I'm looking at upgrading my PC from

P4 1.7Ghz
512MB SDRAM
GF2 MX400
Intel D845HV mobo

To:

P4 2.* Ghz maybe
512MB DDR PC2*00
GF4 Ti4200
New mobo

Need your help, should I get a mobo/CPU combo, or just get a mobo? What kind is best? Would like a 533Mhz bus. Will all this work together and be compatible?

Thanks so much,

It really depends what your price limitations are and very importantly what you're going to be using it for.

Have you had any performance issues with the 1.7GHz? Anything you feel you're lacking? If so then upgrade to a 2.xGHz.
Any performance problems you may experience is probably due to the SDRAM :rolleyes:

I would say definitely get a new sysbo & DDR.
The GFX card, I'd say definitely. I'm still wondering how a GF2 MX got packaged with a P4, though...

Thanks for the response. The GF3 was something like $200 to upgrade, not worth it though, or at least I thought so at the time.

Hi Greg,

Is it just the video card issue? The P4 is a good CPU & even tho' SDRAM isn't an overclocks dream, I've seen some impressive benchmarks (vs DDR) with it. Few real life applications show much benefit (sdram vs ddr). So I hear.

If it is mostly vid card related: ATi 8500's & nVidia GF3 & GF4 TI 4200's are getting very rea$onable. :grinthumb

I'd suggest you start w/the card, either way. PNY is offering a $40 rebate on a GF3 Ti200 & I've seen it for $108, $68 w/rebate! I've seen 8500's for ~$100 too.

HTH & let us know your intentions for the computers use & we can give you some input on components.

Thanks JAV. I primarily use my PC for gaming, FS2002 mainly, not many others. If I can get away with a video great! I would suspect that it's my bottleneck, performance is okay, but to get detail you really need AA, and that kills the FPS to a stutter.

Thanks,

UR welcome. Glad I'm helping.

Based on the NV30 sig, I gather you have a good understanding of the graphics market. 9700 Pro is current King & NV30 is expected to be. ~$400 cards, DX9 (won't be used for a year) all the GQ settings.

The 8500 is a great card & a killer bargain right now, IMO. The bummer is ATi has stopped making the chip & has said they won't be supporting it anymore. ie; no new drivers. There are others tho'. (Omega)

A Ti 4200 is all the rave right now. The 64mb's have reached T1 4600 stock speeds w/improved cooling. The 128mb, tho' a tad slower, has a longer future, IMO. DX8.1 will live for 1-2yrs before DX9 really takes off. Look @ all the DX7 stuff still out & hardly any 'true' DX8.1's. Due to the ATi cards the Ti 4200 is coming down in price.

Shop around: http://techspot.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=555307/ut=a5f7e3495194d1d5/
http://techspot.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=611314/ut=a5f7e3495194d1d5/ :grinthumb

FS2002 eh? Have you tried X-Plane? My comp is too slow (actually I am) for it.

Thanks once again JAV. I think I'll be going with the Ti4200 128MB version, and then once the NV30, 35 get released and go down in price I'll snap them up, by then I'll need a new system.
I really like FS2002, X-Plane is a little more realisitic, but I hate the price and their marketing schemes, not to mention the graphics. Although I find FS very easy, perhaps because I'm taking flying lessons in the real world.

Take Care

Visiontek model btw

By the time the NV30/35's are out & rea$onable, we'll all need new systems, it looks like.

I've only played(?) the demo of xplane. Too many controls for me to figure out. :blackeye:

You do know that VisionTek is, for all intents & purposes, out of business? Don't count on the lifetime warrantee, I'm not. :dead:

Hope ya get your wings!

Probably Dell since their latest basic offer is the Dell Dimension 4500...

Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 2.53 GHz | 256MB DDR SDRAM | 20GB Hard Drive | On-Board Sound|16MB ATI Graphics | Microsoft Works 6.0 | Windows® XP Home |

Pairing a 16mb ATI graphics card/chipset with a P4 2.53Ghz CPU....
Madness. But it is at a price of £532... Guess you can't expect such a good processor with a good video card for that sort of money

When I switched from a 1Ghz Athlon 200fsb with 384mb PC133 ram to a 1.4Ghz Athlon 266fsb with 256mb PC2100 I gained over 2000 points in my 3dmark2001 with my GF3. So the gain doesn't just depend on the switch from Sdram to DDR. It depends on the bandwidth available with your CPU and bus and memory. PC2100 ram doesn't actually match the bandwidth available with the newer P4 (478) Northwoods. Its only just being reached with the newer DDR333 and DDR400 (400 doesn't offer much different performance at the moment due to JEDEC not having decided on a standard for DDR400). If you get a graphics card with 128mb of memory it is likely to give you a great boost since it won't have to swap graphics data in and out of system memory at all or at least not very much. Your 1.7Ghz P4 paired with a better video card would be the first step I would take. If your not happy with the performance boost then and only then consider the motherboard/cpu/memory upgrades...

Thanks all. JAV, thanks for the encouragement, I'm near the solo point. Takeoffs and landings are a lot of fun. I did hear about Visiontek, they insist they're around. The computer store said I'll get some warranty from the store. BTW I got the system from MDG, a Canadian computer store. Little bit of scammers, my motherboard is only compatible with SDRAM, and they've tried to give people less RAM etc than what they've asked for. However, if you check your system specs after you get it, note anything missing and they'll replace it. Wouldn't recommend them to anyone tho.

Cheers,

Well got the Ti4200 and 3DMarks went from 1200 on a well tweaked GF2 MX400 to 7000 on the default Ti4200!! Thanks guys for all your help.

Ain't that sweet! :grinthumb

How does FS work out now? Smooth as silk & just as pretty?

You oughta be able to run the Omega driver on quality settings & enable 4xAA & ansio filtering w/Riva Tuner.

Happy barrel-rolls! :rolleyes:

Thanks JAV! Looks awesome!

Cheers,

From a 1.7 to a 2.0

Not much a upgrade, more like a waste of $$

Stop supporting Wintel go with AMD!

Do you really expect any difference for 300MHz?

Funny MB's are under $80 now for a average board. Video cards with 1/4 of the componants on them are up to $400!

Strange......anyone would pay 2-5 times what they paid for their MB for a video card with twice the amount of memory that could ever be used and a frame rate much over what the human eye could see!

If you are going with Intel, it might be a better idea if you went with RDRAM than DDR, if you can afford it. Also if you can, try to up it from up from a 1.7Ghz - 2Ghz to a 2.2Ghz or 2.4Ghz. A good idea is to wait til Nov.18, when Intel launches the P4 3.06Ghz and Nvidia launches the Nv30 and see it from there.

Like many people out there, i doubt the future of RDRAM, many reviews on P4s paired with DDR RAM gave good impressions about DDR RAM. For value, performance and compatibility on a long term basis, DDR RAM is the right solution.

I know, since Intel has dropped support for RDRAM and SIS is the only company that is still going to support RDRAM but for how long...