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itching to upgrade. please recommend something.

F

fluxquantum

Platinum Member
hi everyone,

i have the urge to upgrade. my current specs are the following:

p4 1.6a o/c to 2.1

512 mb pc800 rambus ram

geforce 4 ti4200 128 mb

80 gig 7200 rpm maxtor hd 8 mb cache

plextor 40x cd-burner

asus p4t-e mobo

soundblaster audigy

i don't need the highest end system but something that will play half-life 2 and doom3 at reasonable performance. any recommendations would be appreciated.
 
i would bump up the graphics card to a radeon 9800 pro if your system has the power. also, you could upgrade your processor or your ram. Personally i would say the processor and video card would be more beneficial. Get an AMD 2500+ and overclock it. I think its the 2500 or the 2400 the overclocks massively to over 3ghz. That would bring you to the low high end market. The card runs about 220-230 i think and the processor is around 80-90.
 
Only if he goes AMD he will have to also buy a motherboard.

Sell the Ti4200 for $70 and get a 9800 Pro and more RAM. Hmm, I am somewhat unfamiliar with RAM upgrade paths where rambus ram was used... anyone know if he can switch to non Rambus-based ram?
 
Just get a nice video card like the 6800GT. Your system will hold it back a little, but it should run it very well...check HardOCP for some reviews showiong the performance drop with slower CPUs...it's not as bad as you'd think.

Other than that, my recommendation would be to wait. SLI has given a whole new relevence to PCI EX. Upgrading to a 64 bit processor and a PCI EX motherboard is going to give you a system that should last you years. If I wouldn't have got such an amazing deal on my A64 3200+ I wouldn't be looking to upgrade till the first part of next year...and by then D3 and HL2 would be in the bargain bin. 🙂
 
I would do this for a nice, mid cost, gaming upgrade:

A64 2800+ - $185.00
Epox 8KDA3J nForce3 250Gb motherboard - $99.00
Mushkin 1GB PC3200 (2 x 512MB) - $158.00
eVGA Geforce 6800 128MB Video Card - $293.99

Total - $735.99

This system will give you some nice options for expandability and should be very overclockable since the Epox board is an excellent overclocker. You'll also be able to take advantage of new features once the 64-Bit version of Windows comes out. The 6800 video card gets you a step in the door for next gen without having to pay a fortune for it. If you want a little more speed, throw in a 36GB Raptor for a boot drive and keep your 80GB as backup. If I were in your shoes and didn't want too spend a fortune, this is the system I would get.
 
I think you need a better base before the graphics card. If you don't want to spend over 700 dollars, then I would just get a 100 dollar Epox 8KDA3+ Nforce 3 250 pro with a 170 dollar 2800 A64.

That should get ya to play them at 1024x768 Med- Hi Quality. Then at least later on if you have spare change you can get either a 195 dollar 9800pro or even a 300 dollar 6800nu.
 
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