To upgrade or not upgrade.....

that is the question! I want to upgrade my system so I can enjoy N4 a bit more... Right now I got a Celly 700 running at 873mhz, 384mb Ram and a V4500 card.. I've been looking at one of them nice AMD's and hope to go the distance with a 1.3ghz T-Bird.. :-) Is this a good time to upgrade - or should I wait abit more? The "plan" would be to get a Abit KT7A m/b and the T-bird for now.. (as well as a new case that is..) and then go for a GF2 GTS 64mb video card - somewhere down the line.... Btw, while I'm at it... could someone tell me how much a fast HHD mean? I.e right now I got an old 7gb drive - prob. ATA33 or Ultra DMA (I have *no* idea what this means tho :-) Also, whats the story on memory... should I keep my PC133's or go for DDR (and why?) Help, advice, money - all received with great happiness! :-) ed_

The latest salvo in the price war between AMD and Intel just occured, so I'd say it's a good time. 1.33Ghz T-Birds are UNDER $200 now :) From the performance charts I'm seeing, The 1.7Ghz P4 still doesn't impress me. Nor does it's RDRAM mandate. -Larry "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:%aWH6.5342$[email hidden]... > that is the question! > > I want to upgrade my system so I can enjoy N4 a bit more... > > Right now I got a Celly 700 running at 873mhz, 384mb Ram and a V4500card..

Quoted text (24 lines)

> > I've been looking at one of them nice AMD's and hope to go the distance > with a 1.3ghz T-Bird.. :-) > > Is this a good time to upgrade - or should I wait abit more? > > The "plan" would be to get a Abit KT7A m/b and the T-bird for now.. (as > well as a new case that is..) and then go for a GF2 GTS 64mb video card - > somewhere down the line.... > > > Btw, while I'm at it... could someone tell me how much a fast HHD mean? > I.e right now I got an old 7gb drive - prob. ATA33 or Ultra DMA (I have > *no* idea what this means tho :-) > > Also, whats the story on memory... should I keep my PC133's or go for DDR > (and why?) > > Help, advice, money - all received with great happiness! :-) > > ed_ > > >

As much as I'm loath to say it being a Voodoo 5 5500 owner, from what I've read on in this newsgroup I would say if it's just for N4 then the geforce would probably be the best bet, unfortunately the Voodoo's just don't seem to cut it in N4. Mark P.S. hey Ed is that all a celery 700 will go to ? my celery 600 is rock stable at 954, just wondering. "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:%aWH6.5342$[email hidden]... > that is the question! > > I want to upgrade my system so I can enjoy N4 a bit more... > > Right now I got a Celly 700 running at 873mhz, 384mb Ram and a V4500card..

Quoted text (24 lines)

> > I've been looking at one of them nice AMD's and hope to go the distance > with a 1.3ghz T-Bird.. :-) > > Is this a good time to upgrade - or should I wait abit more? > > The "plan" would be to get a Abit KT7A m/b and the T-bird for now.. (as > well as a new case that is..) and then go for a GF2 GTS 64mb video card - > somewhere down the line.... > > > Btw, while I'm at it... could someone tell me how much a fast HHD mean? > I.e right now I got an old 7gb drive - prob. ATA33 or Ultra DMA (I have > *no* idea what this means tho :-) > > Also, whats the story on memory... should I keep my PC133's or go for DDR > (and why?) > > Help, advice, money - all received with great happiness! :-) > > ed_ > > >

Hi Ed....I been thinking about this too....I decided to stick with the PC133 ram and go with either the Abit Kt7A or Asus A7V and the 1.33 Ghz (266) T-Bird. Right now there is not much of a performance difference between the VIA 133A chipset and the DDR chipsets A 7200rpm Ultra ATA/100 HDD will be a big speed improvement over the old ATA33 and at about $110 for a 20gig drive it's well worth it. Forever Upgrading, KO "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:%aWH6.5342$[email hidden]... > that is the question! > > I want to upgrade my system so I can enjoy N4 a bit more... > > Right now I got a Celly 700 running at 873mhz, 384mb Ram and a V4500card..

Quoted text (24 lines)

> > I've been looking at one of them nice AMD's and hope to go the distance > with a 1.3ghz T-Bird.. :-) > > Is this a good time to upgrade - or should I wait abit more? > > The "plan" would be to get a Abit KT7A m/b and the T-bird for now.. (as > well as a new case that is..) and then go for a GF2 GTS 64mb video card - > somewhere down the line.... > > > Btw, while I'm at it... could someone tell me how much a fast HHD mean? > I.e right now I got an old 7gb drive - prob. ATA33 or Ultra DMA (I have > *no* idea what this means tho :-) > > Also, whats the story on memory... should I keep my PC133's or go for DDR > (and why?) > > Help, advice, money - all received with great happiness! :-) > > ed_ > > >

"Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:%aWH6.5342 > The "plan" would be to get a Abit KT7A m/b and the T-bird for now.. [snip] > Also, whats the story on memory... should I keep my PC133's or go for DDR > (and why?) DDR RAM is not going to work with that board. Otherwise, sounds like a decent plan. I went from a lowly P3 550 to an AMD 1.2 on the KT7A. Had a few compatibility problems with the board and my sound card, but sorted it out. N4 is sweet with the V5's 4x FSAA at 8x6x16, framerate a constant 20, everything at its max. I can also turn off the FSAA and pump up the resloution. Both look about the same, with the FSAA edging high res slightly. Good luck!

Hi Ed, if money allows it, I would buy the brand new Geforce 3 Card, maybe from ELSA. They lowered the price to under 1000 DM, that would be 400 $, this price is deeper, as when they started with the geforce 2. And the tests say, it is much faster and allows new graphic features (for the future). I don't own one I have a Voodoo 5 5500 and Athlon 1,2 GHz, but if I would buy a new Graphic adaptor, it would definitly be the Geforce 3. Rolf

"Tim Elhajj" <wrote: > > DDR RAM is not going to work with that board. Otherwise, sounds like a > decent plan. I went from a lowly P3 550 to an AMD 1.2 on the KT7A. Had afew > compatibility problems with the board and my sound card, but sorted itout. Mind if I ask what kind of soundcard you had problems with? ed_

"K O Sletten" wrote: > A 7200rpm Ultra ATA/100 HDD will be a big speed improvement over the old > ATA33 and at about $110 for a 20gig drive it's well worth it. I've always had the idea that a faster disk would only make the programs load faster - i.e that disk preformance didnt affect game-*play* much. Have I gotten this all wrong? If so - care to explain why? Thanks! ed_

On Thu, 3 May 2001 13:04:02 +0200, "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted text (10 lines)

>I've always had the idea that a faster disk would only make the programs >load faster - i.e that disk preformance didnt affect game-*play* much. Have >I gotten this all wrong? > >If so - care to explain why? > >Thanks! > >ed_ >

I'll jump in if it's ok. You won't see the frame rate go up, but the data will transfer quicker and lessen (remove) any loading pauses that sometimes happens in games. eFalcon keyboard chart in PDF format http://storm.prohosting.com/~nos146/ef4_keys.zip

Mark Aisthorpe wrote: > > P.S. hey Ed is that all a celery 700 will go to ? my celery 600 is rock > stable at 954, just wondering. Speaking of overclocking celerons, whets the best bet for getting over 100 fsb in the celeron 600-667 range with a good heatsink/fan. A cel 633@950 or 667@1000 would be a inexpensive upgrade for me. Ken cel400@600

You're kind of wrong... 7200 RPM drives excell at work that is highly transactional. In other words, lots of little hits coming fast and furious. Databases are an excellent example. It's due to the lower latency times... So are some games. With all the graphics transitions going on, and all the textures being loaded, etc... a lot of games can benifit as well. Sustained thru-put is more affected by data density and drive/interface design than the rotational rate. -Larry "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:MVaI6.3451$[email hidden]...

Quoted text (8 lines)

> > "K O Sletten" wrote: > > > A 7200rpm Ultra ATA/100 HDD will be a big speed improvement over the old > > ATA33 and at about $110 for a 20gig drive it's well worth it. > > I've always had the idea that a faster disk would only make the programs > load faster - i.e that disk preformance didnt affect game-*play* much.

Have

Quoted text (9 lines)

> I gotten this all wrong? > > If so - care to explain why? > > Thanks! > > ed_ > >

The Swami in me says it was a SoundBlaster Live :) -Larry "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:WSaI6.3450$[email hidden]...

Quoted text (14 lines)

> > "Tim Elhajj" <wrote: > > > > DDR RAM is not going to work with that board. Otherwise, sounds like a > > decent plan. I went from a lowly P3 550 to an AMD 1.2 on the KT7A. Had a > few > > compatibility problems with the board and my sound card, but sorted it > out. > > Mind if I ask what kind of soundcard you had problems with? > > ed_ > >

Don't really know they weren't out when I bought my 600, what multiplier are they that's what determines what speed they run at what FSB, i.e. my 600 has a 9x multiplier so 9x106=954 but I think the celery's top out about 1 gig no mater what FSB you throw at them, and it sounds to me like the bigger one's wont go as high as the smaller ones, try www.overclockers.com on there CPU database but try to read past the bulls#&t. Mark "Ken MacKay" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted text (7 lines)

> Mark Aisthorpe wrote: > > > > > P.S. hey Ed is that all a celery 700 will go to ? my celery 600 is rock > > stable at 954, just wondering. > > Speaking of overclocking celerons, whets the best bet for getting over 100

fsb > in the celeron 600-667 range with a good heatsink/fan. A cel 633@950 or > 667@1000 would be a inexpensive upgrade for me. > > Ken > cel400@600 >

First it was a SoundBlaster Live! Value, which a lot of folks are having issues with on that board. Foks suggested I go with a Turtle Beach card, and I did, but I still had problems (although it wasn't as severe with the Turtle Beach). I ended up going back to the SB Live! because I found that if I put it in the first PCI slot, right next to the AGP slot, everythign got along. "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:WSaI6.3450$[email hidden]...

Quoted text (14 lines)

> > "Tim Elhajj" <wrote: > > > > DDR RAM is not going to work with that board. Otherwise, sounds like a > > decent plan. I went from a lowly P3 550 to an AMD 1.2 on the KT7A. Had a > few > > compatibility problems with the board and my sound card, but sorted it > out. > > Mind if I ask what kind of soundcard you had problems with? > > ed_ > >

Heh, yep, but the kicker is it ended up being the one that worked the best when I put it in slot 1. I'm not looking forward to upgrading my video, though, because I wonder if that problems are going to rear their ugly head again... You'd be surprised (at least I was) how badly one misbehaving sound card can muck up an otherwise very fast system. "Larry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:40jI6.69166$[email hidden]...

Quoted text (11 lines)

> The Swami in me says it was a SoundBlaster Live :) > > -Larry > > "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:WSaI6.3450$[email hidden]... > > > > "Tim Elhajj" <wrote: > > > > > > DDR RAM is not going to work with that board. Otherwise, sounds like a > > > decent plan. I went from a lowly P3 550 to an AMD 1.2 on the KT7A. Had

a

Quoted text (11 lines)

> > few > > > compatibility problems with the board and my sound card, but sorted it > > out. > > > > Mind if I ask what kind of soundcard you had problems with? > > > > ed_ > > > > > >

Hmmm.... You saying that the card worked when you put it in the first PCI slot? Reason I ask is because I got a SB Live card too.... and I'd like to know what kind of troubles I'm letting myself into.. ed_ -- Note! Return address is *not* my own - but the e-mail address to an e-mail mass-distribution company that have bothered me one time to many! Eat this - suckers! "Tim Elhajj" wrote:... > Heh, yep, but the kicker is it ended up being the one that worked the best > when I put it in slot 1. I'm not looking forward to upgrading my video, > though, because I wonder if that problems are going to rear their ugly head > again... > > You'd be surprised (at least I was) how badly one misbehaving sound card can > muck up an otherwise very fast system. > > "Larry" <wrote: > > The Swami in me says it was a SoundBlaster Live :) > >

I would go with a DDR board for the future. I think the future is DDR. Iwill KA266 is a good board.

SoundBlaster Live!'s have been mucking up the best of systems for years :) -Larry "Tim Elhajj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Heh, yep, but the kicker is it ended up being the one that worked the best > when I put it in slot 1. I'm not looking forward to upgrading my video, > though, because I wonder if that problems are going to rear their uglyhead > again... > > You'd be surprised (at least I was) how badly one misbehaving sound cardcan

Quoted text (14 lines)

> muck up an otherwise very fast system. > > "Larry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:40jI6.69166$[email hidden]... > > The Swami in me says it was a SoundBlaster Live :) > > > > -Larry > > > > "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > > news:WSaI6.3450$[email hidden]... > > > > > > "Tim Elhajj" <wrote: > > > > > > > > DDR RAM is not going to work with that board. Otherwise, sounds like

a > > > > decent plan. I went from a lowly P3 550 to an AMD 1.2 on the KT7A.Had > a > > > few > > > > compatibility problems with the board and my sound card, but sortedit

Quoted text (11 lines)

> > > out. > > > > > > Mind if I ask what kind of soundcard you had problems with? > > > > > > ed_ > > > > > > > > > > > >

Generally, it's not good to put _anything_ in slot 1 if you can avoid it. That slot shares an IRQ with the AGP slot on most systems. But, you know the old saying. If it works, it works :) -Larry "Ed Solheim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:FmzI6.6162$[email hidden]...

Quoted text (16 lines)

> Hmmm.... > You saying that the card worked when you put it in the first PCI slot? > Reason I ask is because I got a SB Live card too.... and I'd like to know > what kind of troubles I'm letting myself into.. > > ed_ > -- > Note! > Return address is *not* my own - but the e-mail address to an e-mail > mass-distribution company that have bothered me one time to many! > Eat this - suckers! > > > > "Tim Elhajj" wrote:... > > Heh, yep, but the kicker is it ended up being the one that worked the

best

Quoted text (15 lines)

> > when I put it in slot 1. I'm not looking forward to upgrading my video, > > though, because I wonder if that problems are going to rear their ugly > head > > again... > > > > You'd be surprised (at least I was) how badly one misbehaving sound card > can > > muck up an otherwise very fast system. > > > > "Larry" <wrote: > > > The Swami in me says it was a SoundBlaster Live :) > > > > > >