Re: Advice Requested for Gaming Upgrade

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:57:38 +0000, John Doe thoughtfully wrote:

> jaster <jaster@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> WaterWatcher thoughtfully wrote:
>>
>>> My current computer is based on an MSI MS-6712 motherboard with an
>>> Athlon XP2000 CPU, two sticks Kingston 256MB PC2100, GeForce 4200ti
>>> 64MB video card, Seagate 80MB hard drive and Antec 350w PSU. I'd like
>>> to start upgrading it for games such as Quake IV, but I'm on a limited
>>> budget. My current plan is to replace the mobo and CPU while reusing
>>> the other components for the time being. Later I will upgrade the
>>> video to a PCI express card and double the RAM with 512MB x 2 PC3200.
>>> The mobo I'm considering is the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 Uli
>>> M1695 paired with the Athlon 64 3200+ Venice. Does this sound like a
>>> reasonable way to go about it? Any different components I should
>>> consider?
>>
>> I did the upgrade from XP2000+ to XP64 3000 and video from Ti4200 128mb
>> to X800 256mb. The best route is to spend money on the video first
>> then cpu/mb. Although new graphics are coming out every 6 mo. if you
>> go for X800/X850 or 6600GT/6800 you'll be up to date on gaming graphics
>> cards. These cards can be found as AGP and are just as fast if not
>> faster than their PCI-E version. Motherboards are a matter of preference
>> as generally good low cost boards perform as well as good high priced
>> boards. I've been playing pretty good with 1 stick of 512 PC3200 which
>> performs better than when I had 512mb PC2700 and 512 PC3200.
>
> Thanks for the information. Are you saying that the mainboard CPU upgrade
> was boring? Seems to me that AGP video cards are more expensive than their
> equivalent PCI-E version. I have been looking at the 6600GT and have to
> look again when I think it's a good price and realize I'm looking at the
> PCI-E version.
>
> http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=362


Boring cpu/mb? Well sort of. Yes improvements in overall speed, really
noticeable burning videos, quieter and cooler. Worth the change but I was
playing most games on the XP 2000/Ti4200 rig. Only BF2 didn't play and
I'm not 100% sure that wasn't because of a bad install.

I live by Tomshardware advice, here's one about how much graphics is
needed. There's also a cpu performance comparator somewhere on the site.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050302/index.html

I just heard about http://cairo.com which will scan and alert you to
the best sale prices for whatever in your USA area. I haven't paid
attention to price differences but I was lucky to catch a refurbished card
sale (agp or pci-e) at 40-50% off retail at the ATI site.

PCI-E versions are slightly faster than AGP versions but I don't think the
speed difference is noticeable to the eyes besides so many other things
impact actual performance.









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