upgrade for a p3450

[slowpoke]

Hello all, first time posting on this board. I have a p3 450 running on an abit bh6 vesion 1.0 mb @ 504 mhz. I dont want to buy a new system as I'm buying a house this year, but I'm a gaming junkie and need to upgrade to get my fix. First I am going to upgrade my video card from my ati rage fury to a leadtek geforce gts pro that I found for $139.00 with free shipping at pricewatch.com. Now the big question, what processor should I get, abit says I can take up to a p3 600 or a celeron 700. What would give me the most bang for my buck in gaming performance, when considering cost and likely overclocking success? Interested in any suggestions. Great board btw.

[JaY_III]

you have to options

the celeron
or the P3

the celeron will let you keep the ram you already have so you don hvae to buy new ram... a 600-666 will be the best one to buy, as they are 66FSB, and if they hit 100FSB ou will have a 900-1000MHz computer.

If you go the P3 route, you will need to buy more ram if you overclock. as you FSB will end up at 133 (or higher if you are lucky)
The CPu to get is the 700E (EB is bad) this SHOULD do 933 @133FSB
but your ram is PC-100 (right?) and will probly not work @ this speed unless you hvae CAS 2 RAM @ 100FSb and run it at CAS 3 while it is at a 133FSB

the P3 will be faster.
the P3 will cost more
the P3 will mostlikly need new RAM

the celeron will be slower
the celeron will be alot cheaper
the celeron will not need new RAM

i was in the same boat as you were a few months back,
upgraded my P2 333@420 to a Celeron 2 633, not i got 1000Mhz of fun

So I hope i helped clear things up for you a bit