- Jan 18, 2002
- 5,893
- 0
- 76
I'm planning on upgrading my current system (800MHz P3 with GF2 Ti and 768MB PC133 RAM). I spent all last night reading about new parts, etc., and I think I've come up with a good upgrade. I just wanted to run it by everyone here that knows more about all this stuff than I do for some more opinions. This is what I'm planning on purchasing:
Abit IC7
Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 800MHz FSB
Radeon 9700 Pro
Corsair XMS PC3200 2x256MB RAM
Antec 400W power supply
All this will run right at $800 and should be a good system. To that, I'll be gutting my current machine (rather than a whole new system) and putting in my DVD-ROM, CD-RW, 40GB hard drive, 75GB hard drive, SBLive sound card, 3Com 10/100 ethernet, ATi TV Wonder VE, and possibly my 4-port USB PCI card.
I've just got a few questions... I know it's definitely better to get the 9700 Pro rather than getting the non-pro version, but how much difference will that make? It's $50 more and I'm trying to hold the price down on this while still getting a good system for gaming, multimedia, etc. If I go with just the 9700np, am I going to significantly hurt the performance of the system? From what I've read, the np can easily be overclocked to Pro specifications. If that's the case (and something I feel comfortable doing - I'm not terribly smart with that type of stuff), then I might as well just get the np and save $50, right?
Also, I was talking with someone at work tonight and he was curious as to why I'm planning on getting the 800MHz FSB processor since everything else is slower than that. Along the same lines as the 9700 Pro/np, if I were to get the 533MHz FSB, would that seriously hurt system performance? Right now, I can get the 800 FSB for about $180 and the 533 for about $160 so the difference is only $20. My guess here is that the extra bus speed is worth the $20.
That pretty much sums it up, I think. I'd really like to get this stuff ordered as soon as possible with the intent of having the system up and running by next weekend. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. you've got that will help me out would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Abit IC7
Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 800MHz FSB
Radeon 9700 Pro
Corsair XMS PC3200 2x256MB RAM
Antec 400W power supply
All this will run right at $800 and should be a good system. To that, I'll be gutting my current machine (rather than a whole new system) and putting in my DVD-ROM, CD-RW, 40GB hard drive, 75GB hard drive, SBLive sound card, 3Com 10/100 ethernet, ATi TV Wonder VE, and possibly my 4-port USB PCI card.
I've just got a few questions... I know it's definitely better to get the 9700 Pro rather than getting the non-pro version, but how much difference will that make? It's $50 more and I'm trying to hold the price down on this while still getting a good system for gaming, multimedia, etc. If I go with just the 9700np, am I going to significantly hurt the performance of the system? From what I've read, the np can easily be overclocked to Pro specifications. If that's the case (and something I feel comfortable doing - I'm not terribly smart with that type of stuff), then I might as well just get the np and save $50, right?
Also, I was talking with someone at work tonight and he was curious as to why I'm planning on getting the 800MHz FSB processor since everything else is slower than that. Along the same lines as the 9700 Pro/np, if I were to get the 533MHz FSB, would that seriously hurt system performance? Right now, I can get the 800 FSB for about $180 and the 533 for about $160 so the difference is only $20. My guess here is that the extra bus speed is worth the $20.
That pretty much sums it up, I think. I'd really like to get this stuff ordered as soon as possible with the intent of having the system up and running by next weekend. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. you've got that will help me out would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Facebook
Twitter