups, and create your own music CD's and other good stuff. No system should be without a CD-RW, IMHO.😉

I have a 32x24x40 burner in my secondary system and a dvd player player in my primary, also have ls-120's on both of my computers.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Tripleshot
For less than $100 you can get a CD-RW. That would give you the ability to do data back ups, and create your own music CD's and other good stuff. No system should be without a CD-RW, IMHO.😉

But but but CD-RW's cost a whopping $20, that's way too much cash!

I vividly remember being at Fry's with my friend a few years ago, he paid $269 for a 2/4/2 Smart & Friendly CD-RW LOL

This is why I'm waiting a good 2-3 years before buying a DVD/R+W whatever you call it.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: FoBoT
that isn't that big a jump in video, gf4 mx series are hopped up gf2 cores (from reading posts in the video forum)

why not go for a cpu? $71 will get you a XP 1800+ from newegg, or for $87 you could hit 2000+

that's what i am talking about..alternate suggestions.

Wanted to do the video card so i would have a geforce 4 in my promary and a geforce 2 in my secondary. I play games on both and watch dvd's on primary, i think the 16 mb video card on the secondary might be bottlenecking(would go from a 32 and 16 meg video card to a 128 and 32, maybe a 64 and 32)
your suggestion would change cpu from 1.2 and 900 to 1.8+ and 1.2

HOW CAN ANYONE STILL THINK A GF4 MX IS A GF4????

 

[Bovinicus]

I would suggest getting an ATi Radeon 8500LE 128MB for $90 shipped. You will notice a pretty hefty boost in performance, especially at higher resolutions with anisotropic filtering enabled.

An alternate route would be to get a Radeon 8500LE 64MB for about $70 shipped. Then, couple that with Philips Rhythmic/Seismic Edge or a Hercules Fortissimo for $30-40. Either way, you should be very pleased.