Suggestions on an upgrade please.

[MTDEW]

How about helping me decide my next upgrade?

Heres my total specs:

533a@948 / GORB / MSI 6905 slotket
Soyo 6BA+IV mobo
160mb pc-100 ram
Elsa Gladiac GeForce 2 GTS (32mb/agp)
13.6 5200rpm/ATA33 Maxtor HD
32X Creative cdrom
17" proview monitor
SB LIVE
Cambridge 4 point surround Sound spkrs w/sub
Microsoft Intellimouse explorer
Microsoft naturaul(wave) keyboard

What would you do?
1)700e@933 + pc-133 ram?
2)30GB Maxtor DiamondMax plus 40 7200rpm/ATA66 HD?
3)Bigger monitor?

I would really appreciate advice on what to do to get my pc up-to-date & well rounded on performance.

Should I just go with the faster HD to round out my sytem for now?

Is the HD speed difference from 5400/33 - 7200/66 worth it?

Or is the 700e just too much faster than my 533a@948 to pass up?

I have about $400.00 to throw at it right now & I don't know what to do next.

 

[mpitts]

If it were me, I would go with the 700 with cB0 stepping with PC133 and try to push 1Ghz out of it.

A faster hard drive is a difficult thing to pass up though. But if it were my money, I would go with the CPU.

 

[Ulysses]

First things first. New CPU. Then HDD. Then dual monitors.

See:
http:// [url]http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=199398 [/url]
and
http:// [url]http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=196333 [/url]

And don't buy another Cele!

 

[Coki]

Get that PIII 700E@933 cB0 and watch the power of the GTS shine.

 

[MorbidDog]

You can get a Asus A7V or the Abit KT version and a 750 Duron for about a $350. After you sell your old motherboard and processor you can get a 7200 RPM HDD. I got a great proformance boost from a 5400rpm to a 7200rpm.
Now you got the best of both worlds.

 

[Tom]

In my experience 7200rpm HDs are noticebly faster than 5400rpm drives, plus I'd rather have 30gigs than 13.6gigs.

As for the rest of your system, is there a particular program or game you want to run that your current system can't handle ?

If not, I'd say your close enough to the bleeding edge and would be well advised to wait until some particular software isn't fast enough for you. It will then be easier to make the correct choice as far as what needs to be upgraded.

 

[Chuffmaster2k]

Your system looks pretty damn good to me. A lot better than mine. I would go w/ the bigger and faster hard drive. I have no complaints with my 7200 rpm HD. I noticed a difference over the old 5400. Good Luck.

 

[garrison]

wtf? yr 533A is not enough?
maybe you can try with a 700@1000,
but you shouldn't find any GREAT improvement.
(or at least to justify the price of the CuMine).
a jump from 130(?) to 160fps in q3a is not a...mh...good deal (is this correct?).

buy an ibm dtla 15/30/45/60/75gigs.
don't think there's nothing faster available (eide).

in my opinion having a good monitor is ONE of the more important thing of a system. even more than raw speed.
buy a sony fd trinitron 17"/19".
sorry for my english.

 

[Phatswalla]

Do you really need a faster cpu?
I would get the HD.

 

[Mustanggt]

I have a Maxtor diamondmax plus and i have a IBM 34 gxp and i like the ibm better. if you were to get any one of these drives you would notice more of a performance gain then you would with a faster cpu. good luck

 

[MTDEW]

Wow, thanks for all of the suggestions.

I decided to got with a new hd & cdrom, which is why Ive been so slow to respond to my own thread.
Between working 12hr days on the weekends & partitioning & setting up my pc, I just now got a chance to respond.

I bought a 30GB 7200rpm/ATA66 Maxtor Diamond Max Plus HD from staples for $179.00 plus they gave me a free 32mb dimm of pc-133 ram.(now I have 192mb)

And I bought an I/O Magic 56X cdrom from my local Curcuit City.

After all of the monitor suggestions & looking at larger monitors, thats definately next on my list!

 

[MTDEW]

Dead Parrot Sketch
Your post got me thinking "Dead Parrot is right, what the heck do I need a 700e@933 except for bragging rights, my pc runs everything I throw at it with ease!"
Much faster than my old PII 400 / TNT /V2 sli setup.

Thanks for the straight foward suggestion, I guess we all get carried away trying to constantly upgrade & "keep up to date" sometimes.

I think I'll sit on my PCs innards for at least 6mos, Uhhhhhh, well it depends how cheap 1GZ becomes by Xmas!