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I NEED ADVICE...

S

Sam443

Senior member
have $200 to blow and i dont know on what...i really would appreciate your suggestions. Here is current system configuration:
300Watt 7-bay case
400MHz Celeron
192MB PC133 SDRAM
13GB Western Digital Caviar Hard Drive
40x Kenwood Truex CDROM
2x2x6 Acer CDRW
Soyo SY-6VBA 133 motherboard w/via apollo pro133 chipset
250MB parallel Zip drive
36-Bit microtek scanner
19" Gateway CRT Vivatron 1776 monitor
80-Watt Speakers
32MB 4xAGP Savage4 PRO Video Card
PCI soundblaster live platinum sound card

Here is what im comsidering:
a new burner: something in the ranges of 8-10x4-8x24-32
a new processor: PIII 500-700MHz
another hard drive: 30GB
or even more RAM: 128MB-256MB
 
It's a tough call between a new processor or a new video card. But, I'd have to say UPGRADE THAT PROCESSOR! $200 should be able to buy you an OEM P3/700E that you should be able to overclock without too much trouble. Then, if you come across more money for a second upgrade, I'd shoot for a new video card. If you're not that big of a gamer, you can probably leave it alone though.
 
I would replace the video card unless that's not important to you. Your bottleneck seems to be in the hard drive as well. I'd suggest a ata66 7200rpm drive. I have one of those caviars and they are slow........ you can get a 30 gig quantum (i think) at buy.com for 100 bux and if you stick with the celerons, you can bump it up to 566@850 for under a 100 bux if you get a good o/c chip. I dunno if that works with the VIA chipset. That'd be 200 bux, new hd new cpu.
 
I have the SAME HD and that is DEFINATELY a slow one. I put a friend of mine's 7200 rmp ata/100 and it made overall performance of my machine actually FEEL like it was a fast processor (667@1000 but felt like 400@650...heh)...I am getting a new one asap because of this...next I would OC the processor as well and get a nice alpha or something to keep it cool...
 
very very very very interesting indeed........well as for the processor you can O/C it to maybe 800Mhz, so that shouldnt be a prob; at least wait til p3's drop some more (*cough....p4....cough*) then get a new CPU. looks like you need a new v-card: go with a CreativeLabs GeForce2DDR 32mb for $200 SHIPPED (OEM w/o tv 🙁 but hey, its creative!!!! and its DDR!!!!
 
you could get a bx board and a c566@850. That'd be about 250 but you could sell your current board and chip to cover it.

bart
 
get a geforce mx if you are gonna upgrade the vid card. BANG FOR BUCK
since you're already intel you might as well grab either a p3 700E or a shiny new celeron. If you get a new motherboard, go amd. Much cheaper cpu, just as good as intel, if not better depending on who you ask😛
 
With all things considered, your biggest bottleneck is STILL your CPU. I'd personally upgrade that first and worry about other things like video and hard drive later when you get the cash.
 
why get a new cpu and a new processor just to go with amd. It is still more cost efficient to just buy a p3 700 and not a new board. Also, try overclocking and if you become satisfied with what you overclock to, get a new video card. You can get a geforce 2 mx for like 110 bucks or so and still have some cash left to put towards a new hard drive.
 
bottleneck is CPU? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.............its the video card

read the reviews.......even with a p3 500 a geforce2 gts is STILL a bottleneck.....and if not the video card (which IS what it is) then its gonna be the HDD, followed by RAM, and LAST of all CPU
 
well actually it might not be the graphics card thats the bottle neck. It all depends on what you do with your computer. If you play quake 3 arena, then yes it will be the vid card, but for say he is into unreal tournament then that would be a cpu problem. It varies person to person on what you should upgrade to. whatever floats your boat.
 
I don't think $200 is really enough to make a big difference with the cpu. What I would do is buy a peltier cooler and overclock that celeron. You get a bit of fun out of it and have the cooler for later socket chips. You could still afford a bigger PSU too. In fact, maybe you can get away with an Alpha fan anyway.
But tell me: WHERE IS A DVD DRIVE HERE?! That could cost $200 with a cooler, you know...
 
I had nearly the same set-up. Get a fast IBM ata-66 7200rpm, 20.5gig drive... I love mine. Less than $100, the pick up a Cel566, and see what you can get out of it. I really wanted the Duron, but decided that I really didn't want to go AMD until I can do dual Durons at Christmas time. Always have to have something to look forward to! 🙂
 
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