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need to upgrade a computer (Value gamer system)

A

andylawcc

Lifer
my friend's old comp is a Cybermax Athlon 600 with the AMD750 chip mobo,
it has Voodoo3 3500 and Aureal Vortex 1500.

he wants to upgrade it so here's my list:

new ECS sis735 mobo
Duron 1 gig (should I pay more for the 1.1 or 1.2? is it the new Palomino core?)
256mg of DDR
SB Live Value (not the Audigy)

and the main problem I have is the video card choice,
should I get the GF2 Ti200? or the GF3 ti200??? or even the Radeon?

thanks for your input...
 
Get the Audigy over the Live for sure. Audigy has a good future ahead of it, Live series has too many problems.

Video get the Geforce3 ti200, the 2d quality alone makes it the better choice, the 3d power makes it an easy winner.
 
about the price cap, I really don't know what's his budget, I suppose he is looking for the "best bang of the bucks" or slightly higher than that.
 
Thats a good system. The GF3 Ti200 has come down in price to a point where its pretty reasonable and perhaps the best deal for the money. As for the CPU, I would go with an XP or older Athlon which is at least 1gig and has a 266mhz FSB. The ECS mobo is fine. For the sound card, get the Hercules Fortissimo II from newegg, which is only $32. RAM should be at least 256mb.
 
Gainward GF3 ti200 $160 newegg

Epox 8kha+ Mobo $105 newegg

Audigy OEM arounnd $65 newegg

Duron 1ghz is $44 on pricewatch.. sweet price.

 
I'd just get a new vid card (GF3 Ti 200 sounds good) and better sound (anything recent not from Creative IMO). If you want a new CPU, get at least a 1 GHz Athlon, mobo and DDR RAM.
 


<< You would get far better performance with a Athlon 950 ($56), than a Duron 1 ghz ($44). >>

This is not true. The Duron 1GHz is based on an updated core. It is like the Duron XP. It has hardware prefetch, power reduction, etc. Pair this 1GHz CPU with a DDR setup and it will perform about the same as a 1GHz TBird. Also, I would suggest the Radeon 8500LE (The OEM version). It performs the same as the Ti200 or better. Plus it offers a few features and enhancements the Ti200 does not have.
 
Well the Radeon 8500 LE OEM is a great card.. but from the experiences i have had with bad drivers.. I would recommend a GF3 Ti200 or a GF3..

 
This is not true. The Duron 1GHz is based on an updated core. It is like the Duron XP. It has hardware prefetch, power reduction, etc. Pair this 1GHz CPU with a DDR setup and it will perform about the same as a 1GHz TBird. Also, I would suggest the Radeon 8500LE (The OEM version). It performs the same as the Ti200 or better. Plus it offers a few features and enhancements the Ti200 does not have.

It may be true if the Athlon has 200fsb and is perhaps less than 900mhz, but an Athlon's bigger cache has tangible real-world benefits. Pair off an Athlon C (266fsb) and DDR and it should be noticeably faster than the 1 gig Duron. How do I know? I have two machines in my room right now, both with an ECS K7S5A mobo and 256mb Crucial DDR. Both have the exact same video card ( MSI GF2 GTS w/32mb DDR) and sound card (Fortissimo II). Both are using the buil-in LAN. the only diff. is one has a 900mhz Athlon (200fsb) and one has the 1gig Duron.
They perform roughly the same but the Athlon is faster in 3DMark 2001 by about 150-200 points.
 
whao... thanks for all the replies...

I will go for the main stream stuff just to make my friend feels confident: athlon instead of duron, nvidia stuff instead of Radeon, and Creative instead of Fortissimo even though it may cost more and have less performance... oh well, its all about the brand name.
 
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