£290 worthwhile upgrade??

Zephyrus · 11 Feb 2006 at 13:17

I have a budget of £290 left for another upgrade. but i cant for the life of me think if there is anything worthwhile getting that i will see a dramatic increase over what i already have. I have a 19" TFT on its way which will be played at 1280x1024 which i already play on my current CRT with high settings on BF2 etc so a graphics card upgrade wont see much of a boost ( i had another thread in the g/card section asking this). I thought possibly another DFI m/board for increased OC'ing but i cant really see that providing me with any negligable gaming performance. I'm wondering whether i'm just looking at spending money for the sake of it and not see anything for it.
Any thoughts on this guys? Specs in Sig.

Cheers,
Zeph.

Firegod · 11 Feb 2006 at 13:23

Soundcard? 5.1 speakers? SATA-II hdd(s)?

Erm other than that, no... now save your money!

n3x · 11 Feb 2006 at 13:27

ello again

a shiny new graphics card would make the biggest difference i reckon! maybe an overclocked 7800gt. Although i dont know how well the x850's perform so cant say how much of a benefit this will be but my geforce runs all games at that res with almost everything set to max. If u'r happy with the 850 maybe u should wait for nvidias next lineup. i cant see any other upgrades helping u out much really.

save u'r pennies for a 7900

BigDom · 11 Feb 2006 at 13:44

I would save up a little more and get a X1900XT. Whilst the current games are running well for you, this card will give you a long term boost as well as supporting a lot more graphics capabilities ( like SM3).

Zephyrus · 11 Feb 2006 at 13:45

Lol hey n3x. The x850xt doesnt seem to have any problems at all on high settings, the 3dmark score is a fair bit lower than the 7800's but i dont go by that too much as for all they score higher do they actually perform significantly better when gaming... probably not.
Oh well looks like i'd probably be best taking the advice and waiting for the next round of new hardware to hit the shelves

Zeph.

Zephyrus · 11 Feb 2006 at 13:48

BigDom said:
I would save up a little more and get a X1900XT. Whilst the current games are running well for you, this card will give you a long term boost as well as supporting a lot more graphics capabilities ( like SM3).

When you say long term boost, u mean more future proof yeah? For that aspect i'd be better waiting till my card suffers a hit from a new game then upgrade to one of them as the prices will probably be a lot cheaper. Although that time could come pretty soon depending on how Oblivion plays on my machine when its released.

SM3 i don't know too much about, what sort of benefits does having that capability give?

Cheers,
Zeph.

Monstermunch · 11 Feb 2006 at 14:32

no no no.... Sell the opti 144 and buy a 170. clock to 2.8 ghz and you'll basically have an fx60.

Zephyrus · 11 Feb 2006 at 14:55

Lol my opty 144 is priming right now at 2.8Ghz just now so its lookin' good for already having an FX57 equivelent

Monstermunch · 11 Feb 2006 at 15:13

Zephyrus said:
Lol my opty 144 is priming right now at 2.8Ghz just now so its lookin' good for already having an FX57 equivelent

Yea but it's only single core with half the amount of cache. No problem at the mo but if you have the spare cash IMO its the best upgrade you could make!

Monstermunch · 11 Feb 2006 at 15:14

okay then sell the opti 144 & the x850xt and get an opti 170 and an x1800xl or xt.

This is easily do-able with the value of your components plus the £290 you have

Zephyrus · 11 Feb 2006 at 16:22

Lol your really pushing the opty 170 aint ya Monster

If i knew that the x1900xt would have a noticable improvement over what i have i would prolly sell the x850xt and get one.
Has anyone made the jump from x850xt to x1900xt?

Also wondering how loud the 1900xt's fan is. I have a zalman on my current card as the stock one was way too noisy.

Monstermunch · 11 Feb 2006 at 16:44

Zephyrus said:
Lol your really pushing the opty 170 aint ya Monster

Not really, just IMO its the best chip currently available.

kbc · 11 Feb 2006 at 16:45

You already got an excellent system mate with a decent overclock too. If anything it would be your graphics card... perhaps wait until the new cores are out before considering anything - is your system under performing? Looks like you're really itching for an upgrade though, counting your pennies as we speak? Go for the X1900 if you really want it.

eatmuchpie · 11 Feb 2006 at 17:21

I could put a well-being omen on the computer for, ooh, let's say £289.99 on special offer!

How's about putting some money towards a raptor to install windows on, thus it should load faster, and save the rest.

trojan698 · 11 Feb 2006 at 18:41

save your cash for the am2 is near!

kinda..

Zephyrus · 12 Feb 2006 at 23:44

One x1900xt on its way to me. All i can say is this card better last me till DX10.
Oh, and the Mrs is gonna kill me

Although still looking for that £290 upgrade as its in paypal atm and the g/card went on the cc