Need an AGP card to upgrade an old rig after some suggestions

Still running an old Socket A system that I wanna upgrade to try and get the most out of it with IL2 and maybe a bit of Stalker, it's running an ATi 9600xt at the moment and I just wondered if an upgrade with a bit of cheap second hand gear would be possible and if so what should I be looking out for?

What's the cpu and memory?

Offhand your best bet is a 2nd hand card picked up very cheap
Something in the high geforce 7 series (7900gs or better) or ati x1000 seires (x1900)

However you are probably going to be badly held back by your cpu.

It's an xp2400+ with 2gb of pc3700 running on an Abit NF7-s motherboard, I'm open to upgrading the cpu as well if it can be done on a reasonable budget, I intend on buying a new rig sometime next year but until then I'd like to beef up this one a bit for now if it's possible.

Yup, your system does look like it would benefit from an overhaul.

I was in much the same situation last year. I had a Intel P4 3.3GHz CPU and a ATI X800 graphics card. I upgraded the graphics card to a HD3870 and stuck with the CPU. I found that I was able to use higher graphics settings but as I hadn't touched the CPU it did nothing for FPS. Like you I am planning to do a total upgrade next year.

Ebuyer has a 3850 AGP card for just over £80. That will give you better graphics quality but probably not any improvement in FPS. You will not be able to use this graphics card when you upgrade next year.

The second option is to upgrade the motherboard, memory and CPU with something cheap to get you through to your planned upgrade next year. Something like:

CPU: E5200 (£65)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G (£50)
Memory: VS2GB667D2 - 2GB Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC2-5400 (667) (£17)

You would also have to get a good graphics card (which you could reuse when you upgraded next year). Something like a 512MB Asus HD 4850 (£122)

If you chose this option you would need to check your PSU is up to the job and that you had a retail version of Windows that you could transfer over.

i wouldnt waste £80 on a video card, go the 2nd hand route, have you looked through the for sale section here ?

or even post in the wanted section.

IL2 is a single core game from what i remember, so you could get away with a cheap AGP upgrade until your ready to build a full new rig.

IL2 is also a very old engine that has been modded to allow for newer cards, so you should still get a decent game out of it.

forget stalker though :)

You could go for a cheap upgrade that will enable you to play some games for the next few months.

You can get some of the components form Ebuyer with the free Supersaver postage option:

Foxconn A6VMX AMD 690V Socket AM2 onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard 141239 £41.09

Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty 106133 £14.37

Total: £55.46

You can get the rest off Scan with their free postage offer:

LN21822 512MB Palit/XVision 9600 GT, PCI-E 2.0, Mem1800MHz, DDR3, GPU650MHz, 64 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/S-Video £65.52

LN20477 350W Silverstone ST35F Silent PSU 120mm Fan Dual +12V, PCI-E, SATA, 80%+ Eff' + LN13857 Xclio PSU and Port Tester with LED(free) £21.84

LN22646 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e AM2 Dual Core 2.5GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail £44.84

Total: £135.07

The last two items are on Today Only.

So the total cost of the build would be £190.53

ati 1950 and cpu upgrade?

Cheers for the advice guys, out of my depth these days as far as hardware goes, I stopped keeping track a long long time ago.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoNz0

i wouldnt waste £80 on a video card, go the 2nd hand route, have you looked through the for sale section here ?

or even post in the wanted section.

IL2 is a single core game from what i remember, so you could get away with a cheap AGP upgrade until your ready to build a full new rig.

IL2 is also a very old engine that has been modded to allow for newer cards, so you should still get a decent game out of it.

forget stalker though :)

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Did have a quick look in the for sale forum, nothing jumped out at me though I'll have a better nose around in a bit. I used to run IL2 on pretty much the same rig when I first got into it, the only differences being I was running an overclocked xp1700+ with a 9700pro and it used to run pretty well.

I thought stalker was getting on a bit now and worked nicely on lower spec machines? I know clear skies or whatever the new one's called employs some DX10 trickery but I'm not after that just yet.

I still have an XP2400 as a spare rig and it runs IL-2 on a Radeon 9600 (not a pro) fairly well. IF you could get a Radeon 9800 Pro for £20 then you'd benefit. But dont go further than that.

Next in line for a cheap upgrade is an Nforce4 board, a S939 chip and a PCi Express card. It would use your current ram, and hard drive, but you MIGHT need a new psu.
Really, it should be Intel Dual Core and then it's new ram, and might as well do SATA drive, and so on... and on... and on...

Frankly mate... if you get back into tinkering with PC's then you might run into lots of problems and then get bored of sorting them out.

Best thing is JUST USE WHAT YOU'VE GOT, fresh XP install, and knock the settings down until it's playable...and go play :)

To upgrade in a half assed-way is a route to unhappy gaming :(

IL-2 at 1024x768 at medium ground settings, with max view distance and stuff on your 9600 is prolly best right now :)

PM me if you want bits and bobs...

Or pick up the old ASRock 4coredual SATA motherboard.
It can use AGP or PCI-E, DDR1 or DDR2 can cope with 1066mhz core2 cpu's (may not run with the new e5620)
However you should be able to pick one up 2nd hand for under £20 and an early c2d cpu or even an older pentium D Shouldn't cost you much more.
(I can say the pentium D 3.0ghz is a good step up from the xp2400+ as that's what I did, ganted at the time I was on a 6800LE)

Still it's a viable option.

I priced together

PSU (Corsair 400W) http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400W-...-year-warranty £35 (cheaper at Scan)
CPU = E5200 (Dual core 2.5ghz) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148715 £65
Mobo = Gigabyte GS-G31M-S2L http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140066 £39
RAM = http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-(...d-CAS-5-5-5-18 £24 (Cheaper at Scan)

Total = £163 delivered. Then get an HD 4670 512Mb for £65 to tide you over = £248 for a full system overhaul capable of playing recent games.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cptwhite_uk

I priced together

PSU (Corsair 400W) http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400W-...-year-warranty £35 (cheaper at Scan)
CPU = E5200 (Dual core 2.5ghz) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148715 £65
Mobo = Gigabyte GS-G31M-S2L http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140066 £39
RAM = http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-(...d-CAS-5-5-5-18 £24 (Cheaper at Scan)

Total = £163 delivered. Then get an HD 4670 512Mb for £65 to tide you over = £248 for a full system overhaul capable of playing recent games.

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You'll probably need to add a sata dvd drive as well £15-20 as the newer motherboard will only have 1 ide port (cheaper option than a sata hard drive)

Good point coming from Socket A :)

I'm selling my HIS X1950Pro ICEQ3 AGP Turbo if you're interested. I'll think up a price.

Also selling a Socket A Barton Core 3200+ CPU, 1Gb twin matched (2x512Mb) Corsair XMS 3200PT RAM, another 1Gb Corsair XMS 3200Pro stick, an Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo, Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card, an Antec P160 aluminum case as well as a few other bits and bobs including hard drives, PSU etc.

If you want something with a little grunt in it you could try the HD3850, as I can't post URL's yet I'll just say it's product id 143873 on ebuyer

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mc6415

If you want something with a little grunt in it you could try the HD3850, as I can't post URL's yet I'll just say it's product id 143873 on ebuyer

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That would pritty much be throwing money away, a 2gh athlon xp will be a real bottle neck for a 3850 and any serious upgrade will mean changing motherboard which would mean the agp is no longer usable.

An x1950Pro on the other hand :) depending on how much he wants for it.