Best Upgrade-CPu/RAM/AGP?

[hithesh123]

Hi ppl,

Help a poor dude choose an upgrade.
My current system specs -

Athlon XP 1.4Ghz (1700+)
Abit NF7-S mobo (its not v2.0) so max FSB is 333MHz
nvidia Ti4200 64MB AGP
Crucial 512MB DDR 266Mhz RAM (2x256)

Now, should I upgrade the cpu? I am thinkin of a Barton with FSB 333mhz 2Ghz.
or should I go for hyperx Ram> 512MB PC3200 Kingston hyperx
or an AGP card? ATI 9700 pro 128MB

I use my pc for general college work, gaming (NFSHP2, wolfenstein) and editing/convering photos frmo RAW with photoshop or C1Pro.

 

[DaveSimmons]

What slowness is annoying you the most?

Increasing total RAM would help PhotoShop, and PC3200 would carry forward to an A64

A 9700 Pro would obviously improve gaming

A CPU upgrade would help either, though much less than moving to the A64 platform.

 

[RussianSensation]

9700Pro is too slow to last you longer than 1 year. So it'll be like throwing $150 into the trash. A faster speed videocard would be a waste of $$$ too since your cpu is too slow.

So..Get A64 on socket 939 and overclock it.

512mb of ram isnt going to improve your gaming since your cpu and videocard are slow.

So get A64, use ratios to run the ram (crucial should overclock well though). Also this will help you concentrate on studying and less gaming. Your free time you should spend with women This gives you 6 months to save up for a videocard that you'll buy so you can play games in the summer when you have time.

A64 should get you ready for 64-bit OS, and increase your performance in general tasks.

 

[Ze Mad Doktor]

Go to newegg or some similar place and spend $85 on the Athlon XP-M 2500+. I just got one of those which is now running at 2.4GHz on my NF-S V2 board at 12x200@1.70v As you don't have the 400 bus you would just have to use a higher multiplier but the CPU is not multiplier locked so it would work perfectly fine on your board. Spending so little on the CPU should allow you to purchase 512 more memory too.

Personally I would wait on the A64 stuff till next year sometime. Let it drop in price. 2.4GHz will be plenty to get me to next year and I will save a bundle in the process of only spending $85 on the processor.

 

[hithesh123]

Thanks for the advice guys. I ordered hyperx PC3200 RAM yesterday and will be getting a cpu soon. But will have to put a hold on the AGP.

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Your free time you should spend with women This gives you 6 months to save up for a videocard that you'll buy so you can play games in the summer when you have time.

A64 should get you ready for 64-bit OS, and increase your performance in general tasks.

spend free time with women, I'd be broke in 6 months! hehe. Thanks for planning my future though.