Trying to decide what to buy.

[JasonS55]

Hi. Currently I have a ECS K7s5a, 1700+, 512meg of pc2100 ram and a 64meg 8500.
I was wondering what would be the wiser thing to do? Buy a Shuttle AN35N, 2500+, 512meg of pc3200 ram(and hopefully overclock the cpu to 3200+ speeds) and a case or buy a Radeon 9800pro? For me, either upgrade costs pretty much the same, just can't decide which one to do...any help would be great.
One thing is I have read that the Radeon 9800pro's drice is going to be dropping soon. How soon is that and what wil it likely drop to? (In canadian please =P)
Thanks for all the help.

 

[Sheriff]

I'd probably go with the 1st group seeing how no one knows what Vid card you currently have .

Welcome to the AT Forums

 

[daballard]

Originally posted by: Sheriff
I'd probably go with the 1st group seeing how no one knows what Vid card you currently have .

Welcome to the AT Forums

He said a 64MB 8500, I'm assuming radeon. I'd probably go with the first set too, improve the entire rig and pick up a vid card later.

 

[Sheriff]

Originally posted by: daballard

Originally posted by: Sheriff
I'd probably go with the 1st group seeing how no one knows what Vid card you currently have .

Welcome to the AT Forums

He said a 64MB 8500, I'm assuming radeon. I'd probably go with the first set too, improve the entire rig and pick up a vid card later.

Yep my bad, to many #'s today. I would still opt for his 1st group as it's more power and maybe get the 9800 later when it does go down in price then the 8X AGP power will be able to be had if the software picks up.

 

[Oyeve]

I dont know ow much the 9800 pro is gonna drop but I picked one up last week for 224 shipped from newegg.

 

[moretoys]

If it was me, I would keep your processor & get a better video card. If you want more speed, your processor is known to overclock well. Go with the new motherboard & memory though.
Just thinking you would get a better 'bang' for the buck, still have an option to upgrade the processor or v-card later but able to play newer games now.

I find http://www.ncix.com generally has good canadian prices. 329 CDN for a Sapphire 9800 pro OEM. 223 CDN for a 9600XT.

Oh man I wish we didn't have customs... newegg has excellent prices

later...

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
I dont know ow much the 9800 pro is gonna drop but I picked one up last week for 224 shipped from newegg.

its 212 at newegg right now.

i would upgrade the mobo-cpu-and ram right now IMO.

 

[JasonS55]

ya, i was leaning more towards the mother board/cpu/ram but thought i should ask anyways. And to the person that said to keep my 1700+ and overclock that; it is one of the old ones and from my understanding, they don't overclock as well? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[moretoys]

Sorry for the delay, been away. Best to search the OC forum, however this one has some info...
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=1024530&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=arc
Mind you the results may depend on when you purchased your chip to get the right version numbers. Check the details in the thread. If your ok with overclocking, you could try your processor on the new board prior to buying a new processor. Just make sure you read on the risks & precautions first.
There is likely better places for info, it has been a while sense I have seen current info, but I'm not constantly reading threads...

Good Luck...