What should I upgrade? Advice needed..

[Steven_LP]

Hello! These forums have been a fantastic source of information when I put together my first rig, and continue to be so! I'm looking to speed up my system, what would you upgrade? Budget is between £ 200 and £ 300... Here's what I've got at the moment:

- Tagan TG480-U01
- Asus A8V Deluxe
- Sapphire Radeon 9800 pro
- 3000 AMD Winchester
- 512mb DDR PC3200 x 2 (generic scan.co.uk memory)

Should I go for an SLI mboard and a new graphics card but keep the chip? Or just replace the card?

All help will be VERY appreciated..

[sawyen]

first would definitely be ur gfx... 9800 is a little out of its time.. u can drop all 300 quid on a 7800GT or spend less say a 6800GT and drop the rest on some quality TCCDs or BH5 (if u can find some).. if you're skepical about performance memory, you could also drop the remaining cash after gfx on a 10k raptor. that 3000+ winchester is still pretty speedy and can be clocked past 2.4Ghz without any problem.

Or u can be like me, and forget about the raptor.. drop 100 quid for a Lian Li tower with an acrylic window with some neons and be happy with it.

[mike_w]

first would definitely be ur gfx... 9800 is a little out of its time.. u can drop all 300 quid on a 7800GT or spend less say a 6800GT

Erm, how can you put a 7800GT, which is PCI Express, into a machine with a 9800 Pro, which is AGP?

[sawyen]

Erm, how can you put a 7800GT, which is PCI Express, into a machine with a 9800 Pro, which is AGP?

well said.. me bad.. skimped thru posts again...

X850XTPE then... the fastest you can get on AGP..

or spend 80 quid on an SLi mobo, 220 for an Ultra.. shell out 80 quid more and u get 7800 GT..

[Steven_LP]

Ah! Forgot to add that I also have a 74gb Raptor...

Exactly my conundrum: do I upgrade may card for a faster AGP card? I'm worried that this would just be a short term solution... or do I upgrade the board as well and spend less on a card and maybe upgrade that in the future?

What board / card combination would you suggest?

[sawyen]

if you're looking to overclock that winnie of yours.. you cant go wrong with either ABIT or DFI.. I would suggest an ABIT AN8 SLi and 6800 GT (if you want it cheap and powerful)... go a little further, and u get 6800 Ultra..

X800XL are pretty good as well... Since you only have 300 quid to spare, 7800GT is out of the question..

[plesuvius]

I think you will be able to get decent clocks on that mobo so you should just keep it.

The CPU is an older winchester core. If you get a venice core 3000+ you should be guaranteed (..... ymmv ......) an overclock to 2.4-2.7GHz. I get 2.55 and many get much more then that. Consider buying a venice core and dropping your winchester core somewhere for like £50.

Some winchesters can go to 2.4 but they are just not as good a clocker as an equivalent venice.

As for the rest of the system, it really looks fine. You might want to consider a gfx card update if you use higher res's or newer games. Look at the X800GT (powerc) or X800XL unless you're worries about the shader effects/level, in which case a stock 6800 should be your choice probably. Maybe a 6600GT.

Hope this helps a little. I like your system as it is now btw

[Steven_LP]

Thanks for all your commenst guys...v appreciated. I think I might go for 'just' a card upgrade and splash all my money on a Sapphire X850XT ..
Thanks for your help..

[GuruJockStrap]

Personally think you should get a 6800GT or an X800XL for around the £180 mark (maybe less now).

I went from a 9800 Pro to a 6800GT almost a year ago and was well impressed.

Rest could maybe put towards a gig of RAM capable of tighter (2-2-2-5) timings.

[menthel]

Forget the RAM with tighter timings, get another gig of the same stuff and newer games, eg BF2 will be quicker.

[Steven_LP]

I don't think I want to go down the route of upgrading both my board and my card for now.. thats why I'm thinking of getting the X850XT, as I'm 'still' on AGP and not PCI-E (hence I wouldnt be able to use a 6800 GT, or am I wrong?) Maybe there's a better AGP card (value / performance) than the X850XT?

[mike_w]

I don't think I want to go down the route of upgrading both my board and my card for now.. thats why I'm thinking of getting the X850XT, as I'm 'still' on AGP and not PCI-E (hence I wouldnt be able to use a 6800 GT, or am I wrong?) Maybe there's a better AGP card (value / performance) than the X850XT?

6800GT is on AGP. Personally, I think an X800XL would represent better value - as said, you could then spend more on RAM.

[menthel]

I think with the release of the 7800, the price of the 6800gt has gone down, and with its shader model 3 support, it is better value now, especially if you can get one second hand.

[Steven_LP]

Found a 6800GT on AGP from Microdirect from Sapphire.. So now the decision is between the 600GT and the X800XL.. Decisions Decisions..

[dgr]

Ah! Forgot to add that I also have a 74gb Raptor...

Exactly my conundrum: do I upgrade may card for a faster AGP card? I'm worried that this would just be a short term solution... or do I upgrade the board as well and spend less on a card and maybe upgrade that in the future?

What board / card combination would you suggest?

why waste money on a new agp card?

pentium-m (clocked to FX57 speeds) - £100
P4C800 for above - £100
adapater for above - £30
512mb more ram - £40

Put the rest towards your next major upgrade

[dgr]

Oh and if you really want a new GPU, sell the MB, CPU and GPU and buy one. Problem solved