Upgrade Time! (?)

fishbox

fishbox

fishbox

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2006
Posts
16
Location
Derbyshire & Yorkshire
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Replace GPU, Upgrade Mobo to PCI-E or new system?
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Hi guys,
First post since I signed up this morning!

Basically I have been given £200 cash over the Christmas period that I wasn’t expecting. Since my system is starting to creek quite a lot, I figured the sum would be best spent upgrading it in time for the new semester at university where I study games design. I am running this system currently:

Athlon 64 3400+ (Socket 754)
DFI Lanparty UT 250gb
Nvidia GeForce 6800 (Regular; AGP)
2Gb Geil Value DDR400
200Gb Primary Drive
250Gb Storage Drive (Both Maxtors, 16Mb Cache)
DVD-RW 16x
Soundblaster Audigy
460W PSU (30a on 12V stated;20-pin)
2x 21” Sony Trinitron CRTs
Coolermaster Ammo Case

Given that my student loan is on its way, a certain amount could be ‘fronted’ if required to make up the cost. I could also sell my current rig and rebuild.

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The graphics card is obviously what I want to upgrade – and the new AGP version of the X1950 Pro looks very tasty at £159.99 + VAT as does the current ‘this week only’ one @ £129.99 + VAT

Also, it has occurred to me that there is a second option – to upgrade my mobo to a 754 pci-e and buy a faster (and pound-for-pound, cheaper) graphics card – either the same X1950 Pro 512Mb, the X1950XT-X 512Mb or the Nvidia 8800 GTS. This would be between £200-£300 + VAT

Ideally I would love to get a new system, Intel Core2DUO and 8800, but would only be able to supplement anything made on the sale of my pc by £300 or so (so Sale + £500). Are the benefits of the 8800 worth the price over a decent 7800/7900 or ATI X1950 XT-X, given that it would mean sacrificing other parts in order to stretch my budget to breaking point? I’m guessing a full rig would run around £850 + VAT

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Anyway, the system will be used primarily for gaming – and I game at 1600x1200 (really feeling the pain these days, lol). I will be playing FPS and RTS games (as well as MAME etc). I noticed medieval 2 would not let me run at my beloved 1600x1200 (sigh) and this is one of the reasons an upgrade is in order.

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If you think a full rebuild is the best option, please take into account that I will also be doing a lot of; Photoshop CS2
Maya 8.0
UnrealED
Flash

Obviously, 2GB of ram is preferable here as is Dual Core (especially for rendering) – what about a Raptor disk?

I do a little mixing (music) on the side using Virtual DJ and a half decent soundcard update would be good but not required.
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So my main questions are as follows:

a) How good is the new AGP X1950 pro (512mb)? Is it worth upgrading this part alone, given the relatively low price? This will run OK with my current spec? (No bottleneck/power problems?)

b) How good are socket-754 PCI-Express motherboards anyway? Is it worth swapping this part and going PCI-E? Would I be best opting for the DX10 platform, or should I wait a while?

c) How much could I theoretically get for my system, excluding monitors? Will this be enough to rebuild a decent spec? Has anyone on the boards built a gaming rig with that amount of cash recently?

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Anyways, sorry for the long post, but wanted to give you as much info as possible to avoid lots and lots of posts.
PS. Sorry if any of the abovce contravines the forum rules, I have read the faq and will take any advice on the issue if so.
 
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Noticed some lurkers but no replies so far, so thought I'd clarify -

I have a max budget of £500 + whatever I can sell my PC for, ex-VAT and am looking for the best bang-for-my-bucks from those three options.

TBH I'm thinking about doing the cheapest option and waiting until the summer for a possible DX10 price break/Core2Duo price drop.

Any thoughts guys?
 
hmm its a tough call i can see the merits of *** different options the problem with just buying the agp sapphire pro is that you are planning to change the other parts in the summer and if you do you will need to buy a new gfx again allthough tyou will be able to sell it of course. the other thing is that you may not get the full power of the card with the cpu you u have.

i also dont think you can get a socket 754 board in pcie not new anyway.

soo you kinda left with either just the card or a new system.


just noticed you like to run in 1600x1200 for that res ideal you will need something faster a little than a 1950pro to have all the eye candy turned on. as idealy the 1950pro is perfect match for 1280x1024res
 
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Looking at that setup, personally I'd go with the x1950pro. A 3400+ is no slouch for gaming (have you considered overclocking? You've got a reasonable mobo for it) and the rest of your system is decent.

While going for a s754/pci-e board may be appealing as it opens the path to many shiny and better-value gfx cards, ironically the AGP platform has actually IMPROVED in the last month or so with the release of the x1950pro. Until now there have been no decent parts available except some hideously overpriced 7800gs+ cards. Yet now the x1950pro is available (at a reasonable price), the AGP platform is still a viable platform.

Look at it this way, realistically in all likelihood the next time you upgrade you will be doing a full build anyway, so splashing the cash on a halfway-house like a s754/pci-e setup will be largely wasted when you could simply drop in a perfectly capable agp x1950pro and then just save up for a proper build (dual/quad core, DDR2, DX10) at some point in the future.

Doing a full build now of course is another option but would likely prove pretty costly as effectively you will be ditching a reasonable cpu/mobo/ram combination.
 
This is the problem I face - had I waited for 939 when I built this machine in the first place, I would've been fine.
I think waiting till summer and getting a full build would work out best in the long run, I'm sure I could find a buyer for a AGP x1950 as I know a few people in my position.

In response to thefishdude, I don;t mind dropping AA/texture settings in trade off for pure resolution (especially in RTS games) as the extra space is the main requirement.

In response to Hangtime, yeh I have tried overclocking, when I first got the board. I've got an Akasa EVO 120 and it certainly gave me options in that department. Running at stock atm tho, I had a mobo pop around 6 months ago and been hesitant to doing it again (it was the same mobo as I have now).

Thanks for the advice regarding pci-e 754 (I have seen a few online) - I wasn't sure about it as at the time of PCI-E coming out, I did consider it, but heard some negative reviews and haven't looked back at it until now.

Just looking at wether the GFX alone will make it worth waiting until summer - compared to what I have now I'm sure it will be a very obvious difference in FPS/quality anyway. And given that the core2duo price drops (and indeed new chips) have been scheduled for this year, I will probs hang on just a little longer.
 
lol i have a similar system to you and now that my student loan is coming i am going to upgrade on the 16th :), i'm getting around 300 for my system keeping the hard drive and that, but why not upgrade but not get a 8800 gt just get an x1950 or a 7950 gt when you upgrade?
 
Hey dmac, nice to know I'm so not behind the times as I thought, lol.

I did consider dropping down a rung on the video card, but how would that compare in real terms (not 3mark etc) with just having the graphics bump?
 
fishbox i was going to get the bfg 7950gt 512mb with a e6600 but i just realised i might as well get a 8800 gtx and overclock a e6300 to around 3 ghz.. same kinda price, going to get the mother to buy me the 8800gtx now though because to price will probably go up before i get my loan on the 16th.
 
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