Which way foward.....

[graftonater]

ATM i have an ABIT NFS V2.00 at 194 FSB *12 =2328 mhz (amd 2100xp) and twinmos winbond memory (pc3200), and a stock ATI 9800 pro......now i was wanderign what my best option for upgrade would be.....i could either go for a new generation gfx card like geforce or ATI.....or a new amd 64 processor......but meanign i wld need new ram and a new MB as well......could anyone recommend which one would give me the best performence gain??

[Staz]

In all honesty you seem to have a very solid system that doesn't require an upgrade.

You have what is arguibly the best socket A mobo out there. Also your CPU is just slightly below 2.4GHz which seems to be the upper threshhold for socket A CPUs (with extreme cooling). I am assumeing that you have either 512mb or 1GB of RAM running in sync in dual channel mode, so no improvement needed there.

There are faster video cards out there, but do you really want to make a $400 purchase on an AGP card when your next system upgrade may be to a system with PCI-E 16x?

Time to take a look at the way you interact with your system. Do you already have a nice 19" pure flat screen CRT? How about a high quality keyboard and mouse. Once you use a good keyboard and mouse you will never go back to cheap again. Also what do you have for speakers. Some good quality THX certified 5.1 speakers will greatly enhance your gaming experiance (and drive your wife out of the room). Finnally a comfortible chair is a must.

These are often after thoughts but they can either make or break the whole experiance.

If you have all of that stuff already then I sugest putting that upgrade money in an envelope and stick it in your sock drawer and forget about it until an affordible socket 939 system becomes availible (hopeing for around the first of the year.)

[graftonater]

i have a nice soundblaster 2 audigy zs (problems with it but soon to be returned) wired up to an amp with 7 speakers and the like, i think your advice is good though i think i jst get too addicted to getting new tech......i shall wait until beginning of next year to get myself a nice socket 939 motherboard

[karbon86]

def wait till 939 3500+ drops and you can get a n-force 250 Ultra board with dual channel

[graftonater]

would that support my ram as wel?

[Gizmo]

Most probably the answer to that question is yes. AMD doesn't appear to plan on moving to DDR2 for a while yet, from all appearances.

[Staz]

Originally Posted by gizmo

Most probably the answer to that question is yes. AMD doesn't appear to plan on moving to DDR2 for a while yet, from all appearances.

There is no reason for AMD to switch to DDR2. The current Hammer has an onchip memory controller cutting out the northbridge and reducing latency. Also the maximum bandwidth is equal to that of dual channel DDR or single channel DDR2.

Going to DDR2 would need a redesign of the CPU and possibly socket since DDR2 is accessed via 240 pins instead of 184.

All going to DDR2 would do for AMD is increase cost.