OT: Computer upgrade opinions

[ICXRa]

Hey I need some opinions here for! A couple of my gaming friends think I should just throw in the towel and build a new one.

I bought this 4550 about 2 3/4 years ago pretty bare for $350 AR.
2.4 GHz 533 FSB

Stuck two 512 Sticks of Corsair Twinx (The kind that sets the timings to 2-2-2 and 5 &7 since Dell likes to keep you out of the BIOS) and a 9800 Pro along with a 120 GIG 8 MB hard drive.

Previous to this I have always built my own but the price was too good to pass up at the time and it has been a decent rig for gaming for me. I mostly play DC and BF2 and this works for BF2 but its a little choppy feeling. I am considering getting a 3.06 with HT off of eBay and trying to grab one of those ATI X800 XT PE's over on hot deals for $229. Seems to me for around 4 bills this will stretch the life of this machine at least a year and a half and be the last AGP card I buy.

From what I have read this ATI card is heavily CPU dependant and it appears the sweet spot is 3 GHZ and up which is the main reason I am considering the CPU upgrade.

Waste of money?
I think I know the answer because if I build I'll mod it all out and end up dropping nearly three times that but wanted to see what you guys thought!

 

[keeleysam]

the CPU is a waste, but I would upgrade the GPU.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

If that P4 is a Prescott, I wouldn't go for it. If it's one of the old ones, maybe. But indeed, the 3 GHz don't really matter that much. Any particular reason why you want the ATI X800? I'm not trying to persuade anybody to buy Nvidia or anything like that, but I recently bought a 6600GT and so far haven't found anything it can't run properly, including BF2 on my main system with an old Athlon XP3200+ and 1 GB RAM. Yes, it won't do for 1600x1200 resolution but for 1280x1024 it's just fine. Just my 2 cents.

:beer:

 

[ICXRa]

It's not a Prescott!

The main reason I went with the X800 XL PE over the 6600GT is basically because of the deal going on (if it actually comes) and because performance wise this card is more like the 6800Ultra. I am really just trying to get the most bang for the buck as I hate the upgrade cycles on video cards and put them off as long as possible. I bought the 9800Pro when it was new and have decided that is the last time I buy (at the time) the top card.

 

[Overkiller]

Personally I would just wait and build a monster because otherwise in a year the system will feel long in the tooth yet again and you will be $500 in the hole.

I have a 3.2 ghz p4C and a 9700PRO (bought it when it first came out). After having my ram die twice on me i'm down to only 512 MB of ram =/

As a gamer this system isn't going places anymore! But what I am doing is getting another 512MB of ram to even it out to 1 gb at least. Waiting about 6 more months then getting either the latest radeon or some 7800GTX variant along w/ a highly overclocked A64 (not sure if I would want to go Dual Core yet).

That system then would last much longer than me getting a 6800 GT or something of that nature for $300 and then feeling the age in another perhaps less than a year.

Would the dell power supply even be able to handle all that hardware? I know normally they retrofit them with very very minimalistic PSU's so I'd also worry about that.

Lastly...it would give you another cruncher

Whatever your choice best of luck!

 

[ICXRa]

Lastly...it would give you another cruncher

It might give me something other than just that. My wife isn't terribly thrilled with my seven foot rack and the 5 crunchers currently loaded into it and one more may just break the camels back if you know what I mean! :shocked: Fortunately I have been able to run the rest of them at work!

I see your point though and it's a good one. Currently for me I have to get out of all this remodeling and the costs associated with it before I can really consider jumping back in to building one and ultimately that will probably answer my question for me even though it's a relatively quick fix albeit a short one.

 

[Overkiller]

Originally posted by: ICXRa

Lastly...it would give you another cruncher

ultimately that will probably answer my question for me even though it's a relatively quick fix albeit a short one.

They usually are when it comes to pc technology

I swear I just finished building this computer but its already 2+ years old!

 

[ICXRa]

Yep I know what you mean!

At least things are more reasonable now. I remember buying two 16MB or maybe it was 32MB sticks of EDO for some crazy amount of money back in '96, like 300+ dollars. So in many respects at least the hobby has become more affordable.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Wolfsraider]

I run a 2.8 533 fsb and a prescott 3.0 and 3.2

The 533 does a wu in 2.98 hours 1 instance 8-9 wu a day
The 3.0 does a wu in 3.21 hours 2 instances 13-15 wu a day

The 3.2 does a wu in 3.04 hours 2 instances 15-17 wu a day

These are approx but should be close

I think for dc it would make a good difference. almost double your processing power.Question is... is it worth it to you?

Mike

 

[ICXRa]

Well I would give me HT which couldn't hurt my folding results, ESPECIALLY with GLeeM right and behind closing the gap and it would be good for Battlefield 2 which is really the only game I am interested in......currently anyhow.