Medium computer upgrade.

[muman]

Greetings,

I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you guys. I currently have a 6800gt, amd3500+ with an av8 mother board (socket 939). I want to upgrade so that counterstrike source will run with 150+ FPS.

So now for the questions. I have AGP and no PCI Express. Does that mean I have to upgrade my mobo to upgrade my card? (or should I get a 7900gs AGP card for a small $150 upgrade?)

Also, if I upgrade my new mobo, is it better to get a 8600GTS or one of the 7 series cards? Which one?

Lastly, if I should upgrade my mobo, would it be worthwhile to upgrade my CPU? Any very good value for price CPU upgrades?


I want to keep my thermal take case, PSU, and harddrive, as I have nothing wrong with that. I might want to upgrade my ram. I have about 600 dollars to spend. What do you guys think?

[maroon1]

I would get these new parts

Newegg.com - Intel Dual-Core E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P31-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P31 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Newegg.com - A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Newegg.com - PNY VCG7900SXPB GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

[motoxer4533]

FYI: The human eye can't see much over 30 FPS.. 150+ is pretty worthless.

[muman]

what do you guys think about the x1950pro card? Is that better than 8600GTS?

Also, I used to think human eye can't reach about 30 FPS; however, the game is A LOT smoother, when you are running at > 30 FPS.

[muman]

also, what about e4300?

[motoxer4533]

Originally Posted by muman

what do you guys think about the x1950pro card? Is that better than 8600GTS?

Also, I used to think human eye can't reach about 30 FPS; however, the game is A LOT smoother, when you are running at > 30 FPS.

Yes, but you won't notice anything 60 +, guaranteed.

As for the the e4300, I would say no and try to go for at least the E6320.

[maroon1]

I think it is better to get E2180 because it is cheaper and overclocks much better than E4300 because of the new M0 stepping

E2180 has higher clock speed than E4300 but lower cache memory

I don't know which one is better at stock speeds but I can say that they are very close in terms of performance

But I would get E2180 since it is cheaper and overclocks better

..........

Edit: And there no reason to get E4300 because E4400 is only $4 more

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail