What to upgrade next? Help Please :)

[HookeyStreet]

Ive just upgraded from a Jetway GeForce FX 5200 128MB to an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (with Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Rev.3 and o/c'ed from 378.00 / 337.50 to 457.20 / 378.00)

Ive also upgraded my CPU & motherboard from Athlon XP 2000+ / ECS Elitegroup K7VMM+ 3.1 to P4 3.20E Prescott / Gigabyte GA-8S655FXL

Im still using my old IDE HDD's (1x 40GB 5400rpm Maxtor, 1x 40GB 5400rpm Samsung) and 1gig of memory (2x 512mb PC2100 DDR266)

I would like to upgrade further (and cheaply by the way) but Im unsure of what to do??????? Would a 7200rpm SATA HDD be better than a standard IDE 7200rpm HDD? and would I notice a big differance by using 2x 512mb PC3200 DDR400 as my new mb supports this.

Any advice/comments would be great :)

Best regards,

Daz

PS: My 3DMarks score was 5976 with my old cpu/mb and new ati card but is now 6594 with the new cpu/mb and same ati card, is this a good result increase?

[cram]

There will be virtually no performance difference between the SATA and non-SATA version of the same hard drive.

I would definitely upgrade the RAM, your PC2100 is seriously holding back the rest of your system.

[Freddy23]

I agree with cram, altough a new 7200rpm HD, no matter if S-ATA or IDE, can also boost your sys-performance: but this is more for important for file-transfer applications (Video-encoding, large Picture editing, program-launch-speed and Boot-Speed of your OS), it's not very important for actual games.

[HookeyStreet]

Thanks all that replied :) I think I will be upgrading the memory for sure now ;)

Ive been looking about a bit and was wondering if this is any good, I was thinking of ordering 2 packs of the 2x Geil 256mb DDR400 as they seem to be a good price and I have 4 memory slots.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/productinfo.aspx?ProductID=7665

[HookeyStreet]

Or maybe this:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=5608&GroupID=0

[nightelf84]

You might as well go for the 1 gig. They come with heatspreaders. Does your mobo support dual channel mem? If it does, sweeeeettttt... btw, nice OC on your video card...i've been struggling getting even to XT speeds with mine :)

BTW, wats your PSU? there might be a need to upgrade there as you've made a big jump in CPU and graphics card. Better cooling wont hurt either.

[HookeyStreet]

You might as well go for the 1 gig. They come with heatspreaders. Does your mobo support dual channel mem? If it does, sweeeeettttt... btw, nice OC on your video card...i've been struggling getting even to XT speeds with mine :)

BTW, wats your PSU? there might be a need to upgrade there as you've made a big jump in CPU and graphics card. Better cooling wont hurt either.


Yes m8, it supports Dual Channel Memory :D My PSU is only 300W I think :( (Mercury P4 compatible) do you think this will be a problem???

[nightelf84]

a 300W is just about borderline i would say.... maybe you can consider a 400W antec smartpower or higher? Will definitely give you more room for future upgrades and give you that added stability if you ever plan to OC. Antec and enermax PSUs will be a tad more expensive than other brands, but the extra money is worth it.

[HookeyStreet]

a 300W is just about borderline i would say.... maybe you can consider a 400W antec smartpower or higher? Will definitely give you more room for future upgrades and give you that added stability if you ever plan to OC. Antec and enermax PSUs will be a tad more expensive than other brands, but the extra money is worth it.

Thanks for the info m8 :D

[nightelf84]

no worries

[HookeyStreet]

I just ordered these:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=2906&GroupID=474

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=5608&GroupID=0

Should give my system a bit of a boost :D

Thanks for everyones help ;)

[BiGShiRley]

no it will slow your system down i think these parts would be better in my machine :-P

[HookeyStreet]

no it will slow your system down i think these parts would be better in my machine :-P

lol

[Freddy23]

I just ordered these:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=2906&GroupID=474

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=5608&GroupID=0

Should give my system a bit of a boost :D

Thanks for everyones help ;)


Good decision(s)!
You'll have a perfectly balanced system soon. But keep an eye on your PSU.

[Nobru_rv]

Good decision(s)!
You'll have a perfectly balanced system soon. But keep an eye on your PSU.

Aopen 350 with 12 cm vent or fortron with 12 cm vent will do the job perfectly. Very quiet and quality psu.

[pablofrogo]

I have this (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Akasa_PSU.html) PSU, it's awesome. Very quite, and very powerful.

[HookeyStreet]

I have this (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Akasa_PSU.html) PSU, it's awesome. Very quite, and very powerful.

Very nice m8 :D I will have to creep round the wife (again) ;)

[Nobru_rv]

I have this (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Akasa_PSU.html) PSU, it's awesome. Very quite, and very powerful.

This is how my aOpen looks like.
Exactly that way. ;-))

[pablofrogo]

Very nice m8 :D I will have to creep round the wife (again) ;)
Lol, good look there :p

[HookeyStreet]

Good decision(s)!
You'll have a perfectly balanced system soon. But keep an eye on your PSU.

Ive just blown my PSU :( , oh well better get a new one :D

[BiGShiRley]

crazy fool pity the fool i aint getting on no plane

[pablofrogo]

Ive just blown my PSU :( , oh well better get a new one :D
Lol, that's one way around the wife ;)

[HookeyStreet]

Lol, that's one way around the wife ;)

Got a new PSU, a nice 600W one :D The wifes good to me..............lol

[pablofrogo]

Where from?? Ebuyer? Their 600W one is actually only a 280W PSU....

I probably shouldn't say ebuyer, but who cares.

[rusty]

my 350w nexus power supply started playing silly buggers on my setup (manifested itself by causing my sound card to not work!)

bought an antec neopower 480w PSU and never looked back... top notch. very quiet into the bargain.



a lot of those high rated psu's are misleading - they tend to be rated at very low temps or rated at peak power... their true output in a real life rig is much lower. with PSU's you definately get what you pay for

[GoLLuM4444]

Where from?? Ebuyer? Their 600W one is actually only a 280W PSU....

I probably shouldn't say ebuyer, but who cares.
Most of people on this site aren't from the UK so won't know many good sites (assuming you don't want to pay to ship one from america).
Since you're in England I advise you go out and buy this month's issue of CustomPC which has a huge PSU testing section.
Hope that helps. :)