Advice Please!

[Nemisis]

Hi guys just wanted to know what you think would be my best optionfor the future here!!

I have this old slot 1 500 PIII PC with 384meg ram and 80 gig HD with onboard rage 128 16 meg graphics card thati have had for 4 years now!!

Its getting old and showing it! I dont have a large amount of cash to spend on a shiny new PC with all the trimmings and i am wondering, Should i try and get a hold of a slot 1 1.0 ghz PIII chip ($160 is the prices i am looking at for that!!! and new PCI (no AGP slot) graphics card and extend the life of this PC.

OR get a new motherboard and a duron or celeron processor (MUCH CHEAPNESS ON THESE CHIPS as i can get a chip plus motherboard for the same price as a PIII 1Ghz chip, but i would also have to get graphics and sound cards as well as new memory to go with it) and build a new PC bit by bit as i get the cash for new stuff!

Dilema is! first option gets this old banger a face lift that i can afford very quickly and lets me play the latest games what with LOMAC on the horizon ( i dont want to miss that boat!! errr plane err whatever) but it wouldn't be long before i would have to upgrade to a newer spec system anyway!

Second option gets me a new PC with a high spec and saves me buying stuff for a PC that i won't have for much longer and wont be able to canbalise to use anything on the new pc,but only after a long process of buying a bit here and there when the cash is available and in the mean time i am stuck with my old PC toddling along with it's zimmer frame bursting a gut trying to play my fav games!!

Your opinions would be appreciated!

Nemisis

[Softball]

Nemesis,

How much can you absolutely afford to spend for new parts? From the looks of your current system, to be able to run LOMAC, I would say you are gonna need a new CPU, MB, RAM, and video card.

Here are some comparisons for some DECENT computer parts.

For a P4 setup:

CPU: P4 1.8G Retail Box $145
MB: ASUS P4S533-E DDR $ 84
DDR RAM: 512MB Chip DDR PC2100 $ 66
VIDEO: GF4 MX440 128MB $ 53

TOTAL: $ 348+tax


For an AMD setup:

CPU: AMD 2100XP Retail (1.8G) $98
MB: ASUS A7V-8X Athlon XP $99
DDR RAM: 512MB Chip DDR PC2100 $66
VIDEO: GF4 MX440 128MB $53

TOTAL: $316+tax

It looks like from reading your post, that you are not going to be able to buy everything in one shot. So if I had to choose, I would look for a video card first, then CPU, MB, RAM. I have a GF4 MX440 64MB in my P-III 933 computer and it runs Ravenshield just fine. Your in a Catch 22 situation though, your CPU and MB setup will not be able to run the latest and greatest, even with a GF4 card in there. My advise is start saving now, and hopefully by Summer 2003 (LOMAC release), you have the money to upgrade the above mentioned parts.

Wish I could be of more help.

[Hammer]

He also can not run an agp card in the current motherboard, so it would be just buy parts until you can get it all to put together. If that is the case, it would be better to set the money aside until you can buy it all at once, as prices will continue to come down on the not so late and great stuff, which is always overpriced.

I would not really put much into the current system, if anything at all. I will see if I have a board with an AGP slot that I can send you...I believe I do - and that might help you get by with pieces and parts in the interim.

[Nemisis]

Cheers for the help guys. I will just save up for a while and get the money aside for the parts i need! and just get the games now that way i wont have to worry about trying ti find them later when i have a system that can play them!

Steel if you have a board that can take an AGP graphics card just let me know and i'll send you the cash for shipping and whatever you want for the actual board! At least that way i might get Falcon to run properly again!! I still havent worked out what went wrong to muck it all up since it was working perfectly before??

I think i'll go for the pentium option for the upgrade, i will spend a bit more on a Motherboard, that will give me plenty of options to upgrade processors and memory, etc in the future. I like the look of the MSI 655 MAX-FISR! nice board top spec and can take the slower processors (2GHz) and put 512Mb in to start with.

I also suppose i'll have to upgrade to Windows XP PRO since Microsoft are withdrawing OL support for WIN 98SE in JUNE this year (and it is 5 years out of date now anyway).

Nemisis

[Nemisis]

I have done some calculations tonight and have come up with a figure of £456 ($711) That will give me a 2.4Ghz P4 system with 512Mb ram and either a Geoforce4-MX440 or a Radeon-9000pro both 128mb graphics cards. This will be more than enough to get all those games playing smoothly i think!!!

Just one question for you guys though as the prices for procesors over here is quite steep! me thinks.

What is the current full US price for the following processors? P4 2.4Ghz 533FSB and P4 2.8Ghz 533FSB???

If anyone can answer this i would be gratefull as i think it would be worth my time ordering a processor from the states as i have a hunch that even including shipping it will be a lot cheaper than buying one here!!

Thanks in advance.

Nemisis

[Softball]

Current Prices at a shop near my house:

http://advertisers.computoredge.com/sddisplay/MRT.htm

P4 2.4G Retail Box $168 USD

P42.53G Retail Box $194 USD

P4 2.8G Retail Box $350 USD

I paid $195 for my P4 2.4G about 4 months ago.

[Nemisis]

Cheers for the price list SB! as i suspected the prices over there are dramatically less than over here.

Here is my version of the list UK prices and US conversion!!

Pentium 4 2.4G Retail Boxed £143.25 $223.47

Pentium 4 2.53G Retail Boxed £162.30 $253.18

Pentium 4 2.8G Retail Boxed £316.81 $494.22

Pentium 4 3.06G Retail Boxed £491.62 $766.92

As you can see for me to get a 2.8G from the states would save me $154 or about £100!!!!! and even after shipping costs i would save a fortune!

Shocking the prices we pay for electrical goods over here!

Nemisis

[Hammer]

Nemesis,
I would really consider AMD unless you have a definite reason for not getting one. I think you get more bang for the buck. I have been running on AMD chips for at least 2.5 years... It seems Softball got himself an Intel, maybe he will share why he did that instead of AMD.

[Softball]

I have always bought Intel chips since I can remember. A year ago, I bought an AMD 1900+ (1.6G) to see if I would notice a difference. Of course I really had nothing to compare it to, 1.6G was the fastest I have ever had or seen at the time. We recently upgraded to a P4 2.4G at work, and it was so much more faster than my AMD, and I was highly impressed with the speed. Plus, the P4 has a 533Mhz FSB and my RAM is DDR PC2700 (333), a bit faster than my AMD I had. No bad reason why I switched, I just wanted to stick with the Pentium product after testing the AMD road. My wife has an AMD TB 1.2G in her computer, it has run rock solid for almost a year now. Nothing against AMD, I just wanted to go back to Intel. Cost was not an issue for me I guess. AMD chips are certainly cheaper, but the motherboards are about the same price and sometimes more than the P4 boards.