What's path should i take to upgrading this system?

[erikiksaz]

my system is currently composed of:

cel550
soyo 6vba
128 megs of ram
elsa tnt2 (non ultra)
mx300
20 gig western digital
cdrw, cdrom

and my bro and sis asked me what i want for xmas. what should i do? i really wanted a duron at 1ghz, but then i would need to get a new mobo which costs around 130. great, so that's 200 bucks, too much. what else can i get? i'm thinking of getting a radeon, so i could play games nicely at lower resolutions ( i usually play at 800x600 on my 15 in monitor). right now games like nolf and hitman are giving me around 25-30 fps, will the ddr radeon help boost the fps? or will my celeron slow down the card?

and hell, if i don't get the computer upgrade, i might get a dreamcast. shenmue sounds really interesting.

 

[frover2000]

I think your best bet is to go with a radeon...or possibly a gf mx they can be had for relatively little coin.

 

[crapito]

a faster CPU or video card are your best bets. I would go for a Celeron 566/600 and overclock it to 850+ (~$80 shipped), or a Radeon/Geforce2 GTS video card (~$150 shipped), depending on how much you (or your family) wants to spend.

is that motherboard the Soyo 6VBA133, btw? if so, you should get a new motherboard first. I had one of those, but it's now in my wife's computer. since it's the earlier VIA Apollo133 (non-A) chipset, it has some serious memory bandwidth issues. it's a great board overall, but not for a gamer. my much older Abit BH6 motherboard was much faster in FPS games like HL, Q3A, UT, etc... any upgrades would be wasted on that motherboard.

 

[erikiksaz]

crap crap crap. it is the 6vba133. darn, are there any new flashes that could fix the memory problems? i guess the radeon should be able to hold me down until i get a new 1ghz duron and mobo. hmm, darn, that fsaa does look good on the v55k though.

 

[imhotepmp]

A ddr radeon is around $150 shipped
I would get a mx(~100 shipped)
and a cel533 or 566(around $90)

You only be spending around $40 more for a cpu and video upgrade as compared to just getting the radeon. Plus there isnt much of a difference in the performance between the mx and the radeon to warrant the price difference. IMHO

imhotep(MP)

 

[erikiksaz]

hmm, i wanted to get a duron though. don't the celeron's run pretty darn crappy compared to the durons? well anyways, i dont know if the gforce mx will last me until next year. i've found a geforce 2 gts for 150, that should be good.

 

[chiwawa626]

you could get a cheap epox duron board that supports overclocking

 

[nickburns]

get a hooker, hell get two