Best upgrade for this system

jonski

Hi , me again .

Right first off , what do I use my PC for ?.
I use it to play games mostly , after that it does a bit of browsing and a bit of photo organising . It is on about 12 hours a day .

What have I got ?
I have a p4 2.2 478, I gig of pc 2700 ram , 1 400 gig HD + 1 120 gig , Sound blaster live value , dell ati 128 meg 9800 pro , the older 350 ver , a 450w generic psu , dvd+r and philips cd rw , and all this running on an Abit IS7 mobo .

What I think . ( and this is based on , absolutely nothing )
If I bought a Northwood p4 3.0 478 it would allow me to up the FSB to 800 ? , and this would somehow give me a noticable increase for the likes of playing BF2 and COD2 ? . This would maybe buy me some time while I try to afford a graphics card . I read many here saying how great the 9800 pro is but I don't seem to see it from mine .

How much I have to spend ?
Nothing ! I came out of work sick last march thinking I would be out for maybe a week and 8 months later I am still seeing specialist and making hospital appointments . But I will scrape together whatever I need to get this old girl back in the running again using the help and buying expertise of the likes of some mates in england and unklerosco .( he feels guilty about buying some p4's a few months back when I had no access to money and couldn't sleep right for weeks )

John

Endurance Man

You best hurry if your going to get a new chip for that mobo, iv heard that Intel are stopping the production of the 478 chipset . Already my dads suppliers do not stock SFF pc's with 478 motherboards., and they say soon they will not stock any 478 mobo's

jonski

Endurance Man wrote:

You best hurry if your going to get a new chip for that mobo, iv heard that Intel are stopping the production of the 478 chipset .

We are talking strictly the second hand market here .

John

unklerosco

I am a great guy...

As far as i know ur mobo will take an 800mhz fsb cpu n they're good overclockers... Get a 3ghz p4 n a decent cooler n overclock it then get a 6600gt or 6800gt agp if u can n ur sorted..

The 9800pro is still a great card but all these newer games r a bit to much for it..

Also, get some faster ram for overclocking the cpu n running @ 800mhz fsb.

What do u know, i've a gig of lovely ram that'd suit u perfectly ;-)

Also in ur other thread u asked which was better, the northwood r precott.. The early prescots ran very very hot but the later steppings where a bit cooler, one of the later steppings was great for overclocking. A 3ghz could get to 4ghz stable on air easily... cant remember the stepping, gline has one..

BadCharlie

The first thing i would do is oc your p4 2.2 and c what you can get it to. With some nice cooling it could be a nice clocker.

jonski

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here , my tech ability goes no further than putting the thing together .

jonski

Right , following on from here and other forums it seems to me that I would get the biggest bang for my buck outta a 3.0/3.2 cpu . The ideal would be to get that and a new graphics card but I can't see myself having enough for both considering that there are very few cards better that the 9800 pro that would be second hand and cheap .

Now all I gotta do is go find the right one .

jonski

I have been offered a

Radeon X800 PRO AGP 256 meg 256 bit, Rage chip version, yes it mods ok.

Flashed with XT bios and stable 24/7 - 3 months warranty £95.

Thats uk pounds , from a clan member , not his own but from a forum that he buys from regularly .

I have also been offered a NEW prescott 3 gig for £110 sterling from another clan member that buys wholesale for his own business .

How does this sound ?

John

Richard Dower

unklerosco wrote:

I am a great guy...

As far as i know ur mobo will take an 800mhz fsb cpu n they're good overclockers... Get a 3ghz p4 n a decent cooler n overclock it then get a 6600gt or 6800gt agp if u can n ur sorted..

The 9800pro is still a great card but all these newer games r a bit to much for it..

Also, get some faster ram for overclocking the cpu n running @ 800mhz fsb.

What do u know, i've a gig of lovely ram that'd suit u perfectly ;-)

Also in ur other thread u asked which was better, the northwood r precott.. The early prescots ran very very hot but the later steppings where a bit cooler, one of the later steppings was great for overclocking. A 3ghz could get to 4ghz stable on air easily... cant remember the stepping, gline has one..

Rosco...don't you have my 3.2Ghz Northwood with that Gigabyte 875P?...maybe you could flog them to Jonski

Richard Dower

Get the Asus 875P mobo, or maybe the MSI

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/MSI_Socket_478.html

Get some generic PC3200, your other bits and bobs are good.

jonski

Richard Dower wrote:

Get the Asus 875P mobo, or maybe the MSI

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/MSI_Socket_478.html

Get some generic PC3200, your other bits and bobs are good.

Was kinda hoping to not upgrade the mobo as this socket 478 is old tech , and my current mobo supports ddr400 and 800 fsb .

http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/uk/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=IS7&fMTYPE=Socket+478

I always feel the mobo is the start of a new upgrade , this is , unfortunately , the end game of an old system .

As for the chip unkelrosco bought from you , well when he bought it , he swore , in front of all boards members and god and the new pope that he was only minding it from me and when the time came he would post it down to me , free , with better cooling than stock and 50 quid for a game or something and a can of coke and a kit kat , if memory serves me right . With the search button gone ye will have to take my word on this , which I know no one will question .

John

Edit: this part of the conversation happened after I pm'ed you unkel

Richard Dower

The Abit board is good, all you need then is a 3.2 Northwood and some PC3200.

unklerosco

jonski wrote:

As for the chip unkelrosco bought from you , well when he bought it , he swore , in front of all boards members and god and the new pope that he was only minding it from me and when the time came he would post it down to me , free , with better cooling than stock and 50 quid for a game or something and a can of coke and a kit kat , if memory serves me right . With the search button gone ye will have to take my word on this , which I know no one will question .

John

Edit: this part of the conversation happened after I pm'ed you unkel

This is all true apart for the kit kat bit, it was a bounty... That bit of kit is currently in my gfs pc.. That gets used about once a week for 20mins. Bit of a waste..

The gear u can get is good, shop around tho... U may find cheaper. R haggle ur pants off(just dont post up any pics)

jonski

unklerosco wrote:

The gear u can get is good, shop around tho... U may find cheaper. R haggle ur pants off(just dont post up any pics)

It is starting to look like I am going to have to buy the chip new as the prices for second hand ones is crazy , watched a few of them go on ebay last night and they went for about 20/30 euro cheaper than the wholesale one I was quoted .

gline

unklerosco wrote:

A 3ghz could get to 4ghz stable on air easily... cant remember the stepping, gline has one..

E stepping overclock great. But id recommend he get a new mobo and cpu and case and transfer it all in (AMD also )

KdjaCL

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311605&cks=PRL


Sell your 120GB hd and your 9800 Pro and buy this may have to stump up some cash about €20, but it will play every game with your system on above medium settings.

Basing on Fear and Bf2 you will run them on high with no problems (no AA tho), then save for a about 3 months and buy an upgrade kit in the €400 range. Been out sick sucks


kdjac

jonski

KdjaC wrote:

Sell your 120GB hd and your 9800 Pro and buy this


kdjac

Should have mentioned at the start , nothing can be sold , anything that comes outta this one goes into the kids pc , that way my young lad can leave this one alone and let me get on with BF2 & COD2

gline

KdjaC wrote:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311605&cks=PRL


Sell your 120GB hd and your 9800 Pro and buy this may have to stump up some cash about €20, but it will play every game with your system on above medium settings.

Basing on Fear and Bf2 you will run them on high with no problems (no AA tho), then save for a about 3 months and buy an upgrade kit in the €400 range. Been out sick sucks


kdjac

its only ddr2, not 3, i wouldnt go for this, not a big enough improvement

jonski

While we are still on this subject , where do ye get ye're info from . I ask because I am looking at another card now , and i know it is too cheap to be suitable , but I can't find enough info to rule it out .

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/GeForce_6800.html

John

gline

jonski wrote:

While we are still on this subject , where do ye get ye're info from . I ask because I am looking at another card now , and i know it is too cheap to be suitable , but I can't find enough info to rule it out .

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/GeForce_6800.html

John

u can use this
http://www.rojakpot.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=1

jonski

gline wrote:

u can use this
http://www.rojakpot.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=1

Added to bookmarks , thanks

Shows that one as only having ddr as opposed to ddr3 , which I have already being told isn't much of an improvement .

gline

jonski wrote:

Shows that one as only having ddr as opposed to ddr3 , which I have already being told isn't much of an improvement .

that is true

KdjaCL

gline wrote:

its only ddr2, not 3, i wouldnt go for this, not a big enough improvement

The OP did mention a tight budget? So adding that gpu to his system would enable him to play every game out on above medium settings thus being the cheapest possible upgrade. DDr2 and 3 means **** all in games, maybe in 3dmark but in games gpu speed as 1st and foremost.



kdjac

jonski

Ok , right or wrong I have just bought for €250 .

Socket 939 Gigabyte K8n SLI (Nforce 4 Chipset) €100 ono (With orig. box manuals leads etc.)



Socket 939 AMD 64 3000+ (Venice Core) €100 ono (with orig. box, fan and sticker)

Geforce 6600 256mb PCI-Express Graphics Card €100 ono (with orig. box manuals cd's and leads)

All less than six months old and currently running pc!

ye better all be online tomorrow to talk me through getting this up and running

gline

jonski wrote:

Ok , right or wrong I have just bought for €250 .




ye better all be online tomorrow to talk me through getting this up and running

good choice man

jonski

gline wrote:

good choice man

Yeah ? , well you just make sure you are around when I'm going " ahh , what this do ? whats that do ? , do I really need this extra part ? is this actually an extra part ? "

Maybe I should get Richard up here on the pretense that the DVD he sold me is gone belly up .

Unklerosco , how much did you say u wanted for that Ram?, 25 quid I thought you said ?

gline

u gonna be overclocking? thats a venice core, should overclock nicely

jonski

gline wrote:

u gonna be overclocking? thats a venice core, should overclock nicely

I have never really believed in O/Cing , was always of the opinion that you buy the one you want and felt that o/c'ing would shorten the life span of the item . But somehow I doubt that ye will let me get away with that anymore . But if i start to feel bullied I will report ye to a mod ! , be warned .

jonski

Gonna throw out a couple of questions here , although maybe I should create a new thread , we will see how it goes .

I am going to collect these items tonight and tomorrow go about putting them together . I am presuming alot , but rather then wait till half way through tomorrow and being stumped I thought it might be a good idea to ask now .

1: Windows ...ok best thing here is to format and start again , just wondering about the activation thingy seen as how I would be changing so much . any thoughts ?
2: Drivers , downloaded the latest for said board from Giga-byte and downloaded the 81.94 forceware for the graphics card from nvidia , that it covered ?
3:Graphics card , someone online was saying about some of the pci-e cards needing a different power supply connector , can't see anything on this anywhere , any ideas ? .

Thanks

John

Ps: if anyone thinks this would be better placed somewhere else then speak now

gline

jonski wrote:

I have never really believed in O/Cing , was always of the opinion that you buy the one you want and felt that o/c'ing would shorten the life span of the item . But somehow I doubt that ye will let me get away with that anymore . But if i start to feel bullied I will report ye to a mod ! , be warned .

well all i will say is it doesnt shorten the life to anything noticeable, ie your chip will last 10 years or so - so dont worry about lifespan(how long do u intend for this system to be your main one, 10 years?will be too slow then anyway)

gline

1: windows will befine, you'll just be activating it again.

2: those drivers should be fine

3: yes they do have different connectors (if it needs a power connector), u can get an adapter which makes a standard 4 pin power connector into it very cheap.

jonski

gline wrote:

10 years?will be too slow then anyway)

So will I

jonski

Right collected them , preping this now and going to put it together in the morning .

jonski

Right , again .

This is all put together and running now .

Socket 939 Gigabyte K8n SLI (Nforce 4 Chipset)
Socket 939 AMD 64 3000+ (Venice Core)
Geforce 6600 256mb PCI-Express Graphics
1 gig of pc 2700 ram
1 400 gig sata HD + 1 120 gig
a 450w generic psu


I rekon with the new games comming out in the new year and xmas on the way I could pick up a 6600gt 2nd hand in a couple of months .

Should I be looking at upgrading the ram to pc 3200 . If I was I would be looking at 2nd hand and there are some in the FS forum atm , they just seem a little expensive for 2nd hand and I am not sure of how much they will benefit me .

Any thoughts ?

John

ps: yes ! , I do intend to keep this thread going right through all my upgrades into the future , or until I win the lotto and buy a completly new machine