I need opinions on a possible upgrade

[Zenoth]

Hi.

I will get the chance to get a Motherboard and Memory combination next week, at a lower price than it should, brand new.

But still, before shelling out my money on computer parts, I'd like to get some estimation as to how much, if at all, will I get (even if beraly noticeable) better performance. I could (but not necessarily want to) put my cash on something else, so, I'd like to get opinions.

You guys can see my current Motherboard and Memory in my current signature.

I want to add details regarding my Memory. It's not the Hyper-X version of it. It's regular value RAM, at default timings of 3-3-3-8. It's quite old, too. I bought that 1024 MB kit in October 2003.

The new Motherboard would be: ASUS A8N-E Revision 2
The new Memory would be: Corsair TwinX XL PT PC-3200 2-2-2-5 1024 MB Kit

That's the combination in question. Can't get other parts. It's exactly what my friend could get me (he works at a store, and they will get rid of some parts by selling them to their employees at half the price over the next month).

Do you guys think I should go for it ?

The price, if everything goes as planned, should go between (no taxes involved) $140 and $160. That's in U.S dollars.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Promethply]

For that price range, that's a great deal.

 

[Zenoth]

Indeed, it's about half the price I should pay (I think it's 40% or 45% reduction).

But I was just wondering, regardless of the good deal, if it'd be worth it, technically. Compared to what I'm using.

 

[Promethply]

Well, you won't notice much difference from what you're using now, except in some benchmarks.

 

[Promethply]

BTW, you also have to get a new PCI-E video card if you get the new mobo.

 

[Zenoth]

Yeppers, that's a point I couldn't ignore.

I'm planning to get either nVidia's G70, or simply something more ... humble, like ATi's X800 XL, great Performance : Price ratio.

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
Hi.

I will get the chance to get a Motherboard and Memory combination next week, at a lower price than it should, brand new.

But still, before shelling out my money on computer parts, I'd like to get some estimation as to how much, if at all, will I get (even if beraly noticeable) better performance. I could (but not necessarily want to) put my cash on something else, so, I'd like to get opinions.

You guys can see my current Motherboard and Memory in my current signature.

I want to add details regarding my Memory. It's not the Hyper-X version of it. It's regular value RAM, at default timings of 3-3-3-8. It's quite old, too. I bought that 1024 MB kit in October 2003.

The new Motherboard would be: ASUS A8N-E Revision 2
The new Memory would be: Corsair TwinX XL PT PC-3200 2-2-2-5 1024 MB Kit

That's the combination in question. Can't get other parts. It's exactly what my friend could get me (he works at a store, and they will get rid of some parts by selling them to their employees at half the price over the next month).

Do you guys think I should go for it ?

The price, if everything goes as planned, should go between (no taxes involved) $140 and $160. That's in U.S dollars.

Thanks for your time.

The BIG QUESTION IS, do you game? If you don't game then no you won't see a difference. However, if you upgrade to the A8N-E you do realize that you'll need to get a PCI Express videocard to mount in the A8N-E, right? Of course, if you sell the 9800 Pro 128MB with the money you saved on the mobo/memory deal maybe you have the cash for a new card? You can get a 6800GT for under $300.00 or an X800 XT now for about $300.00.

That said, as far as framerates go, and depending upon which videocard you upgrade to you and which games you play will probably double your framerates or better. I went from about 39 fps (ATI 9800 Pro 256MB) to 84 fps (HIS Excaliber IceQ II X800 XT 256MB PE). These numbers are from the Halo timedemo run at 1280x1024 with everything turned on and set to "high". When originally run the Halo version was 1.05 I think. Obviously the drivers were different too but I remember the numbers. Still have the printout somewhere.

From what I've read on Anandtech and Extreme Forums (at least some) Nforce 4 boards will also allow you to run four 512MB sticks at DDR400 (although at 2T). All of the Nforce 3 boards I ever saw (including the K8N Neo2) defaulted to DDR333 AND 2T when running four DS (doubled-sided) DIMMs. CPU Mhz being equal this really hurt game performance. SANDRA Memory bandwidth benchmarks (although typically useless) suffered severly too.

 

[Zenoth]

Thanks Aries64 for your reply

Yes I do game. That's what I'm mostly using my system for. Off-Line and On-Line gaming, basic web surfing, some music creation, and some video / audio encoding / decoding. But mostly, it's for gaming.