A buddy of mine swears that he is finally ready to get rid of his Dell (P4, 1.7Ghz) and put together a rig of his own.
Since he got his Dell, we have upgraded his:
Video card (some 64MB MX400) with a 9700 Pro
Memory (256 to 512, then again to 1GB Corsair Value Ram)
Hard Drive (40GB to a 120GB)
I kept on telling him (about a year ago) how one of those 64bit Sempron 3100's w/ ECS NF3 Mobo for less then $100 would be a great upgrade for him. Well, now he says he is ready, but with some budget restraints. The most demanding thing he does is play BF2 (at lowest settings with his current set-up). Since his budget is choking him, I suggested a S754 Athlon 3200+ and a Mobo (about $100), re-using his Ram (2x512MB), and re-using his HD 120GB. That would let him return his Dell to its original configuration (for his Wife to use) and take the best parts (the upgrades) over to his new rig. I figure a decent Antec case w/Antec PS (about $20 after MIR from Frys.com) and a HS/fan that I have laying around.
Here is my dillema: AGP or PCI-e? I can get a decent board with either slot within his budget. But if I go AGP he will see a good improvement now (currently he is CPU bottlenecked) and have some money on the side to find a better AGP card later (X800 Pro or something). If I get him PCI-e, I have to find a budget card that will outperform his 9700 Pro and push the budget to the limits.
Does anyone have any experience with the MSI NEO3 motherboard? It is a S754 NF4 motherboard that has PCI-e and AGR (AGP) slots. Only some cards are guaranteed to work in the AGR slot, and the Powercolor Evil Commando 9700 Pro that he has isn't one of them (although the ATI 9700 and the Creative 9700 Pro are listed).
What would be a good budget replacement for a 9700 Pro in PCI-e? A 6600 GT? A 1600 Pro?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Since he got his Dell, we have upgraded his:
Video card (some 64MB MX400) with a 9700 Pro
Memory (256 to 512, then again to 1GB Corsair Value Ram)
Hard Drive (40GB to a 120GB)
I kept on telling him (about a year ago) how one of those 64bit Sempron 3100's w/ ECS NF3 Mobo for less then $100 would be a great upgrade for him. Well, now he says he is ready, but with some budget restraints. The most demanding thing he does is play BF2 (at lowest settings with his current set-up). Since his budget is choking him, I suggested a S754 Athlon 3200+ and a Mobo (about $100), re-using his Ram (2x512MB), and re-using his HD 120GB. That would let him return his Dell to its original configuration (for his Wife to use) and take the best parts (the upgrades) over to his new rig. I figure a decent Antec case w/Antec PS (about $20 after MIR from Frys.com) and a HS/fan that I have laying around.
Here is my dillema: AGP or PCI-e? I can get a decent board with either slot within his budget. But if I go AGP he will see a good improvement now (currently he is CPU bottlenecked) and have some money on the side to find a better AGP card later (X800 Pro or something). If I get him PCI-e, I have to find a budget card that will outperform his 9700 Pro and push the budget to the limits.
Does anyone have any experience with the MSI NEO3 motherboard? It is a S754 NF4 motherboard that has PCI-e and AGR (AGP) slots. Only some cards are guaranteed to work in the AGR slot, and the Powercolor Evil Commando 9700 Pro that he has isn't one of them (although the ATI 9700 and the Creative 9700 Pro are listed).
What would be a good budget replacement for a 9700 Pro in PCI-e? A 6600 GT? A 1600 Pro?
Thanks for any suggestions.