more shopping woes....

[Paddy]

I was playing Jedi Academy last night and for the first time my rigis really starting to show its age.

I have been a tad unwell over the last few weeks, so my budget is somewhat limited. Unfortunatley, if i don't do something soon, its gonna be much harder to upgrade once the old 'joint' bank account kicks in Woo for married life!

Anyhow, I could comfortably spend ~£300 this month.

I currently have a:

• Asus A7M266-D
• XP 1800+ - due to a few CPU problems
• ATI AIW 8500DV

I intend to retire my P2-300 server and use the Asus mobo stocked with 2x 2600 MPs. I would then buy new for my gaming rig.

Now, for £300 I could:

• buy the MP chips
• buy a new mobo/CPU/RAM
• replace the video card

The only thing i am commited to is one day using the Asus mobo as a server. I have been waiting for the MP chips to fall in price for a *long* time!

As I cant afford to replace everything I guess I should go for whatever will give me the most 'bang for the buck' now. At the same time, I want it to be resonably future proof (say 1year).

What would you go for? Or is there something out there worth holding out for?

Cheers! (again )

[Fat Tone]

a7n8x - £80
XP2500+ £70 - run as XP3200+ or close
512MB PC3200 - £70

9600pro £120 ish - takes you over a little though.

T.

[DentyCracker]

New video card
Radeon 9600 128MB DDR AGP RP DVI VO £99.00
ASRock K7S8XE £43.51
rest as Fat Tone

[edit] If getting K7S8X, demand a rev. 3 board as it has multiplier adjustments [/edit]

[Fat Tone]

Non-Pro? Hmmm!

[Tempest]

Hehe... Live dangerously! Buy a 9800SE and see if you can make it a 9800 Pro. Then buy a Thorton and see if you can make it a Barton...

[Paddy]

hehehe.. i guess what i am asking is, 'how cpu dependent are the 9600/9800 cards?' If replacing the graphics adaptor is the way forward, then is it foolish to go for a 9800 with only a XP 1800?

[HedsSpaz]

Paddy, if you surf over to the Rage3d forums or the forums for Lucas (I think it's at lucas, whoever developed JA), you'll see that there are lots of reports of people getting really poor performance and lots of crashing on systems that are twice as fast as yours. If you want to upgrade so you can play JA better, then I would hold off till they release a patch or 2 and see if that makes things any better.

If however, you just generally feel it's time to upgrade, then go nuts.

[Paddy]

I hear you mate, and my sole reason to upgrade is not to play JA.
I am much more inclined to go for the MP route than the total upgrade.... by the time i need to upgrade in order to meet minimum requirements, the next gen kit will be firmly established.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Paddy, if your interested I've got a very little used 9700pro not doing anything here!

[UtwigMU]

Get 2 Bartons 2500+ and a fast 3D card. Also get a PCI tuner and go 3D card + tuner combintation.

[Fat Tone]

scratch what I said in this reply.

[Paddy]

Right.

I have decided to upgrade the rig, and retire the motherboard until a time when i see a couple of MP chips cheap on ebay.

I'll go for the A7N8X deluxe, with a Barton 2500+ and 2*256 PC 3200 DDR. That will put me a shade over £300, which isn't that bad.

Cheers for the advice guys.

[The PIT]

Cheap skate solution.

If you're eye site is bad do the following.

1) Take of your glasses
2) Turn the eye candy down.

Everything will fly then and no need for an upgrade.

[Paddy]

Aye, but it makes me feel sick.

*edit*

at least it would be a good excuse for me being frag-bait.

[The PIT]

Okay go down the beer off buy a load of cans and then you can blame the booze for feeling ill.
It would also be the reason for everything being even more blurry so you drop down in res as well then.