Upgrade for >£150 ?

Helium_Junkie

Helium_Junkie

Helium_Junkie

Soldato
Joined
26 Nov 2003
Posts
6,674
Location
East Sussex
I have a barton 2500 @ 3200 - the old classic eh? :p
This is running on a DFI infinity something.
2x1GB & 1x512MB PC3200 Corsair XMS.
Graphics card is a 6800GT.

So, is there anything I can do to increase gaming performance? I'm pretty sure it's the cpu that's holding me back at this point, but honestly I'm out of touch :) I'd like to get a performance boost for around the £150 mark.

If this is simply too little money, please say! :)
 
To be honest if I were you, (I'm in a similar situation) I would save my money until the new intel socket is out and by which time ddr3 timings will have tightened up and you will have much more money to put towards the cause. ;)
 
Jonny L said:
To be honest if I were you, (I'm in a similar situation) I would save my money until the new intel socket is out and by which time ddr3 timings will have tightened up and you will have much more money to put towards the cause. ;)
Click to expand...

I agree with Jonny L, it is what I am doing too.
 
Asrock 4core/vsta and e4400 c2d = £140 inc vat at OcUK.
You will easily clock that to 2.8ghz to 2.9ghz with hardly any effort. Simply set it async and up the fsb to 280 to 290. The e4400 has a 10x multiplier and runs at 200mhz so is ideal for this board which is stable if you dont try to exceed those sort of figures. You should be ok with the stock hsf.
Use your 6800gt which is still a good card as the mobo supports agp8x as well as pci-e.
Use 2x1gig pc3200 in dual channel. Set it at 333mhz in bios as upping the fsb increases the memory too. At 290 fsb your memory will be at 180mhz or thereabouts, well within its 200mhz rating.
The board has ide and sata hd support. Your psu will be ok too as the Asrock uses a 20 pin atx connector although your psu will need to have the p4 4pin connector too.
You will be amazed at the increase over your old system.
You can also upgrade to pci-e, sata, ddr2 etc over time whilst still using the Asrock and when you've got everything sorted just upgrade the mobo to a fully pci-e ddr2 sata2 board.
 
I agreen with ron 100%. It'd a cost effective way of upgrading. After you have that board, you can upgrade in stages and then buy a killer new motherboard down the line. The one drawback of that motherboard is that there are only 2 ddr and 2 ddr2 slots. I own this motherboard and am more than happy with it.

good luck and let us know what you decide
 
I am in the throes of carrying out that very plan - using my old DDR and AGP as part of a step by step upgrade which will leave both me and son with improved systems.

I have the 4core Vsta with an E4300 - running on stock cooling at 2.7 GHz - the chip is running a tad warm for my liking but that will be greatly improved once I tidy up the case.
 
ron3003 said:
Use 2x1gig pc3200 in dual channel. Set it at 333mhz in bios as upping the fsb increases the memory too. At 290 fsb your memory will be at 180mhz or thereabouts, well within its 200mhz rating.
Click to expand...

Sorry to be newboid, but this confuses me. Set the processor FSB to 333? Where does 290 come into it? Can you explain this step like I'm a 2 year old please? :p
Thanks :)
 
Helium_Junkie said:
Sorry to be newboid, but this confuses me. Set the processor FSB to 333? Where does 290 come into it? Can you explain this step like I'm a 2 year old please? :p
Thanks :)
Click to expand...
You set the RAM to 333mhz when the computer is otherwise at stock. As you then increase the FSB to 290, it will also raise the RAM from 333mhz. They're clocked at a ratio to each other so as you increase one, so does the other. So by setting the RAM to 333mhz you have changed the ratio that's all.
 
It's a bit confusing, but Stormer is right. Setting the RAM to 333 is just like saying 'for every 400mhz that the RAM would run normally, it'll make it run only 333mhz'. That allows you to puch the FSB up (which is proportionally linked to the RAM speed) without pushing the RAM beyond it's limits.
 
I went for the suggestion and couldn't be happier! :) I've overclocked the CPU to 2.6GHz, and it's orthos stable (haven't changed any voltages, I thought I'd have to!). Played me some quake 4 and C&C3 and the difference was staggering! SUPCOM test tonight :D Might try pushing it up to 2.9GHz, but that seems like an awfully high step!
 
This is interesting, I didn't know there were mobos that supported both DDR and DDR2! Isn't the Allendale hideously throttled by the slower RAM?
 
manveruppd said:
This is interesting, I didn't know there were mobos that supported both DDR and DDR2! Isn't the Allendale hideously throttled by the slower RAM?
Click to expand...

Reviews of this board have shown very little difference in performance between DDR and DDR2 - in fact it overclocks slightly better with DDR.

The real bottleneck is the chipset rather than the memory, but nevertheless it provides an inexpensive option as a "throwaway" stepping stone on the way to a fully fledged DDR2/PCIe graphics system.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom