Which upgrade would be best?

[Agamar]

I have a P-III 667 on a Abit BE-6 (that means I am running on an overclocked bus) w 512M PC133 and a V3 3500TV. I am looking at upgrading in the next few months. I can only spend around $200. What would be better:

*New motherboard / Low end CPU, along with buying all new DDR ram (This is by far the most expensive, prob out of my budget)
*New Celeron 1.1 gig with slot 1 converter?
*Some Geforce card or ATI and buy a separate TV-Tuner

Which of these would be the best for the new games that will be coming out this year. I am talking about the next gen FPS type games...I never run higher than 1024x768...but I want that res to look really good.

 

[Migroo]

Very good question. I am in the same boat: P3-667 + ATi Rage 128 Fury...

As games seem to be your requirement, I would say a graphics card. You have a good CPU there and I think the V3 is probably the bottleneck in your system, therefore a GFX card upgrade would yeild best results.

 

[Agamar]

Well, I guess that would be the best route...I wonder how long it will be before those Ti500's come down Guess I need to wait a while....Would a MX-400 be the better deal?

 

[AMDPwred]

Yep, I would also say video card. One of the new GF3 TI200s can be had for under $200.

 

[Migroo]

To be honest, theres not much point going for a really fast graphics card if you keep your existing CPU.

Think about it, a Ti500 would just be waiting around for the CPU all the time. Also if you bought a Ti500, the CPU would be the major bottleneck.
There is never any point upgrading past the point where a component stops being the bottleneck (unless there are more features), as it wont increase performance.

If I were you I'd go for an MX-400 like you suggested. Either that or a Radeon 64mb DDR (1st gen Radeon)

 

[Agamar]

Well, if I can find a Ti200 for cheap, I will get it. What about the Visionteck G2 GTS from Newegg? How good would it be for my machine? Would the Ti200 be overkill (Since, if I get this, I won't be upgrading the old motherboard for a while).

I have also looked at the Kyro II. Would it be a good choice for my machine vs the G2 GTS?

 

[wluk]

if you have $200 to spend you can get a althon 1600+ & ecs k7s5a combo here for under $200.

 

[Agamar]

I thought about that, but wouldn't I need to get 512M DDR to replace my SDRAM for that to work..I also would have to get a new powersupply (I only have a 250W sparkle)

BTW..I have narrowed my search down to 3 video cards... My fav is the AIW Radeon 32M DDR from NewEgg..It is about $150. The other is the Visiontek G2 GTS 32M DDR. I don't think I can afford both the Ti200 and a TV card at the same time.

 

[wluk]

do ecs k7s5a support sdram? a power supply upgrade can't be avoided you have to do it eventually. i am going to upgrade my case and PSU this week and get a new mb and cpu combo a week or two after(until the price of althon xp drops a little bit).

 

[Migroo]

Agamar, I'd go for the AIW Radeon

 

[Mookow]

The ECS K7S5A does have 2 SDR RAM slots, along with 2 DDR RAM slots.

 

[mikeyd]

I have the AIW Radeon and it works great. You will definately see a performance increase from your old video card and you also get all the cook AIW features built in.

 

[Agamar]

Well, I think I have made up my mind... I can get the GTS-V from newegg for $70 shipped, and a ATI TV Wonder PCI from another place for $69 shipped. That adds up to be less than the AIW Radeon 32M, plus the next upgrade I won't have to buy another TV tuner card. Is there anything I should know about this combo with WIN2K?