Economics of upgrading

[ThatPianoGuy]

I have an Asus P2B-F mobo with a PIII 450, 256 Megs of PC 100/PC 133 ram (2 128 sticks different speeds), a GEForce 3 Ti 200, nice power supply, Live! Gold Sound.

I want to be able to play the next Everquest which recommends a 800 mhz processor. It it more economical/wise to get a new AMD mobo/cpu or to upgrade my PIII 450 to a PIII 1 Ghz.

Price of the average PIII 1 Ghz ~$140
Price of Athlon 1 Ghz ~ $80 + mobo $40-90

Your thoughts?
Rob

 

[spamsk8r]

I would go for the athlon upgrade because even if you do upgrade your p3 it won't last for very long (since the upgradability of the socket 370 is quite limited), at which time you will need to upgrade again, so I would just bite the bullet and go for the athlon/mobo combo, you can usually find some good parts for cheap if you look really hard, and I would say it would be well worth it.

 

[CubicZirconia]

Without question get an athlon. You might as well get something faster than a 1 gig, since it won't be that much more expensive really.

 

[Zukatah]

Another vote for the Athlon system. Duron's can be had for very cheap too and the K7S5a motherboard will give you the option of running with your current SDRAM. 1Ghz P3 won't be very fast for too long so it would be better if you plan to upgrade in a year or two to go for an Athlon based system with DDR (more choices of motherboards and great support...)

 

[ThatPianoGuy]

Ok I'll probably go with the Athlon cpu/mobo. So now my question is: What do I do with the P2B-F/PIII 450?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[GRIFFIN1]

Take it to the Forsale forum. You could probably get enough for it to cover the cost of a Duron.

Don't forget that you will probably need a new heatsink if you go with the AMD. Unless you get a retail CPU. I would look in the forsale forum for someone selling a CPU/Motherboard Combo.

Asus A7V133 & Athlon 1GHz T-Bird

FS:1.4gig athlon 65 bucks plus hsf (AYHJA) Price Drop!!!

FS: Athlon XP 1700+ ECS K7S5A mobo & Fan Combo for $130 shipped

 

[RanDum72]

Price of AMD/mobo upgrade:

ECS K7S5A = $55
Athlon XP 1600+ ( at 1.4ghz) = $86
The reason I would go with an XP is that its faster, runs cooler and you shouldn't be upgrading for a while.
Crucial PC2100 DDR 256mb = $48 (includes shipping at Crucial after coupon)

Total = Approximately $200 including shipping.

You can sell your mobo, CPU and memory for probably around $75 shipped. Price of upgrade = $125.