£300 budget, wise choices ?

[MrNasty]

I own the system in my sig at the moment and I'm considering a big upgrade of my computer...

I'm fine with my harddrive at the moment and cdrom etc but I'll be needing some serious performance for games like asherons call2 unrealT2003 and expanability for when doom3 comes out and sucks up all my performance.

Here is my currant idea on an upgrade...

Athlon XP2400 $174 - £110
ASUS a7n8x-d MOTHERBOARD $121 - £77
256MB PC3500 433MHz DDR $91 - £57

Total £244 + shipping.



Thing is I'm unsure if the Nforce2 onboard GPU will handle games like unreal2003... let alone doom3. Also I think it don't have pixel / vertex shaders so I can't have nice water in AC2 :)


I need to know if It would be wiser upgrading to the above and getting a fast card when games like doom3 come out or if I should stick with what I've got ( see sig ) and get a radion 9700pro.

I just don't know how much of a limit my CPU 1ghz P3 and my ram will play on determining my frame rates.

I heard a lot about games not bothering with tons of polygons and all going for more textures and shaders.. if so maybe I don't need a faster CPU.

Some ideas please :) thx.

[The Baron]

A, you don't need PC3500 RAM. Go with PC3200. B, don't get a 2400, get a 2200 or a 2100. Cheaper, almost as fast. C. find yourself a GF4Ti4200. :p

[MrNasty]

Originally posted by =SSC=The Baron
A, you don't need PC3500 RAM. Go with PC3200. B, don't get a 2400, get a 2200 or a 2100. Cheaper, almost as fast. C. find yourself a GF4Ti4200. :p

*strokes chin*

You my friend are a genius.

Will that be future proof... I mean how fast a CPU does doom3 need ? I just want a system where the rest CPU memory ETC is fine and I can just plug a new GFX card in over the next year at a whim and see a big performance incrase... I don't want to have to scrap a 2200 or 2100 for doom3 and get a even faster processor...

Doom3 alpha had me well scared.

Ok... here is an idea...


$86 Athlon XP 2100
$67 - PC3200 DDR 256MB
$108 - MOTHERBOARD GA-7VAXP http://www.motherboards.org/articlesd/motherboard-reviews/1208_5.html

Subtotal:

261.00 USD = 165.557 GBP ( my limit is £300 )


and last but by no means least...

$177 - ATI OEM RADEON 9500 PRO 128MB DDR DVIM

... bringing the total to £277...

:D

So im saving a lot of money on the ram, cpu and MB...


Not final tho... could anyone further tweak my cost to performance ratio ? Or suggest anything ?

Is my MB a good deal or could I get lower without sacrificing the futureproofing and performance... it did get a good review tho...

All GF4 cards are out of the question tho cause 9500 pro beats them for a lower price anyway.

Any other ideas ? ( thx barton )

[The Baron]

Believe me, it'll be fast enough... :p

It's still a great gaming rig. Buying the absolute fastest is never a good idea unless you have money burning a hole through your leg (forget your pockets). For example, a 2.4Ghz P4 is $193 at Newegg, but a 2.53 is $238. Is an extra 130Mhz actually worth $45? I doubt it. Will you ever notice the difference? Not unless your brain has a reaction time 63 times greater than mine :p Soooo.... yeah, you're peachy.

Congrats, dude, I want the R9500 Pro :p

[MrNasty]

Sweet...

Now I just gotta find away of dodging paying VAT and import dutie :D

Seriously... If anyone knows of ways I can get around this government crazyness give me a shout :)

Thx Barton :D

[DaveW]

With CPUs its never worth getting the very fastest. You pay something like twice the price, for a CPU that is only 10% faster than the next model down.

The Athlon XPs have a 266 mhz FSB. So its pointless getting anything above PC2100 ram, since the CPU can't keep up with it.

[|JuiceZ|]

Originally posted by DaveW
...The Athlon XPs have a 266 mhz FSB. So its pointless getting anything above PC2100 ram, since the CPU can't keep up with it.

unless you o'c ;)

[SavagePaladin]

The 333mhz bus procs are out, actually, but anyway

[The Baron]

Yeah, but they're $400 OEM :p

[SavagePaladin]

I know!
Was just talkin to DaveW there