Motherboard Upgrade

[LilBoy0626]

WEll my specs now are
p4 2.0 ghz
512 mb ram
radeon 9600 np
and whatever factory insatlled dell motherboard that only runs 4x agp

my question is should i uprade my mobo to an 8x agp board for like 50$??
How much differance graphicswise would it make cuz rite now in 3dmark2003 i only get like low 2000.
Also would a new mobo allow me to oc my p4???

thx
nick

 

[Sgt.Igneri]

Sry to inform you that dells use a system where you cannot upgrade the motherboard or case and sometimes PSU.

 

[LilBoy0626]

ok well on another note since that idea is shot down
i just got the omega drivers 4.1 for my ati 9600 np so now i can oc the card
i have not added any coolin to my comp or card
what value should i raise the memory or the clock

 

[Sgt.Igneri]

Depends... you can get help from the above OCing thread, this is pretty much covered in that.

Since the memory on thbe card depends on thecase temp, dont OC that, its very high on dells. Instead just OC the core clock, and do it at like 5mhz intervals then test it out each time.

 

[oD1Nz]

One thing about the AGP 4x subject: You wouldn't notice a difference. I've seen a few benchmarks comparing 8x to 4x - the difference between even 9800 Pros is at most .5 of a FPS.

 

[RandomPING]

Sure, .5 doesn't seem like a lot... unless you consider:

In a minute he'll lose 30 frames
In an hour he'll lose 1,800 Frames
A day of constant gaming and he'll miss out on 42,300 frames
In a week he'll lose 302,400 frames
In a month he'll lose 1,209,600 Frames roughly
And finally, in one year he'll lose 15,768,000 of gaming frames. That's 15 million frames/year he's losing.
And lets assume he lives about 60 years after this post, then he's losing 946,080,000.
In his life time he'll lose almost 1 billion frames because he didn't update to an AGP 8X, how can you call that tiny?!

 

[Ti133700N]

Yea but considering he'll buy another video card in 1.7 years that will go 62.4fps faster, he will regain those 'lost' fps so that in 2 years he'll gain 2 005 585 920fps!! Without having to buy AGP 8x. So I suggest you don't upgrade and wait for the new boards...

 

[Navy Man]

lol well since this is kinda on the same subject

i have a

Athlon 1800 xp
512 ddr
geforce 3 ti 200
and a mobo that only supports agp x 4

now i had the idea that i should upgrade my mobo to agp x 8 , while that enabling me to get a better cpu eg 2500 + etc etc , then purchase something along the lines of a radon 9800 pro

but with that said above should i just leave my motherboad , and just upgrade to a athlon 2400 + , and get the video card , and just not worry about the agp x 8?

hah well looking forward to your guys replys

 

[oD1Nz]

lol well since this is kinda on the same subject

i have a

Athlon 1800 xp
512 ddr
geforce 3 ti 200
and a mobo that only supports agp x 4

now i had the idea that i should upgrade my mobo to agp x 8 , while that enabling me to get a better cpu eg 2500 + etc etc , then purchase something along the lines of a radon 9800 pro

but with that said above should i just leave my motherboad , and just upgrade to a athlon 2400 + , and get the video card , and just not worry about the agp x 8?

hah well looking forward to your guys replys

If you've got the money to spend, go for the better motherboard, processor and video card.

One thing to look out for - you're likely to be running currently DDR266, which is too slow for a Barton 2500+ (runs at 333FSB). Basically, if you do upgrade to a Barton core, you need faster memory. If you upgrade to the 2400+, you're probably not going to have to upgrade the memory, but you won't notice much of a speed up, because the RAM is running at the same speed as with the 1800+.

You're also less likely to bottleneck the video card with a 2500+, because the extra cache and FSB on a Barton makes a whole lot of difference.

Basically: Go for a Barton 2500+, get a 512 block of DDR333, get the 9800 Pro, and get a nice Nforce 2 Motherboard.

 

[Navy Man]

alright i gotta think stuff through a bit more , cheers for that info

 

[oD1Nz]

Ekkk, big edit on my part, you might want to read it again...

(I HAVEN'T HAD COFFEE FOR ONE WHOLE DAY... )

 

[psyno]

lol well since this is kinda on the same subject

i have a

Athlon 1800 xp
512 ddr
geforce 3 ti 200
and a mobo that only supports agp x 4

now i had the idea that i should upgrade my mobo to agp x 8 , while that enabling me to get a better cpu eg 2500 + etc etc , then purchase something along the lines of a radon 9800 pro

but with that said above should i just leave my motherboad , and just upgrade to a athlon 2400 + , and get the video card , and just not worry about the agp x 8?

hah well looking forward to your guys replys

I say don't do it at all, either of you. The advantage of AGP is not really in the transfer rate but in the AGP execute method, which basically frees the CPU from the memory retrieval process. AGP 3.0 (8x) is not worth the upgrade.

Navy Man, to you I would instead recommend waiting just a few months, until PCI-Express breaks on this market. Unless you're dying to run something, then you'll probably save at least a hundred bucks this way anyway.

 

[Navy Man]

alright , so what ur saying is don't worry about agp x8 , but what about processor?

would there be any point upgrading from a 1800xp , to a 2400 +?, because the fsb is still the same?

 

[Jammydodger]

Just to let you all know that dell uses 50-60% reconditioned parts for thier computers.
And I have this on good authority.

 

[The PC Nerd]

Sry to inform you that dells use a system where you cannot
upgrade the motherboard or case and sometimes PSU.

OH MY GOD!
THANK YOU LORD!

I am so happy, I finnally have an advantage over dell and ill just say getway and all the others.

I shutdown my computer building section of my business because dell was getting cheaper than me. I can finnally start it back up with "Dell may be less expensive but you are stuck with them for buying any upgrades due to security steps to prevent you from leaving dell." I never knew this before since i never work on dells.

 

[psyno]

alright , so what ur saying is don't worry about agp x8 , but what about processor?

would there be any point upgrading from a 1800xp , to a 2400 +?, because the fsb is still the same?

It is a faster processor, but my advice is not to upgrade now. The basic theory is this: your processor now is still more than enough for good (not just decent) performance in any games you have, and will be for Half-Life 2, Doom III, etc. If you wait a couple months to upgrade, then you can either get equipment that is much better than what's out now for nearly the same, or a little more of the cost (64 bit CPU, PCI-Express), or get the same, faster processor/motherboard/whatever that you're looking at right now for a greatly reduced cost. To me, the move from your processor to a 2400+ is just hard to justify at the moment.

That said, if you are seriously looking at a 2400+ class processor, I say forget the 2400+ entirely and get the 2500+ with the Barton core instead. All around better processor, and cheaper.

 

[Navy Man]

yep if i dod go for the 2500 + would i have to change the ram O_O? its only 266mhz

 

[psyno]

No, you may use either a 133 MHz or a 200 MHz FSB.