Need something capable of playing Counter-Strike

[DWW]

One of my systems I'd like to upgrade to "counter-strike compatibility":

crappy case w/ 250 psu
soyo socket 7 board
k6-2 500 MHz
Voodoo3 3000 AGP
512 PC133 SDRAM

At one time, a couple summers ago it seemed capable of playing counter-strike. Since that time I've used many a GeForce and Athlons and when trying to play again its just unbearable. I realize I should ideally get a replacement for it, but its just going to be a "counter-strike" rig... in an ideal world it could upgrade to an Athlon XP but I don't think the Socket 7 would like that hehe. *SNAP*.

So I'm asking what I can do to get to counter-strike playability. Would a GeForce4 MX400 series (or 440) help at all? I don't want to invest too much into this dying system. How much improvement over the voodoo3 3000 would I get? A couple weeks back the Best Buy here (FutureShop) had customer appreciation, the Radeon 8500LE was on for $66 CAN after rebates... I was stupid at the time and didn't pick one up. This is like $40 US for 8500LE ! Surely that would have been the best bet... :\

Anyhow, if I upgraded to an athlon 1800 XP (best price/performance for an upgrade), I'd obviously need a new motherboard, but also new DDR ram... then I'd need a new case w/ PSU cuz i dont trust that one much... thats starting to become a hefty chunk of change before I've even put in a new graphics card

Any thoughts on what I could do to be able to play Counter-Strike 1024x768 smoothly or... would i really need a new CPU

 

[eklass]

well, what exactly is wrong (besides the crap for crap game)?

everything you have is damn old, and upgrading anything will make everythign else limiting

 

[BigFatCow]

ecs k7s5a pro - $56
amd 1700+ - $50
nvidia ti4200 - $110

total = $216

or if you dont want so spend that much you could get a cheaper video card like a geforce 4 mx440 for around $60...

this sytem is more than enough for CS, and you can still keep your pc133ram...

 

[Insidious]

without re-vamping the entire system, you are on the right track to upgrade the video card.

CS really doesn't take all that much of a computer to run well.

-Sid

I'd prefer a Ti4200 to the MX400 card, but I used to play CS on a GeForce2 GTS which is very similar to the MX400.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Anything over a GF3 Ti200 would probably be a waste on that system. You could probably even go for a GF2 Pro or something and be fine.

 

[oldfart]

Of all of it, the K6-2 500 is the wost item. There is a K6-3+ 400 for sale. The K6-3+ has 256K ondie cache and is quite a bit faster than the K6-2. The seller says it will do 550 MHz. If have a K6-3+ 450 in my kids PC and it blows away a K6-2 500. You can usually overclock the V3 3K to 183 or so. Other than that, cant think of much. Which mini GL are you using? 3dfx or Wicked 3D?

 

[Boogak]

I agree, lose the K6-2 w/ its craptacular FPU. The Voodoo3 3000 should still be pulling 50+ FPS @ 1024x768 if you're using the WickedGL driver, I was using a Voodoo3 2000 o'c to 3000 speeds w/ a P3 800 and was pulling down those FPS a couple of years ago. Honestly, if you have a Fry's around, get one of those K7S5A-Pro mobo / AthlonXP combo deals for under $100 and you'll be able to reuse your memory and video card. Might need a new PSU though.