Time to upgrade?

[dc2288]

Hi all, it's tax time and I'm wondering if my setup is fine for awhile? Will my P3 550e will hold me over for another year?
Was thinking of going to a P3 850, but my friends say its a waste of time to, and should go 1 ghz, but that would require a new mobo. And like some money left to get the NV20 when it comes out..

Thanks in advance..

P3 550e
Abit bx6r2
Asus V6800 Geforce 256 DDR
Soundblaster live
Maxtor 30 gig udma 66
384 megs PC133 Micron sdram
NEC FE950 19" Monitor

 

[MCS]

You might find it tight to make the CPU last another year, but it is very dependent on what you use your computer for. If you do decide to upgrade then yes, definitely get the fastest you can afford. If you decide to change motherboards then a KT133A + Duron/TBird would be a good choice and should last you a good year (you can keep your RAM too). If not, then a faster P3 would be the obvious choice.

One other little word though: Overclocking. Seeing as you've got good PC-133 memory and a quality AGP card there is an excellent chance you can bump that P3 up to 733Mhz or more by raising your Front Side Bus to 133Mhz.

The only problem you may have is I am not sure if the BX6R2 has a 1/4 PCI divider at 133Mhz, I know my BH6 doesn't. If it has, and you've got good cooling you might surprise yourself! 🙂

 

[Grendel99]

I wouldn't really upgrade. Like MCS said, overclock that thing! Try the 124 FSB with the 2/3 AGP Divider, and keep the voltage at stock for now. If its stable, go higher and up the voltage a wee little bit as you go. I have the same mobo with a P3-700E @ 903MHz now 🙂 Can't play Q3A at 933 though 🙁 Think its my old video card holding me back.

If you updrage, make the biggest jump possible. 550 to 850 isn't all that much and you wouldn't notice a huge difference.

 

[nortexoid]

your setup is fine for another year...u can try overclocking it, that'll give it a little extra spce, but nothing big...

 

[Ausm]

You should be ok for another year

Ausm

 

[Bignate603]

you'll last. If you really have the urge to do something go buy a nice drive or something that you can take on to your next system.

 

[zephyrprime]

Yeah, going from 550->850 is nice but nothing to write home about. Maybe later this year when intel has their 0.13 micron process working.

 

[Platyply]

Look at my rig on the bottom. I've been long overdue for an upgrade (but can't because it's not a PC, it's an HP). I still manage to surf the Internet and . . . word process and . . . well, that's about it. Seriously, you should be able to hold out another year, game requirements are what? 350mhz, your system will manage until next year. But, then again I'm cheap . . .

 

[XRdirtHead]

Unless your going to double your CPU speed then don't even bother upgrading.

 

[A2KLAU]

I would say save the dosh and use the PC to the max! OC it a little as everybody has said, but use it till it gets so out of date it will not run anything at all, then is the time to upgrade to somethign big and bold and powerful!

Albert.

 

[BFG10K]

First you should try to overclock your 550E a little bit. If you find you can't overclock it at all and you play a lot of 3D games, you should upgrade it to the 850.

 

[gtd2000]

You have the 1/4 divider - I just changed this week from a PIII450@600Mhz on an ABIT BX6 2.0 with a Geforce 256 - to a Duron 700Mhz on an ABIT KT7A with Geforce 2 MX.
Don't think you see a difference worth the $$$ differential but try overclocking first....nothing to lose - go for a 133FSB too with the 1/4 divider (PCI) - but not for the AGP (89Mhz) - but your Geforce should be OK - mine was OK since December 1999 🙂

 

[limsandy]

Why oh why didn't you overclock that chip? You could have had a 733 MHz system since the day you bought it. But it's ok having a 550 MHz. Unless you get killed a lot in cs or Q3, I don't see the need to upgrade your system.