Pentium IV? Should I upgrade?

[Actionscripter]

This is my current PC configuration:

Kingston 512 MB SDRAM
Pentium III 733 MHZ
Asus CUSL2-C Motherboard
Asus GeForce 2 MX Graphic Card
Quantum Fireball 20.5 GB Hard Disk

Given the above configuration, should I upgrade??? I know many people are going for Pentium IV. Speed is very fast, I know. But, the problem is, if I wanna upgrade to Pentium IV, it also means I have to buy a new motherboard, since mine only supports up to Pentium III 1 GHZ. Also, buying a new motherboard means I need new RAM, since mine is only SDRAM, not DDRAM.

So back to my question. Should I upgrade JUST because of Pentium IV? The price to pay is heavy!

 

[GregMal]

I wouldn't with your setup unless you'd consider an AMD solution.
I'm a little worse off than you. I've got a Celeron 466 with ASUS P299
ATX MB, 128 mg ram. Even for me the P4 is too expensive...New MB,
rambus, new case/ps, and I'd have to get a new Video card also as most
P4 setups require AGP 4x...........
Right now I'm looking at a Tualatin MB with Celeron 1.2GHz........about $200
cost.........Greg

 

[oldfart]

Greg, dont get the Tually 1.2. Wait for the Tualeron 1.0A and 1.1A that will be out in Jan! A Tualeron 1.2 has limited success making it to 1.6 GHz on a 133 FSB. Many of them will not do it. The 1.0A and 1.1A will have 10x and 11x multiplers. The Tuallys make it to 1.5 GHz easily. I'm going to build a 1.0A @ 1.5 GHz (150 FSB). Another way if your ram isn't good enough is a 1.1 @ 136 FSB = 1.5 GHz.

 

[GregMal]

Sorry O.F., but I'm not an overclocker so the 1.2 Celeron will do just fine
for me.............
Greg

 

[oldfart]

Cool. Just thought I'd let you know just in case.

 

[apoppin]

Check the PowerLeap web site.

I got the Tualatin 1.2 Ghz Celeron and PL adapter for $169 shipped.

No MB change . . . just plugged it into my BX board. The interim upgrade from a PIII @ 800Mhz was well worth it. (By "interim" I mean it works great for cheap until I do my major upgrade . . . probably to a 533FSB Northwood - or Thoroughbred - this Spring.)

 

[Spikesoldier]

A good rule of thumb is to upgrade when something twice as fast is availible. Or you're getting a heck of a bargain/offer you can't refuse. Just because you have a Pentium III, and there is a Pentium IV out doesn't nessesarily mean you have to upgrade. Remember that some of the higher P3's can beat Pentium IV's.

 

[GregMal]

Well.....I'm willing to spend about $30 more and get ATA100 and
AGP 4x with a new MB. Also a new MB will probably be best
when/if I decide to upgrade to WinXP............Greg

 

[Spikesoldier]

1024 Posts - A milestone indeed.

 

[ChopOMatic]

I'd say no. I upgraded an old PIII 450 system to a P4 1.0 several months ago and almost instantly wished I hadn't. I paid out the wazoo for Rambus RAM, and the only SIGNIFICANT real-world improvement I see with the P4 is when I do CPU-intensive tasks like processing large files in Photoshop or processing audio files in SoundForge, stuff like that. On common tasks, if there's any difference at all, it's not much and I do believe the old PIII was faster on some things.

Right now I'm upgrading an PII clunker that I've had for millenia and I'm upgrading to PIII. Total cost of the upgrade will be beans.

 

[Clevor]

Unfortunately you have a 733 chip with 133 FSB. If you had a 700 or good 800 you could possibly hit 1 gig.

Plus you got a CUSL board, which is one of the best o/c boards ever made for the PentiumIII.

You could try to pick up a PentiumIII 1000E or 1100E; both are cDOs and run around $160-170 (maybe lower now). If you are lucky, you could hit 1300. Check out the overclockers.com forum. A couple of guys have done that.

$160-170 is what you'd have to pay for a Pentium4 1.5-1.7 chip, and the overclocked chips above might be faster. Plus you'd need a new motherboard, either DDR or RDRAM, at least a 400 watt power supply, etc.