Priorities when upgrading?

[BurningSpear]

Originally posted by BurningSpear
How about this:

Athlon 1.0ghz
256mb PC2100 Crucial
Asus A7M266 <--- forgot to include mobo!
Radeon 9000pro
Win98SE
30GB Maxtor 5400rpm


And some opinion: lets say I had US$150-$200 to spend on upgrading for the release of PS, what should my priorities be and how high should I go? and if I had unlimited funds (well, in reason, I guess $500) what should my priorities be?

Thanks in advance!


PS - I just bought 256 more of ram, but its lameass K-Byte, and I think it actually *slowed* my comp down, so I'm returning it today. I heard somewhere that you should always match your ram sticks for best performance, like crucial with crucial, etc. Truth?

[Nightmare]

I would definatly suggest getting a faster processor. So far, 1GHz is the minimum you can run PS on. Try getting somethng in the 2GHz range if you can.

[BLuE_ZeRO]

You mentioned the Athlon XP 2100 in the other forum. Get that, it runs at like 1.7 ghz which is fine. Just go to your other post in the game discussion forum for the rest of my suggestions.

[BurningSpear]

Saw your reply, Blue Zero. very helpful. just realized this thread might have been more appropriate here

[BLuE_ZeRO]

The other thread would have been moved here eventually. No big deal.

[Fire_Monkey]

Yeah, that looks a little old. Cheap though. I'm thinking baout getting an older vid card. My processor is only 1.3 but AMD ownz joo.

[Dyganth]

the more ram the better, but if you've already gotten some extra ram then go ahead and get a faster processor.

[Zatrais]

Sorry to be bringer of bad news but you need a new motherboard aswell, i just did a check on Asus A7M266's specs and it only supports up to 1ghz cpu's.

If you want to upgrade spending $100 to 150 won't do much i'm afraid, won't do anny thing =/.

I'd recomend this:
Asus A7N8X $118
AMD Athlon XP 2100 $93
Antec P4 ATX12V 400 Watt Power (works whit AMD and you'll most likely need one if your old one isn't 360w or more. if it is then disreagrd this) $62
Glacial Cooling Fan Socket-A 25dB (Copper) For All AMD CPU (Up To XP2700/MP2100) $30

lets see, since you've already bought new RAM you don't need that... that leaves us whit a new display adapter..

Radeon 9500 pro $190

= a total of $493 (431 whitout a new power supply)

Prices based on http://www.newegg.com/index.asp

Thats my recomandation for what you should do. Beauti of this is that your RAM and CPU bus speeds will match giving you better performance whit syncrhonious transfermode =).

[powdahound]

^ He speaks the truth. If you want a good pc, especially to play a good game like planetside, it will cost more than $150... a lot more. The xp2100+ (if you get tbred B release) can oc quite a bit. I have mine at xp2700 speeds right now with minor temperature increase.

[BurningSpear]

This was posted on pricewatch.com. Are they selling incompatible parts, then? That would be so wrong!
-------------------
AsusTek
Info...

ONLINE ORDER ONLY -
A7M266 ATX DDR Support AMD SOCKET-A Athlon SND A7m-266 INSTOCK, retail box 2yr. warr. with cpu - ATHLON XP 2100+,1.73GHZ 266MHz, AX2100DMT3C w/ Heatsink & Fan, Complete Combo kit.
(Part - A7M266@2100+)
Price: $ 164
MinOrder: 1

Ship 1 : $10.00 - 11.99
Updated:1/28, 2:23 AM
$175.99
-------------------
I plan on eventually getting a new mobo, but my upgrade is going to have to be in stages, so I'm asking priorities. If I eventually plan to get all that you stated, maybe more, what, for $150, should I do first. Pretend I'm upgrading $100-$150 every one or two months. But I'm getting the picture for that. Thanks to everyone that helped!

[Zatrais]

http://www.asus.com.tw/mb/socketa/a7m266/overview.htm

http://www.asus.com.tw/mb/socketa/a7m266/faq.htm

shows that the max supported cpu form the looks of it is amd 1400... but it has some problemems whit 1333 mhz cpu's...

i advice strongly against using the MB.

edit: hell the mobo is so old that it uses manual jumper moving...