What to upgrade?

[FabianLujan]

Hello friends,

I saved some money and decided to upgrade my system.
Today I can run most of the games in low-middle resolutions and this made me think in change my video card.

My system is:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1Ghz
384Mb RAM
Voodoo5 5500 AGP 64mb
Motherboard SY-K7VTA-B

What part of this system you think I should upgrade?

Thank you in advance,

Fabian

 

[Wolfsraider]

welcome to anandtech

the first thing i would look at is a new mobo since you are limited to a 1.4 mhz non xp processor according to here
how about an msi kt3ultra2r


then a new processor in the xp say a 2100+

and 256 mb ram more of course if your running xp then 512 ddr 2100 min

and finally remove the voodoo and get a radeon 8500 le 128mb version or a nvidia ti4200 around 120.00

from www.mwave.com

ATI RADEON 8500LE 128MB AGP (White box) $98.00 $98.00

A05-Q264-17-171762-TEST ATHLON (OEM) & DDR BUNDLES
(MSI KT3 ULTRA2RSpec; AMD ATHLON XP 2100+; KINGSTON 256MB NON-ECC PC2100; ASSEMBLE/TEST BUNDLE) $258.44 $258.44

Sub Total $356.44

mike

 

[sc0tty8]

How much you want to spend?


I shop at newegg, so my prices will be neweggs




ECS K7S5A, supports DDR and sdram 56$
AMD AXP 1600+(1.4ghz) 56$
Chaintech Geforce4 4200 "GT20" Retail 146$

Your total minus shipping is 228$,

I belive this would provide the most bang for the buck, you move up from your current mobo to this one, and you can take the ram from your old system for now. I have a ti4200 and I love it, aqnd I think you would too You would also be going form a reg. athlon to an axp, and increasing your clcok speed by 400mhz. I currently have a axp 1600+ and with my ti4200, it is quite nice for games, if I was going to upgrade soemthing in my system, it would be a faster proc. I have an MSI 745 ultra mobo, which uses the same chipset as the ECS board, I run 512ddr.

The AXP from newegg is spose to be a good stepping also from what peeps tell me.

Also, I would pick up a func mouse pad, some ice skates, and a intellimouse explorer 3a form newegg for your gaming pleasures

 

[FabianLujan]

Hello!

Thank you for your expert advice!

I forgot to mention -being a junior member- to tell you that I live in Argentina, and everything here is much more expensive.
Examples:
I was looking for prices on video cards and found:
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128mb = $219 (US Dollars)
an AMD Athlon XP 2200+ for just $240
Kingston memories starting from $50 up to 480

Today I can sell my old Voodoo5 5500 at $50, which is the best value for a used one.

Did you need anything from Argentina? I can find it, and maybe you could take advantage of our low prices -for foreign, not for me -

My mind is open for any kind of business!

There's 250 USD in my pocket to spend, and was considering the fact of get that Radeon 9000 pro.
Another shop offered my a 8500le 128 for $208, but who knows?

All the changes mentioned are quite important and radical. Your offers sounds great!.

Thank you again, and let's see what happens.

bye

 

[Quixfire]

I would upgrade the motherboard to a KT333/400 or nForce2 chipset and some nice DDR memory. You curent combo would just slow down a newer video card.

 

[FabianLujan]

Hello

I was checking new prices and today, I am much more closer to get that Radeon 9000pro than any other component.
This came because the micros, ddr memories, mobos and any other possibly and upgradeable part is too much expensive.

Do you think that replacing the oldie voodoo5 5500 by a Radeon 9000pro will slow down my system?

I understand it could be possibly, just because the 9000 could be "asking" for something unavailable in my SY-K7VTA-B.

Then, this upgrade should be done in steps; this month is the videocard, next will be the micro and so on.

Any other socket A mobo suggestions?
It should work fine until I finish my task. video/micro/mobo/memory

Thank you again to all of you

Fabian

 

[TheCorm]

You should still see a performence boost from Installing a Radeon 9000 Pro but it will mean that the CPU and Memory will be a bit of a bottleneck.

But you could then do like sc0tty8 says and get hold of a K7S5A board, they are superb value and would give you the option of upgrading just the motherboard for now (regardless of whether or not you get the Radeon 9000 Pro)

Then you could upgrade your SDRAM memory to DDR and then the processor....or vice versa!

Corm

 

[NokiaDude]

Get more Ram.

 

[TheCorm]

Get more Ram.

Depends on what OS....if it's 98 then I cannot see what this will do.....even if it's Win2k/XP then he has enough unless he is going to be doing video/image editing or a decent amount of multitasking.

Corm

 

[sc0tty8]

If you are looking for more video performance, then yes, getting a new video card will help, as the voodoo5 is like worm food,

With the new card, you got driver/tech support, and I would thinkk better compadabilities since it is a newer card.

However, your games will not run a whole lot better then they are now. If that is an axia core proc, I would be taking a pencil to the l1 bridges to unlock it, I had an axia that did 1.5ghz on air, some ppl got more out of them. With the proc running faster, and a new video card, you would have it made

 

[Icaro]

hi, I'm from argentina aswell, and I have a few very good advices for you, buy everything at mercadolibre.com, you can find great prices (look for the user "redlevel") you can get a new mobo (MSI KT3 ultra2) for U$D117, an AthlonXP 1700+ for like U$D 80, and a Shappire Radeon 9000, 128mb for U$D115.
chau!

 

[Rubberbband]

I'd definetly upgrade your video card for now. Get a 8500 or a GF4 ti 4200 depending on the price. This will give you the most performance for your dollar IMO.