Getting the most out of my current AthlonXP/AGP rig...

[inpherno]

Hi, my first post here, and I'll start with a question

I've got a fairly dated PC now with Abit AN7 motherboard, Athlon-XP Mobile 2400, 2x 512MB CL2.5 DDR400 ram sticks and a geforce 6600GT 128mb.

I have overclocked the CPU to 2.4ghz and can relatively safely overclock to 2.6ghz (with 400mhz fsb). I'm wanting to know if this will be a BIG bottleneck if I buy an ATI Sapphire HD 3850 512mb AGP gfx card and 2 sticks of 1gb ram (2gb total).

I'd be paying about £130 (~$230) for both the ram and the gfx card. This is pretty much all I can realistically afford right now.

I'm not after being able to play crysis at max settigns, but maybe being able to play it at minimal settings would be good. Is this a realistic idea? I'd like to be able to play ALL games out right now at lowest settings, and be able to play some of the games from last year at close to max.

The alternative for me would be to get a new motherboard and cpu with cooler as well as the gfx card and ram, adding an extra £200!. For the extra £200 would I really see a big difference in the short term (I don't care about long term upgrade potential right now)?

Bear in mind, the most important factor for me here is the cost. I'd like to upgrade if it only costs me £130 and I get a nice improvement. But if the CPU would be a bottleneck to the point of frustration, I'll probably reconsider.

Thanks for your input!

Phill

 

[jayfella]

Thing is, your processor is of the mobile variety. Which means it has less instructions than a standard version. You can get a decent board and processor for £130 inpherno... Want some help?

I'd say your CPU is already a bottleneck.

 

[inpherno]

Thing is, your processor is of the mobile variety. Which means it has less instructions than a standard version. You can get a decent board and processor for £130 inpherno... Want some help?

I'd say your CPU is already a bottleneck.

Hmmm, I realise you're probably right that a board and processor would cost little more than £130, but there'd also be a higher cost for RAM.

From what I've read of the mobile CPU I have, it's supposedly not noticably different from the althon barton xp, but I could be wrong. It was widely praised as being one of the most overclockable CPUs of the time.

Please feel free to help me out with choosing a 'decent' mobo and cpu

 

[jayfella]

im sure i can find you something. gimme half an hour.

 

[inpherno]

im sure i can find you something. gimme half an hour.

Excellent, you're a star!

 

[jayfella]

OK.

You can get this processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (Dual Core) (runs at 3.0GHz)
and this MOBO: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+

The motherboard has onboard sound AND a Radeon 3200+ (supports DX10)

MOBO = £56.76
CPU = £66.31
TOTAL = £123.07
Free delivery if you choose 5 day(www.ebuyer.co.uk)

You can use your current DDR400 memory in it as well

If you shop around a little, you might be able to get a better on-board GPU solution..

 

[inpherno]

Hmm, doesn't look too bad... but how would something like this compare?:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-131-OK

I'd be very tempted to go for something like this, and a decent cooler to overclock it. I hear the E2200 can be overclocked quite well.

I could then buy a decent gfx card and hdd and be under £300. £300 would be my budget for buying a 'new' rig. My other PC can then be used by my housemate, which she's already said she would happily buy from me.

I already have an extra spare case, spare sound card, spare keyboard/mouse, spare monitor, dvd drive etc. in addition to my current pc, so that mobo/cpu/ram bundle, plus gfx card would be all I'd need.

What do you think to that bundle? Is there better value for money? Would I be better going AMD?

cheers

 

[muddocktor]

jayfella, you are giving some wrong info there, bud. With an AM2 system like you are recommending to him you cannot reuse the old DDR ram. AM2 processors can only use DDR2 ram And the part you posted earlier about the mobile XP2400+ not having the same instruction set as the desktop varieties is wrong too. That mobile XP2400 has the exact same instruction sets as the desktop Bartons. It doesn't have the more advanced instruction sets of the later A64 and AM2 processors though. But it does have MMX and 3DNow and SSE instruction sets (IIRC), but not SSE2, SSE3 or SSE4 sets.

With that said, his idea of upgrading the board and processor isn't bad by any means. But you will need to get some new ram to go with it. However, DDR2 ram is very inexpensive right now so that shouldn't be an impediment to upgrading.

 

[muddocktor]

Hmm, doesn't look too bad... but how would something like this compare?:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-131-OK

I'd be very tempted to go for something like this, and a decent cooler to overclock it. I hear the E2200 can be overclocked quite well.

I could then buy a decent gfx card and hdd and be under £300. £300 would be my budget for buying a 'new' rig. My other PC can then be used by my housemate, which she's already said she would happily buy from me.

I already have an extra spare case, spare sound card, spare keyboard/mouse, spare monitor, dvd drive etc. in addition to my current pc, so that mobo/cpu/ram bundle, plus gfx card would be all I'd need.

What do you think to that bundle? Is there better value for money? Would I be better going AMD?

cheers

That isn't a bad setup by any means but the 650i chipset used by that mobo will not and cannot support the 45nm quad processors (for future upgrades). But it will run dual core 45 nm procs OK. And if you are on a budget, AMD is also a valid choice to look at too because the prices are so damn good on them right now and there are some nice boards on the market for them too, especially for HTPC machines. But that bundle isn't bad for the price, IMO. With any now board or system purchase, you really won't need a separate sound card as the onboard solutions are really pretty darn good in their own right.

 

[jayfella]

Thats what i said, it doesnt have the same instruction set (??) You are right about the RAM tho. I didnt read into it enough.

I always read half a post and react. i have to stop doing that. grr at me.


AMD is the best option. I chose AMD over Intel in my new rig cos its just so darn cheap rite now.

 

[jayfella]

Also, i wouldnt shop at overclockers.co.uk - They are expensive.

You can get really good stuff at good prices from www.ebuyer.co.uk
You can also get really good coolers/advanced stuff from www.specialtech.co.uk

 

[muddocktor]

OK, I misunderstood what you meant about the old mobile AXP proc, jayfella. I thought you were saying that the mobile AXP didn't have the same instruction set as the desktop AXP processors, my bad. And thanks for giving him some links for shopping in the UK because I don't know who is good or not over there.

 

[TheGame240]

Thats what i said, it doesnt have the same instruction set (??) You are right about the RAM tho. I didnt read into it enough.

I always read half a post and react. i have to stop doing that. grr at me.


AMD is the best option. I chose AMD over Intel in my new rig cos its just so darn cheap rite now.

I think it was the wording of your post. It implied that mobile processors don't have the same instruction set as their desktop equivalents, which is false.


To the OP. I was in a similar situation not long ago. In the end I saved up a little extra (~$400 US) and went with a platform switch. My biggest problem with trying to upgrade was spending any money on what is essentially dead tech.

At that time I went with an Intel setup, but that was well before the latest AMD price cuts. If your PSU is up to par then I would think you could be in a new platform for less than $200 depending on what vendors you have available in the UK. ~$100 MB/CPU, ~$50 RAM, ~$50 VPU. You won't be able to go all out with the video card, but I've seen 1900 series cards for less that $50 used. At this point I think that would be a good step up in the short term. Long term you can always upgrade the video card when funds allow for it.

Alternatively you could search for used 939 system. That would allow you to use the ram you have and move on to a PCI-X graphics card. But once again you're putting new money into dead tech. Also you expressed an interest in moving to 2GB of ram, so I don't think that's the path you need to be on. But you could consider it.

 

[jayfella]

@muddocktor + TheGame240 - Hey no probs. I dont mind being wrong every now and again . Thanks for correcting me (i dont mean that in a funny way).

Anyway. Back to the problem.

AGP is so expensive rite now. If you were to buy a new AGP card, you could get an equivalent PCI-E for half the price. I know this cos i wanted a X1650 for an old rig of mine. It cost £100 back then, and i could have got a second-hand 7800GTX PCI-E for less than that, at double the speed. I ended up getting the X1650-AGP and was gutted with it. Total waste of money.

My choice for you would be this: (and this time i read the whole post )

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6GHz dual core) @ £42.52
ABIT AN-M2HD GeForce 7050PV Socket AM2 onboard VGA 7.1 channel audio mATX @ £42.95
Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 400MHz/PC2-3200 Memory Unbuffered CL3 1.8V @ £28.32

That would give you a 2.6GHz Dual Core with 2GB memory and onboard Sound/GFX for £113.79.

You could use the £80 for a decent graphics card if you wanted to go for a £200 budget.

 

[inpherno]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6GHz dual core) @ £42.52
ABIT AN-M2HD GeForce 7050PV Socket AM2 onboard VGA 7.1 channel audio mATX @ £42.95
Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 400MHz/PC2-3200 Memory Unbuffered CL3 1.8V @ £28.32

That would give you a 2.6GHz Dual Core with 2GB memory and onboard Sound/GFX for £113.79.

You could use the £80 for a decent graphics card if you wanted to go for a £200 budget.

Nice. I like the sound of that.

I've just agreed to sell my current machine to my housemate, so I'm going to go for the sensible future proof option. I'm very behind the times with all the new hardware around now, so your suggestion with the AMD setup is a big help.

I'll do a bit of research of my own based on your suggestions, then have a look on ebuyer (or my local computer shop - whose prices are actually pretty good).

Thanks again, to all of you.

 

[jayfella]

be sure to let us know how you get on, inpherno, and welcome to the forum!