Is it time for CPU/MB upgrade for my system?

[Supa]

Need some advices, here is my dilemma:

Athlon XP 1700+ (Palamino), non overclocked for obvious reason.
Geforce4 4200 128meg
also 1 gig of ram

Is my cpu holding my system back? I only play game at 1280x 1024 (LCD native). I understand that at high resolution, it's more graphic card limited than cpu limited. I really want to upgrade to a barton and a better mb (currently cheap msi). Would I see significant improvement by upgrading to barton and overclock it to 3000+ ~ 3200+ level playing at 1280x 1024 resolution?


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[VIAN]

Wait for the new graphics cards to come out in PCI-E instead of AGP. Get a mobo at that time that supports PCI-E and an Athlon 64.

 

[Supa]

Thanks for the reply, your advice is appreciated.

I know ATI and Nvidia will come out with new pci-E cards at April (mostly top of the line cards), we are talking about 1 year wait for pci express card to become affortable, by then it's new ram (DDR2), new case (my Sonata won't fit the new pci Express form), new HSF, and of course new CPU and MB, basically a whole new system (the only thing I can probably carry over is the power supply and maybe HDD). I'm looking for more of a intermediate upgrade that's cost effective until I decide to do a complete system upgrade.


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[myocardia]

Supa, get an XP2500 and an Abit NF7-S motherboard, and you'll be good to go for another year. Of course, you aren't going to hit 2.2ghz (XP3200 as everyone's calling it these days) unless you also have some PC3200 ram to go with it. I'd say hold onto the Ti4200 until the new PCI-Express cards become affordable.

 

[dnuggett]

Of course, you aren't going to hit 2.2ghz (XP3200 as everyone's calling it these days) unless you also have some PC3200 ram to go with it.

That's not always the case. PC2700 can hit it too....

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Of course, you aren't going to hit 2.2ghz (XP3200 as everyone's calling it these days) unless you also have some PC3200 ram to go with it.

That's not always the case. PC2700 can hit it too....

dnugget, the chances that he's going to hit 400DDR with PC2700 aren't nearly as good as the chances that he'll get an XP2500 that will do 2.4ghz. Don't go giving him delusions, man.

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Of course, you aren't going to hit 2.2ghz (XP3200 as everyone's calling it these days) unless you also have some PC3200 ram to go with it.

That's not always the case. PC2700 can hit it too....

dnugget, the chances that he's going to hit 400DDR with PC2700 aren't nearly as good as the chances that he'll get an XP2500 that will do 2.4ghz. Don't go giving him delusions, man.

And what hat do you pull that from? Re-read your statement and realize you made an absolute that I corrected because it is not an absolute. I'm not into the "chances are better" statement types that you just gave because like absolutes they are easily proven wrong. I'm not giving him delusions I'm just steering him clear of false statements.

 

[VIAN]

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 333MHz - 132; AMD Athlon XP 2500+ - 85

Corsair PC2700 512MB - 75

Asus A7N8X-X - 69; Asus A7N8X (for DualDDR support) - 87

Hitachi 120GB 7200RPM 8MB - 93.29; Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM 8MB - 69

Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB - 151; eVGA GeForce FX 5900 - 225


These peices are good and cost effective.

Would I see significant improvement by upgrading to barton and overclock it to 3000+ ~ 3200+ level playing at 1280x 1024 resolution?

No, because resolution is purely graphic card dependent. The CPU controls AI and calculates physics and may help the GPU with additional tidbits.

 

[Supa]

These are the 3 mb that I'm thinking about:

Abit AN7
Abit NF7-S V2
Asus A7N8X-E deluxe

Reading from the users' reviews from newegg, seems like all 3 are well praised and similar in prices. Any preference or recommendation for one over the others?


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[myocardia]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Of course, you aren't going to hit 2.2ghz (XP3200 as everyone's calling it these days) unless you also have some PC3200 ram to go with it.

That's not always the case. PC2700 can hit it too....

dnugget, the chances that he's going to hit 400DDR with PC2700 aren't nearly as good as the chances that he'll get an XP2500 that will do 2.4ghz. Don't go giving him delusions, man.

And what hat do you pull that from? Re-read your statement and realize you made an absolute that I corrected because it is not an absolute. I'm not into the "chances are better" statement types that you just gave because like absolutes they are easily proven wrong. I'm not giving him delusions I'm just steering him clear of false statements.

Okay, nugget, that's fair enough, so prove me wrong then. All it takes to make me think that PC2700 will run at 400mhz DDR anytime I want it to, is 10 people who have done it. That's right, and 10 is an extremely low number, since there are over 6.5 billion people on this planet. I'll be waiting for your reply, with links, of course. Oh, and try to do it without any run-on sentences this time...

 

[VIAN]

These are the 3 mb that I'm thinking about:

Abit AN7
Abit NF7-S V2
Asus A7N8X-E deluxe

Reading from the users' reviews from newegg, seems like all 3 are well praised and similar in prices. Any preference or recommendation for one over the others?

I like Asus. Abit is quiting the NF2 mobos, so I wouldn't buy them because of lack of support.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Supa
These are the 3 mb that I'm thinking about:

Abit AN7
Abit NF7-S V2
Asus A7N8X-E deluxe

Reading from the users' reviews from newegg, seems like all 3 are well praised and similar in prices. Any preference or recommendation for one over the others?


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Supa, you came to an overclockers forum to ask your question. Is that supposed to mean that you plan on overclocking your new upgrade? If so, I would have to say to buy an NF7-S or an A7N8X-E, because that seems to be the motherboards that get the highest fsb's out of, and a high fsb is mostly the reason to overclock, although I'm sure that dnugget will have something inane to add. If you don't plan on overclocking, they all seem to be reliable boards, so just pick the one that has the options you would like to have.

 

[Supa]

I do plan on overclocking (see my original post). I know the newer bartons are multiplyer locked, but a friend's friend who has working associatioin with various MB vendors might be able to help me find an unlocked barton.

NF7-S V2 and A7N8X-E are both well known since they came out for a while now, how about the newer AN7, any comment on that?


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[Soulkeeper]

ddr2 is cool and all but the prices should drop hard on fast ddr1 modules when drr2 hits the mainstream
pci express also sounds cool

but if you want a little upgrade to that system throw in a 2400+ or something to hold you over

 

[dnuggett]

Okay, nugget, that's fair enough, so prove me wrong then. All it takes to make me think that PC2700 will run at 400mhz DDR anytime I want it to, is 10 people who have done it. That's right, and 10 is an extremely low number, since there are over 6.5 billion people on this planet. I'll be waiting for your reply, with links, of course. Oh, and try to do it without any run-on sentences this time...

I have no interest in finding 10 links for you. Do your own homework. What part of absolute don't you understand? In order to prove you wrong all I need is one. Believe what you want , I could care less if you don't think it can happen because I have done it. I'm done posting to this thread because two things are clear to me:

1. You don't understand the meaning of some basic words.
2. You are interested way too much in "I'm right and your wrong, PROVE it." All I did was take a statement that you provided and correct it a little so it's not an absolute anymore. Look bro, there are very few absolutes in this world and I'm sorry but your statement isn't one of them. If you need further proof look around, it's easy to find. If you want to dismiss what I say as wrong becasue I won't find you ten links, fine by me. I'm not your research assistant, in fact I could care less if you walk around ignorant to this topic. You seem to be content with the you know it all attitude, even using my name in another post. After reading that I'd have to say.... until you learn a little more keep my name out of your mouth.

Supa, you came to an overclockers forum to ask your question. Is that supposed to mean that you plan on overclocking your new upgrade?

You really need to get your crap together before you can call my comments inane. This is not just an overclocker's forum, CPU discussion of all types is welcome. Pull your head out and have a look around.

 

[dnuggett]

You would see a decent improvement by upgrading that CPU although that 4200 is holding you back a bit.