Looking to upgrade, what are my options?

[Tim Travis]

I have a pentium 4 2.6, an ati radeon x700 pro AGP and 1.5 gigs of DDR400 ram.

I want to upgrade the chip and motherboard, but keep the ram and video card. I am really out of the loop on intel and amd right now. Haven't looked at this stuff since I upgraded last time.

Hoping to spend in the range of 300 dollars. I want the best chip and decent motherboard I can get for around this price, if that is even possible.

Thanks for your help.

Tim

 

[MADMAX23]

To keep you Ram and AGP card and enjoy the latest Intel Cpus, the Core 2 Duo, get this motherboard from ASROCK: ASROCK 775 Dual-VSTA

It's a cheap but good motherboard, it's 55$ aprox.
For the Cpu, get an Intel Core to Duo E6400....AND YOU ARE DONE FOR 300$!!!!!
There will be no compatibility issues between these components, trust me, so search the e-tailers like Newegg or Zipzoomfly and get them, you won't be dissapointed.

Good Luck and be happy!!

 

[Tim Travis]

What about going AMD.

 

[AndrewL]

Honestly unless what you do is heavily cpu reliant youd notice a much greater performance boost from increasing to 2 gigs of ram and replacing your video card with something like the agp 7600gt, 7800gs, or agp x850xt. Also what socket is your motherboard, 775 i presume.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: AndrewL
Honestly unless what you do is heavily cpu reliant youd notice a much greater performance boost from increasing to 2 gigs of ram and replacing your video card with something like the agp 7600gt, 7800gs, or agp x850xt. Also what socket is your motherboard, 775 i presume.

A 7600GT/7800GS/X850XT on a 2.6GHz P4? Bad idea - heard of CPU bottlenecking?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: harpoon84

Originally posted by: AndrewL
Honestly unless what you do is heavily cpu reliant youd notice a much greater performance boost from increasing to 2 gigs of ram and replacing your video card with something like the agp 7600gt, 7800gs, or agp x850xt. Also what socket is your motherboard, 775 i presume.

A 7600GT/7800GS/X850XT on a 2.6GHz P4? Bad idea - heard of CPU bottlenecking?

Ever heard of GPU bottlenecking? I'd definitely rather have a 2.6 Ghz P4, with a 7600GT, or a 7800GS, than have a 2.1 Ghz C2D with an X1300 Pro. Of course, I'm a gamer.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: harpoon84

Originally posted by: AndrewL
Honestly unless what you do is heavily cpu reliant youd notice a much greater performance boost from increasing to 2 gigs of ram and replacing your video card with something like the agp 7600gt, 7800gs, or agp x850xt. Also what socket is your motherboard, 775 i presume.

A 7600GT/7800GS/X850XT on a 2.6GHz P4? Bad idea - heard of CPU bottlenecking?

Ever heard of GPU bottlenecking? I'd definitely rather have a 2.6 Ghz P4, with a 7600GT, or a 7800GS, than have a 2.1 Ghz C2D with an X1300 Pro. Of course, I'm a gamer.

Ermm, did you read the guys post?

I want to upgrade the chip and motherboard, but keep the ram and video card.

Get it? He wants to keep his current video card and RAM.

MADMAX23 suggestion is pretty good as the mobo is cheap, and has both AGP/PCI-E support, as well as DDR/DDR2 compatibility. It leaves the OP with many upgrade options should he choose to do so.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: MADMAX23
To keep you Ram and AGP card and enjoy the latest Intel Cpus, the Core 2 Duo, get this motherboard from ASROCK: ASROCK 775 Dual-VSTA

Running one right now. Works pretty well, no complaints (terrible overclocker of course, but just fine at stock.)

Though a moderate GPU upgrade would indeed probably serve you much better in terms of fps.

 

[Whitedog]

ASROCK Mobo's are poor quality. Not worth the risk. The one I bought a year or so ago was just plan junk. Random reboots when gaming very often. I ended up tossing it in the trash.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: Whitedog
ASROCK Mobo's are poor quality. Not worth the risk. The one I bought a year or so ago was just plan junk. Random reboots when gaming very often. I ended up tossing it in the trash.

Next time you go throwing that stuff away, let me pay shipping to my place

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: harpoon84

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: harpoon84

Originally posted by: AndrewL
Honestly unless what you do is heavily cpu reliant youd notice a much greater performance boost from increasing to 2 gigs of ram and replacing your video card with something like the agp 7600gt, 7800gs, or agp x850xt. Also what socket is your motherboard, 775 i presume.

A 7600GT/7800GS/X850XT on a 2.6GHz P4? Bad idea - heard of CPU bottlenecking?

Ever heard of GPU bottlenecking? I'd definitely rather have a 2.6 Ghz P4, with a 7600GT, or a 7800GS, than have a 2.1 Ghz C2D with an X1300 Pro. Of course, I'm a gamer.

Ermm, did you read the guys post?

I want to upgrade the chip and motherboard, but keep the ram and video card.

Get it? He wants to keep his current video card and RAM.

MADMAX23 suggestion is pretty good as the mobo is cheap, and has both AGP/PCI-E support, as well as DDR/DDR2 compatibility. It leaves the OP with many upgrade options should he choose to do so.

I agree with getting an E6400/Asrock combo. Getting a better GPU would do much good with a P4 2.6, believe me, I owned a P4 3.0 . My X800XT couldn't do anymore than 60FPS staring at a wall and most of the time 30-40FPS in DOD:S.

 

[Capt Caveman]

MADMAX23 fits your budget OP. Note, that motherboard only has 2 DDR slots meaning, you'll only be able to use 1gb of ram.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: harpoon84
Ever heard of GPU bottlenecking? I'd definitely rather have a 2.6 Ghz P4, with a 7600GT, or a 7800GS, than have a 2.1 Ghz C2D with an X1300 Pro. Of course, I'm a gamer.

Ermm, did you read the guys post?

I want to upgrade the chip and motherboard, but keep the ram and video card.

Get it? He wants to keep his current video card and RAM.

MADMAX23 suggestion is pretty good as the mobo is cheap, and has both AGP/PCI-E support, as well as DDR/DDR2 compatibility. It leaves the OP with many upgrade options should he choose to do so.[/quote]
Yeah, I read the OP. But, I have really bad short term memory, and must have either left and come back, or believe it or not, just forgotten by the time I got down to your post. My apologies.

 

[Whitedog]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon

Originally posted by: Whitedog
ASROCK Mobo's are poor quality. Not worth the risk. The one I bought a year or so ago was just plan junk. Random reboots when gaming very often. I ended up tossing it in the trash.

Next time you go throwing that stuff away, let me pay shipping to my place

You would have to knock on my door and I hand it to you. That's about as much effort I would put into saving such a board.

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Tim Travis
What about going AMD.

Think twice...
(whispers)....Intel...:thumbsup:

 

[MADMAX23]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
MADMAX23 fits your budget OP. Note, that motherboard only has 2 DDR slots meaning, you'll only be able to use 1gb of ram.

Yeah, that's right, he'll only be able to use 1Gb of Ram.....I didn't point that out although I knew it.