What to upgrade on my gaming system?

[#ball3r]

I had a deal fall through on a 2800+ barton and an a7n8x. So i'm left in a position to make a smaller purchase. Here are my choices...

1) 2500+ Barton and 9500 128 for a soft mod

2) 3000+ Barton

3) 2800+ Barton and a better fan for my slk-800

4) 2500+ Barton and Abit NF7-S 2.0

5) 9700 Pro

My system specs are in my sig. My 2100+'s max is around 2.35 and my 8rda+ goes up to 215 stable insync 2,2,2,4. The video doesn't oc that well, but some as3 might help that.

[#ball3r]

my goals besides gaming performance is overclocking and benchmarking. I would like to get close to 20000 in 3dmark. Little over 15000 with current set up.

[Zroc]

2, 3, and 4 are out, cuz you'll never hit 20k in 3Dmark 2K1 with a Ti4400. Also, you have to have a 9700 Pro overclocked pretty high to hit over 20k, no matter what your clockspeed (my P4 at 3750 hits around 17500 with a default 9700 Pro).

I'd say your best bet to improve gaming performance would be the 9700 Pro. As for hitting over 20k, I think you'll need both a good-overclocking 9700 Pro AND a lot more clockspeed, unfortunately.

[antipop]

Go with the 9700pro, if you have a lucky card and some good cooling you might get the 20k

[felix88]

i agree with Zroc and antipop, 9700 Pro is the way to go.

[CCW]

the 9700 pro will give you better games performance than the others so ditto to everyone one else

[faruquehabib]

9700 pro....still is a great card and will matter the most in gaming, not the processor

[makatee]

just to reinforce it, there is no way for 20k without the 9700 pro

[#ball3r]

Here is what I think i'm going to get...

XP2800+ BARTON
ABIT NF7-S 2.0
ATI 9700 PRO OEM
2X256 TWINMOS 3200 W/NEW MEMORY CHIPS
AND EITHER SOME BETTER COOLING FOR MY CPU, VIDEO CARD, 1 WB RAPTOR SATA HD.

What do you think of that?

[zakelwe]

Originally posted by #ball3r
Here is what I think i'm going to get...

XP2800+ BARTON
ABIT NF7-S 2.0
ATI 9700 PRO OEM
2X256 TWINMOS 3200 W/NEW MEMORY CHIPS
AND EITHER SOME BETTER COOLING FOR MY CPU, VIDEO CARD, 1 WB RAPTOR SATA HD.

What do you think of that?

Apparently there are some AMD price drops round today however I would be tempted to go for a Barton 2500+ , keep your Epox as it hits 215 stable and with the money you have saved go for a 9800 Pro which show good overclocking potential. Then you might hit 20k !

Regards

Andy

[#ball3r]

thx those are some good suggestions. I'm trying to avoid the 2500+ since it's not the best chance for me to better my current 2100+. I'm gettting another mobo because I have another system waiting to be put together . I still might get the 9800, it's just I live in Canada and things are a little more costly and harder to get here.

[antipop]

Originally posted by #ball3r
Here is what I think i'm going to get...

XP2800+ BARTON
ABIT NF7-S 2.0
ATI 9700 PRO OEM
2X256 TWINMOS 3200 W/NEW MEMORY CHIPS
AND EITHER SOME BETTER COOLING FOR MY CPU, VIDEO CARD, 1 WB RAPTOR SATA HD.

What do you think of that?

That's a nice upgrade but you may wait and get a 9800pro
Why don't you get two wb raptor and run them in raid0?

[#ball3r]

yeah I plan on getting 2 raptors, the other things just seem a little more important right now . I also found a hercules 9800 pro for sale cheap which I hope I can get. So when I'm done this little upgrade I should be running these 2 boxes...

Main:

2800+ BARTON
ABIT NF7-S 2.0/EPOX 8RDA+ (WHICH EVER PERFORMS BETTER)
2X256MB OF EITHER OCZ3500 DC, OR TWINMOS 3200 (AGAIN FASTEST)
RADEON 9800 PRO
2 36GB WB RAPTORS RAID 0
AND THE OTHER STUFF LISTED ABOVE

2ND:

2100+ TBRED B 0302
SLOWER OF THE 2 MOBO'S
SLOWER RAM OF THE 2 ABOVE
MSI GE4 4400
40GB MAXTOR ATA133

Not bad for a back-up/server hey . I also have a 1600+ that oc's to 1850mhz, and might pick up one of those new 1700+ 0310 that are overclocking so well to experiment.

[antipop]

Originally posted by #ball3r
yeah I plan on getting 2 raptors, the other things just seem a little more important right now

I would suggest you to buy a cheap PATA hdd and put your money in other improving other hardware and wait till SATA really become mainstream and get better results

[CCW]

as antipop says, wait beforte going S-ATA, the technology needs to mature more first

[#ball3r]

i'm going the sata route just because it's on-board and don't wanna spend money on a pci raid card since they run over $100 here.

[antipop]

You can buy a second serillel connector and so you'll get on board raid without spending too much

[#ball3r]

you can put 2 ide drives on sata adapters and use the raid on the nf7-s? didn't know that, and haven't seen anyone say they did.

[antipop]

you'll have to buy another adapter, you'll have to check if it'll be cheaper than buy a cheap pci raid card. I think it doable. You'll save money by going toward the pata road and you won't loose much in matter of power

[#ball3r]

how does 2 40gb WD 8mb cache drives for less then 1 raptor.

[antipop]

Originally posted by #ball3r
how does 2 40gb WD 8mb cache drives for less then 1 raptor.

If you're meaning that you can get them for less than the price of a raptor, then i say go that way and spend the money on other hardware or keep it for later . You won't see much improvement with the raptor

[CCW]

alexandrous made a good point in ur other thread @ AOA #ball3r, i mean ur current rig is fine for gaming so why not wait for Athlon 64?

[antipop]

Originally posted by CCW
alexandrous made a good point in ur other thread @ AOA #ball3r, i mean ur current rig is fine for gaming so why not wait for Athlon 64?

No one knows when the athlon64 will be available nor what will the performance or price be. If you wanna wait or not depend on the usage you wanna make of it and if you want to keep your money or not. As i've understand, you want to build two rigs, correct me if i'm wrong