Should I keep my 9800 Pro? Upgrading rig, need advice.

[Morbid]

All right, I've been out of the game for quite some time. Here's my current setup:

P4 2.8C
Gigabyte motherboard - not really important
Mismatched 768mb PC2100
Sapphire 9800 Pro 128mb
WD SE 160gb HDD
Antec True 480W

Plus some other stuff.

Here's what I'm thinking about upgrading to:

A64 X2 4400+ Dual-Core - Toledo
ABIT AV8 (AGP/SATA RAID)
2gb (2x1gb) Corsair XMS 3200C2PT
2x WD 36.7gb Raptors in RAID 0

Question is, should I keep my 9800 Pro? Will it play decent (read: high quality, high resolution) in games like F.E.A.R. and Quake 4 with the added processing power? Is the 9800 Pro too weak now and I need to upgrade to something else?

Any opinions/suggestions are well received and greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Also, if I did decide to go PCI-E instead, which card would be reasonable to upgrade to? Not looking for the absolute top-of-the-line though, just something that's a good compromise between the 9800 Pro and whatever is on top, I guess.

 

[The Coolest]

9800Pro won't cut it for these new games, to play these games you will definatly need a new card.
I would also recommend you reconsider your choice of motherboard and CPU. You can go with an Opteron 165 and DFI LP Ultra-D and save like $150 so you could buy a better video card. You can still sell the 9800Pro for around $80-90. So $80-90 + $150 = $230-240. There is pretty decent selection of cards in that price range, and if you can add some $$$ the new GF 7900GT will be pretty good card to get and OC for about $300.

 

[ToXiC^]

Like THeCoolest says the 9800 is fine for games like AA, but not good enough for FEAR or BF2.

In the ATi listings you could go with the X850XT for about 169 or move up to the X1800 for about 300. I would suggest staying away from the X1300 and X1600 though.

Instead of the 2gb (2x1gb) Corsair XMS 3200C2PT
you could save a bit more dough with 2gb of OCZ. Newegg had a 2gb set on sale for 150 but I think its at 200 right now. 2 gigs of RAM will seriously help for the games like BF2 and FEAR.

 

[techun]

you would probably be better off with a single 150gig raptor, or the 74 gig ones, i think they're faster

 

[Morbid]

9800Pro won't cut it for these new games, to play these games you will definatly need a new card.
I would also recommend you reconsider your choice of motherboard and CPU. You can go with an Opteron 165 and DFI LP Ultra-D and save like $150 so you could buy a better video card. You can still sell the 9800Pro for around $80-90. So $80-90 + $150 = $230-240. There is pretty decent selection of cards in that price range, and if you can add some $$$ the new GF 7900GT will be pretty good card to get and OC for about $300.

I appreciate the information. I was only choosing that motherboard because it had AGP. If I were going PCI-E, which it looks like I will be, then I'm definately opting for a better motherboard.

 

[custom90gt]

like was said before, get an opteron 165 in place of the 4400 and oc it and save yourself some money. The 9800 while an awsome card in its day is not going to play games at decent settings. If you want a decent 200 dollar card I would suggest a 7600gt, if you can swing to the 300 dollar mark I would get a 7900gt or an x1800.

 

[Morbid]

I hate being out of the game so long, I have no idea what the difference is between the Opteron's and A64's. Haha.

I'm going to do some changing up and see what I come up with. I'll post back.

 

[custom90gt]

s939 opterons are just toledo cores that tend to oc better then the x2 series due to their server intentions. I'd check out the amd section to catch up on things before you throw your money down on something.

 

[Morbid]

How's this?

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA165CDBOX - Retail
eVGA 256-P2-N563-AX Geforce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWINX2048-4000PT - Retail
2x - RAID 0 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
SAMSUNG 204T-Black 20.1" 16ms LCD Monitor - Retail

Those SATA II drives sure are cheap.

 

[custom90gt]

looks like a heck of a system there. One more suggestion to you would be get the g.skill 2gb kit from newegg instead of the corsair http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231021 it would save you 50 bucks for some good ram.
everything else looks good.
How much is that samsung monitor? You may see if the dell 2005fpw is cheaper with a coupon...

 

[Morbid]

The monitor is $469.99 with free shipping.

I'll look into the suggestions you made. Thanks.

EDIT: What about an aftermarket HSF? I was looking at this, looks quite big though... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835118115

 

[custom90gt]

that zalman is a good hsf. You may also look into the ninja and the theraltake big typhoon (i got mine for 35 shipped from newegg under refurb). They all will do an awsome job of keeping the 165 cool.
If you can find one I would look on fatwallet or in the cyber deals section to see if the dell 2005fpw is on sale. Sometimes you can pick one up for around $350.

 

[Morbid]

that zalman is a good hsf. You may also look into the ninja and the theraltake big typhoon (i got mine for 35 shipped from newegg under refurb). They all will do an awsome job of keeping the 165 cool.
If you can find one I would look on fatwallet or in the cyber deals section to see if the dell 2005fpw is on sale. Sometimes you can pick one up for around $350.

Cool. Thanks man. I really appreciate all your help, as well as everyone else who has replied.

Hopefully this upgrade will hold me over for a while.

 

[The Coolest]

That's a nice system, but do not forget power supply! PSUs are real important now-a-days. A good one for such system would be something brand name and in the neighborhood of 500W. A Fortron BlueStorm 500W or an OCZ PowerStream 520W if you can afford it will be optimal.
Just saying don't go cheap on power.

 

[Morbid]

That's a nice system, but do not forget power supply! PSUs are real important now-a-days. A good one for such system would be something brand name and in the neighborhood of 500W. A Fortron BlueStorm 500W or an OCZ PowerStream 520W if you can afford it will be optimal.
Just saying don't go cheap on power.

You don't think my Antec True 480W will cut it?

 

[bobmanfoo]

it should be fine, but does it have a 24pin or 20pin? todays mobo's use 24pin and the newer psu's have pci-e connectors to make life a little easier

 

[Dan0512]

I would definitively get a new grx card. My x800gt is a lot stronger than any 9800 pro, and it struggles on FEAR on high settings without AA (1024 x 768).

A x1***, or a 7900gt.

dan

 

[Mac]

nevermind. I should read threads in there entirety before i post

 

[Mac]

You don't think my Antec True 480W will cut it?

I believe, unfortunately, your powersupply has only 20 pin connector and most (read: nearly all) mobo's today require 24-pin connection.