Need help with a hardware decision.

[mix]

I have been looking on the internet for some new parts for my computer because recently some of my games have been slow. I have decided on either an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.1Ghz CPU or a GeForce 7800 GTX video card. Being a 12 year old with no money I asked my brother if he would get me one of them. He said yes but i'm not sure which one to get, which is why i'm asking here. Here are the links.


CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103394


Video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103394

 

[xneoangel]

Ok man listen to me.
1. A Geforce 7800GTX on an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ would be exactly the same as your Geforce 6600GT because that CPU would be a HUGE bottleneck.
2. For 400 bucks thats 100 bucks less than a GF7800GTX you could get your Athlon XP 3000+ and a Geforce 6800GT and it would be much and i mean much better.
Here's the link for a good Geforce 6800 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150102
3. If you have a 2600+ CPU its impossible that your MoBo(MotherBoard) has PCI Express slots so you must have AGP slots and all Geforce 7800GTX models are only PCI Express that means it wouldnt work on your MoBo.
4. Are u sure your MoBo supports an Athlon XP 3000+?

If you post here the model of your MoBo i can tell you if it does or if it does NOT supports an Athlon XP 3000+ CPU.

Conclusion: Buy an Athlon XP 3000+ if your MoBo supports its and a GeForce 6800GT AGP version of course and that is cheaper and better than a single GeForce7800GTX besides a GeForce7800GTX wouldnt work on your MoBo and im sure of it.

I hope this clears out all of your doubts.

Oh and im sorry if this post is too long lol but i can assure you i made it as short as i could because i could make it much longer.

 

[mix]

My motherboard is an ASUS a7v8x and i'm positive it supports a 3000+. My brother said so and he built my computer so I usually go by what he says. I can only get ONE new part so it's either the CPU or the 6800GT I guess.

 

[xneoangel]

Ok yes you are right your MoBo does support an Athlon XP 3000+.

But you have gotten into a tough decision because with the CPU you will get a performance increase and with the 6800GT you will get a performance increase as well but the 6800GT would be bottlenecked.

I really dont know what to tell you ask your brother to see what he says.

But you must know this 32-Bit processors are going to dissapear soon so not buying one before the year ends may mean that you wont be able to upgrade your CPU unless buy a new MoBo and stuff ...

On the other hand AGP video cards will also disappear soon.

I really wouldnt know what to do on your situation so ask your brother to see what he thinks.

Or ... wait till someone else on the forum replies to this thread to see sother opinnions.

Im sorry i cant help you here. :S

 

[Doomulation]

Hmmm...
With those specs, why are things slow? Are you using the correct settings and what are you trying to run? Emulation, pc games? You really have no need to upgrade right now, because those are pretty good specs.

 

[mix]

Hmmm...
With those specs, why are things slow? Are you using the correct settings and what are you trying to run? Emulation, pc games? You really have no need to upgrade right now, because those are pretty good specs.

The games I play are Ut2004, Doom 3, and the new F.E.A.R demo. UT is fine with all settings on max but with AA on, even on 2x it's unplayable. Doom 3 is slow on "High" mode but anything lower looks bad in my eyes. F.E.A.R is slow even on the default settings. All my emulation is fine except for next-gen but that doesen't have to do with my hardware. Before anyone asks, Spybot and Adaware says system is sparkly clean.

 

[xneoangel]

F.E.A.R slow with the default settings? man thats weird with my pc the default settings are 800 x 600 some stuff on medium and some on high and i can run it at 1024 x 768 put some more stuff on high and it runs pretty well.

Besides you wont be able to run F.E.A.R on high settings and high resolution even with the Athlon XP 3000+ and a better video card if you want to do that buy a new MoBo with an Athlon 64 Processor and a very good video card.

 

[mix]

Well I don't mean slow as in 6 FPS, I mean around 30 FPS, same with doom 3.

 

[xneoangel]

Well man listen your specs are very similar to mine and your graphics card is better than mine.

I can run Doom 3 at 1024 x 768 and high settings and i get like 43 fps and for me its good enough.

I think your problem is your ram you should have 1 GB of ram to be able to run Doom 3 at high settings and for F.E.A.R the readme says this:

In order to play the game at the recommended resolution, detail and
performance levels, your computer should meet or exceed the following
specifications:

• US version of Windows(R) XP with the latest service pack installed
• Pentium(R) 4 3.0 GHz or equivalent
• 2GB of RAM
• 256MB DirectX(R) 9.0 video card with pixel shader 2.0 support


In order to get the best game play experience, it is not recommended to
run F.E.A.R. at high resolutions. You should avoid resolutions above
1024x768 on any current generation card.

So if you want to run F.E.A.R high settings and high resolution u wont be able to do it on current generation pc's.

 

[Clements]

In your shoes, I would simply overclock the 2600+ to 3000+ speeds and pay not a single dime, but it looks like your 2600+ is already downclocked (no 2600+ exists at 1.7GHz, so you are between 200MHz and 300MHz short depending if you have a Barton or a Thoroughbred 'B' core which are clocked differently with the Barton having more L2 cache), so the 3000+ CPU would be similarly crippled if your RAM is bad (which I assume it is), so you would be effectively setting your cash on fire. The lower multiplier on the 3000+ could even decrease your performance, I'd have to see what type of RAM you are using first from a CPU-Z output.

The ASUS A7V8X supports 400MHz FSB so a 3200+ ought to be the highest supported CPU and not 3000+:
http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V8X&langs=09

The performance difference between a 2600+ and a 3000+ is negligible anyway, probably much less than 5% in a GPU-limited game such as Doom 3.

In summary: Do not buy another Socket A CPU. Complete waste of cash.

 

[mix]

Well man listen your specs are very similar to mine and your graphics card is better than mine.

I can run Doom 3 at 1024 x 768 and high settings and i get like 43 fps and for me its good enough.

I think your problem is your ram you should have 1 GB of ram to be able to run Doom 3 at high settings and for F.E.A.R the readme says this:

In order to play the game at the recommended resolution, detail and
performance levels, your computer should meet or exceed the following
specifications:

• US version of Windows(R) XP with the latest service pack installed
• Pentium(R) 4 3.0 GHz or equivalent
• 2GB of RAM
• 256MB DirectX(R) 9.0 video card with pixel shader 2.0 support


In order to get the best game play experience, it is not recommended to
run F.E.A.R. at high resolutions. You should avoid resolutions above
1024x768 on any current generation card.

So if you want to run F.E.A.R high settings and high resolution u wont be able to do it on current generation pc's.

Well my brother refuses to get me more RAM (I talked to him about it before). Here's a quote "You have a ton of RAM i'm not getting you more" so no more RAM unless I magically get a job where I make $200 per second without having to do anything.

 

[xneoangel]

The ASUS A7V8X supports 400MHz FSB so a 3200+ ought to be the highest supported CPU and not 3000+:
http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V8X&langs=09

The highest CPU supported by the A7V8X is the 3000+ look at the link i added here.

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

And yes Clements you are right it is better for him to overclock his CPU and buy a new Video Card tough he must be very careful when overclocking his system.

Well my brother refuses to get me more RAM (I talked to him about it before). Here's a quote "You have a ton of RAM i'm not getting you more" so no more RAM unless I magically get a job where I make $200 per second without having to do anything.

lol

 

[mix]

Well I did a ram test and it says my ram is good. How do I overclock my CPU or is this something I should ask my brother aswell?

 

[xneoangel]

Well I did a ram test and it says my ram is good. How do I overclock my CPU or is this something I should ask my brother aswell?

If you dont know how to do it ask your brother because if you do it carelessly you may end up damaging your hardware.

Overclocking must be done with much much care.

Once i saw a guy that overclocked a 2500+ to a 3200+ but he had to put 7 fans on his case to prevent heating o.0 and im not sure if it was stable, i certainly doubt it.

 

[Clements]

I stand corrected there. The main A7V8X page is very misleading.

Once i saw a guy that overclocked a 2500+ to a 3200+ but he had to put 7 fans on his case to prevent heating o.0 and im not sure if it was stable, i certainly doubt it.

Mine is clocked a full 100MHz higher than that and is very stable, but then I am using a decent nForce2 chipset so overclocking is not exactly difficult compared to an older VIA chipset.

 

[zAlbee]

I thought 1.7 GHz seemed slow... Go into your BIOS and clock it at the correct speed. Even I can run my Athlon 1800+ at 1.7 GHz (that is, if I didn't mind the occasional Prime95/Folding@Home failure, which I do).

I'm getting suspicious of these Socket A boards... when I switched to my new mobo, an Asus A7V880 (old one died, long story), first thing I did was enter the BIOS, and it read my CPU as some 100 MHz FSB garbage. Well, I put a fix to <i>that</i>. =P

 

[xneoangel]

I'm getting suspicious of these Socket A boards... when I switched to my new mobo, an Asus A7V880 (old one died, long story), first thing I did was enter the BIOS, and it read my CPU as some 100 MHz FSB garbage. Well, I put a fix to <i>that</i>. =P

o.0

I remember the first time i installed a CPU it was my Athlon XP 1700+ Palomino and when i entered the BIOS the temperature was of like 70 ºC and i turned off the PC immediatly miracolously my CPU didnt got damaged the problem was caused because i didnt installed the HeatSink properly >_<

 

[mix]

It's starting to sound like I should get a new motherboard. If so, which one should I get?

 

[xneoangel]

Mine is clocked a full 100MHz higher than that and is very stable, but then I am using a decent nForce2 chipset so overclocking is not exactly difficult compared to an older VIA chipset.

Wow maybe thats why ive heard that the nForce chipsets are a dream for overclockers

It's starting to sound like I should get a new motherboard. If so, which one should I get?

If u get a new MoBo u should get one for Athlon 64's and PCI Express Slots otherwise it would be a waste of money and that means u would have to get a new processor and a new Video Card an in your situation that would be hard because all this stuff is expensive.

The best choice for you is as Clements said overclock your CPU and get a new Video Card.

 

[mix]

Wow maybe thats why ive heard that the nForce chipsets are a dream for overclockers



If u get a new MoBo u should get one for Athlon 64's and PCI Express Slots otherwise it would be a waste of money and that means u would have to get a new processor and a new Video Card an in your situation that would be hard because all this stuff is expensive.

The best choice for you is as Clements said overclock your CPU and get a new Video Card.

I would to have to get a new video card and a new CPU if I got a new motherboard? How much would that cost? $500+? Then I better not, prices above $500 make my brother mad.