To upgrade or not to upgrade?

[theprobbka]

Hello volks, I used to be a regular here but I quit for a while. Anyhoo I needs some advice... back in Nov 2001 I made this computer I got now, it's got an Athlon XP 1700+ CPU, win2k, 512 MB pc2100 DDR, geforce 2 gts (64 mb i think but i can't remember), and a shuttle motherbard (i forget the make and model, it has 4x agp, it was the latest thing at the time... anyway that's not too important).

So I'm goin off to college soon, and my parents will give me money for a full upgrade if I want it--I was thinking some nForce2 mobo, with the built-in GF4, maybe Athlon XP 2100+ or whatever they have that is tops now. But I dunno if this will be worth it really...since I'm primarily a gamer, and my main reason for upgrading is graphics performance, might it be almost as good to just get a GF4 and put it in the computer I have now. What would you do?

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: theprobbka
Hello volks, I used to be a regular here but I quit for a while. Anyhoo I needs some advice... back in Nov 2001 I made this computer I got now, it's got an Athlon XP 1700+ CPU, win2k, 512 MB pc2100 DDR, geforce 2 gts (64 mb i think but i can't remember), and a shuttle motherbard (i forget the make and model, it has 4x agp, it was the latest thing at the time... anyway that's not too important).

So I'm goin off to college soon, and my parents will give me money for a full upgrade if I want it--I was thinking some nForce2 mobo, with the built-in GF4, maybe Athlon XP 2100+ or whatever they have that is tops now. But I dunno if this will be worth it really...since I'm primarily a gamer, and my main reason for upgrading is graphics performance, might it be almost as good to just get a GF4 and put it in the computer I have now. What would you do?

Upgrade, if you are a gamer. Definitely think about getting a faster graphics card

 

[squidman]

Ya, GeForce 4 4600TI by Leadtek (think its called WinFast A250 ULTRA) is a great value video card. About 200 bux on newegg.com My future upgrade (hey i have an OG GeForce 2 GTS with whole 32 megs of DDRAM! UNH! ;-P.

Get an nForce2 with onboard APU (like asus a7n8x deluxe or one by ABit (forgot the model)
Get Athlon 2100+ (great-ass values on newegg.com!!!)
2x256 2700 DDR SDRAM
And yourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre set!

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: squidman
Ya, GeForce 4 4600TI by Leadtek (think its called WinFast A250 ULTRA) is a great value video card. About 200 bux on newegg.com My future upgrade (hey i have an OG GeForce 2 GTS with whole 32 megs of DDRAM! UNH! ;-P.

Get an nForce2 with onboard APU (like asus a7n8x deluxe or one by ABit (forgot the model)
Get Athlon 2100+ (great-ass values on newegg.com!!!)
2x256 2700 DDR SDRAM
And yourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre set!

uh oh. you recommended an nvidia card. the mortal anandtech sin.

better put on your flamesuit.

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Upgrade, if you are a gamer. Definitely think about getting a faster graphics card

Yes.
I recommend getting either a radeon 9600 or a ti4200. I'm sure you've probably heard of the two teirs that there are in longhorn for 3d acceleration of the GUI. DX9 is required for the best teir so if you think you'll have this computer for that long you should definitely go with the 9600. If you play certain games that ATI drivers don't get along with well RIGHT NOW then you should get the GF4. New drivers released next week though if recieved back from microsoft in time.

 

[theprobbka]

Thanks for the help guys. I love Anandtech . One last thing--I'm on a 300 W power supply. If I go with a new mobo and a 2100+, will I need to get 350 or 400 W?

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Depends on the quality of the power supply and the ammount of optical drives, hard drives, DIMMS, PCI cards, etc that you have. Mostly on quality. Saying 300watt doesn't tell me anything unless followed by the word "generic."

 

[TheWart]

400W by a good company woul dbe my recommendation if you are upgrading everything.