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What upgrades should I get for better gaming?

1

1776

Junior Member
Howdy guys,

I've got about $400 to spend upgrading my PC. I'd like to be able to run some of the newer games with better resolutions. I was hoping you could look at the summary of stuff I've got right now and suggest where I could get the most gaming bang for my buck as far as upgrades go. Thanks!

Shuttle AN35-Ultra Socket A mother board
AMD Athlon XP 3200 Barton 400MHz FSB Socket A Processor
ATi RADEON9100 128M DDR video card
Creative Audigy 2 Platinum sound card
1 Gig (2 512 sticks) of crucial pc3200 ddr sdram
1 300 gig western digital 7200 rpm / 8meg cache hard drive
2 300 gig Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm /8meg cache hard drives
NEC dual layer DVD burner
Windows XP pro
 
depending on how good ur display is, i would say throw it into a new video Card. and maybe a new processor, you can slplit the 400 between the 2 and have a machine that will run pretty much every game at decent quality
 
I've got a nice LCD monitor, DELL 2100FP.

How do I tell what processors and video cards will work with that motherboard?

When I built this thing I just ordered all of the parts exactly as specified from a system building guide off some website, so I'm pretty ignorat wrt to hardware.

I don't want to buy something that I won't be able to install in the thing.

Would this be a good video card to get?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130274

Thanks for the reply!
 
Here is the CPU support list for your mobo,(excellent board btw, I loved mine) but it looks like you are maxed out on that. If you wanna upgrade your CPU to the next level, your gonna need a new board.

Since your CPU probably cannot be upgraded further, I would dump all the money into the video card. You will need an AGP card because your board does not support PCI Express.

 
Originally posted by: BucsMAN3K
I would upgrade your mobo to socket 939 and PCI-e

eVGA Geforce 7600GT 256-P2-N555-AX Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130284

Asus A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131569


AMD Athlon 64 3000+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103537

That will come to just around $400. But if you could squeeze another $100, you could go for a 7900 or x1800xt
Click to expand...


This is a solid upgrade path for you and the amount of $$ you have to spend. I like the Athlon 64 CPU, but you need to understand that a new socket is coming out in the near future and the 939 platform will be going away. You could go for a Socket 754 motherboard and Athlon 64 CPU instead. AMD will be supporting this platform longer than the 939 and you can save some money going the the 754 platform. Just make sure you get a motherboard that supports PCI-e 16 and not AGP.

Good Luck!
 
Originally posted by: BucsMAN3K
I would upgrade your mobo to socket 939 and PCI-e

eVGA Geforce 7600GT 256-P2-N555-AX Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130284

Asus A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131569


AMD Athlon 64 3000+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103537

That will come to just around $400. But if you could squeeze another $100, you could go for a 7900 or x1800xt
Click to expand...

Good call. That MB lists a 24 pin PSU connector, the OP's PSU will be 20 pin. IIRC, some set-ups will work with a 20 pin PSU on a 24 pin MB connector, but I would think YMMV.

This also brings up the OP's PSU. Regardless of it being 20 pin, will it be up to the task at running his new CPU and video card? I would say there is a reasonable chace it would be ok, but you know what they say when you assume.

OP, what power supply do you have? What is the +12V rated at?
 
Good call on the power supply ... I was at a store thinking I would just get a new AGP video card and call it a day. I had just about bought the thing when I noticed it required a minimum 400 watt ps, mine is the one that came with my antec case. It is 350W and 16A at +12V.

AT this point I don't think just a video card upgrade is going to get me what I want, so I'm going to go with the MB, proc, and vidcard route. I guess I'll need a new power supply for these new video cards too.

WIll my current memory sticks be fine with recent motherboards?

Thanks a lot for the help.

edit: here's the card I was looking at

http://www.bfgtech.com/7800GS_256.html



they say it needs

"A minimum 400W system power supply (with 12V current rating of 20A or more)"

 
BTW, since I'm getting a little wild here I think I'll up my budget a little bit to $550-$600.

So my task now is to pick out the following:

MB
Processor
Vid Card
Power Supply

hopefully all stuff that will fit in my current case (Antec Solution SLK3700AMB).



 
Your current RAM should work with any of the AMD processors and motherboards that have been suggested.

Also, the 350 Watt Antec PSU should be able to power the new hardware just fine.
 
This thread has a 400W sparkle unit for $36.50 shipped.

I think it is this unit on Newegg, which lists dual 12V rails, rated at 18A each. This should be fine for your rig.

It looks just like the Fortron PSU, although it's specs match up with the 450W unit instead of the 400W. Link
 
3200+ is quite decent though, only thing you really need is a good video card. too bad that psu is limiting you. maybe drop down one level video card for one that will work iwth your psu. i think your 3200+ can last a little longer before you jump for a total upgrade. that way you can make the full jump when dual cores are more standard and cheap. i just think its a bad time to buy cpu's now as soon there will be dual cores across the board. i'm still running a barton 2.2ghz~3200+ 6600gt. personaly i think u should just get a good seasonic psu and get the video card and coast alittle longer with that system. its too early to toss it unless youve gotta output uber resolution to some monster lcd. seasonic is nice and silent, gives you options for quiet when doing a full upgrade later.
 
Originally posted by: 1776
BTW, since I'm getting a little wild here I think I'll up my budget a little bit to $550-$600.

So my task now is to pick out the following:

MB
Processor
Vid Card
Power Supply

hopefully all stuff that will fit in my current case (Antec Solution SLK3700AMB).
Click to expand...

If your willing to spend a bit more money, then a 3200+ , a 7900GT or x1800xt gfx card, and a 400-500W(I would suggest) PSU would get your where you need to go as far as gaming. That would run around 600+ dollars.


 
Update for those who are interested:

I decided to put the major upgrade on hold. I ended up getting a geforce 6600, which while not great compared to what's available, is still way better than what I have now.

I'll sock away a little more and at the end of the year build a completely new system.

Thanks for the advice guys.
 
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