Hello

I've decided to upgrade this machine, as it is becoming a bit dated.
The only problem is I don't know what to upgrade.

I am on a limited budget, and thus can not afford to upgrade both cpu& mobo along with the video card.

First the three alternatives I'm looking at:

1. A64 3000+ and msi K8 Neo Platinum (Socket 754)
2. A64 3500+ and MSI K8T Neo2 Fir (Socket 939)
3. An X800 based card
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   1 is what I'd call a stop-gap upgrade as it won't be a very big upgrade (from my 2500+), nor one which I'd expect to last very long. It'll neither have Socket 939 nor PEG which would be nice to have. But it is cheap and I could get it faster.
   2 is a bit more future-proof with Socket 939 and a better cpu. It won't have PEG, but as I can not afford both this and a new video card, I can live with that (besides, mobo's are cheap compared to cpu's)
   3 will accomplish what I'd really like, as I'll be able to turn AA back on in BF1942 (running AA at 1280*1024 is not working in that game).
   
   2 and 3 is around the same price and are the ones which are the most tempting. 1 is cheaper and thus won't affect my budget too much.
   
   And a few Q's
   As I'm using Win2k, will I see any effect of going 64-bit?
   I know there is a 64-bit version of XP coming, but I'd prefer to stick to Win2k. Will (and how will) it work?
   
   Also, do you agree with my choices for motherboard in 1 and 2, or do you have other suggestions?
   
   I am mostly drawn to 1 for now, and then picking up an X800 based card when it drops some more in price.
   
   (Posted this in Other Hardware as it's both Video and Cpu/chipset)
   
   Comments?

I too vote for a Socket-754 / 3000+ upgrade for now. Once VGA cards start leaving AGP, it'll make thos cards even cheaper.

Since you seem to change mobos everytime you upgrade your CPU anyways, I don't think it's such a big deal for you to go socket-754 now & eventually get a socket-939 system further down the road.

& even if you don't, you can always get a 3700+ for your socket-754 board. The only downside I see is that 0.09 Athlon64s aren't scheduled to be released for the socket-754 platform. But in any case, they already run quite cool as it is.

Thanks for the input

And if anyone else would care to voice their opinions about the A64's, I'd appreciate it

Well, Option nr 1 ordered 30 min ago, so now just hoping that it'll ship tomorrow (and not on monday)...

I was very tempted to throw in an X800 pro, but then I'd (probably) be broke in november which it isn't worth...

Looking forward to see how much more responsive my system will be. (Though I may need to buy some SATA to PATA converters to use all my hdd's & CD/DVD's)