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To GT or not to GT...

O

Oropher

Junior Member
Over the past years whenever i had to upgrade any hardware components this was and still is the only place for me to gather the information on which i base my decision and i have to say it has never let me down.
This however will be my first post on this forum, and reading quite a few topics has learnt me that there are a lot of helpful people here that hopefully can help me out.

My computer is about 2.5 years old and its main components are
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1533 mhz)
MSI 6380E motherboard (KT3 Ultra2)
512 MB DDR RAM
Aopen GeForce 4 Ti4200

I'm still debating whether to only upgrade my processor (AMD Athlon 64 3200+) and motherboard, or to upgrade my graphics card as well (nVidia GeForce 6600GT).

I'm using my computer for both 'normal' things as well as games (World of Warcraft anyone?).

I was wondering if you could give me some input to make my choice easier, and if anyone has any suggestions regarding the components that are in the same price range then you of course are more than welcome as well.
 
You'll get a nice speed bump from a A64 and new graphics card. But be sure if you do replace the mobo/cpu/video card to get pci express models.
 
I think the choice of a video card should probably wait until you decide if you are going to upgrade your MoBo or not.

I think the answer is different for AGP or PCIe video components.

I Prefer the 6800GT for AGP right now, but I think the x800xl is the present favorite for PCIe because of a lower cost... (I am trying to remember what I've read here... forgive me if I got the ATI model wrong)

-Sid
 
An A64 is your best bet for a CPU. Regardless if your priority is price, or performance, the A64 is still the processor to get rite now. Especially so for games.

As far as the video card, ATi is on top rite now. Unless your games are primarily OGL games, then nVidia rules the roost.
 
Thanks for your quick replies!
I have 2 more questions actually:

1) Do PCI-express graphics cards outperform their AGP counterparts? (in other words, why should i go for PCI-e instead of AGP?)

2) If i were to upgrade Either my mobo+proc (from Athlon XP 1800+ to Athlon 64 3200+) OR my graphics card (from Ti4200 to 6600GT), which one would yield the largest fps boost in let's say World of Warcraft given my current configuration (as specified in my first post).

Thanks in advance!
 
Originally posted by: Oropher
Thanks for your quick replies!
I have 2 more questions actually:

1) Do PCI-express graphics cards outperform their AGP counterparts? (in other words, why should i go for PCI-e instead of AGP?)

2) If i were to upgrade Either my mobo+proc (from Athlon XP 1800+ to Athlon 64 3200+) OR my graphics card (from Ti4200 to 6600GT), which one would yield the largest fps boost in let's say World of Warcraft given my current configuration (as specified in my first post).

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


1). Not really, but 6600gt pcie is cheaper, and the pci-e motherboard would give you better upgradability.

2.) Probably the graphics card.
 
pci-e graphics card will be no faster than its agp counterpoint, but the pci-e will offer a greater upgrade path. i'd upgrade the processor because it will help in both the game and in other applications where as the gfx card will only help in the game.
 
Personally, I'd go ahead and buy a new board and proc, then upgrade everything around it as I went. Those are the 2 parts that will serve you best for the longest time, whereas video cards go obsolete much faster (and I personally think most vid cards are way overpriced for the performance boost they give over the last generation of cards).
 
I have another question if i may 🙂

I've decided to upgrade all of my computer parts as described above except for my dvd-rom drive, floppy drive and hard drive.

My hard drive is a Maxtor

DiamondMax Plus D740X
60.0 GB
Fast ATA/Enhanced IDE compatible
Ultra ATA/133 Data Transfer Rate
2 MB SDRAM Cache Buffer
<8 ms Seek Time
7200 RPM

Do you think that when upgrading the other componentsm that my 3 year old hard drive will become a bottleneck speed-wise?

Many thanks in advance!

Vincent

 
Originally posted by: Oropher
I have another question if i may 🙂

I've decided to upgrade all of my computer parts as described above except for my dvd-rom drive, floppy drive and hard drive.

My hard drive is a Maxtor

DiamondMax Plus D740X
60.0 GB
Fast ATA/Enhanced IDE compatible
Ultra ATA/133 Data Transfer Rate
2 MB SDRAM Cache Buffer
<8 ms Seek Time
7200 RPM

Do you think that when upgrading the other componentsm that my 3 year old hard drive will become a bottleneck speed-wise?

Many thanks in advance!

Vincent
Click to expand...

Not at all. IDE HD speeds haven't changed for a very long time.

 
I'd probably dive into A64 3000+ Venice, S939 => overclock the hell out of it.

See if your ram can overclock to PC2700 or PC3200. IF it can, i'd keep it. Still For $80 you can get 1 gig of PC3200.

Add X800XL PCIe for now. If you can't afford this yet, then save for 2 months or so since with new videocards, current generation of cards will fall in price even more.

Your hard drive is not too bad. Check benches here> www.storagereview.com -- search their performance database.

3000+ Venice overclocking review
 
I would go 6800 NU, then unlock it, go to the vid forum, they have an excelelnt article posted there about unlocking them to GT level, and its as simple as using rivatune....even a n00b can do it...of course you need some luck
 
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