Help me spend $300

[Solrac15]

I finally have money to upgrade. I had 1.4 TBird w/ 256 mb PC-133 untill it fried back in August. Ever since then I have been using a K6-II 350 system(Pure Hell). I have a Gainward Geforce 4 Ti waiting to be used. My question is should I go for a an XP 2400 with a 512mb PC133 or XP 2100 with 512mb DDR 2100/2700? I plan to purchase from Newegg so Im going by there prices. Which setup is faster? What is better in the long run? Any Mobo recomendations?

 

[sc0tty8]

Well, it looks like you are going for a nice rig, and want performance out of the gf4 card, I would go the ddr route, I think you would be much happier. There is a noticable differance between sdr and ddr ram, don't listen to the ppl that say it is a 5% performance differance....that is not true.

 

[godspeedx]

Definitely DDR!

significantly faster
much better in the long run

go for pc2700 at least. If you can, go for pc3000 or even above that if you want

 

[Solrac15]

Yeah, I figure that later with future cpu/mobo upgrades PC133 ram will become a bottleneck, if it isnt already. Ok so another question...should I go with an XP2400 with 256mb 2700 ram or 2100 with 512mb 2700?

 

[Duvie]

I agree I think the ddr is the route to go....I can't believe anyone would even consider a 2400+ xp with sdram!!!!


The price is better for the 2100xp as opposed to the 2400+ which is actually when you get a equal to a p4 2.4ghz(533fsb) chip. Ofcourse that is with a 15-60 day warranty only.....The value and "bang for the buck" is in the lower range chips right now.....

 

[MetroRider]

if you dont mind me asking, which motherboard are you going to be using?

thanks...

 

[Solrac15]

Im thinking of either Gigabyte GA-7VRX, EPOX 8K3A+ or MSI KT3 ULTRA VIA KT333 . Im taking a shot with the newegg refurbs, the only way I can afford all this

I wouldnt consider SDR ram its just that I have a lot of it, and I wanted an xp2400. I can still squeeze out with a 2400 if I get 256mb 2700 as opposed to 512mb 2700. Or maybe I should just grab a 1600 agoia or 1700 Tbred and try my luck

 

[Davegod]

imho the 2400+ 256mb of 2700ddr if you're liable to be able to stick another 256mb stick of the same in later

I've bought my ram in two occasions and never paid more than £35 for a 256mb stick of Crucial, and two of my 3 were bought over a year ago now. That compares with more like £50 now... IMO memory is something you buy "enough" of when you do the whole upgrade thing, and buy the rest when ram gets cheap

 

[KingofFah]

First off, SDR ram will not be a bottleneck in the future with more upgrades. It already has been a bottleneck for quite some time.
Second off, if you are going to be getting the 8k3a, then you better overclock the thing. Get an xp 1600 from newegg (AGOIA's, not sure if they specifically sell then still, but someone on this forum will be able to direct you to a store that sells them everytime), and some corsair xms cas2 2700 or 3000 ddr (256 or 512, whichever). If you do not want to unlock your cpu, you do not have to worry. The AGOIA's paired with some good memory and a good board will run fine overclocked to 166 without being unlocked.

 

[Solrac15]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I can always get some more memory later. Hopefully they can be cheap like they were over a year ago.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I would get the XP 1800+ T-bred and 512mb of nice corsair xms memory from newegg
then you can upgrade the proc when the barton comes out

 

[Maxpane]

This is the route I would take:

1. Epox Motherboard for AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron Processors, Model# EP-8RDA This the nforce2 chipset, the latest and greatest for AMD. $118 from newegg free shipping.
2. AMD Athlon XP 1700+ Thoroughbred /266 FSB Processor CPU 1700+/ 1.47GHz -OEM People are getting some great overclocks with this processor, I have seen up to 2.1 ghz. $58 at newegg.
3. Samsung Original DDR333 PC-2700 256MB CAS2.5 - OEM Version 2 sticks at newegg for $138.

Total: $314

I might just do this upgrade myself.

 

[Reel]

Originally posted by: Solrac15
Im thinking of either Gigabyte GA-7VRX, EPOX 8K3A+ or MSI KT3 ULTRA VIA KT333 . Im taking a shot with the newegg refurbs, the only way I can afford all this

I presently have a gigabyte 7vrxp and there was a stupid design where the AGP drew power away from the CPU which caused random crashes in 3d games. I assume the 7vrx was also affected but it may have since been corrected in a newer revision.

I had an Epox and I liked it very much.

I set my dad up on an MSI and its been fairly stable.

My vote is definitely for DDR.

 

[touchmyichi]

Here's what I would do-
KT400/KT300 mobo- 100
Athlon 1600+ to 1800+ - 50-60
PC 2100 or pc 2700 256- 70-90

thats 220-250 bucks, I took the economic route. Try to get an AGOIA core and OC like a madman.