Hmmmz

Tusky

I want to upgrade my pc a little bit - I cant afford to get a new PC which is probly what I should be doing so I'll ahve to settle for an upgrade.

Here are my current specs

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
512 MB RAM
GF4 Ti-4200 64 mb
40 gb HD

I have limited cash but I guess I need to upgrade my graphics card,ram and get an extra hard drive ( this is the first thing I want to get ).

If I upgrade these things will the whole system be slowed down by the processor making the upgrade not worth my while ? Also could yea reccomend a new graphics card and hard drive and a cheap place to get em ? Dont mind buying second hand!!!

J-blk

Well it depends on the kind of use you want to use the PC for... and I don't mean generalizations like games - even what type of games you mostly play matters. For example, if you play a lot of first person shooters, the CPU generally handles the "world" detail whereas the graphics card takes on the burden of rendering the action and most of the moving objects... Therefore, you should see some performance gain in getting a decent card for the system but again, unless you're replacing the CPU as well that will be a bit of a bottleneck in the long run....

As for recommendations, your GeForce 4 is a DirectX 8.0 card so you will have to get one that supports DirectX 9.0 to support the features in current generation games fully - stay away from the Nvidia FX cards up to the 5600 Ultra... The 5700 Ultra is not a bad mid-range card or you could get a 5900XT (which is the scaled down version of the full blown 5900). As for ATI, a 9600XT would be the starting point but if you can find a 9800 Pro or SE that would be much better...

As for the hard drive, you would probably want to add at least 60-80GB to what you have. I personally buy my HDs from Komplett.ie as they are much cheaper than the likes of *cough* PC World and stuff... They are generally good except for the odd time that you may need to chase them up on an order.... I'd also look in the FS section of these forums - seems like the techies here are always parting with stuff and a 60GB HD would be pretty small these days for power users...

512MB of memory should keep you going for the time being and especially if you can't upgrade the CPU, there's no point in getting better memory anyway - CPU/RAM upgrades go hand in hand really. Hope this helps somewhat...

BloodBath

How much money are you thinking of spending?

What speed is that ram?


BloodBath

Tusky

Hmm - I play all types of games but I guess mainly FPS , RPG and RTS. That did help J thanks!

AS much money as I can get Bloodbath, Maybe 100 on the harddrive and 150 on the graphics card or something , hopefully more ! Not sure what the speed is , i'll check tonight - I remember it being somewhere in the middle , mediocre.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=123179&cks=PRL ?

Tusky

ok I can get these - could someone with the know-how tell me if its an ok deal ?

- maxtor 160-GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive for 80 euro

- Radeon 9600 SE 128mb for 45 euro

good deal ?

or i could try get a nvidea 5700 le 128 mb card

silverside

Those prices are very good (for new components). the 9600se is not a brilliant card but it would probably do you unless you want to play new games like far cry/doom3 at high res. If you don't think the 9600se will cut it, keep an eye out for a 9800pro which will do just about everything, you should be able to get one for ~ 150 euro (maybe second hand).

BloodBath

I'd really advise spending the extra to get a least a 9600pro. You will really struggle with a 9600se and will have to upgrade again soon.

Maybe get an 80gig hd for now and use the extra to get a better card. You can always get another hd down the line when you need it.

Beat me to it silverside

You can get them as cheap as 110 euro on jes.


BloodBath

Sir Random

Tusky wrote:

ok I can get these - could someone with the know-how tell me if its an ok deal ?

- maxtor 160-GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive for 80 euro

- Radeon 9600 SE 128mb for 45 euro

good deal ?

or i could try get a nvidea 5700 le 128 mb card

The 9600SE is a lot slower than your Ti4200.
Tbh, you should be looking at a 9800 Pro as a decent upgrade from a Ti4200. You'll see a noticeable improvement in games, especially DX9 games and there are lots of them available 2nd hand these days. They're around €200 new.

Edit: jeez, I'm too slow.

Tusky

I thought the 9600 SE 128 mb would be much better than the gf 4 ti4200 64 mb ????

hmrz...i wont be getting it if its slower or only a teeny bit faster.... I'll keep a look out for a 9800 then. If I was looking into a Nvidia card what should I go for ? keeping in mind im on a budget !!!

BloodBath

Don't bother with nvidia cards. Only the new ones are good and they are expensive.

A 9800pro is probably your best bet. The Nv 5950 is decent too if you can pick one up cheaply.


BloodBath

Sir Random

Tusky wrote:

I thought the 9600 SE 128 mb would be much better than the gf 4 ti4200 64 mb ????

The 9600SE uses a 64bit memory interface, which cripples the cards fill rate and overall performance.

As Bloodbath said, avoid the nVidia FX range (unless you can find a cheap 5950Ultra).

Here's a good comparison of ATi's 9600/9800 cards (check the 9600SE scores )

http://www.digital-daily.com/video/ati-vga-roundup2003/

Tusky

was also ofered an Nvidia 5700 128 mb and maybe a radeon 9700 pro hrmmm

I'll keep eyes out for a 9800 though.

Thanks for all yisser help so far !!!

jesus_thats_gre

Dont touch the 5700.. The 9700 wouldnt be a bad choice if u get it cheap.

J-blk

Tusky - By now you are probably seeing that the general concesus is on the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and that's what you should probably be looking at really... BloodBath made a great point - you could always leave a bigger hard drive until later (they are getting ridiculously cheap anyway) and focus on the card. I used to have a Ti 4200 128MB and it was a great little card - especially considering it was in the low end of GeForce cards. Unfortunately, the FX series never quite matured.... I have read up on the 5700 being pretty good mid-range but again, never got to use one so maybe some of the guys here would have a more practical view on it. I currently have an ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB - with the exception of the new ATI cards and Nvidia 6800 series, this blows almost everything else away... The 9800 Pro is an earlier version but you are getting a lot of the same technology so it's well worth looking into.

pingoo

To come back to the HD, Maxtor's HDs are quiet noisy but the price is really good. If you motherboard can handle it I'll recommend SATA HD as there are really good but that's just an opinion

po0k

Also on the point of the hard-drive: does your board have a 48-bit LBA?

If not, you're not going to see more than 137GB of that 160Gig drive.

Tusky

SyxPak wrote:

Also on the point of the hard-drive: does your board have a 48-bit LBA?

If not, you're not going to see more than 137GB of that 160Gig drive.

I have no idea - but im gawna go for that drive anyway as its qutie a good price...

uberpixie

Upgrade the CPU. Socket A AMDs are dirt cheap at the mo and an 1800xp is a bit low these days if you want to play a game fairly smoothly(i.e. doom 3).

What mobo do you have? (basically what bus speed you running?)

if you have a 266mhz bus you can only go as far as a xp2400.

get at least a 2400xp. they are around €70 or so new these days and i'm sure there are people out who would like to off load a 2nd hand one for cheap.

€100 for another 512mb of ram is not a bad idea if you are going to be hanging on to your box for a while yet.( you can still get by very well on 512mb for games so dont be in too much of a rush to get it)

Def get gfx and cpu first. Will make the biggest difference in performance for games.

Tusky

Well I need a hard drive first , then graphics card. If I have money over I'll invest in a new processor and maybe some more ram ! its running at 1500 mhz I think but thats 1800 mhz when compared to pentium afaik.

TacT

get a 9800pro on the gfx card front. 9700 2nd hand if you're really stretched on cash. Get your hd then start saving for a new mobo/ram/cpu