Upgrading on a Budget Advice Request
I've worked a computer upgrade into my latest family budget and I'm trying to figure out what to get.
Right now I have a socket 754 Athlon 64 3700+, 1gb of RAM, and an AGP FX5200. I'm wanting to improve speed for Xvid encoding (dual cores should mean two video streams at once), faster compiles, running more processes in the background, and running more recent games.
Some of the games I'd like to be able to run well are Oblivion, Supreme Commander (I really liked Total Annahilation), GalCiv II (okay, no upgrade needed there), Half-Life 2, and maybe Bioshock. Future games aren't really an issue except for maybe Fallout 3.
I'll need a new motherboard, new processor, new RAM, and a new video card. I've got $450 dollars to work with (I can fudge a little for shipping, but it's a pretty hard figure).
My first thought was Core 2 Duo, but after looking at the charts at Tom's Hardware, it seems like the Athlon 64 X2 CPU's are still a decent option for my price range.
I'm looking at a GIGABYTE GA-945P-S3 Mobo, 2GB RAM, and Intel E4400 for an Intel build. For AMD, I'm looking at a GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 Mobo, 2GB RAM, and Athlon X2 5000+ Brisbane. Both of these land at about $270 leaving about $170 for a video card. Obviously I like GIGABYTE motherboards.
Do the CPU choices sound decent? Are stock coolers decent w/o overclocking?
I've yet to make a choice on a video card. It seems like the X1950Pro, HD 2600XT, 8600GT or 8600GTS are the contenders for the GPU. Should I only be looking at 512MB cards? If there are any big upcoming product releases from ATI or Nvidia that might drive down prices I can wait a bit.
Thanks for any advice
Your choices sound decent.
I'd look at:
$100 P35 Gigabyte mb (newer chipset than the one you listed.)
$70 2 gigs pc6400
$120 E4300 (great multiplier for overclocking) or $85 for E2160 (can be massively overclocked and run like a e6750.)
I'd probably get a x1950 pro vid card although (among your choices) it depends on price. I mean I wouldn't pay $170 for an x1950 pro because I've seen them hit $120ish AR.
I wouldn't worry about 512mb. An X1950 pro ain't fast enough to make use of the extra 512mb.
I don't see many new vid cards about to hit the market in your $170 price range.
I know ATI just announced the 2900 pro for $250ish and I just saw one on Newegg actually. I expect Nvidia to respond and refresh the upper end of their product line (8800 gts) in the next few months.
I just did what he did and it works great, and it clocked in at a little over $400 - E4300, Gigabyte motherboard, 2 gigs, and an 8600GT. The only games I've played thus far are the Source engine, but both TF2 and Episode One run 1280 x 1024 on high (though Episode Run runs at like 25 FPS, which not everyone is happy with, me included.)
Xbox Live: StaatsM
Good advice here.
Although, if you really want to go the budget route, my local Best Buy (not where I normally shop for components) has an AGP 1950 Pro AGP 256 for under $150 (the actual price escapes my memory). Add another gig of your current ram and you can get a huge boost in performance for under $200. A multicore proc and fast memory would be more fun, but if you want to do this on the cheap, this is an option.
On Newegg right now, the 256 & 512 versions of the 1950 pro are $10-$20 apart. I picked up a 512 card. There are more options than those listed here. If you like Nvidia and that price range, Tiger Direct has a BFG 7950 GT 256mb for $139 after rebate.
*Legion* wrote:
informationgames.info
Thanks for the advice.
I thought about just doing a video card upgrade and it's a good idea, but I'd like the processor upgrade for working with video and I have a hard time going with an AGP card. If decide I want to upgrade the processor later, I won't be able to carry over the card. Besides, the guts of my computer will have a destination, so I won't be just throwing out that old mobo, RAM, and processor. I'll have to take a look at that BFG 7950GT though, that sounds pretty interesting. Newegg is where I look to get estimated prices and survey comments, but I take a look a Tiger Direct and MWave before actually buying.
The P35 chipset and E4300 sounds like a good route. Is the stock Intel cooler sufficient for mild overclocking? I haven't overclocked since my old Celeron 300A computer, but it sounds like the E4xxx series processors can be at least mildly overclocked with no trouble. The E2160 sounds interesting, but I'm not sure I want to count on being able to overclock. I might want to do some more research.
Yeah, I'm the same way. Once I've set aside budget for an upgrade, half measures aren't satisfying. I went w/ the X1950Pro over the 7950GT because i wanted video in. Even w/ the 512 -256 memory difference, the nvidia card looks really good. Best card for the money if you don't need dx10. Good luck w/ your upgrades & Llet us know what you go w/.
*Legion* wrote:
informationgames.info
Here's what I'm going with:
90 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
56 - Kingston 2x1G DDR2 677 RAM
140 - Intel Core 2 Duo E4500
150 - PowerColor 512MB X1950 Video Card
I figured that in the end I'm probably not going to Overclock a 4300 much more than the speed of a 4500, so I went with the faster 4500 and DDR2 667 instead of a 4300 and DDR2 800 which made the price about a wash. The model of Kingston memory is also on the Gigabyte compatibility list so I expect it to be trouble free. I took the advice to go with the P35 chipset which may one day pay off with a CPU only upgrade. The PowerColor 512MB card was a bit of a splurge, but I liked the cooler on it and I thought was worth a little extra for a card that didn't run hot.
Now I just have to wait for everything to show up and put it together. I had already planned on spending a bit on a game to put the thing to the test. Probably Oblivion.