Poor man wantin to upgrade comp

[renegade77]

Anyone out there want to send me some money so i can upgrade my comp. Im uderpaid overworked student tryin to get a degree. The Fall and winter holiday season is commin up and so many great games and im dyin to give my comp a nice over haul. but i hate these dadgum payments. I wish i were done with school and sittin behind a nice desk makin 80k a year or had rich parents to buy me wutever i wanted. Oh the agony. Im kinda thankfull they pushed hl2 back and all the other killa apps cause man i aint ready yet. All i can do is keep prayin to Jesus for a miricle.

[vampireuk]

Welcome to the stinkin real world buddy

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by vampireuk
Welcome to the stinkin real world buddy

Just wait until you have bills to pay: mortgage, homeowner's association, gas, electric, cable, Internet service, credit card, food, the list goes on. Be smart with your money and eventually you'll find some funds to purchase computer upgrades and games.

But don't ask for handouts. It makes you look really foolish.

[vampireuk]

I don't look forward to the bills idea ;) hopefully I'll have built up enough money by the time I get my own place to have a nice comfort buffer of cash:cool:

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by vampireuk
I don't look forward to the bills idea ;) hopefully I'll have built up enough money by the time I get my own place to have a nice comfort buffer of cash:cool:

Definitely. I'm forever in debted to my parents for this - they invested money I got for gifts when I was a kid. Like if my grandma gave me $5 when I was a tyke, my parents would invest $4 and give me $1. After 20+ years of interest, that money grew to over $10,000. I used that money for the down payment on my townhouse, paid off my car, upgraded my PC, bought appliances and paid for 3 months of association dues. Now that I've settled down financially, I'm able to pay all my bills and still be able to save a bit each week for car repairs and for when I eventually move out. :)

[Gator]

I'm not sure if your posting to vent your frustration with the real world, or are seriously asking for assistance on what to choose for an upgrade.

Assuming you have a standard ATX case and power supply, and you have at least a 300watt PSU, get a cheap NForce2 board, Barton2500, and 256 to 512mb DDR. If you need a video card too, go for a R9600Pro or a Sapphire R9800SE

from http://www.newegg.com, all US prices, FEDEX Saver free shipping applies to all

Asus A7N8X-X = $81
Barton2500 retail = $90
Crucial 512mb DDR2700 = $84
Sapphire R9800SE = $173
or
Sapphire R9600Pro = $150

if you can't afford those prices, have a PIII or less, and are REALLY desperate... only other things I can suggest are...

ECS K7S5A PRO = $48
AthlonXP 1800 TBred Retail = $58
Crucial 256mb DDR2100 = $46
Cheiftec GF4TI4200 64DDR = $85

good luck

[ragejg]

OR...

@ hardware trading/selling forums, you could find the following...

NForce 2 mobo: $60
XP1700 TBredB (2 ghz fo sho!): $40
(2) 128mb sticks of PC2100 or PC2400: $45 (dual channel YAY!)
Geforce3: $50 (can do 10k in 3dmk2k1 in a setup like this)

With nforce2 mobo's goin for $60 on newegg now, it seems to me that it doesn't make sense to get anything else... my kt266a pluggin days are finally over (in some ways)...

A setup like the one above FYI would outperform Gator's bottom setup, and cost less...

... just tryin to give you another angle...

And Gator: I'm not downing your recommendations at all, as I think they're perfectly valid...

[Gator]

Originally posted by ragejg
And Gator: I'm not downing your recommendations at all, as I think they're perfectly valid...

lol... no worries bro, just trying to help :D :cool:

[renegade77]

Originally posted by ragejg
OR...

@ hardware trading/selling forums, you could find the following...

NForce 2 mobo: $60
XP1700 TBredB (2 ghz fo sho!): $40
(2) 128mb sticks of PC2100 or PC2400: $45 (dual channel YAY!)
Geforce3: $50 (can do 10k in 3dmk2k1 in a setup like this)

With nforce2 mobo's goin for $60 on newegg now, it seems to me that it doesn't make sense to get anything else... my kt266a pluggin days are finally over (in some ways)...

A setup like the one above FYI would outperform Gator's bottom setup, and cost less...

... just tryin to give you another angle...

And Gator: I'm not downing your recommendations at all, as I think they're perfectly valid...





where can i find these furums

[Gator]

Originally posted by renegade77
where can i find these furums

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=17

[ragejg]

and www.hardforums.com ...

I think the mods do a good job @ hardOCP's FS/FT section...

[Dazz]

Originally posted by renegade77
Anyone out there want to send me some money so i can upgrade my comp. Im uderpaid overworked student tryin to get a degree. The Fall and winter holiday season is commin up and so many great games and im dyin to give my comp a nice over haul. but i hate these dadgum payments. I wish i were done with school and sittin behind a nice desk makin 80k a year or had rich parents to buy me wutever i wanted. Oh the agony. Im kinda thankfull they pushed hl2 back and all the other killa apps cause man i aint ready yet. All i can do is keep prayin to Jesus for a miricle. And whats wrong with your computer? a XP 2600+ & Radeon 9700 an't good enough?!?!?!?!

[vampireuk]

Originally posted by Dazz
And whats wrong with your computer? a XP 2600+ & Radeon 9700 an't good enough?!?!?!?!

What the? Renegade what are you trying to pull here?

[renegade77]

na my performance isnt as good as u think it would be, im ganna try to get a ram upgrade that should level out da playin field.

[Dazz]

Try overclocking your processor and video card. I overclocked my video card and got 2k pts in 3D Mark2001 so that shows a nice boost to say the least.

[renegade77]

my stupid vid card has a lock on it its a 9700 non pro

[CaptNKILL]

oh man :rolleyes:

Stop complaining dude..... your comp is faster than mine and I consider mine fairly high end... well, besides my current (temporary) video card. I wish my computer had a 9700 (pro or not). Hell, I just bought a 9600 Pro, and I didnt ask for handouts to get that :|

EDIT: BTW, all you need is more RAM. Another 256Mb or 512Mb would be plenty. Nothing else in your computer is slow\insufficient. If its not fast enough, start turning down the graphics options....

[Gator]

Originally posted by renegade77
Athalon Xp 2600+
Radeon 9700
Asus A7N8X
256x2 ddr pc 2100
Win Xp Home ed


Renegade I am utterly shocked to hear you complaining about your computer, or that your a "poor man wantin to upgrade comp." :rolleyes: I was under the impression you had a Pentium 133mhz or something.

Look your computer is great, you got a fast CPU, best motherboard there is, kick ass video card (even a stock speed non-pro R9700 is still a damn fine card)... all you are really lacking is memory. If I were you, I'd sell the 2 x 256meg DDR2100 sticks on ebay, and get yourself some DDR3200 memory. That will make it easy for you to overclock your processor, and you'll see a huge boost not only in core but from the increased bus speed. A 512meg stick of Crucial PC3200 starts at $90us at http://www.newegg.com

One question: what version of the AXP2600 do you have? 266 Tbred? 333 Tbred? or 333 Barton? If you said the 333 versions, then THAT'S your problem: running CPU and MEM at asyncronous speeds can lower performance drastically, hence you need faster memory ;)

[renegade77]

um im not sure what kinda cpu i have i will check (will sandrasoft work) And as for memory i was thinkin getin x512 of Geil memory but im not to sure if it will be compatibel with my asus baord.

[Dazz]

1# Geil memory is compatible.
2# what do you mean you don't know which type of CPU you are running? It could be very well be underclocked. Computer first starts up in safe mod and your FSB will be 200MHz so if you havn't touched your FSB since you put it in the computer it will still be running at it's lowest speed. As it's set to auto your memory will be set to it's rated speed, in your case 266MHz, this is the DRAM clock not your FSB.

[Kain]

DUDE!!! JUST LOOK AT MY COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!

[renegade77]

Ok ok i get, my comp isnt that much of a crapper compared to the mainstream. And its okay cause i got somemoney now anyways and i want to buy some Geil ram .. but do any of u konw if its compatible with nforce2 mobo's.

[Dazz]

Yes it is why an't you taking no notice to me?
http://www.geilusa.com/supportdetail.asp?linenumber=8

[Rogozhin]

Dazz

your 3dmark link isn't working:

here's mine (i was curious because you have a similar rig

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=1437851

rogo

[Dazz]

There we go 3D Mark 2003 link fixed.