What is the bottleneck in my system?

[AirForceElite]

Asus K8V SE Deluxe motherboard
AMD 64 3200+ @2GHz (stock speed, stock fan)
1GB RAM of PC3200 (2x 512MB...1 stick left out of 3 available)
ATI Radeon 9800PRO 128MB 128-bit AGP
80GB HD ATA-100 @7200RPM (Windows+Games+Apps+rest)
40GB HD ATA-100 @7200RPM (Documents)
LG Dual Layer DVD burner with LightScribe
350W Power Supply with no extra power cords (all taken)

I was using this sytem for 3 years already..and only month ago I did it's first upgrade by adding 1 stick of 512MB RAM..and let me tell you, this was the best thing I ever did. I thought my computer is gone...but thanks to RAM upgrade, i can still squeeze some juices out of it. Not to mention, it has been a very rock-solid system for the past 3 years. *Knocks on wood*

I do not think if I add another stick of 512MB RAM (using up all 3 slots) it will make much difference...with 1GB it flies pretty good.
So, what is it that you would upgrade? Or is everything in this system pretty much balanced out and I should not bother with it anymore?

I was thinking video card...maybe some nice and not expensive AGP video card...but then again, my 9800 PRO can pretty much handle any game I throw at it including Doom 3, Battlefield 2 and few others...of course I don't play latest games on highest settings, but I think the video card is fine as it does the required job.

Maybe CPU? But then again, if I want different CPU, then I have to get a new mobo which is too expensive for an upgrade. Or should I just buy a higher clock'ed CPU? Like 4200+?

Or should I upgrade hard drives (or at least 1 Hard drive for Windows+Games+Apps+rest)...since my drives are very slow compared to whats available in the market such as...250GB SATA2 drive for only $90. But then hard drive speed only will let me boot up faster and load games faster, won't improve much overall.

So what do you enthusiasts think? Maybe I should buy an expensive CPU Fan and somenice thermal gel and overclock this sytem since I am buying laptop anyways soon, which will replace this desktop and become main comp.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

if you are interested in vid games, then by all means upgrade the vid card. you will notice the difference. the only caveat is a good card will require an external power connector, maybe pci-e maybe 4 pin molex but definately not the floppy plug on the 9800.

 

[AirForceElite]

yeah, power supply also needs to be changed if upgrading video card.
it only has 4-pin connectors..and all of them are busy.
not to mention, my mobo is AGP + 4 PCI ...no PCE-E if thats what you meant.

 

[BigShroom]

I'd say picking up a better AGP card would be the cheapest way to improve graphics performance. Although it might require a new PSU if the one you've got isn't good quality. Here's a comparison between your 9800pro and a 6800gt, which can be had for under $100 on the FS/FT forums here.

But I'm a little unclear about what your looking for in the upgrade, better overall performance or is there something specific you would like to run better?

 

[AirForceElite]

But I'm a little unclear about what your looking for in the upgrade, better overall performance or is there something specific you would like to run better?

Hehehe...i am unclear myself.
Basically, I just want to squeeze some more juice out of this boy before. Like I said, I am getting laptop soon, which will become my main, so i am not afraid to do a little experimenting (like over clocking...which I never tried before.)

I am not much of a game person...meaning I don't go download/buy the latest game that hits the market. I still play old games like Diablo 2 and Battlefield 1942, so video processing power isnt that important because ATI 9800 handles it without any problems
...Kinda like "why fix something, when its not broken and you are satisfied with it" idea.
I am leaning towards either buying SATA hard drive, or buying CPU cooler and over clocking the CPU (both of this will cost approx. $90-100)

 

[BigShroom]

I think you're on the right track with picking up an SATA drive to replace your old IDE one's. That should make some things noticeably quicker on the cheap. Although it is a pain having to backup everything.

Do you know what core your athlon is? Probably NewCastle if it's 3 years old, which I don't think were that great of O/Cers but I may be wrong. I've got my A64 3000 Venice core@ 2.3ghz right now with the stock cooling with no problems whatsoever. Here's an article I just found when I googled "newcastle overclocking" that might be worth a read.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: AirForceElite

But I'm a little unclear about what your looking for in the upgrade, better overall performance or is there something specific you would like to run better?

Hehehe...i am unclear myself.
Basically, I just want to squeeze some more juice out of this boy before. Like I said, I am getting laptop soon, which will become my main, so i am not afraid to do a little experimenting (like over clocking...which I never tried before.)

I am not much of a game person...meaning I don't go download/buy the latest game that hits the market. I still play old games like Diablo 2 and Battlefield 1942, so video processing power isnt that important because ATI 9800 handles it without any problems
...Kinda like **"why fix something, when its not broken and you are satisfied with it"** idea.
I am leaning towards either buying SATA hard drive, or buying CPU cooler and over clocking the CPU (both of this will cost approx. $90-100)

You seem satisfied with your entire rig. 1GB flies, 9800pro handles what you need, the cpu isnt slow as if it was you would know about it. I think you should just leave it. Upgrading to SATA for performance is kind of a waste, hard drives are hard drives and a 3 year old IDE drive wont perform much slower than todays fastest drives. I use 2x160GB 7200 2mb cache drives from 3 years ago in my main rig, runs great. If you need more space then by all means go SATA if possible since its newer.

Since your system works for you, there is no bottleneck You wont see any more massive performance jumps like you saw when going from 512 to 1gb, as theres not much else to improve on, especially with older games.

 

[docinthebox]

I would get a 36GB Raptor as boot drive, and use the 80GB and 40GB IDE drives as data drives. Do a good defrag of your boot drive.

 

[Sunrise089]

I think a HD is a waste - that's the sort of part folks with brand-new builds add when they want a little something extra. For you I would either do as others say and grab a nice used AGP card (and see double the performance in game) or just add some $$$ into savings and buy that much nicer PC down the road. If you do like to game, and haven't been tempted to upgrade already, you may be served well by waiting a few more months until titles like Crysis, Quake Wars, Alan Wake, Supreame Commander, etc arrive. Alternativly, if you just want general computing, and want to be faster than your decent build, then you'll want dual-core, and that means a new MB, which means DDR-2 and PCIe, so a whole new build. So either wait or grab a 6800GT, X850XT, or good deal 7000series AGP part.

 

[cascable]

You'll wanna keep your harddrive in mind when testing for speed concerning the video drive I'd upgrade it, go with an agb.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
if you are interested in vid games, then by all means upgrade the vid card. you will notice the difference. the only caveat is a good card will require an external power connector, maybe pci-e maybe 4 pin molex but definately not the floppy plug on the 9800.

some of the 9800s had molex, some had floppy connectors

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: cascable
You'll wanna keep your harddrive in mind when testing for speed concerning the video drive I'd upgrade it, go with an agb.

?????

 

[bob4432]

about the only thing i would do is pick up a x800xtpe/x850xtpe gpu. there is a noticeable difference when going from a 9800 to one of these cards in that you can turn up the eye candy and resolution(1280x1024), which for a game like bf2 is nice, while stil being able to keep total ram usage under 1GB

but if you are already happy then leave it alone

don't change hdds unless you need the extra space. sure a newer one will probably have a higher str but that really doesn't matter much and the seek times will be nearly identical unless you went with a raptor, which for you i think would be a waste