Upgrade advice

[thomase]

Soltek 75KAV (KT133A)
Duron 1.3
2x256MB Crucial PC133
Gainward Geforce 3 Ti 200 128MB
300W Enahnce Power Supply

Would it be worth it to swap in a Athlon XP 2600+ (it is supported by my board) and a 9800Pro or 5900XT?

Regarding the CPU, I know that initial benchmarks of SDR vs. DDR back from 2 years ago only showed a modest performance difference between the two on Thunderbirds and early Athlon XPs. I also understand that as clock speed increases, memory bandwith becomes more important. Can anyone point me to some relevant benchmarks? For games in particular? I know some games spin really fast and efficiently in tight loops with a high cache hit rate while others (Morrowind) seem to be totally memory bandwith limited.

Assuming the CPU upgrade is not worthless, is a 9800Pro or 5900XT overkill? I want to be able to play current games at 1024x768 with reasonable frame rates (~30 fps).

If I really had to build a new system, I'd hold out for a 90nm Athlon64 (Socket 939). I really haven't built one from the ground up since Christmas '99. I had a BX133 running a Coppermine 500 at 667 with a Voodoo3. I'm still using the 20GB Maxtor and SBLive from back then. The 512MB Crucial PC133 upgrade cost me $200 in June '01 (I was feeling the strain of only 128MB with Ultima IX). I spent about $300-$350 on the CPU, mobo, and Geforce 3 in March 2002 (JK2 and Morrowind upgrade). I like games but I'm also married ;-) Sometimes I find time for Warcraft 3 or Call of Duty (which run pretty well on what I've got). I'm probably going to want to play Doom3 and Half-Life2 at some point. Maybe I should just wait till Christmas and treat myself to that A64....

 

[Ylandro]

An XP2600+ and 9800 Pro is a nicely balanced combination.

I'm running a 2700+ and 9700Pro myself, and I play my games at Hi-res with the eye-candy on. Haven't thought about upgrading at all. Colin McRae04 is the latest I played, and is running very smoothly.

Now... my brother has an XP1800+ with 9700 Pro, and he is looking for a replacement of the CPU. I'm not sure which kind of performance a Duron1.3 would achieve...

 

[digitalwanderer]

Well I'm running a 2500+ & 9700 pro and I find it to be an excellent gaming combo still and after hearing Kyle's analysis I think I'll be ok for Doom3. Although I'd recomend a Gig of PC3200 memory with your CPU. I'm running my 2500+ @ 10x200 right now and I don't consider it at all overclocked yet. (I just got an additional 512MB yesterday, I'd been having troubles running mixed memory so I just bought a matching stick and all me problems went bye-bye...WOOO-HOOO!!!!)

Not all games have a noticeable difference with 1Gb compared to 512Mb, but FarCry and Unreal2 sure as hell do and it is a HUUUUUGE difference. For them both it's the difference between jerky and smooth.

I highly recomend the CPU/GPU you're looking at, they serve me proper. 8)

 

[thomase]

The memory issue makes or breaks this upgrade idea for me. If I really need DDR memory for my 2600+ then I need to get a new motherboard and memory - an extra $300 at least. If I'm going to get a new motherboard, I'd really like to go for socket 939 but the cheapest CPU right now is the Athlon 64 3500+ at ~$350. I don't typically spend more than $200 on a CPU because it gets way out of the sweet spot on the price/performance curve.

The keep question is whether or not my PC133 memory will hamstring an Athlon XP 2600+ and a decent DirectX9 video card.

 

[digitalwanderer]

The keep question is whether or not my PC133 memory will hamstring an Athlon XP 2600+ and a decent DirectX9 video card.

Unfortunately, yes....it'll bring those fine bits of kit to their knees and make you cry.

 

[thomase]

So the bottom line is.... don't even bother going to a Directx9 card on my old KT133a system?

 

[mustrum]

The planned upgrade will give you a great boost of course but yes the SDRAM cripples it badly.
It will be a lot faster than what you have now but far from a 2600+ and DDR memory.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

I say get a new mobo and ram. Sell the PC133 256 meg sticks. You could get from $40-$50 per stick (PC133 mem is like gold now). You can buy a PC3200 512meg stick for about $80 now and add $60 for a mobo.

 

[thomase]

I was planning on moving the PC133 over to my wife's desktop when the time comes.... but I'm not sure she would notice anyway ;-). Are you talking about selling it on EBay or is there a better way?

 

[jvd]

get a mobile athlon xp 2500+ or 2600+ esp if your coupling it with a nforce 2

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

I was planning on moving the PC133 over to my wife's desktop when the time comes.... but I'm not sure she would notice anyway ;-). Are you talking about selling it on EBay or is there a better way?

Yep, Ebay or sell in sell/trade fourm. The PC133 will slowdown your setup. You can sell your PC133 and buy PC3200 and have some money left over.