Need video upgrade advice

Using an HP Pavilion 6730, 600Mhz Celeron @ 750Mhz using CPUfsb, 256MB RAM (just picked up two 256MB sticks to use instead for 512MB), Hercules 3DProphet 4000XT PCI (32MB Kyro 1 115Mhz/115Mhz).

I walked into the local PC store today and there is now a PNY Verto GeForce 4MX 420 PCI (250Mhz GPU, 166Mhz SDRAM) for $99 (The SDRAM on this board as seen on the box is BGA-SDRAM, so wouldn't it overclock really good?). Would this be a noticable and worthwhile performance boost over the Kyro (115Mhz GPU/115Mhz SDRAM)? How is the image quality on the MX420 in comparison to the Kyro? Thanks in advance.

imho you would see a bigger performance boost going to a 30$ used bx board and overclock the crap outta the Celly....and then get a Geforce2 GTS or radeonLe for aroun 50$;....a PCI card is NOT worth it...the PCI bus is the bottleneck...you wont see much of an increase in speed....

then you would have a Celly 800, with a DDR based video card and 512ram and youd have a pretty nice system...

oh and WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

The GF4 MX line is a waste of PCB board IMHO, get a cheaper GF2 like funnyperson said or a GF3 Ti200 or GF4 Ti4200; these are your most logical upgrade routes, a GF4 MX is more like stepping sideways.

Pinky said:

The GF4 MX line is a waste of PCB board IMHO, get a cheaper GF2 like funnyperson said or a GF3 Ti200 or GF4 Ti4200; these are your most logical upgrade routes, a GF4 MX is more like stepping sideways.

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problem is that his board has no AGP....any board higher than a Gf2 MX is a waste in a PCI slot....

I'm not concerned with having really high FPS, I just would like better consistency. I would also think the 64MB VRAM would help since the 32MB Kyro @ 1024x768 plays fine straight through Medal of Honor, but dramatically slows down in levels with lots of closeby object to draw and textures to display (some jello-like textures, like when I played Return to Castle Wolfenstein on a 12MB Voodoo 2). Would the MX420 help at all, or should I just stick with the Kyro?

I don't want to build a new machine. I like the small microATX formfactor and small case (the machine, despite the obsolete hardware, is an easy carry to a LAN party, etc.) and I want to wait as long as possible to build a new machine (want to wait until more Pentium 4 price cuts, see how the Thouroughbred is when it is released). I like the machine I have right now.

I can overclock the machine up to a 133Mhz FSB in CPUfsb, running 750Mhz now (150Mhz overclock) with standard 1.65v (I need to up the voltage). With some better cooling and a voltage boost I'm hoping for a good overclock. For cooling, what is the most powerful cooling I can add to this machine (socket 370 Celeron)?

it may help, but i would suggest you get a geforce2 MX400 PCI card for around 40$ as 100$ just isnt worth it in a PCI card....

for cooling i suggest a Thermalright AX-7 with a decent 80mm fan...if not going all out you can find some decent generic 15$ coolers at www.svcompucycle.com that should be just as high an oc with a celly (these things were designed for Athlons)....

I plan on running the CPU at 2.05v, would an AX-7 & 80mm fan be sufficient (I don't have too much headroom for a monsterous cooler), or would I get more from water cooling? (I have plenty of tubing, pumps available). The case does not have great ventilation so I'd assume having a waterblock connected to a radiator outside the case would work much better.

funnyperson1 said:

problem is that his board has no AGP....any board higher than a Gf2 MX is a waste in a PCI slot....

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Doh!!

bouble DOH!!!

My bad. Friend recently used a radeon 7000 PCI (that he had laying around) and it was pretty lame, looked like the bandwidth was being choaked... changed to a 7200 AGP and it was amazingly faster. So what I'm saying is that FP is right on, get a MX400 with DDR and that should be the best for the buck.

Is there such a thing as a PCI Kyro2? Because videologic cards need a lot less bandwidth to do the same thing. The Kyro2 uses less bandwidth than a MX and still beats it(by a bit) in most things non-T&L. Not that the GF2MX T&L is good enough to be decent at anything anyways=P

Also a move a BX chipset would do you well.

i810 Forever said:

I plan on running the CPU at 2.05v, would an AX-7 & 80mm fan be sufficient (I don't have too much headroom for a monsterous cooler), or would I get more from water cooling? (I have plenty of tubing, pumps available). The case does not have great ventilation so I'd assume having a waterblock connected to a radiator outside the case would work much better.

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sorry...the AX-7 is a Monstrous cooler.,...

but here is a good one, a little loud though
http://www.svcompucycle.com/svcgolgat40.html

edit:
Also MospeadasDark reminded me of the KyroII, that should be better than the MX if you can find one...

Change your board, there are a bunch of old bx boards from abit/asus around for approx $35-45 and get yourself a GF2 pro/ultra for about $70-$100 , best bang for your buck, IMO