When to Upgrade, Celeron 433, Voodoo3....

Playmaker

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
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Hello. I am wondering when you all think I should upgrade. I play mostly online games with this comp, so I need decent speed to combat lag. Here are my system specs:

Celeron 433
Abit BX6rev2
128MB Generic SDRAM
10gig 7200 rpm hard drive
Voodoo3 2000 AGP
Diamond Monster MX300
SB3100 Cable Modem

I would like to build a completely new computer and network these 2 together on the cable. How much more life do you think I could get out of this still being able to run things decently?
 

Rand

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,071
1
81
I'm running on a fairly similar system myself, albeit heavily overclocked. There is no set time when you should upgrade. I'd say keep the system as it is until you start being unable to play the games you want to at a decent speed. Once you reach that point then it's time to upgrade.

What games you play will determine when that point comes, and what you view as a playable framerate will also influence it.

Until that time you might want to try overclocking your vieo card and/or processor. Both the V3 2000 and the Celery 433 are pretty overclockable beyond their rated speed.
 

toph99

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2000
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definitly overclock the voodoo3. i have a voodoo3 2000PCI, which i was able to hit 175mhz stable. but i STRONGLY recommend going out and getting a cheap 486 heatsink fan, and screw it onto the voodoo heatsink, as you know, they get hot enough running stock speed. i also added an 80mm 34cfm intake fan to blow on it, and right now it just gets warm running at the overclocked speed
 

Playmaker

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
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Yeah I planned on OCing the vid card when I put together my system, so it already has a fan on it :) Haven't OCed it yet though. I didn't know C433s were that OCable? Any site you can recommend on it? Thanks.
 

Noriaki

Lifer
Jun 3, 2000
13,640
1
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My V3-2000 hit 175 nice and stable.
I have a slot fan screwed into the PCI bracket below my AGP slot.

That Celeron 433 is at 6.5 x 66.666666
If you hit it up for 75 or 83.33333 you get 488 or 542, you should be able to pull that OK. A 433 probably couldn't hit 100Mhz FSB for 650, but you could always try. I'm not sure what kind of settings the BX6r2 has for FSB's but there is probably something in 83-100 Mhz range you could handle.

My 550 with a V3-2k at 175 gives me about 60fps in Q3 HQ (800x600)
Granted a 550 Athlon is a fair bit faster than 542 celeron but you should be ok if you can hit 542+.
If you are worried about speed put it to a lower settting, 800x600x16 with some lower detail settings. Or 640x480 if you are really worried about speed. Keep in mind the average human eye can see somewhere between 40 and 60 Hz. So if you can keep in the 55-60Hz (FPS) range you should be fine.

If you are really worried about it, trying picking up a GF2MX for $110 bux that should give you a mega boost with HW T&L starting to take hold CPU power won't hurt you as much, but I think that system you have is pretty much fine if you OC a bit.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
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I have a very similar system to yours. I have a Celeron 500 with a V3 2000 PCI video card. I will be upgrading to a GF2 MX before the end of the year and to a Coppermine P3 700-800 sometime early next year. I will also probably get another 64 MB RAM with my new CPU to put my total RAM up to 256 MB.

You didn't mention what speed your RAM is and what fsb speeds your motherboard supports. If either of them aren't 133 MHz you may have a problem using a Coppermine P3.
 

Playmaker

Golden Member
Sep 17, 2000
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Mobo and ram are both 100mhz =( I'm bumping up the voodoo3 to 175 right now. However, I am wondering about the celeron 433. I think I'll try for 542 by bumping it to 83.333 mhz. I do have an extra case cooling fan making that too. And a fan on the voodoo if that matters for the cpu. Do think this will keep it cool enough? It is in an area near the floor enclosed on the 2 sides and back by a wood desk. Think this would be ok? Also, what is a good site that will walk me through this? I know how to do it, but I always like documentation just in case. Thanks for all your advice btw.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,954
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Your CPU may work fine at 83 FSB (esp. if you up the voltage), but I still wouldn't run it that high. Your PCI will be running at 41.5, which is an unsafe speed for hard drives and CD-RWs. Can you say hard disk crash??? :Q Personally, I would choose a bus speed that keeps the PCI bus below 39.

It's up to you to take the risk of course, but since there's no way in hell youre gonna hit 100 FSB and 80 is too high for the PCI, I'd just stick with 75 MHz.

Buy a 486 fan for the Voodoo, or else your video overclock will be unreliable after a 20 minutes of gaming.
 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
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IMHO 4 monthes ago.
heh, but seriously, Upgrade when your games run too slowly, or their is some sort of relatively HUGE change in chip prices.
I think upgrading now to a P3 650, P3 700, or similar AMD would be a nice upgrade. OC the CPU, then grab a GF2 MX and OC its memory.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
2,998
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Look how much faster the GF based boards are with slower CPUs! Amazing! I didn't realise they offloaded so much work.
 

Goi

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,766
7
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I have a Celeron 433 in my other computer too. With the stock intel HSF it would run 541MHz(83MHz FSB) quite stably, except my SCSI card would choke and die. If its taken out it runs like a charm. 488MHz(75MHz FSB) runs like a charm with all my components. If you do run it on 83MHz make sure all your other cards can take it. The V3s are known to be very resilient to high AGP speeds, but you still might need to throttle it down to 2/3 divisor if you experience instabilities.