Upgrade question

[typedef enum]

Without a doubt, the system needs to be upgraded. I wouldn't consider, under any circumstances, blowing ~$400 on a video card like Parhelia with such an underwhelming processor as a 500 MHz. Celeron...

Heck, I blew out my 1.3 GHz. Athlon about 2 months ago, and was using an 800 MHz. Duron for a couple of weeks while waiting for my new P4 system, and I cannot tell you just how poor the performance felt.

Furthermore, when I finally got the P4 stuff, I also grabbed an inexpensive Athlon to replace the blown one, as I was planning to give my girlfriend my old setup...The P4, in comparison to the Athlon, just blew _that_ away.

If you really want to preserve as much $$ as possible in order to buy the Parhelia, I would strongly recommend going to a place like Anandtech forums and look for some guy trying to unload a slightly older Athlon setup for cheap. I have sold quite a bunch of stuff on there for very little cash, and the stuff I sold was in great condition. You might be able to find what you're looking for @ such a good price that you could still swing the Parhelia purchase.

[tigurius]

I will go for the P. I allready have a P4 with RDRAM, so no system upgrade would really make sence now.
And my G550 is starting to lose breath...

[WyWyWyWy]

Well hi,

I myself actually have the same problem!
Now I have like 200GBP to spare (student), I'm using a PIII-450 with G400 vanilla. What I'll do is to get a cheap bundle XP1600+ with cheap ALi Magik chipset board that would allow me to use my current SDRAM while providing DDR slots for future upgrade. Now this would be no more than 100GBP, and I'll sell my current PIII+board off eBay, save the money, and wait for P 64mb! By the time it comes out, it should be no more than $280USD, wait a couple months, $230 and there I go!

(budget - student life!)

By the way, does anyone know whether Warcraft 3 is CPU-intensive or graphics-intensive?

[Dogbert]

It's such a shame that so many of you failed to read my 1st post for the poll before voting.

[afterburn]

Doesn't make a difference for me, faster graphics, like faster harddisks, give the experience of a faster machine. And a 900MHz machine is certainly more than fast enough for anything you want to do. Just because there are machines available that run 3x as fast, doesn't mean you need it. Of course that goes for graphics cards too, but like said: a P4-2.4GHz with a Trident 1MB card will give an experience of slow as hell, while a slow computer with a fast card will feel fast. Doesnt matter if the benchies tell different, its the experience what counts. Which is also one of the reasons why I happen to like Matrox cards.

[MagerValp]

I just bought an Athlon XP 1700+ with mobo, ram, and PSU to replace my old P3/504. Runs like a champ, all the games I play are much smoother, and the whole system is of course faster all around. The P is way too expensive and wouldn't give me as much of a performance boost.

[William]

If I had a Duron 600Mhz CPU, i'd upgrade that. If I had a Duron 800Mhz, I'd get the Parhelia. However, for myself, I'd be screwed, because of a crap but certain expensive card that is only happy when seated in a long black slot. So I guess I'd either blow the money on optical drives :drool: or buy a nice big hammer (JCB size is good... ).