Upgrade advice

[Rebel7254]

Ok, I know a lot of you get sick and tired of giving people upgrade advice because you get constantly asked all the time. However, I do think the time you put into helping people decide is really appreciated by them and worthwhile. Having said that, here's my inquiry:

In April I'm upgrading at least CPU / RAM/ mobo Before the Barton reviews came out, I was basically dead set on going to Intel either for their 2.8 or 3.06 GHz (the latter only if the price comes down by a decent margin). However, my main concern is gaming - particularly UT2003, and the Barton performs better than the P4 3.06 GHz in the UT2003 benchmarks. Before I go any further, here are my goals with my upgraded rig:

*Excellent gaming performance
*Longevity
*As quiet as possible

I'm just afraid that if I go with the much lower clocked AMD, it won't last as long as the P4 would.....as far as being able to run all games and applications that come out in the next year and a half or so without a sweat. Also, the Athlon XP is famous for running very hot and I don't want a noisy HSF to keep it cool.

The video card I'm gonna use is the R9700 Pro by Hercules.

Also, is the 2.8 GHz P4 available with hyper-threading? Will it be?

Another thing I've thought about is getting a DDR2 mobo. I will be getting 512 MB PC3200 RAM for this rig, simply because dual channel RAM costs a fortune right now. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[thorin]

I'd say go with the Barton. As you've said it's performance is better. By April it's price will have dropped a bit. And completely seriously heat (fan noise) isn't really an issue. I'm running a 2200+ (Thoroughbred) @ home with a the retail packaged HSF and it's quiet and doesn't pass 44C under full load (avg rm temp ~18-21C).

Thorin

 

[KidChaos]

I'm just afraid that if I go with the much lower clocked AMD, it won't last as long as the P4 would.....as far as being able to run all games and applications that come out in the next year and a half or so without a sweat.

In comparing the two, clock speed is basically negligible. Comparative K7 Athlons and Pentium4s (i.e. AMD XP 2800+ vs. Intel P4 2.8) have about the same longevity.

Also, the Athlon XP is famous for running very hot and I don't want a noisy HSF to keep it cool.

The new TBred-Bs are running cooler than the old palominos. In order to be cool and quiet, get a thermalright heatsink and a quiet fan.

The video card I'm gonna use is the R9700 Pro by Hercules.

I don't know when ATi's next card will be out. Think it's called Radeon 9900 or something. If it's out by april, I would get it instead of the 9700 Pro as this appears to be a high end rig.

Also, is the 2.8 GHz P4 available with hyper-threading?

Not currently.

Will it be?

Not sure.

Another thing I've thought about is getting a DDR2 mobo. I will be getting 512 MB PC3200 RAM for this rig, simply because dual channel RAM costs a fortune right now.

No special RAM is needed for a dualDDR motherboard (motherboards with nforce2 chipset, for example). Two Corsair XMS PC3200 CAS2 memory modules would be perfect for this build.

 

[HokieESM]

Rebel.... I'm going to give you an answer many people probably won't like:

Its probably not going to matter a lot, in terms of AMD and Intel. The power rating for AMD is reasonably good (except on SSE2 apps or encoding performance), so if you buy a Barton XXX+ or an Intel P4 XXXGHz, you're probably going to be looking at similar performance. And, at least for now, similar price.

In terms of RAM, I don't think it will matter much. Expensive RAM solutions frequently only give 5% benefit (or less), unless you're incredibly bandwidth sensitive. Benchmarks (at Anandtech and other places) have shown that the Athlon XP doesn't benefit tremendously from the dual-channel RAM unless you're using onboard graphics. There are "small" improvements, but nothing drastic. Although, I'd simply buy an Nforce2 board for an Athlon, JUST because of the other features (dual LAN, good onboard sound). As far as Intel is concerned, the P4 really only opens up with good memory bandwidth. BUT, something like the i845PE gives GOOD results at lower cost. But with RAM prices being low, you can probably get a good i850E (PC1066 RDRAM) solution for a reasonable cost.

As far as noise is concerned, if that's an issue, go to Silent PC Review and do a little reading. There is NO reason that, running a non-overclocked system, you should have to resort to noisy coolers.

Best of luck to you.... I hope it goes well!

 

[Rebel7254]

Originally posted by: KidChaos
I don't know when ATi's next card will be out. Think it's called Radeon 9900 or something. If it's out by april, I would get it instead of the 9700 Pro as this appears to be a high end rig.

Well here's the situation with the video card. Right now I don't have a job, so therefore I have very little money. All of this upgrading is by the graces of my father, who himself only has to pay half price because he orders the stuff through his business. See, all my dad needs a computer for is to do a little shopping or send an email or two. If it was up to him, our computer would be like the one he uses at his business. A PII 333 MHz, 256 MB PC133 RAM, and an 8 GB hard drive. But because I'm into gaming and such, and he can get things for half price, he works with me on upgrading. Besides, I didn't ask for anything this Christmas precisely because I wanted to upgrade the PC this spring.

However, since he is half-owner of the company, it's not like the other half of the price is totally free. It required a long, persistant effort to convince him to get a GF4 Ti4400 last spring. He thinks spending even $100 for a video card is insane. And for what he needs one for, it is. He just can't justify a video card costing $350 or $400. When he got the Ti4400 he told me I better not ask for another one for at least two years.

Having said that, if I waited for R350 I would have to pay for it myself - full price. But since my birthday is this month, the 20th, I can get one now from my parents for free as a birthday present. So while I think it would be great to have the R350, I'd rather have the R300 for free.....wouldn't you? Besides, I have a nagging suspicion that the R350 won't outperform the R300 by a great margin. At least not enough for me to spend $350-$400 for it when I can get the R9700 Pro for free.

I may have to help pay him back some for this upgrade anyway this summer when I get a job. So, it's rather complicated really, but I think you get the point.

More opinions please.

 

[Rebel7254]

Bump

I guess maybe a lot of you are ignoring this post because of the title, but I would like some more opinions. Thanks.

 

[human2k]

get this:

Epox 8RDA+
Tbred XP2100
SLK800 + 80MM
Cosair 256MB PC3200 x2
Radeon 9700 Pro

No need purchasing anything faster, I doubt you can tell the difference between 300FPS and 100FPS. With the money saved, you can purchase a faster cpu/board later (logentivity)....