weighing the upgrade question

[Beeblequix]

My PIII667EB is getting a tad old. It still runs everything okay, but I know it can run better with newer, faster stuff.

So, my dear sweet wife gave me the nod at the first part of April to go ahead and upgrade. The question is, to what?

Athlon XP? P4? I will not get into a Rambus based system, no matter how much someone tells me how 'their prices are lower now' and 'they've lost most of their lawsuits now, so you don't have to pay into their royalties'. Forget it. No rambus.

So, I've thought of an Athlon XP1800+ with the Asus 761 based mobo, or maybe SiS's 745. I already have a 256 ddr dimm, so obviously I'll go the ddr route. Or, I could go with a P4 1800 and the 645 SiS, or 845d Intel chipset. I don't know. There are a ton out there. Some folks at work have the a7v266-e, but they have 'isssues', so I'm not sure if I'd go with that one. Not really interested in nforce.

The Geforce 4 ti 4200 for $199 sounds great, and I'm sure that it will become my video card of choice. I want the best bang for buck. I'm not biased against AMD or Intel, so those opinions are very welcome. My budget is dependent on the bang/buck factor, around $500-$550USD. Any useful insights r appreciated.

Basicly, 1)cpu 2)mobo 3)video card(almost certain to be the above mentioned)

sincerely,
Beeble Quix

[gibsinep]

well my reccomendations
cpu- Athlon XP 1600-200 (which ever fits your budget)
mobo- 1.SOYO K7V DRAGON+ Plus VIA KT266A ATX
vid cad- geforce 3 ti200,geforce 3 ti 500, geforce 4 ti 200, or Radeon 8500

Defintly go the AMD route-a little cheaper(not that much) better performance. I love Amd i have a t-bird 1.4 and a duron 750 both run very stable. and get great performance.

Alos what OS are you running do you plan to upgrade that. If so

windows 2000
or
Windows XP Pro Cor edition(no activation garbage)
I am on xp pro corp and it hasnet crashed in over 8 days. Got it 8 days ago. Plus sets up all your drivers so no driver installing.

Hope this helps

[BipolarBill]

I must disagree on any VIA chipset recommendation. I've seen enough VIA problems to choke a hippo. Four-in-one drivers, slow PCI bus, USB issues..the list goes on. :mad:

I'd stay with AMD, SiS or even ALi chipsets. The Athlon is da schitt though.

I would bump up on on the GEForce4 to the 4400. I always buy the "middle guy". ;)

[gibsinep]

I have never had any problems with a VIA chipset in over 8 computer. (mabey i am lucky)

[Beeblequix]

Thanks for your replies.

I currently own an Asus P3V4X mobo with the Via Apollo Pro 133a chipset. It's been fairly stable, and pretty good at running my GaMeZ. I have, however, thought seriously about going with a different manufacturer than Via. I know that via's offerings outperform AMD's, but the gap in real world performance will probably be very negligable.

I'm not bumping up to the Gf4ti4400 because that puts me in a too costly upgrade bracket. Even though the 4200 seems like the 'budget' one, it's still way above the actual budget cards in the MX line, plus it's faster than the Gf3ti500. I will be moving up from an Asus 6600 deluxe geforce 256 sdr card, so the improvement will be vast. And if I only have $550 to work with, I've got to place limits on part prices.

The Soyo Dragon plus....I've 'heard' good things about that mobo around the net, but 1)I don't know anyone who uses it and 2)I'm leary about buying a non-asus,abit mobo just from what I hear from people about stability and quality. Those two companies have large cult followers and I'm sure that it's well deserved. Maybe I need to grow outside of myself and give them a chance. But I did that with my Dodge and will not do that again...

In response to if I'm upgrading the os, well, I don't know yet. I might get the XP home, and I know there will be flames coming for saying that, but hey--it's cheaper than XP pro(which I was aware of not activating). Don't know. Well, if I do I'll get an OEM version from my favorite system integrator and use them for support. Money is an issue, and I will not spend all of our money just to get 290fps in q3.

B.Quix

[Ammok]

Bipolar recommend you go for the G4 440, its good advice,

I have read a review suggesting that the 420 was a complete rip off underperforming g3 200i cards and even some G2 cards.

I am sorry I can't remember where. I can remember that only the top of the range version of the G4 got top marks.

[BipolarBill]

Actually, the MX 440 is one of the two "budget" cards. The G4 Ti 4400 is the one I'm referring to. Beeblequix is thinking about the G4 Ti 4200.

It's a stupid numbering system and will create much confusion.

[timex18]

I just built a system around the Soyo Dragon Plus and Athlon XP 1700+ with 256 MB ddr ram and I have not had a problem with the MB. MB, processor, and RAM cost ~$350 or so.I had a few driver issues with my Geforce2 Ti500, but going to new drivers fixed that. It's fast and runs stable. I haven't started overclocking yet, but it's supposedly built to be overclocked so I imagine it shouldn't be too buggy. Hopefully.
At least go with the Athlon XP for your processor. Great bang for the buck.

-=Timex18=-