Upgrade Advice Needed

[Wintermute20]

Guys,

I need some advice on upgrading my system. Here's my present config:

TextSoyo 6BA+IV BX M/B
TextCeleron 333 o/c to 450
Text128MB Kingston PC100 SDRAM and generic 64 MB PC66 SDRAM
TextVoodoo 3/200 PCI Card
TextSB Live X-Gamer
TextCreative Labs 8x DVD w/ dxr3 decoder card
TextIntel DSL Modem

I want to upgrade to a PIII-800 and a Radeon 32MB DDR crd. I checked Soyo's website and they said an 800 should work on my board (800, not 800eb). Is this the most economical choice? How much can I o/c it? Would a 700 be better? Let me know what you think.

Wintermute20

 

[Wintermute20]

oops, screwed up the html...sorry

 

[paulip88]

The 800EB runs at 133MHz FSB, which the BX should be able to do, but that would throw everything way out of spec. Prolly too out of spec for your PC66 RAM.

On the other hand, the 800E and 700E run at 100MHZ FSB, so they make better candidates for OCing using yout BX board. Both chips can probably OCed a bit, but your limitations would mostly come from your other components like RAM, NIC, AGP, etc.

 

[Nack]

Find out whether your motherboard supports a 1/4 PCI/FSB divider at 133MHz. My BH6 1.01 isn't supposed to, but it does. Nice choice on the video card . If your board has a 1/4 PCI/FSB divider at 133MHz, I would go with a 700e/100MHz FSB PIII and run it at 133MHz FSB for a clockspeed of 933MHz (similar to the config I have). If your board only supports a 1/3 PCI/FSB divider at 133MHz, then I probably wouldn't do that, and would instead get a PIII 800e/100MHz FSB and run it at 8x112=~896.

Your next question is "how do I figure out if my motherboard has a 1/4 PCI/FSB divider at 133MHz FSB?" You could always check the message boards, and usenet, but there probably isn't an easy way to find out for sure, unless you get lucky and find someone else who has tried it. All I can tell you is that I figured it out by buying a PIII 700e and trying it in my BH6. I found a particularly good deal on the chip, and figured that if I couldn't use it at 133MHz FSB, I could always sell it, or just run it minimally overclocked.

Good luck,

Nack

 

[Trifecta]

OK, here it goes again.

Is this the most economical choice?

NO.

The most economical choice would be to get a duron, new mobo, and a geforce2 mx.

The P3 800s are currently 200+

A radeon should cost you about 130 - 160

I have a radeon and I love it. In my P3700 it does ok. but in my Duron600@950 it absolutely dances the funky jigalo. by that I mean its really, really fast.


I just bought a P3 700 since many people have gotten these to go close to 1G and beyond.

I still see slower benchmarks and fps in almost every category.

I just helped a freind build the following system:

Duron 600 ($49)
Asus A7V ($132)
Geforce2Mx ($109)

total: 300 +/- a few bucks

HE successfully overclocked to 950. with an Alpha (available here: clickME

The system he has is fantastic, and I begrudgingly will admit that his card does as well as mine and is generally faster overall. Although I still hold that my card simply looks better.

You are currently looking at spending this:

P3 800 (220 - 250+)
Radeon (130 - 160 )

total: 350 - 400+

With what you are about to spend, you at least will be setting yourself up with a new AMD board that will support the next generation of chips that AMD is cranking out. Plus for a few bucks more, you can simply buy a Duron 700 and reach 1G almost for sure.

Not to mention, that you could always buy a Tbird and get past 1Ghz!!! NOW that will translate into faster gameplay and more satisfying bragging rights.

.02