KT133A Upgrade

[spwango]

Hey All,

I'm looking to escalate the local LAN party arms race while prices are still mostly down. I have a TBird 1.0Ghz (100FSB) on an Asus A7V133A mobo. Am I better off dropping a new XP proc into this mobo or is it necessary, in terms of performace, to get a new mobo and go DDR?

thanks,

spwango

 

[Mavrick007]

Your best bet would be to go with an XP and DDR ram on a new mobo. You could get a new XP cpu and put it on your current mobo, but I don't think you will notice much improvement in games until you go DDR when you're already at 1ghz. If you want, get a better video card than the one you have now, that would probably help you out more.

 

[cjsketchy]

The jump from 100 to 133mhz fsb would be fairly noticeable. I went from a 1.3 (100) to a 1700+ on a KT133A and noticed a moderately significant improvement. However, DDR is here to stay, so it'd be best to lay down some more cash and get that new mobo with DDR.

 

[cmaMath13]

Are you wanting a new mobo/ram OR cpu ONLY OR cpu/mobo/ram?

You can throw an XP on your current mobo be running at 1.6MHz at a 133FSB for the cost of LESS than $200.

You can buy a new mobo and DDR ram and KEEP you current cpu for about the same (provided you buy low-end mobo and ram).

What's your video card?

I went for the XP processor upgrade, because I just got my A7V133 and 512MB of PC133 SDRAM recently. I may get a KT266a/KT333 later this spring with some DDR.

 

[CStroman]

Get DDR. Even without a processor upgrade, DDR will help your performance, especially if you set your fsb to 133 so your CPU would be at 1.33 GHz.

 

[BFG10K]

A Palomino 1.67 GHz on a VIA KT266a motherboard will be a real screamer.

 

[spwango]

So, I'm not concerned about the cost of things assuming I'm getting a decent value for the money that I spend. For example, I would not spend $400 on a GeForce4....I'm also a developer, so there is no such thing as too much power. I'm concerned that prices are back on the way up, and I want to get in while the market is still low. How much of a difference will a new mobo, DDR, and a new proc be over just a new proc? Will it even be noticable using anything but FPS timedemos?