Worth upgrading?

[Shawn]

Here are my system's specs:

Pentium 4 3.06GHz w/ HT (533MHz bus)
Asrock P4V88 Motherboard
1GB (2x512MB) of Dual Channel DDR400
Radeon 9600 Pro w/ 256MB ram
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
Hauppauge PVR-350 TV Tuner Card
WD 320GB 3mb/s SATA Hard Drive (though the motherboard only supports 1.5mb/s)
WD 300GB PATA Hard Drive
WD 200GB PATA Hard Drive
Maxtor 200GB PATA Hard Drive
Lite-on 16x DL dvd burner

Basically my system's two weaknesses are the lack of ram and the video card. I was considering replacing the video card but all of the new cards are pci-e which my motherboard doesn't support. If I decided to get an AGP card then I can't use it when I finally do decide to upgrade my motherboard.

The same is true for the ram. I could upgrade to 2-3GB but then I wouldn't be able to use the ram in a new motherboard either because all of the new boards use DDR-2 now.

This really sucks because I wasn't planning on a major upgrade for quite some time. I really need the ram though for Vista. Should I just upgrade the ram and hold off on the video card until my next major upgrade? I don't game at all but Vista says that my video card is the weakest component. Not sure if I'd see any increase in speed in vista or not with a faster video card. The other reason I was considering upgrading the video card is the fan is broken and it is really loud. :-/

My other concern is if I got a new motherboard I wouldn't be able to use all of my hard drives since motherboards now only come with 1 IDE channel. I would have to buy an expansion card or something. Then of course I would have to change out the processor too.

Are the new dual core processors really that much faster than the cpu I have now? What about running my hard drive at 3mb/s as opposed to 1.5mb/s? I don't play games but I do multitask a lot. I also use this system as a media center computer and PVR to record tv shows.

 

[Shawn]

I just came across this video card. Would this be a significant upgrade over my current video card? Would Aero perform better? It has DDR3 ram and it's only $110 after rebate.

 

[Bobthelost]

Do you really need Vista?

For the GPU fan, take it off and cable tie a case fan on. Depending on how pretty you want it to look it takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 45.

You can just get a PCI IDE card, they don't cost much either, i wouldn't use it as a reason to not upgrade but do think about it in future.

Core 2 Duo CPUs are much more powerful than your P4. However do you need that speed? Do you max out your CPU? If not then upgrading (the CPU) won't make any difference at all. I'm using a semperon 3000+ here, it's more than i need for a similarish job.

Ignore the crap about SATA vs SATAII, it's marketing bullshit for home users. Newer drives are faster drives but that's about all you can say, the fastest SATA drive uses the 1.5gbps interface not the 3.0gbps interface, should tell you something.

The 6800 line is a good one, it should be a noticalbe improvement over your current one. No idea how aero will perform with it or if it's worth it to you.

 

[Oyeve]

Dude, you will see a huge improvement with that card. I would hold off on any major upgrades until Vista and DX10 cards show up. But that is a good card and you will see a huge improvment over the 9600 card. See if you can get one used for cheaper. Also, look around the forum, maybe you can find a couple of sticks of DDR for cheap. Then when all the new crap comes out and stablizes in the next few months you can do a major upgrade. Your system is pretty good right now except for the 9600.

 

[HGC]

Oyeve makes a great point, given your needs sounds like it may be the way to go. Another approach is what I did. I was also stuck in AGP and had a Radeon 9600XT. I decided to keep my RAM to avoid the harsh DDR2 prices and upgrade to socket 939. You can see the specs of my new system below. I bought a new power supply, video card, motherboard, and processor, 1-2 parts per month until I got there. Now I'm happy and glad I didn't throw more money at AGP.

Btw, I was pleasantly surprised at the difference the faster dual core processor made. I previously had an Athlon XP-M 2600+ clocked to 3500+ levels. I expected gains in multi-tasking but was surprised to find how much snappier my whole system is regardless of the task.

 

[Oyeve]

Before my current system I had a P4 3ghz Prescott, 2gb ram, 2 TB of storage (6 hds, still use em) and a 9800 Pro. System ran great until HL2 and BF2. Didnt want to go the whole "new everything" route. Found a great deal (at the time) on an ATI X800 XT card and dude, even tho the 9800 Pro was a great card for its time, going from that to the ATI X800 XT card was like night and day. The card ran HL2 and BF2 with everything turned up on high! Of course the LCD I was using at the time would only do 1280x1024, but still, games ran great. So I definately suggest (unless you want to do a full blown upgrade with first gen core 2duo mobos) get a kickass AGP card used. Your system is pretty decent now. I regret selling my old P4 system a coupla months ago. Especially the X800 XT card. I loved that baby and it actually cost more now than whenI bought it originally!

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Shawn
This really sucks because I wasn't planning on a major upgrade for quite some time. I really need the ram though for Vista. Should I just upgrade the ram and hold off on the video card until my next major upgrade? I don't game at all but Vista says that my video card is the weakest component. Not sure if I'd see any increase in speed in vista or not with a faster video card. The other reason I was considering upgrading the video card is the fan is broken and it is really loud. :-/

i would be SHOCKED if your video card couldn't handle Vista. i'm aware it's supposed to have fancy effects and be fairly bloated, but if your video card can't handle it, then the vast majority of users - who have crappy onboard video (or even crappier laptop video cards) - will simply be unable to use Vista. now, MS has done stupid things in the past, but it's not going to limit itself to the less than half of the market that has powerful video cards.

if the fan is what bugs you, you can buy a replacement HSF on newegg for that video card for much cheaper than a new video card. since you're not a gamer, until you decide to do a full upgrade of your system, your money would be better spent on other components.

Originally posted by: Shawn
My other concern is if I got a new motherboard I wouldn't be able to use all of my hard drives since motherboards now only come with 1 IDE channel. I would have to buy an expansion card or something. Then of course I would have to change out the processor too.

Are the new dual core processors really that much faster than the cpu I have now? What about running my hard drive at 3mb/s as opposed to 1.5mb/s? I don't play games but I do multitask a lot. I also use this system as a media center computer and PVR to record tv shows.

yeah, the IDE thing might be an issue if you upgrade the motherboard. you'd probably be limited to two IDE devices (master/slave) without some kind of adapater, which would be unfortunate.

having said that, yes, the new dual core CPU's are much faster than what you have currently. having 2 cores very noticeably improves multitasking and the core 2 duo's absolutely blow away (even in single threaded applications) your current CPU. video and audio encoding will be much faster and you'll be able to use your system lag-free as those encoding tasks run in the background.

if your current CPU speed seems fine, then your money would be better spent on more RAM (incidentally, i'm selling some in the thread in my sig). winXP already hogs a lot of RAM and Vista will probably be a lot worse. 1GB will run ok, but 2GB would be ideal. if you're not happy with your CPU speed, then you might want to look into getting a new core 2 duo system (CPU, RAM, mobo) because you WILL see a big difference in performance (especially if you OC).

 

[ForumMaster]

it is worth upgrading atleast the graphic card. the RAM is sufficient but the graphic card would make a bigger improvment in games.

 

[happy medium]

Look at my system below same as yours with a better video card. Just grab a 6800gt from the fs/ft forums for 100 bucks or so is what I would do. Look at this one for 130.00$ it will smoke the 6800xt you had there.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=45&threadid=1910860&enterthread=y

 

[HGC]

FYI, the Asrock board in my system (listed below) has two IDE channels, so you can connect three PATA hard drves and a DVD burner.

 

[shortylickens]

Your system is NOT lacking memory. I dont know where all this BS came from about 2 gigs being required but its stupid.

I have only seen one instance where a fellow had 2 GB and claimed it was required. He was running a BF2 server and I dont think it even mattered then.
I have seen plenty of folks do the same with 1GB and it worked very well.

However, your video card has been less than top of the line for many years now. You should have upgraded that LONG before you got the gig of RAM.

NOTE: I understand that some digital content creation workstations might make use of 2 or 4 gigs, but it didnt look like that was an issue for the OP.

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Dude, you will see a huge improvement with that card. I would hold off on any major upgrades until Vista and DX10 cards show up. But that is a good card and you will see a huge improvment over the 9600 card. See if you can get one used for cheaper. Also, look around the forum, maybe you can find a couple of sticks of DDR for cheap. Then when all the new crap comes out and stablizes in the next few months you can do a major upgrade. Your system is pretty good right now except for the 9600.

wait ... for DX10, helll no you didn't say that. you can barely play BF2 with good quality settings on a 9600 Pro. man I swear an X800 Pro can torture a 9600 anyday. DX10 will not be for a long time man.

if you want to keep the mobo, get a 16 pipeline video card for under 200 USD.

otherwise dump the configuration and get a conroe 1.8GHz chip and a 7600 card to start out with

9600 is like 2 generations old, man, do the xxxx series or the xxx series of the Radeon or Geforce 6 class for video cards, but dump the 9K card if you want to see the way better stuff.

the cpu is nice, but that was 3 years ago, buddy. get a new motherboard if you want to upgrade and c better stuff come alive.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: fire400

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Dude, you will see a huge improvement with that card. I would hold off on any major upgrades until Vista and DX10 cards show up. But that is a good card and you will see a huge improvment over the 9600 card. See if you can get one used for cheaper. Also, look around the forum, maybe you can find a couple of sticks of DDR for cheap. Then when all the new crap comes out and stablizes in the next few months you can do a major upgrade. Your system is pretty good right now except for the 9600.

wait ... for DX10, helll no you didn't say that. you can barely play BF2 with good quality settings on a 9600 Pro. man I swear an X800 Pro can torture a 9600 anyday. DX10 will not be for a long time man.

if you want to keep the mobo, get a 16 pipeline video card for under 200 USD.

otherwise dump the configuration and get a conroe 1.8GHz chip and a 7600 card to start out with

9600 is like 2 generations old, man, do the xxxx series or the xxx series of the Radeon or Geforce 6 class for video cards, but dump the 9K card if you want to see the way better stuff.

the cpu is nice, but that was 3 years ago, buddy. get a new motherboard if you want to upgrade and c better stuff come alive.

Dude, I didnt say for HIM to wait for Vista and DX10. I said I would hold off any MAJOR updates until then. Key word being "I". As I stated before the x800 or equivalent would spank the 9600 card and that is what I reccomended in a couple of posts.