AGP Upgrade

JABenedicic · 26 Jul 2007 at 12:28

Hi there,

I still have an AGP system and can't really afford to get a completely new machine at the minute.

I have:

A7N8X (I think thats the model, but its a 754 CPU)
AMD64 3200+
1GB RAM
6600GT

I am going to add another 1GB Ram and I am thinking of getting a XFX 7950GT 512Mb.

Is that a good card? Is it a good upgrade?

I'm also on the lookout for a Skt754 3700+ if I can find one at a good price.

Sir Random · 26 Jul 2007 at 13:17

The 512Mb X1950 Pro is as good or better and should be a bit cheaper.

lay-z-boy · 26 Jul 2007 at 13:42

2 gigs in single channel?

*cringes*

IMO, save for a nice cheap pci-e am2/c2d system instead of blowing money on outdated ddr and agp cards. It's not like that machine is dog slow.

JABenedicic · 26 Jul 2007 at 13:43

Sir Random said:
The 512Mb X1950 Pro is as good or better and should be a bit cheaper.

Cheers for the heads up, I'm an ATI virgin so kinda always stick with what I know, but if its going to cost less and do the same, may aswell take the plunge.

Is there anything I need to look out for when swapping from nvidia to ati, I don't want to reinstall. Should I use something like Driver Cleaner first? Do I need to be careful with that as my mobo drivers are nvidia too?

Sorry for all the questions.

lay-z-boy said:
2 gigs in single channel?

*cringes*

IMO, save for a nice cheap pci-e am2/c2d system instead of blowing money on outdated ddr and agp cards. It's not like that machine is dog slow.

Yeah I kind of guess you are right, and no its not incredibly slow, all I really do is play WoW and the odd CS:S.

I just wanted it to be a bit better when using FRAPS in WoW.

Scougar · 26 Jul 2007 at 13:54

I would get a x1950pro, for as little as £76.

The 7950gt 512mb is around £150 if I recall correctly which is WAY to much to be spending on an agp nowadays. (and the pro is not much behind it or on par i recall).

Matthew

JABenedicic · 26 Jul 2007 at 13:59

Ok, for peace of mind, lets say that the 7950 and 1GB ram would have cost me about £200 delivered, so that'll be my budget for the minute.

Looking here at OCUK, I could get:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT12864AA53E)
Asus M2N4-SLI (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

For a shade over £150. What card would I get with that little lot and what sort of PSU would I need to get?

If I can get it all for just over my budget it might not be a bad idea. Apart from the OS install which I hate doing

Scougar · 26 Jul 2007 at 14:24

um, bad investment.

At present go cheap Core2Duo (For as little as £40ish for a 1.6ghz then overclock it VERY easily).

Motherboard is upto you. There is NO point buying DDR memory any more though, bad investment. You can get motherboard for as little as £35 that isn't too bad.

Money spent on the PSU is a good thing, consider spending at least £60 on a good unit.

Lastly, after you have bought the kit you want SELL the old kit, which will reduce the overall cost of buying new parts.

Matthew

lay-z-boy · 26 Jul 2007 at 14:38

Whats with THE random words in CAPS?

Scougar · 26 Jul 2007 at 14:42

Emphasis.

Matthew

JABenedicic · 26 Jul 2007 at 14:47

Bah, back to the drawing board, no idea what to do now. Will think on it a bit.

Scougar · 26 Jul 2007 at 15:04

OK, 2 things.

1) What's your actual budget (money that you have now)?
2) How much do you estimate you will get from selling your old stuff?
3) What do you want to do with the system? What games if any, what apps etc, and how often?

Matthew

gareth170 · 26 Jul 2007 at 15:25

if u look around u can find motherboards, ram, cpu, graphic cards, psu cheap.. OcUK is just one place.. u could build a good system for £200 easy...

Dravic · 26 Jul 2007 at 15:35

Check out http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17757871 for a few budget builds.

JABenedicic · 26 Jul 2007 at 15:54

Scougar said:
OK, 2 things.

1) What's your actual budget (money that you have now)?
2) How much do you estimate you will get from selling your old stuff?
3) What do you want to do with the system? What games if any, what apps etc, and how often?

Matthew

1) £250 at the present moment.
2) Doubt I would sell it, would probably use it as a 2nd system for the gf.
3) I play wow, do some FRAPS, play a bit of CS:S, some video editing.

Scougar · 26 Jul 2007 at 16:05

Well you seem in conflict here, are you upgrading or starting afresh giving your old system to the gf? Are you sure your not gonna use the "giving you a PC darling" as an excuse to upgrade (which might land you in hot water with her as your spending money) ?

At present I don't see why you need to upgrade your card for the games you play.

Matthew

JABenedicic · 26 Jul 2007 at 16:18

Scougar said:
Well you seem in conflict here, are you upgrading or starting afresh giving your old system to the gf? Are you sure your not gonna use the "giving you a PC darling" as an excuse to upgrade (which might land you in hot water with her as your spending money) ?

At present I don't see why you need to upgrade your card for the games you play.

Matthew

I have enough other random bits around to build a spare system if I upgraded my mobo/cpu/memory/graphics/psu.

Nah she's not bothered what I do with my money so not so much a problem.

I know I don't do a great deal with it, but I'd like to play wow at full settings and not see any lag in a large raid and try to minimise the performance impact when I run fraps which can cut my FPS by 10-15.

gareth170 · 26 Jul 2007 at 16:22

Scougar said:
Are you sure your not gonna use the "giving you a PC darling" as an excuse to upgrade (which might land you in hot water with her as your spending money) ?

but that has nothing to do with u..

his asking which card to upgrade too or better to build a new system..

JABenedicic · 26 Jul 2007 at 16:31

I'm really indecisive as it is.

Made some really rash decissions in the past and ended up buying some right s*** (FX5600XT rings some bells).

Didn't realise the low cost of some setups these days, but then again I haven't really upgraded for a long while.

No idea what to do now, I mean yeah my pc runs ok, lags a bit in wow in the major cities and in some of the more intensive raids so would like that to be better, fps drops when I use fraps so the higher it is to start with would be better.

Other than that I don't use it for much, do the odd DivX to DVD conversion but usually just batch job them and leave it overnight so I'm in no rush.

They way I had thought it through before was, grab an extra gig of ram and a better graphics card for now and then save some cash and get a couple of brand new pc's (one for me, one for the gf, we both play wow) early next year.

Now I don't know what to do

gareth170 · 26 Jul 2007 at 16:35

are u happy with your pc? if so just upgrade your graphic card

LoadsaMoney · 26 Jul 2007 at 16:36

JABenedicic said:
Now I don't know what to do

You could star out your swearie.