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Need help with a hardware decision.

Clements

Active member
Moderator
I'd wait a year personally before updating any of your system, unless you are an enthusiast. What you have will see you through next year fine. A 6600GT is a very fast card, a 2600+ isn't totally outdated yet, and 768MB of RAM isn't too bad.
 

xneoangel

Persona User
mix said:
I would to have to get a new video card and a new CPU? How much would that cost? $500+? Then I better not, prices above $500 make my brother mad.

Yes all that would be 500$+ because if you buy a new MoBo for AGP video cards and Athlon XP cpu's it would be a waste mainly because your MoBo supports up to an Athlon XP 3000+ and thats almost the fastest Athlon XP out there and AGP Slots will dissappear sooner or later they will dissappear.

Clements said:
I'd wait a year personally before updating any of your system, unless you are an enthusiast. What you have will see you through next year fine. A 6600GT is a very fast card, a 2600+ isn't totally outdated yet, and 768MB of RAM isn't too bad.

Yes he's right it'd be better if you save money to buy a GOOD PC.

o.0 the replies on this thread are so fast, this almost looks like a chat room lol.
 
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Doomulation

?????????????????????????
Ehem... oh yes, also...
if your cpu is a Athlon XP, the FSB should run at 133 MHz. If it's a barton core, it should run at 166 MHz. Anything below, and your cpu would be underclocked.
Btw... concidering that a stick of memory is at most $100 and the newest gfx card $400, I do wonder why your brother refuses to buy another stick of memory as compared to the latest gfx card...
 

Doomulation

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Well... you would know when you bought the cpu I guess. If your brother bought it, perhaps he knows. Otherwise you could experiment raising it.
 
OP
M

mix

New member
Well he bought everything that's in my computer so i'll ask him. The reason he won't get me more RAM is that anything he thinks I don't need, he won't get me.
 

Doomulation

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Meh. Well you tell him you might be in more need of ram than anything else :p
Oh and, perhaps the socket type might tell you something? I don't think it's different from barton and the XPs, though...
 
OP
M

mix

New member
It's socket A.

EDIT: Well, I clocked my CPU to 2.1Ghz all by myself, i'm so proud of myself! It's been clocked for a few hrs and no crashes or BSODs.
 
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zAlbee

Keeper of The Iron Tail
Doomulation said:
Oh and, perhaps the socket type might tell you something? I don't think it's different from barton and the XPs, though...
it won't tell you anything, socket A is for all the Athlon XPs including Bartons. Easiest way to tell is to download <a href=http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php>CPU-Z</a> and it will tell you the codename as well as a lot of other useful information like FSB, voltage, and RAM timings.

As for the original question, I agree with the majority and will say that you don't need to upgrade anything. Except maybe RAM. Once you get CPU-Z you can check your RAM ratings and if one of the sticks is slow, switching it would help you overclock quite a bit.
 
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OP
M

mix

New member
zAlbee said:
it won't tell you anything, socket A is for all the Athlon XPs including Bartons. Easiest way to tell is to download <a href=http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php>CPU-Z</a> and it will tell you the codename as well as a lot of other useful information like FSB, voltage, and RAM timings.

As for the original question, I agree with the majority and will say that you don't need to upgrade anything. Except maybe RAM. Once you get CPU-Z you can check your RAM ratings and if one of the sticks is slow, switching it would help you overclock quite a bit.


Well CPU-Z told me that my CPU model is a Thoroughbred, and that my RAM type is DDR-SDRAM. How do I tell if one of my sticks is slow?
 

Doomulation

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mix said:
Cool and I think I'll get two of those so I have a gig and the RAM I already have!
Hmmm... but remember: if they're different, I dunno if dual channel is possible, but most importantly is that the highest timings will be chosen. So if the stick you already have, have poor timings (latency), then all the ram will get that poor latency.
 

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