Will my system hold back a new graphics card

also,

what speed is your RAM? I just upgraded from 640meg of PC2100 running at 148mhz/296mhz to 1 gig of PC3200 at 200/400mhz and increased my Far Cry Cooler map bench on a 9700Pro from 49 fps to 59 fps (medium settings, no AA/AF). 20% is not to be sneezed at and makes my platform as fast as I can make it without switching to AMD 64.

My CPU is a Barton Mobile 2500 at 2400mhz (12x200)

So that will help me wait for the new card.

 

That cpu will be fine for a while. Or, if it does become troublesome, you could allways O/C it (assuming it's an early non-locked one). I have a Barton 2600+ running at 3200+ speed (2.2G) withought breaking a sweat.

Go for a ram upgrade though. 1gb is really gonna be a realistic minimum for the next generation of games.

I have a Shuttle SN45G and I'm gonna upgrade to a 6800GT when the prices and availability stabilize here in the UK.

 

that would perform like a 3.2 or 3.3 ghz p4 . Now if you could get your ram higher it would perform better.

 

Lezmaka,

I thank you for your post, it may actually impact my purchasing decision. I thought I would be bottlenecked by CPU (P4 3.06Ghz with 533Mhz bus speed) and there would be no use for an Ultra or Platinum Edition.

In HardOCP's benchmarks with a 3.2Ghz P4 (as opposed to the first benchmark with the 3.6 Ghz P4), on 1024x768 HQ NoAA 8XAF, Kyle said:

Bring down the resolution and turning off AA shows us that CPU power is still very much a factor in our gaming experience. The three stronger cards are surely held back by the CPU at these settings.

So if he is bottlenecked by the CPU with a 3.2 with 2GB of ram, I will be too. But now you gave me a reason to splurge on a high-end card !

Thank you !

François

 

The 1.5GHz is a recommendation on P4 frequency. Athlon's are much faster on a per-clock basis.

 

yeah I know that, I only got this RAM yesterday, now at 11.5x210

 

I'm buying a 6800GT for a Shuttle.. there's a big thread I started asking if it was possible to run it on a 200w psu. (It is)
Apparently temp is not a problem either, especially if you a buy a mesh sided case cover (approx £22)

As for Stalker, well it's TWIMTBP game, which means it'll be possibly nVidia optimised (or ATI hobbled, given how things have gone in the past , *cough* Tiger Woods 2004 *cough*), and it's one of the games that will have an SM3 path. I'm still not convinced the gameplay will be as good as the environment it's played in, but I've got a close eye on it.

 

Hey Rostok - whereabouts in the UK can you get the mesh-sided case covers? I've had a quick look around the usual suspects and can't find anywhere that lists it!

Perhaps if I get one of these case covers, it would reduce the banshee wail that is my "SilentX" PSU!

 

Here's the thread http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13669&start=40

and here's the company that does the mesh cover http://commerce.uk.sage.com/GEMMA/

You're not the first person to complain about the SilentX psu... is it louder than the normal one, or just louder than you were led to believe?

 

Hmm... are you able to overclock the Athlon to 3200+ speed?

 

Well this is helping to hijack a thread... but can I ask a n00b question about this too?

I've tried overclocking my Shuttle SN41G2v1 by sticking up the fsb, but if I change it *at all* from default, my system locks up I've got a fairly old Athlon 2500+, which I believe were unlocked when they first came out... is it just my Crucial DDR333 that's holding me back? Or am I being an idiot?

 

Thanks for the link.

I previously used one of the Achme PSUs which I had modded with an ADDA fan and this was pretty quiet (I have a 120mm fan strapped onto the back of the system). What did irritate me was various buzzing noises which intermittently came from the PSU so I thought the SilentX would be nicer. I was also considering buying one of the 'moddable' 9800SE AIWs which were around at the turn of this year. With the SilentX, when the system starts up it is nice and quiet but soon gets louder and louder until it's making a right bloody racket!

I should really have put the old PSU back in but after mucking around installing a passive NB cooler I was too disillusioned (i.e. pissed off) and just tried to ignore the sound. It's not exactly a high powered system (Athlon XP 2500+) but it does have a passively cooled 9600NP as well as the Zalman on the NB. Perhaps a mesh case might remove enough heat to stop the SilentX PSU spinning the fans up too high? I'd be happiest of all if the Soldam external power bricks were available in the UK, but a mesh case doesn't sound too expensive so that may be the next stop.

 

Continuing the hijacking...

I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to get any real overclock out of the SN41G2 (which I also have).

The one which was good for overclocking was it's successor, the SN45 which (I believe) had an updated nForce chipset which is better for overclocking. The original SN41G2 just can't hack overclocking, unfortunately. You'll probably find more information on www.sfftech.com.

 

the sfftech forums are hosted by sudhian.. here we go...

http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=43&threadid=51186&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

I'm not wanting a *massive* OC, I just want to get to a stable 3000.
It seems I could try to up the multiplier from it's current setting (11.5 I think), but that upping the fsb should work too (I have to lock the AGP though?). So I guess it's my RAM that's holding me back.

 

@thread starter: Hell it's a barton 2500+! Get a thermalright SLK900-A and OC the crap out of it. XP3200+ should be the minimum you can do.
And no i don't think a XP3200+ bottlenecks the new cards so bad. Sure they go faster on a AMD 64 3800+ but a XP3200+ with a 6800 GT or x800 will play any game to come in the near future.

 

Would a Thermalright SLK900-A even fit in a Shuttle, however? :?

 

I'm sorry. I somehow "overlooked" the shuttle part. Thermalright wont work. I hat my 2500+ running ant 3200+ at stock vcore with a arctic cooling copper silent TC. That's not a great cooler at all so i am surre it'S possible to squeeze some more out of yours. I got a good stepping on my barton though.
I don't know how good your shuttle is cooled but it should be doable. If not 3200+ you can go to 300+ at least i guess.

Edit: 50 while browsing the web is awful. Is it possible to apply case cooling to a shuttle? you also should replace the cheapo thermal paste or thermalpad with arctic silver V. It's really impressive how good AS V is belive me.
If your barton is locked or not wont matter since you're going to OC viaa FSB anyways. Locked bartons can't change their multiplier.
Old bartons aren't locked usually though just as a sidenote.

What you need is a better airflow in your case. It's running alarmingly hot at stock allready.