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Hi, anyone have any reccomendations on which motherboard and processor to upgrade to. At the moment I'm running a 500Mhz Celeron and as a result cannot play GTA3. I mainly use my computer for games and I'm looking to spend in the region of £230. I saw this Athlon XP 1800+ 1.53Ghz SoA for around a £100. Do you know if these are better than P3/P4 for games? Any motherboard suggestions?
Thanks
Thanks
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Hi, anyone have any reccomendations on which motherboard and processor to upgrade to. At the moment I'm running a 500Mhz Celeron and as a result cannot play GTA3. I mainly use my computer for games and I'm looking to spend in the region of £230. I saw this Athlon XP 1800+ 1.53Ghz SoA for around a £100. Do you know if these are better than P3/P4 for games? Any motherboard suggestions?
Thanks
Thanks
Athlon xp 1800+ is a good choice, but as you want to play games it may not only be your cpu that is causing the bottleneck, you need to make sure your video card is o.k. and that you have a good amount of ram, give us more details on your current system mate.
Also are you planning on buying the parts from Special reserve or are you willing to go online, as i can point you to some good online stores that sell pc hardware at good prices.
c.b.
Also are you planning on buying the parts from Special reserve or are you willing to go online, as i can point you to some good online stores that sell pc hardware at good prices.
c.b.
SoA?
Anyway, the 1800 is good (2000 is better though =P), but you need a good video card to go with that. A Titanium GeForce 3 is always a good bet. Stay away from anything with an MX prefix - they are just silicon trash.
Anyway, the 1800 is good (2000 is better though =P), but you need a good video card to go with that. A Titanium GeForce 3 is always a good bet. Stay away from anything with an MX prefix - they are just silicon trash.
On a budget of about £230 I'd reccommend an Elite K7S5A motherboard: they're about £50 if you shop around. They're very compatible and, for that price, an absolute bargain in terms of features and performance.
As for processor and memory - I'd be inclined to sacrifice clock cycles for extra RAM. And the nice thing about the Elite motherboard is that it can take either the cheaper SDRAM or the more expensive DDR memory, leaving you the option of upgrading later. My choice would be 512MB SDRAM (about £70)and an XP1600 (also about £70).
That only leaves you with about £40 for a video card, though, which isn't going to be enough to play GTA3. Have a look on ebay for Geforce3 cards (not MX obviously) - you may find a bargain. Alternatively you could up your budget or go for a cheap Duron processor to free up some cash.
One other thing to bear in mind is your PSU: if its less than 250W then you'll probably need a new one to power your CPU and your graphics card. 300W is a good idea.
As for processor and memory - I'd be inclined to sacrifice clock cycles for extra RAM. And the nice thing about the Elite motherboard is that it can take either the cheaper SDRAM or the more expensive DDR memory, leaving you the option of upgrading later. My choice would be 512MB SDRAM (about £70)and an XP1600 (also about £70).
That only leaves you with about £40 for a video card, though, which isn't going to be enough to play GTA3. Have a look on ebay for Geforce3 cards (not MX obviously) - you may find a bargain. Alternatively you could up your budget or go for a cheap Duron processor to free up some cash.
One other thing to bear in mind is your PSU: if its less than 250W then you'll probably need a new one to power your CPU and your graphics card. 300W is a good idea.
i had problems with that mobo it kept it wouldnt work well with my soundcard, gay geforce 2 mx 400 and Ethernet card so i sent it back......
yay! snipper u r my hiro, i luv u snipper..
Hi mate im not sure wether i can put these down, so if not i appologise, i have used all of these sites for my pc parts and can vouch for them.
www.ebuyer.com
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk
www.tekheads.co.uk
www.thecoolingshop.co.uk
Most of these sites do bundles, i.e Motherboard, chip and heatsink and fan for reduced prices, you can also get guarnteed overclocked stuff that guarantees certain speed, well have a look and keep us posted.
c.b.
www.ebuyer.com
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk
www.tekheads.co.uk
www.thecoolingshop.co.uk
Most of these sites do bundles, i.e Motherboard, chip and heatsink and fan for reduced prices, you can also get guarnteed overclocked stuff that guarantees certain speed, well have a look and keep us posted.
c.b.
I reckon my upgrade sounds good, what do you guys think?
Its from a:
pentium 3 450mhz
to
AMD Athlon XP 1700+
and from
GeForce2 MX400
to GeForce4 Ti4400
I don't need any RAM and stuff cos i've already got 768mb and 2 hard drives: 20gb and 80gb
Its from a:
pentium 3 450mhz
to
AMD Athlon XP 1700+
and from
GeForce2 MX400
to GeForce4 Ti4400
I don't need any RAM and stuff cos i've already got 768mb and 2 hard drives: 20gb and 80gb
Decided on an AMD 1800XP but still looking for a suitable motherboard. Need one that has a PS/2 socket for keyboard, USB at the back for mouse, USB to connect to front of case for joypad(anyone know how that works?), supports ATA100 HDD and in the region of £100. Also anyone know if DDR is worth the upgrade as I already have 386MB RAM?
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