HW-upgrade
 

just had a nice chat with RB, and made my mind up. current setup:
KR7A
1700+ JIUHB, does 2100 mhz on 1.75 vcore
GF2Pro
256MB XMS Corsair PC3500 CL2
80GB HDD
48x CDRW
Koolance w/ 350W Enermax PSU
WC for vidcard, chipsets, HDD and CPU perhaps
budget: 300-500 euro

plan #1:
Asus Nforce² (old mainboard then for backup rig): 80€
other ram: I'll sell my Corsair and get 2 sticks of 256MB
vidcard: Thinking of an R9000@Funcomp, 9100 or 9200. it will be a lot better then my GF2, and I'll wait and save my money for an affordable vidcard that can run DoomIII decently

plan #2: get a decent vidcard NOW, and save little money

plan #3:
keep my KR7A, sell XMS mem, buy 512Mb Twinmos. my FSB will be limited to 190 (170 if i want to watch movies:( ), the speed difference with the nforce² won't be huge and I'll save my cash; no possibility for a backup rig either.
but I'll be able to afford a killer vidcard like an R9800

Thx a lot to Rich Bastard, but I'd always like to have a 2nd opinion
I'm actually thinking to follow plan #1: I can order the vidcard rightaway with the last bucks on my bank account, but I don't know if I should choose the 64Mb 9000 over the 128mb 9200

what do you think?

Your mobo is still fast enough imo. Better look for an ti4200 and mayb a barton2500+.

well the first option seems the best (if you don't buy twinx corsair :p)
i only doubt it that the 9000pro will make that big difference with the GF2pro, in my humble opinion you better keep the geforce 2 and buy a decent videocard when its needed.
but an abit or epox looks better to me (and cheaper)
don't like ASUS verry much.

and the idea for a killer videocard, wait till doom3 passes and then buy a videocard , it will be 1) cheaper and 2) there will be new "techniques" then so you're pc will flawlessy run the modern games.
but thats just my opinion ;)

or as Vulkaantje says, buy everything secondhanded: will be much cheaper.

the 9000 would be a lot faster



8500 <> 5400

in any case, I won't keep my GF2Pro in this rig... what other vidcard also gives good performance (and perhaps good overclocking) at a low price?

As said, ti4200.

i would go for #1, but in stead of buying asus buy something else where you can get an good oc with ( asus isn't the best for that )

greetz

The ASUS board doesnt like high FSBs, the Abit and the Epox are much better boards, especially the Abit NF7-S Rev2.0.

Craig

My third 8rda+ just died for no obvious reason... i wouldn't recommend EpoS any more unless you don't mind getting a new one every 3 months.

This just leaves the excellent Abit NF7-S and the budget Asys A7N8X-X.

Because money is a big issue, i'd recommend the asus. It doesn't overclock as well, it doesn't have S-ATA, and it's with the budget NF2-4000 chipset (single channel), but in the end you don't notice the performance difference unless you push it to the max.

I recommended a 900Pro, because it's bottom price (70 eur) and decent performance.

just bought myself a 9000pro 3 days ago - the AIW version, that is - and the difference between this one and a GF2 (even a Pro) is quite noticeable ... it would be a shame if it weren't, right? :p

it's quite a good budget card (the non-AIW), but my Ti4200 got me higher 3dmarks

TA, 3dmark scores from those cards?
I'll get a R9000 new, or a ti4200/9600 2nd handed

mainboard: Abit NF-7. I'm very satisfied with my KR7A-R so I'll stick to abit

R9000pro AIW 64Mb DDR on a NF-7 S rev2.0

catalyst 3.6 (i guess), XP b2600, everything at stock speeds

~ 9400 3dmarks
(as i remember correctly ... i'll have a run l8r tonight to be sure)

and the Ti4200?

with vidcard & CPU OC'ed +higher FSB I'll get +10K 3dmarks, that's sufficient. a Ti4200 gets here on both rigs ~11K marks :)

Hmm just bought R9800Pro and logitech 680.
Don't ask me about budget updates anytime soon.

Anyway, My Epox still works fine. Prolly because everything on it is cooled. (NB-SB-MOSFET and Vchip).
Only when it's over 45°C CPU it get's rather cranky on the mem part. I do think it's the mem itself however.

Buy some extra memory and a good vidcard.
That's my opinion.

http://www.funcomputer.de/default.ph...&a rtnr=06425

Hercules 8500 Retail 128mb for only 75 eur!

ehm, lol
estimated money flow = WRONG

forgot to add:
-weekend work in september: ~6 days, 5-9 hours a day
-I don't get 5€/hour as I expected, but ~7.3€/hour :D

quite hard to estimate how much I'll get, I think I'll work 20days, 5-9 hours a day.
I've worked last 3 days, going to get paid +- 160€ :super:
If I'm lucky, I'll get something like 1000€ this month :grin:

I'll get a R9600, and buy a better one once DoomIII is out. I'm also experimenting with watercooling so I don't want to cool real expensive stuff in the beginning

good idea, killed my direct die cooled AMD K6 200 that way.
It did get to 266 (with a lot of effort).
I do need H2O in this heat however.

I'll order @ tones, they've got everything in stock :)

Sapphire Radeon 9600 128MB 139.90
Abit NF7-S V2.0 118.40

- I don't know a lot of Ati cards, is the brand + size of mem OK?
- Still don't know what mem to choose. i can
a) buy another stick of Corsair: Corsair DDRAM 256MB PC3500 C2 + HSP, costs 100€
b) sell the corsair ( or put it in backup rig if I don't get enough for it) and get other mem: what mem to choose....

an option is sell the xms and buy twinx mem or when it is to expensive buy twinmos

greetz

I'm going to get an Asus board instead of an Abit because the BIOS isn't really great :/

why would you think that? I find the abit nf7-s bios far better than the asus a7n8x

stability issues. this quote from Kunaak changed my mind

I want stability over performance

That's not a stability issue; that's a bios saving bug. It's not abit's fault, but nvidia's.

Every nf2 powered board saves their info in the bios on the same, dangerous way. I've had 2 dead 8rda+ boards; which i was able to save because I had multiple 8rda+ bioses lying around. Check epox forums, there are dozens of ppl who have the same prob as the asus.

The reason why it happens moslty with the nf7-s, is only because it's the most widely used nf2 overclocking board.

If you want to stay clear of this bug, go with kt600...

ah well, we'll see. I've got an asus board in the P4 rig and I'm happy with it. My mate's got an A7N8X and I overclocked his rig, all the options I needed were there in the BIOS and the machine always ran fine :)

ah well, if it's not good enough I can still sell it