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Will this increase performance any?

K

Kalvin00

Lifer
Hello. I was thinking of getting a new video card and some more memory, but the video card can only be PCI, because I have no AGP slots. These are my specs.

Intel CA810 Mobo
Intel Celeron 500 MHz CPU
96 MB PC100 SDRAM
Integrated Video-32MB

If I upgraded to 256 MB of RAM and got an ATI Radeon 7500 64 MB PCI video card, how much performance increase would I see, say in games like Nascar 2002?
 
i think you'd be better of a with a cheap performance bundle to upgrade mobo, processor and ram, then get a bang for buck video card
 
If I remember correctly, Nascar 2002 is very CPU bound. What I would advise is a budget XP processor (say an XP 1700+, something like $60), an nForce 2 motherboard and 256MB or so of DDR. You could use the onboard graphics which would give a performance increase, so would the processor and faster RAM. It might be a bit more than you're willing to spend though 🙁

EDIT: didn't see money comment. The above probably would be around $200 🙁
 
Yeah....well, i'm only 14 years old...I only have around $200, and my parents aren't really willing to buy a new computer (or parts, I could build one myself), they just say it's "good enough". Aren't the NForce boards pricy? I was thinking if I did get enough money to coax them into getting a new one, maybe an Asus A7V333WR Socket A mobo, Athalon XP1700+, maybe 256 MB of DDR RAM...what would be a decent-good video card? A GeForce3 TI200?
 
The onboard Intel video is notoriously poor for 3D gaming, so, yeh, that Radeon would make a definite difference. More on some games, less on others, but very noticeable in any of them. Substitute 128megs of crucial pc100 for the 32meg stick, keep the 64 meg stick, and you should be good to go. I couldn't recommend doing any more with that system. Save half of your $200 that way- there's more to life than vidgames.... and it's likely something your parents could agree with....
 
I guess that would increase performance but it doesnt help that you are running Celly 500 and thatyis by far your biggest bottle neck. If its all you need go with it though just dont expect that PCI Radeon 7500 will help much if you want to play UT 2003.
 
Well, this is just what I'm thinking, but I don't know how the others here would feel about this system, and I'm no expert by any means...but:

(This is provided that your current case and PSU are adequate. A good 300W PSU would work.)
Asus A7N266-VM mobo
Athlon XP1700+ retail
Crucial 256MB DDR 2100 RAM

You can get all 3 items above for $195 shipped from Newegg. Even using the onboard GF2 on that board would be a BIG improvement to what you have now. Then, once you've saved up a little more money ($60 according to BlueWeasel) you could get a used GF3 ti200 which would rock in that system. I'm running one right beside me now that has everything above (ti200 included) and it works great! The only difference is that it has 512MB instead of 256MB.

I certainly wouldn't invest any more money in PC100 SDRAM or a PCI video card.
 
Well, what if I upgrade to say, a 1 GHz celeron or so? Would that improve it a little? Because I don't know what kind of case this is, so I am not sure what motherboards will fit in it...and I don't want to get a new motherboard....damn, the more I think about buying a simple upgrade, the more I think it won't help. lol
 
Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Well, what if I upgrade to say, a 1 GHz celeron or so? Would that improve it a little? Because I don't know what kind of case this is, so I am not sure what motherboards will fit in it...and I don't want to get a new motherboard....damn, the more I think about buying a simple upgrade, the more I think it won't help. lol
Click to expand...

LOL!! 🙂 Well, I'm kinda in the same boat as far as upgrading. The current system I have now (1.2GHz Tbird) is running everything I want it to fine...but I do have that upgrade itch that I get every year or so. The small performance increase I would see for the amount of money I have to spend just doesn't make it worth while. I'm going to hold out until later this year and by that time, probably spend just a little more than I would now, and see a much bigger performance increase.

As for the Celeron...I don't know how much that would help you, or if it would even work. This webpage here indicates that a Celeron 533 is the fastest that board supports. Perhaps there is a BIOS upgrade that would allow for a faster processor? I would think that the 96MB RAM is a very limiting factor given the needs of todays games. I don't know anything about the Nascar game, but since it has '2002' in the name I would guess that it fairly new and the preferred minimum requirements would be at least 128MB. I'd say check out the specs on that case and PSU and see if it would handle a new mobo. If not, then save a little more until you can afford a new case. You can get a Supercase w/ a 300W for $40ish. Even though that isn't a "top of the line" case like some people think they need I've built quite a few PCs using them without any problems.

Tom
 
Yeah, I looked on the Intel website and you have to get an Intel CA815 board to get that fast Celeron processors....I'm just gonna add a 128 stick of ram, and deal with low framerates.
 
So that will take you to a total of 192MB, correct? Looking at the specs on that board it shows 2 DIMMS slots, and since you have 96MB now, I'm assuming you have a 64MB and a 32MB in now? Hopefully you'll see some improvement.
 
For some reason, I keep coming back to this thread, so I must have something to say. I seem to have a sympathetic reaction to your problem, Kalvin00.

The first thing you need is to properly identify your board, there's a whole family of ca810's with varying capabilities. Use these links-

810

810E

With that info, you'll be able to plan ahead.

I really don't understand why folks are trying to convince you that you need a whole lot of expensive new stuff to radically improve game play. Your $$ and family situation seem pretty clear to me, and your original concept is quite sound. Yeh, the agp bus is superior for graphics, but it's not a night and day difference between that and the pci bus, not at your relatively modest desires. Your onboard graphics are easily the worst of relatively late model solutions, even a GF2MX or Radeon 7000 pci would be a radical improvement, and the radeon 7500 is at the top of the reasonable solutions, all things considered. When your processor becomes the bottleneck, that will be at a much higher level of performance than you have now. If it turns out that your board is one of the late 810e's, you have some potent and inexpensive cpu upgrades available as well...

So, uhh, don't give up- keep checking the for sale/ trade forums, might get a good deal on an upgrade card, maybe a 1gig celeron if your board will handle it...
 
It's an 810, and it can only support up to 533 MHz processors, like mentioned above. I might actually save my money and go with a system like this:

Future Case H821C Mid-Tower case w/ 300 watt PSU-$39
Asus A7N266 nForce 220-D UDMA Socket A Motherboard-$76
AMD Athalon XP 1800+ Thoroughbred Socket A Processor-$79
256 MB DDR266 PC2100 DDR RAM-$58
Western Digital 40 GB 7200 RPM HD-$77
Lite-on 52x CD-ROM-$24
SONY 1.44 MB Floppy Drive-$10

...Which works out to around $370. I could just use the built-in graphics. Does this sound like a good combination to you all?
 
Originally posted by: Jhhnn
I really don't understand why folks are trying to convince you that you need a whole lot of expensive new stuff to radically improve game play. Your $$ and family situation seem pretty clear to me, and your original concept is quite sound.
Click to expand...

I didn't see anyone trying to convince him he had to spend a bunch of money. He indicated he had "around $200" and every idea/solution posted was either in that range or less. My whole point in suggestig the equipment I did was to prevent him from spending the money he does have on something that he A) can't really carry over and use when he does upgrade to newer components (i.e. PC100 RAM or an older Celeron) and B) that wouldn't really bring a performance difference to his system now.

Tom

 
Originally posted by: Kalvin00
It's an 810, and it can only support up to 533 MHz processors, like mentioned above. I might actually save my money and go with a system like this: Future Case H821C Mid-Tower case w/ 300 watt PSU-$39 Asus A7N266 nForce 220-D UDMA Socket A Motherboard-$76 AMD Athalon XP 1800+ Thoroughbred Socket A Processor-$79 256 MB DDR266 PC2100 DDR RAM-$58 Western Digital 40 GB 7200 RPM HD-$77 Lite-on 52x CD-ROM-$24 SONY 1.44 MB Floppy Drive-$10 ...Which works out to around $370. I could just use the built-in graphics. Does this sound like a good combination to you all?
Click to expand...

I've never used a Future Case (do you know what PSU it has in it?) so I can't comment on that, but I like everything else. Is that the retail version of the 1800 (so it includes the heat sink and fan)? Do those prices include shipping? I know Newegg.com has a cheaper price on the mobo ($72), CPU ($71) and RAM ($55). They also have free shipping on most of the items except the case and floppy, so if you can order from them be sure to check their prices when shopping around.

Tom
 
cheapest alternative would be to upgrade motherboard+cpu... you can get this for less then 100.
Biostar m7vkq onboard snd, onboard VGA,Lan w/ 1.3gh duron. new egg biostar mobo
maybe you be better off with a 2nd computer cost more but heck ya 2 is more useful then a single computer...

 
My god, that computer is crap. Why would you even play games on such a system? 500MHZ celery + 96mb ram is a high speed system for Word Processing not games. If you need funding ask those folks who seem to be buying 9500's like nothing and oc'ing them.
 
Future Case H821C Mid-Tower case w/ 300 watt PSU-$39
Asus A7N266 nForce 220-D UDMA Socket A Motherboard-$76
AMD Athalon XP 1800+ Thoroughbred Socket A Processor-$79
256 MB DDR266 PC2100 DDR RAM-$58
Western Digital 40 GB 7200 RPM HD-$77
Lite-on 52x CD-ROM-$24
SONY 1.44 MB Floppy Drive-$10
Click to expand...

that looks nice, if youre sure you want to spend that kind of money. Also bear in mind you'll need a new heatsink fan (unless that cpu listed is the retail version) and probably a couple of case fans... You may well be able to salvage much from your existing machine - aslong as the parents are ok with this! I expect your case and PSU would have to be replaced, due to changes in standards, but floppy for example might still be ok, probably cdrom too.

Seems a lot more than your were orginally intending to spend though, what sort of games do you play, maybe a console better option? Just a thought.
 
Originally posted by: Davegod
[ Also bear in mind you'll need a new heatsink fan (unless that cpu listed is the retail version) and probably a couple of case fans... You may well be able to salvage much from your existing machine - aslong as the parents are ok with this! I expect your case and PSU would have to be replaced, due to changes in standards, but floppy for example might still be ok, probably cdrom too. Seems a lot more than your were orginally intending to spend though, what sort of games do you play, maybe a console better option? Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Good call on the case fans....I'm used to the ones I use coming with at least one fan. According to this webpage here it doesn't appear to come with any. I definitely don't see one in the rear and it doesn't mention one in the front.

And I can't believe you suggested a console!! :Q 😉
 
Well, I bought a 256 MB stick of 133 MHz SDRAM (only $5 more than 128, COMPUSA brand). I popped out the 32 MB stick, and put in the 256 stick. Turned it on, got 2 beeps (obviously some error code, and intel doesn't list them). I put the 32 back in, it works fine. What should I do? It says guaranteed compatibility.
 
Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Well, I bought a 256 MB stick of 133 MHz SDRAM (only $5 more than 128, COMPUSA brand). I popped out the 32 MB stick, and put in the 256 stick. Turned it on, got 2 beeps (obviously some error code, and intel doesn't list them). I put the 32 back in, it works fine. What should I do? It says guaranteed compatibility.
Click to expand...

According to this page it means "parity cannot be reset"

This link shows the memory supported by your motherboard. Is what you bought on there? You might also try removing the memory and reseating it. Did you also try it in the other slot?

Tom
 
Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Well, I bought a 256 MB stick of 133 MHz SDRAM (only $5 more than 128, COMPUSA brand). I popped out the 32 MB stick, and put in the 256 stick. Turned it on, got 2 beeps (obviously some error code, and intel doesn't list them). I put the 32 back in, it works fine. What should I do? It says guaranteed compatibility.
Click to expand...

it might be a garunteed piece of sh1t
 
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