PC Upgrade help: CPU and video card

[mrboo123]

I've been thinking of getting a new proccesser, since I have a old 1.7Ghz one. I seen one for Pentium 4 3.0Ghz for $269.99CD (or atleast, its a candian site). It has has a 2MB Cache, HyperThreading, and a fan. This a good deal? Any other proccessers I should be looking at?

I'm also looking at a new video card, to replace my old (but good) card. I found a ATI card: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...583378&CatId=0 but I don't know what a good video card would excatly be. I don't really need it, so I could just buy a more powerful CPU. Just for info, heres my stats.

Award Modular BIOS v6.0 mother board
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.70GHz
1024MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 (128MB)

I don't play really graphics heavy games (like FPS, ex.) just mostly Simcity 4, Civ4, Eu2, games like that. I don't know how to make sure if I buy one of these would fit, or work, so that would be nice to know.

Thanks for your time

[Zopperoni]

First thing you need to ask yourself is: will the new CPU fit on my current motherboard?

[mrboo123]

Originally posted by Zopperoni
First thing you need to ask yourself is: will the new CPU fit on my current motherboard?

thats one of my big problems, I have no clue how to find out...

[notyoueither]

None of the processors on Tiger's site will work, Boo. Neither will that video card.

You most likely will need to replace your mbd for most of the CPU options out there now. I might be able to find a processor for you though.

Where in Canada are you, and do you have the manual for your motherboard?

[mrboo123]

Originally posted by notyoueither
None of the processors on Tiger's site will work, Boo. Neither will that video card.

You most likely will need to replace your mbd for most of the CPU options out there now. I might be able to find a processor for you though.

Where in Canada are you, and do you have the manual for your motherboard?

Hmm, that sucks. Saskatchewan. Maybe I should try to find a system that has great processer, crappy everything else. I could use the RAM and hard drives from this computer. On the hunt again... Thanks for the saved money, though!

[notyoueither]

May I ask why you want to upgrade?

[mrboo123]

Originally posted by notyoueither
May I ask why you want to upgrade?

Some times, the computer gets slow when it has to proccess alot stuff (ex: 18 civs on huge map, terra, in civ4, not that I dare try it). I was hopeing to aviod buy a whole new sysetm right now, because the one I have is good. Just the proccesser sucks. Not the greatest excuse, but still, I could dream.

[notyoueither]

Well, several things have changed since you bought a system of that vintage.

The processors have moved on, and sped up not just in overall speed, but also bus speed (that may be the more important of the two). They also use different sockets now (as many as two changes in socket since a 1.7).

RAM is faster, and there is a newer, faster varient of DDR for Intel processor based systems.

Video has moved to PCIexpress. The old AGP standard finally gave way, and the PCIe cards are now plentiful and often cheaper.

Even hard drives have moved from the 'ancient' IDE standard to the speedy serial ATA.

It boils down to... you are often better off saving up a bit more and replacing all of the above than plonking down more money into an existing system.

Are you comfortable building your own, or do you have competent help for building it? I can find you a processor for your board, if you want, but I would want to know more about it before I even started looking.

[mrboo123]

Maybe I should save up some more buy a better system. I have found what my motherbroad is, thought. a Asus P4B533. Here's the link of supported CPUs http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...s&model=P4B533

Originally posted by notyoueither
Are you comfortable building your own, or do you have competent help for building it? I can find you a processor for your board, if you want, but I would want to know more about it before I even started looking.

For the 1st question, I have a cousin a house away from me, thats a computer wiz. He works at a local computer store. I haven't ask him, but I'm pettry sure he also helps in the repairing computer, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll ask him to come over some time today/tomorraw.

I was really hopeing not to buy a new PC, until atleast that new Micorsoft OS came out. But I found one for $800, good deal? Its a Gateway, I heard that they're not the greatest when trying to add stuff on.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1117666&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

Stats:
Pentium® 4 3.40GHz
1.0GB RAM
ATI Radeon X300SE 128MB

Thanks for all your help!

[Sava]

if you are going to buy new stuff, I'd recommend an Athlon 64 processor... especially for games


try to buy the components seperately... it is cheaper

have your cousin build it for you

but if you can get a deal and don't want to fuss with building a PC and installing Windows, etc... Gateway may be the way to go... although those specs are not a great gaming system... but for Civ4 they are fine.

the bottom line is, building your own, buying individual components is cheaper and you get more power and can go longer without having to upgrade...

but the downside is you have to be knowledgeable and have to install everything yourself (or in your case, your cousin maybe)...

the alternative is getting the Gateway... you will not get as much power versus the amount of money you will spend, but you won't have to do any work outside of just hooking it up.

So, here is the situation as I can best describe it. Let me know if I can be of any more help.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by mrboo123
Maybe I should save up some more buy a better system. I have found what my motherbroad is, thought. a Asus P4B533. Here's the link of supported CPUs http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/c...s&model=P4B533



For the 1st question, I have a cousin a house away from me, thats a computer wiz. He works at a local computer store. I haven't ask him, but I'm pettry sure he also helps in the repairing computer, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll ask him to come over some time today/tomorraw.

I was really hopeing not to buy a new PC, until atleast that new Micorsoft OS came out. But I found one for $800, good deal? Its a Gateway, I heard that they're not the greatest when trying to add stuff on.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1117666&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

Stats:
Pentium® 4 3.40GHz
1.0GB RAM
ATI Radeon X300SE 128MB

Thanks for all your help!

I agree you should wait for a new system till next year.

It sounds as if you might improve performance with a new install of Windows (it does get gummed up over time, and reinstalling can help).

I am sure we could find you one of the top end processors for that board (P4 2.67 or 2.8) but it will cost $200 to $250.

I'd say you'd be better off to nurse this one along til after Christmas when some prices should begin to plummet.

I wouldn't go with that Dell system with that video card for Civ4 (and beyond). In fact, referring back to your reason for upgrading (huge map, 18 civs) you won't find what you are looking for in a CPU upgrade. Better the newer system a bit closer to Vista and after Christmas when there should be some good deals and wide spread implementaion of SATA300.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by notyoueither
I wouldn't go with that Dell system with that video card for Civ4 (and beyond). In fact, referring back to your reason for upgrading (huge map, 18 civs) you won't find what you are looking for in a CPU upgrade. Better the newer system a bit closer to Vista and after Christmas when there should be some good deals and wide spread implementaion of SATA300.

I don't think that there will be many new mobos featuring SATA300 near Christmas time. I would also wait for a few months for the kinks to be ironed out. Also, those drives will be quite expensive and won't help much with Civ 4. With things such as video compression, yes. Gaming, probably not.

[Thorgal]

SATA 2 SATA 3... it is a prevision for future disks. Today it is not important indeed. It refers to the width of the bus, not to the writting or reading speed of the drive. In fact SATA 2 has a bus width of 300Mb/s but current disks can read/write at a fraction of such speed only, so most bus width is ununsed. Even the SATA 1 (150Mb/s) bus cant be totally used by current disks, even by the faster ones.

[Tattila the Hun]

I was thinking about going with this one:

http://www.asrock.com/product/product_939Dual-SATA2.htm

As my current MB seems to be dying, slowly, and I like AMD. Plus it has an AGP-slot aswell, don't need to shell out dough for a new PCI-e card just yet...

I can't use my R9600 with my dying MB, but a spare 9200 works just fine... Go figure.

[mrboo123]

After thinking about it for a while, I think I'll just buy a brand new PC, new year or whenever Vista comes out. Maybe it will make the XP PCs cheaper...

Thanks for all the help and advice!