How should I upgrade?

[Stojakapimp]

So I'm looking at upgrading my computer, but I have a few questions. I don't want to go all out on spending money, so I want to choose the best options for the best buck. The things that I want to upgrade are my cpu, memory, and vid card. Right now I am running a Duron 900 with 384 Sdram and a geforce 2 mx. But my big question regard the cpu and memory.

In my comp right now I have a Jetway 867AS mobo with th VIA KT-266 chipset. From glancing through the mobo booklet, it looks like it can support up to a 1.5 Ghz processor and pc2100 DDR ram. I think getting a 1.4 Ghz Athlon XP would be good, but should I go with 2100 DDR ram? Or would I just be better off to get a whole new motherboard that can support pc2700 or pc3200 and also higher processors? Is there that much of a difference between pc2100 and pc2700? Also, I might be off with these mobo numbers regarding cpu and ram limits, so if anyone could check those out and help me with the specs, then I would be greatly appreciative.

 

[optimistic]

How do you have to spend, and what are you going to use it for? I assume gaming, how do you care about graphic quality.

Because you can save some money going with one of the IGP nforce 2 motherboard (GF4 MX built-in). PC2700 seems to be the best for value right now. And try to go 1GB if you can.

 

[Stojakapimp]

Originally posted by: optimistic
How do you have to spend, and what are you going to use it for? I assume gaming, how do you care about graphic quality.

Because you can save some money going with one of the IGP nforce 2 motherboard (GF4 MX built-in). PC2700 seems to be the best for value right now. And try to go 1GB if you can.

um...I haven't quite decided how much i'm going to spend, but idealistically I was looking about about 60 for ram, around 160 or 170 for vid card, and maybe 80 for cpu.
and yes, this is mainly for gaming and keeping up with the new games...as well as for games in the future.
How are the GF4 MX's? I hear MX's aren't as good, but would that still last me a while?

 

[Spicedaddy]

If it supports PC2100, PC2700 will work fine. Get a GF4 Ti4200 for the video card.

 

[Soulkeeper]

you can run any athlon in that board
the athlon xp 1700+ is the cheapest option for like 60 bucks
2100+ is like 95 buckls or something
you would get a good improvement in performance that way
the kt-266 chipset is kinda weak but i dunno if it's really worth upgrading since you already got pc2100 ram

as far as vid cards go it depends how much you wanna spend
if you want a card that is good performance but not too expensive look into radeon 8500, radeon 9500 pro, or GF4 ti4200
any of those cards would give you a good improvement in performance over what you have

btw what kind psu do you have ?
if you have 300watt or less you might need a new one to power upgraded hardware (ie: 430 watt antec truepower psu)

pc2100 memory is cheap no need to upgrade yur motherboard and memory but if you wanna add a bit more a 256mb stick of pc2100 ain't too expensive

 

[Stojakapimp]

So i'm kind of confused.
Spicedaddy says that I can use pc2700 or pc3200 DDR ram on this board, but it sounds like Soulkeeper thinks that I can't.
Can someone clear that up for me?
And I can for sure use any athlon on this mobo? It's isn't constrained to the 1.5 Ghz barrier?
Also, will the kt-266 chipset be that much of a problem? Would it be that much worth it to fork out the extra money for another mobo?