Should I upgrade my PC ?

[Benzoid]

This is a custom built rig Im not sure how its built as I got someone else to do it for me :)

Ill post my exact com stats when i get back to my real com ( Im away now :S ) but heres the rundown

Motherboard: Intel 845 GBV ( I heard its ReAL bad )
Processor : Intel 2.4 ghz
Graphic Card: Leadtek GeForce 4 Ti4400 128 mb
Ram : 1 stick 512 mb ram ( not sure wat pc it is and at wat mhz it runs at [ btw can someone explain to me how does pc2700 or pc3200 affects the ram and the diff between 333mhz and 400 mhz ? :D )
I got a 80 GB harddrive and a lousy sound card ( somewhere from creative but im not much into sound )

I run ground control 2 fine with high settings as well as battlefield 1942 ( Its mods Forgotten hope and Desert combat however are playable with certain lagginess in heavy fire fights online ).

Is my graphic card on par with the GFX 5200-5700 sets and if not then how far am I lagging behind ? Im planning to wait till the end of year untill the prices drop and get a new Mboard , 1 more stick of ram and a new graphic card. I dun think I need to upgrade my processer but if I should tell me what I should get.

Thanks :)

[wayout44]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

First of all is what FSB that CPU runs?

The difference between those two memory ratings is the speed that they're rated to run at.

The GF4 Ti4400 is faster than the FX5200 but just below the FX5700 though its a DX8 card where as the other 2 are DX9.

[Benzoid]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

Thanks :) Btw how to check what FSB my CPU runs from ? And does 2.8 ghz to 3 ghz make a HUGE difference from 2.4 ghz ?

[wayout44]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

The FSB should be stated in the BIOS but is it HyperThreading enabled?

Yes the speed difference will be noticable.

[amd_man2005]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

Having a 2.4 on the 845 chipset would not be able to run with HT as far as I can remember, since the 845 doesn't do 800FSB

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

I'd say the video card is the bigger bottleneck anyway. A 2.4B (or 2.4A, for that matter) can take advantage of more powerful cards than a Ti4400. Upgrading to at least a 9800 Pro would be a great start. If you are going to upgrade anything else, it will require a full replacement as upgrading the CPU would mostly be a waste of money, unless it meant a new motherboard and RAM (or, in other words, replacing the system instead of upgrading).

Could you tell us your budget so we can give better advice on what you should upgrade?

[Benzoid]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

Im waiting for the end of the year to upgrade ( prices might drop :) )

My budget will be around 800 Singaporean dollars ( equivalent to 370 US dollars thereoff , ill sell off any parts which im replacing ) .

Processer : Intel Pentium 4 2.40 GHz ( From northwood)
Revision C1
Insrtuctions : MMX ,SSE,SSE2
Clocks : Core speed 2399 mhz
Multiplier x18
FSB 133 mhz
Bus speed 533 mhz
L2 cache

Mainboard : Intel D845 GBV
Rev A1
Chipset Intel i845

AGP

Revision 2
Data transfer rate 4x
Aperture size 256 mb
Side band Addressing Enabled

For Ram:

Size 512 DDR -SD ram pc 2100 - 2x256 mb DDR-SD ram
Frequency 133 mhz
FSB:Dram = 1:1

Edited :

It does not have HP enabled
Also the processer name for some reason is P4P(Northwood) Pentium 4 C 130nm 1.6-3.4 ghz 1.475v-1.575v ( when i chcked under SiSandra )

[Benzoid]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

Sorry , 800 Singaporean dollars is equivalent to 470 dollars , my mistake

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

I don't know how Singapore's prices compare to the United States', but I'd say a GeForce 6800 would be a good place to start. That goes for between $280 and $300 U.S., but it should keep going down.

Beyond that, I'd need to know Singaporean prices. If you were in the U.S., you would be looking at selling the RAM, motherboard, and processor and replacing them with a socket 754 Atlhon 64 setup (using PC3200 RAM instead of PC2100). That will start at about $300 U.S., but again, it may be different for you. I think after selling all of the stuff you are replacing (video card, RAM, motherboard, and CPU, possibly power supply), you should be able to afford all of that.

I'm pretty sure Intel boards don't overclock, and 2.4Bs don't have hyperthreading.

Edit: Well if it's that much, you'll certainly be able to afford everything.

[Benzoid]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

For a GeForce 6800 ( non GT ) its only around 560 dollars. For a GeForce 6800 GT its around 850-900 dollars. End of the year hoping the GT drops down to 400-500 sing dollars :)

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

I doubt it will drop that much, even over here. I'd suggest you stick with a regular 6800 if you can't afford the GT by then. It might drop as low as the 500 dollar range (more likely 600 or 700, though), but anything less would be highly unlikely. How much are Athlon 64 and socket 754 motherboard for you?

[Benzoid]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

Ill look up newegg ( singapore has no mass retailers )

Supported CPU: Socket 754 AMD Athlon64 Processors
Chipset: VIA K8T800 + VT8237
FSB: 800MHz
RAM: 2x DIMM for DDR400/333/266 Max 2GB
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS/2,2xCOM,1xLPT,1xLAN,2xUSB2.0,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: C-Media 5.1-Channel AC97 Codec
Onboard LAN: VIA VT6103 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x SATA 150, RAID 0/1
Form Factor: ATX

That should be around 110 singapore dollars for me. Thats the cheapest. The most expensive one is this one :


Supported CPU: AMD Athlon64 Processors
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce3 250
RAM: 3x DIMM for DDR400/333/266 Max 3GB
IDE: 2x ATA 133 by nForce3 250, 2x ATA 133 by GigaRAID IT8212 RAID 0/1/0+1/JBOD up to 8 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 4X/8X, 5x PCI, 1x DPS
Ports: 2xPS/2,2xCOM,1xLPT,2xLAN,6xUSB2.0(Rear 2),Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC850 7.1-Channel Codec
Onboard LAN: Marvell 8001 GbE + ICS 1883 10/100Mbps
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x SATA by nForce3 250, RAID 0/1/JBOD; 2x SATA by Sil3512, RAID 0/1
Onboard 1394: T.I. IEEE1394b controller, 3 Ports
Form Factor: ATX

That will cost near 300 SGD and I prob wont buy it.

Should I buy one with HyperTransport Bus for the FSB ?

Supported CPU: Socket 754 for AMD Athlon 64 Processor
Chipset: SiS755 + SiS964
FSB: Hyper Transport
RAM: 2x 184-pin DIMM for DDR400/333/266/200 up to 2GB
IDE: 2x UltraDMA 133 up to 4 devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI, 1x CNR
Ports: 2xPS/2,8xUSB(Rear 4),1xCOM,1xLPT,1xRJ45,Audio ports
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC655 6-Channel AC'97 CODEC
Onboard LAN: Realtek RTL8201BL 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet PHY
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x SATA 150, RAID 0/1
Form Factor: ATX

or should I take this ?

Supported CPU: AMD Socket 754 Athlon64 Processors
Chipset: VIA K8T800 + VT8237 CD
FSB: 1.6GHz Front Side Bus
RAM: 2x DIMM for DDR400/333/266 Max 2GB
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X/4X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS/2,2xCOM,1xLPT,8xUSB2.0(Rear 4),1xLAN,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: VIA VT1616 6-Channel AC97 Audio
Onboard LAN: VIA VT6103 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x Serial ATA, RAID 0/1
Form Factor: ATX

[Benzoid]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

Im also looking to buy a new HDD. By selling all my parts I dont think I need to buy a new PC ( or i might lol ). Im hoping to buy a 250 gb hdd 7200 rpm should be ok , cost about 270 dollars now.

[Benzoid]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

As for processors I dunno which one to buy or if I should even get a new processor ( if I buy a mboard that only supports Athlon 64 poccessors then i guess i gotta get a new 1 ).

btw how do I check my PSU ??

Ill definitely be destroying my 2 sticks of pc2100 ram and getting pc3200 ones ( 2x512 prob )

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Should I upgrade my PC ?

I'd suggest you get the Chaintech VNF3-250. It's one of the best socket 754 motherboards there is and is very cheap. You will certainly want to get this and a new Athlon 64 (maybe a 2800 or 3000 since you're on a fairly tight budget) because your current CPU (and anything you could upgrade it to, which would be wasted money anyway) can't even begin to take advantage of a video card like the GeForce 6800, and you'll get fairly bad performance in most games even with the 6800. Upgrading your RAM with that CPU and motherboard would also be pointless because the CPU can't take advantage of that, either. If you are going to upgrade, you'll need an all-out motherboard, CPU, RAM, and video card replacement.