Possible Upgrades?

[BJS]

Hey all, I have been prowling on the forums here for a few weeks now and making my first post. I'm glad to see there is a place like this where inteligent people can share there opinions and ask for help. I need to get to bed so I will jump straight to the point.

My current computer meets all of my needs except it is a laggy while running World of Warcraft. It is around 4 or so years old so don't be shocked when you see my components. The ones that I feel are relevant to my question are.

MOBO:
Asus A7N266-6
Processor:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (running at 1.67GHz), Volcano 8 Fan
Memory:
1x 512 stick of PC3200 Kingston Value ram, 1x 256 stick of PC2100 Ellipsis ram
Video Card:
NVidia GeForce 3 Ti 200
PSU:
~400W Antec

I have been looking at getting a new PC but am saving some cash and waiting for the Intel processores to come down in price and more DX10 cards to come out. If possible I would like to try and get what I currently have running at its best to see if it can handle my WOW needs. I realize that my hardware is dated and upgrades may not be availible at all or at a good price. Is upgradeing my processor, cooling, video card and ram a worthwhile investment or would the same money get me more current hardware that will kill any sort of possible upgrade? I am guessing that I would most likely need to Overclock to make the old hardware viable.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[Cricket]

My suggestion is not to upgrade your current computer now, wait until you can build a new one instead. I feel that would be a better way to spend your money.

But if you really do want to upgrade your current rig how much were you willing to spend? You'd need to upgrade the RAM to at least 1GB (2GB would be ideal), install the fastest CPU that motherboard supports and get a much better video card.

But again, I would put the money towards a new computer rather than upgrade your current one.

Cricket

[rspassey]

You're best off waiting to build an entirely new computer. Doing any upgrades to this computer will eventually hit limit - even if you go piece by piece, you can only improve so much before you're spending more than what it would cost to build new.

Overclocking is a possibility, but I wouldn't recommend it - while you might be able to get a few more Mhz, you probably wont notice the speed increase.

A video card upgrade would help most with WoW, in my opinion.... but I would still wait it out a while longer (keep saving) and build new.

Ryan

[glc]

If you do upgrade what you have, none of the parts you buy now will be compatible with a new build. That is money not well spent in my opinion.

[BJS]

Thanks for the input. I was thinking along the same lines but at the same time was thinking it could be possible to throw a bit of money at it, and get to a point where I would no longer lag while playing WOW. I would really like a top of the line system but when i think about it logically my only gripe with my current set up is the less than desireable performance while gaming. I guess Ill keep browsing and planning for my next all new system.

[glc]

Well, if you feel like spending the money for a stronger AGP card and more ram, go for it. I'd do a video card first. That GF3 was a great card in its day but it's a dog by today's standards. Best AGP for under 100 bucks is a 6600GT:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143083

Another 512mb of ram will cost you about 40 bucks.

If you pull the PC2100 and stick another PC3200 512mb module in, you could try doing a little overclocking. The Asus support site is down right now so I can't check to see what processor upgrades that board will accept.

[BJS]

Lol, that card kicks the crap out of my current card as far as core and memory speed go.

Old Card OCed:
Core: ~190 MHz
Memory: ~440 MHz

GeForce 6600GT
Core: 525 MHz
Memory: 1050 MHz

I pulled out my PC parts box and found out what memory I was running, I got it on rebate at circuit city a while back. I belive this is it:

Kingston ValueRAM 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141436
- $45.99

As far as CPU, I looked at the MOBO manual and it says it supports Socket A (462), Athlon XP/ Athlon / Duron Processores. I am not sure if you can still get these as a search on new egg of 'Athlon XP' only comes up with Athlon 64's. It also says that is supports up to 1.5GB of ram so 2GB i guess would be out of the question and put me over a price where just getting a new PC would the best decision.

[glc]

You would have to get a processor from a gray market vendor, I usually use starmicro.net. The Asus support site is still not loading. Please confirm which exact A7N266 you have? I think you can go up to about a 2600+.

[BJS]

Oops, made a typo in the Motherboard line in my original post. My Mobo Manual says:

A7N266-C
Socket A Motherboard
nVidia nForce 415-D Chipset
DDR SDRAM

[BJS]

Well, it looks like I may have answered my own question.

Possible upgrades to my current system already mentioned:
AGP GeForce 6600 - $88.99
512 MB Ram - $45.99
Athlon XP 2600 - $77.00
TOTAL = $211.98

Cheap System I put together on newegg in the last 45 minutes or so. (Not sure if i picked quiality parts, but I did my best.)
Motherboard:
ASUS P5VD2-X LGA 775 VIA PT890 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131090
- $59.99

Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 641 Cedar Mill 3.2GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 EM64T Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116003
- $75.00

Memory:
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146580
- $63.99

Video Card:
BFG Tech ~ GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143087
- $144.99

Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ~ 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148149
- $56.99

PSU:
Antec TruePower 2.0 ~450W (in current computer)
- Free

Case:
Current Case
- Free

TOTAL = $400.96
I am assuming my current PSU would work with the new hardware. The new system would also be completely upgradeable and I would guess be a much better performer than an upgrade to my current system. If I did want to build a new system I would most likely want to throw more money at it than the $400 system I just parted together. I just wanted to see how cheaply it could be done now a days.

[glc]

Reasonable concept, but I'd suggest some changes.

That motherboard may be an Asus, but it has a Via chipset - not recommended for Intel. I'd get a P5L-MX, it's around $75. Only downside is it only has 2 ram slots.

If you wait till the end of April, the Core 2 Duo prices are being reduced, I would not buy an "old" single core P4. The E4300 will be reduced to $113.

Ram should be bought in dual channel kits these days.

That price seems awful high for a 7600GS. Look at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130075

A 16mb cache 7200.10 is a better hard drive but that .9 is fine if you are on a really tight budget.

That still keeps you around $400.

EDIT: Asus site is back up, you are restricted to 266 FSB processors on your board - and the 266 FSB 2600+ is $194. You can get a 2400+ for $67 but that's hardly worth it.

[jer888]

yeah if you do upgrade what you have it will cost a little less money but its just putting more money into something that isn't going to be able to run games/apps well in a couples years. If you put some more money in and build something that is upgradeable you will be better off. Maybe a Pent D and P5B, 7600GS, 512MB ram to start, and use that psu if it is ATX 2.0

[glc]

I would not bother with only 512 ram - you *need* a gig to game these days.

[BJS]

Yes, like I imagined the system I put together was going to have some flaws as it was based on my lacking judgement on these matters. I simply wanted to do a shoot from the hip and see how much extra I would have to spent to make upgrading my current rig a bad investement. If I could have gotten away with around 100 bucks or something like that then it would have been worth it but now I know that it is not.

I read the artical on the Intel processores coming down that was linked somewhere on here. I am interested to see just how much they come down. I am also interested to know what is going to happen to the new video card prices in the next few months.

And yes I agree from my experience with my current PC 1GB of ram should be the bottom end now a days.

[glc]

http://www.behardware.com/news/imprimer/8579/