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Upgrades for a certain upcoming game...

PricklyPete

PricklyPete

Lifer
Ok...as with most people on this board, I'm quite excited about the upcoming release of Half-Life 2. While no one can predict what the perfect machine is for the game (although the card of choice after recent events seems to be one from ATI...other than that...it's anyone's guess). Anyway, I've gotten that upgrade fever and I'm thinking of enhancing my aging setup a bit... but don't want to spend more than $200

Here are my specs:
Athlon XP 1700+ naturally aspirited
MSI K7T Turbo 2 (VIA KT133...133MHZ FSB...but not DDR)
512 PC133 SDRAM
ATI 9800 (bios flashed to PRO running at stock PRO speeds for now)
Maxtor 7200 RPM HD
SB PCI 128
Cambridge SoundWorks (really old school highend that is starting to wear down... like 7 years old school...these should probably be in a museum...for those who want to know, this is a 2.1 setup)

So... from what I've seen with the benchmarks...I should be good to go graphics wise, but I see the following as possible options

1. New motherboard (nForce2) and 512-1GB of quality memory
2. XP 2400+, a really quiet case/PSU (antec piano black), and a quiet HSF solution
3. Audigy 2 and a new set of speakers (maybe Logitech z560s...but I'd be open to suggestions)
4. Get a comfortable chair...because my ass can't be neglected
5. Blow the money on beer and lottery tickets because Half Life 2 isn't coming out till 2004
6. Buy my girlfriend something nice and tell her that she might not here from me for a while come September 30th

I welcome any suggestions...whether completely different from the options above or some combination thereof.

Thanks.
 
Originally posted by: PricklyPete
Ok...as with most people on this board, I'm quite excited about the upcoming release of Half-Life 2. While no one can predict what the perfect machine is for the game (although the card of choice after recent events seems to be one from ATI...other than that...it's anyone's guess). Anyway, I've gotten that upgrade fever and I'm thinking of enhancing my aging setup a bit... but don't want to spend more than $200

Here are my specs:
Athlon XP 1700+ naturally aspirited
MSI K7T Turbo 2 (VIA KT133...133MHZ FSB...but not DDR)
512 PC133 SDRAM
ATI 9800 (bios flashed to PRO running at stock PRO speeds for now)
Maxtor 7200 RPM HD
SB PCI 128
Cambridge SoundWorks (really old school highend that is starting to wear down... like 7 years old school...these should probably be in a museum...for those who want to know, this is a 2.1 setup)

So... from what I've seen with the benchmarks...I should be good to go graphics wise, but I see the following as possible options

1. New motherboard (nForce2) and 512-1GB of quality memory
2. XP 2400+, a really quiet case/PSU (antec piano black), and a quiet HSF solution
3. Audigy 2 and a new set of speakers (maybe Logitech z560s...but I'd be open to suggestions)
4. Get a comfortable chair...because my ass can't be neglected
5. Blow the money on beer and lottery tickets because Half Life 2 isn't coming out till 2004
6. Buy my girlfriend something nice and tell her that she might not here from me for a while come September 30th

I welcome any suggestions...whether completely different from the options above or some combination thereof.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Do 1, 2 and 4 but instead of the XP 2400 get the XP 2500. You get the Barton core, 512k cache and 333MHz FSB as opposed to the Thoroughbred core, 256k cache, 266MHz FSB.
 
I'd go with with 1 keep you cpu and overclock that bad boy to the max, but if you can afford a new cpu then get the xp2500+ I've got one and it oc's nicely to 2.075 ghz with stock hsf & voltage.
 
The 2500 probably would not be a bad idea...just to clarify...I was only going to do one of the options (only want to spend around $200)
 
Originally posted by: newbiepcuser
Why the Audigy 2 when the new Audigy 2z or something like that is out. There isn't going to be much of price difference.
Click to expand...

Didn't know there was a new one. I really would not be set on a Creative card...just an improvement to my current sound setup to get a "richer" ingame experience.
 
The XP2500 processor/NF2 mobo would be around $180 but you would still need memory (2 x 256MB PC2700 from newegg.com is around $47/each for decent quality memory) so that would put it out of your price range. That would give you the biggest gaming increase in performance though. NF2 has decent onboard audio. If you could strech your budget a bit to $270 (+shipping of course) I would recommend the above combo.
 
mobo/ram oc the 1700+, so get a good hs/f: all that should bring you to around 200 bucks

my 1700+ is a tbred A doing 2145mhz with a sk7 and panaflo H1A

 
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