Upgrade advice

Cuchulain · 21 Feb 2006 at 13:10

I can't decide where to begin with upgrading my mrs. PC.

It's a socket 754 A64, X800 Pro with 3 x 512mb sticks of PC3200, bit of a limited budget this month (£300 max).

I was thinking of getting an Nforce 4 (4x) motherboard and a 7800GT but I've read that the 4x boards are fairly poor performance wise.

Then I considered getting a 939 motherboard and processor with AGP and sticking with the X800.

It needs to be done this month before she changes her mind and earmarks the cash for something else.

Any advice would be appreciated.

semi-pro waster · 21 Feb 2006 at 13:19

What or how do you feel the PC struggles? That should govern the area that you need to upgrade the most as it seems like a fairly decent specification to begin with.

Cuchulain · 21 Feb 2006 at 13:29

semi-pro waster said:
What or how do you feel the PC struggles? That should govern the area that you need to upgrade the most as it seems like a fairly decent specification to begin with.

It definately needs another 512mb of memory (which is why I was considering a 939 board) as there's a lot of photoshop work done on it and even though I assumed 1.5gb would be enough, turns out I was wrong.

It also struggles a bit with more recent games if you use a decent resolution or enable AA/AF, would a 7800GS be a significant improvement over the X800?

semi-pro waster · 21 Feb 2006 at 16:46

A 7800gs isn't really any more powerful than a 6800ultra so it doesn't offer any worthwhile improvment over an X800pro, a little better but not much.

You could possibly get yourself a 3700 Clawhammer as a last throw for socket 754 but realistically socket 939 is probably a better bet. Something like a X2 3800 maybe, ASrock dual motherboard(use the existing X800pro) and get an additional 512mb Ram and accept that you will only be able to run all 4 sticks at 2T rather than 1T.

ACESHIGH · 21 Feb 2006 at 17:10

semi-pro waster said:
A 7800gs isn't really any more powerful than a 6800ultra so it doesn't offer any worthwhile improvment over an X800pro, a little better but not much.

You could possibly get yourself a 3700 Clawhammer as a last throw for socket 754 but realistically socket 939 is probably a better bet. Something like a X2 3800 maybe, ASrock dual motherboard(use the existing X800pro) and get an additional 512mb Ram and accept that you will only be able to run all 4 sticks at 2T rather than 1T.

very true !!

Cuchulain · 21 Feb 2006 at 17:42

semi-pro waster said:
A 7800gs isn't really any more powerful than a 6800ultra so it doesn't offer any worthwhile improvment over an X800pro, a little better but not much.

You could possibly get yourself a 3700 Clawhammer as a last throw for socket 754 but realistically socket 939 is probably a better bet. Something like a X2 3800 maybe, ASrock dual motherboard(use the existing X800pro) and get an additional 512mb Ram and accept that you will only be able to run all 4 sticks at 2T rather than 1T.

Heh, I never knew you could get dual AGP/PCI-E motherboards, that's ideal, cheers.