Upgrade Advice...

[troopa]

Hi..

I will give you my basic specs :

PIII 550E
Asus P2-99 Motherboard (i think its a ZX)
128 SDRAM (RAM SLOTS FULL)
Kyro II
SBLive Value
Diamond View 15" monitor (max res 1024x768)

I have just recieved my new video card..
and im looking into upgrading a bit more the options i can see would be to :

*Upgrade my motherboard so i can possibly overclock better and also add more ram in the future
*Upgrade the monitor
*Get a whole new CPU / Motherboard / RAM combo ( i would prefer not to but if all else fails )

I just need some advice... price is an issue and there is also a possibility of upgrading at the end of the year aswell.. (yaye for christmas heheh)

Another factor is the lastability ..

Thanks in advance

 

[troopa]

anyone ???

 

[gsaldivar]

If price is an issue, why don't you start by letting us know what you are willing to spend.

That way we can recommend best bang-for-buck in your price range.

 

[Duvie]

What kind of harddrive do you have? Is it a 7200rpm? If not that is a good route to see and feel dramatic improvement...

can't go wrong in getting a 800mhz duron on kt133a mobo...should be able to get for around 150 shipped...that may be the best performance gain as the vid card you have has made the cpu the bottleneck.

 

[gsaldivar]

If you hurry, you can get a 19" Samsung monitor for $161 including shipping!

Here's the Link

I agree with Duvie - get a new CPU/Mobo, and get rid of that 15"

 

[Poncherelli]

new monitor, its what you look at the whole time you're using the computer. Dell.com has the samsung monitors real cheap if you get the 20% off w/ the $30 coupon, look in the hot deals forum for more info, but i think a 19" is like 160 dollars shipped.

 

[Razl]

Your current board is 100MHz FSB and won't allow for a much higher cpu. I'd suggest you go for a new mobo (KT133A chipset) and cpu (Duron) combo.

A new mobo for your 550E will probably will probably be about $75-$100. So why not go for a KT133A chipset board and Duron combo for around $125? You can pick up a Duron 700MHz for less than $30 - and overclock the crap out of it With a KT133A board, you can upgrade to a faster chip when budget permits. You may or maynot need to upgrade your RAM depending on what it is, preferably PC133.

If you don't mind spending a little more now for longevity, then I'd go with a AMD 761 chipset. This supports both Durons and newer 266MHz FSB supported Athlons, including the popular DDR RAM. You be able to use a Duron today and get a 1.4MHz+ Athlon in the future. You have to way your options carefully.

Good luck!