What should I do?

zeus

zeus

out of date
Ive been toying with the idea of a small upgrade.

I never seem to spend loads on computers, I just upgrade the essentials every now and then.

My last upgrade was a P4a 2ghz and an sd ram motherboard.
Not a pefect combo, but dead cheap :), and a huge performance upgrade.

Now Im at that stage agian where I want a quicker comp, but yet again dont have loads of money to spend.

I wanna keep my P4a, I reckon it will go to a fsb of 133, basically making it 2.67ghz 533mhz bus cpu.

I want to get some ddr400 (well pc3700)

But what motherboard should I go for? Should I go for the normal 845 based board or a springdale?

All I want out of a board is stability and tons of overclocking features. Preferably one where I can change my pci and mem ratios, at the same time as being able to change the Vcore. I cant do that with this P4b, and it holds me up loads!

Which chipset would you go for? Im falling towards the Springdale because I can upgrade my cpu to a 800mhz bus one after a while or it may even support the prescott 478, which will probably be affordable cos they a bringing out a 775 pin prescott too.
But I will be able to get a really nice 845 board for about the same price I bet.

What are considered the best overclocking boards for each chipset?

Lots of questions cos Ive only got a small wallet at the moment!

Ive also decided to get the radeon 9500 and soft mod it to a 9700.
Its easy enough if I use RivaTuner. Ive already modded my mx420 to a Quadro 4 550 with Riva Tuner. Its dead easy and reversible.
 
I can also throw the fastest celeron in my p4b board cos of the most recent bios update. Ill just have to spend £50 on a new case.

I could probably sell it for more than the price of the new parts I wanna buy :)
 
Be carefull about that 9500 softmod because not everyone of them can do it.

The trick is to get the 9500 with the red pcb and the memory in an L-shaped form, NOT the black pcb with the memory in a straight line. It halso has to be the 128mb version, but you must already know that.

The one with the black pcb will NOT mod at all, so if you get that one, which will probably be the case since everyone has already taken the red pcb ones, do not try the mod.

If you are lucky and get the red pcb one with the L-shaped memory, you can still damage your card.
some people have succeeded and others haven't. What happens is that the 4 extra pipelines that are enabled by the softmod may be damaged which is not a big deal when you're using the 4 good ones, but it is when you're using all 8 of them because you will see artifacts, even in 2d. So it's really a gamble.

IMO, you shouldn't buy this card thinking it will softmod perfectly because you will first need the good card (red pcb with mem in L-shaped form) which you have half a chance of getting (probably less) AND you need it to have all eight pipelines in perfect condition. So really, you have 25% of chances to turn your 9500 to a 9700.

What I would do if I were you is either get the 9500 Pro or the 9600 Pro if you can'T get the 9500 Pro.

I'm not sure where you live but right now, newegg has a Sapphire 9500 128mb with the red pcb/mem L-shaped for $141, and its OEM counterpart for only $104.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=9500

they also have a refurb Sapphire 9500 Pro for only $129.
If you want a new one, it'll be $198.

The Built-By-Ati 9600 Pro is $178.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=9600+pro

They do not have the refurb 9500 Pro or the OEM 9500 in stock right now.

As I said, if I were you, I'd get either the 9500 Pro, which is better than the 9600 Pro, or get the latter which you can overclock.

I have the built-by-ati 9600 Pro and have overclocked it to 515/342.
I may have been lucky, I don't know, but I think the 9600 Pro is the best choice for you in the range of cards you're looking, abnd it's also $20 cheaper than the 9500 Pro, which has to be considered imo.

If you get the 9600 Pro, don't be scared by the overwhelmingly small hsf. The card is using the .13 micron process just like the amd's tbreds and bartons, so it runs quite cool.
Other manufacturers usually put their own hsf which is bigger, but the card itself may not overclock as well as ATI's.


As for your new mobo, I'm sorry but I can't answer you, I know amd more than intel.

EDIT: Oh and btw, DDR400 is PC3200.
PC3700 would be DDR466
 
Ive been struggling to find somewhere that actually sells the 9500.
I was looking on ebay.co.uk, and they are starting at about 120 euros!!!! And you can buy a brand new one for the same price in America! Cheers for the links.

You guys really dont know how good you have got it over there. NOTHING can be considered expensive! Everyone should be able to buy top of the range everything over there!

Im aware of the different 9500 that are about. I have read not to go for the ones with the l shaped ram chips and the red board, but to go for the ones with the same pcb layout as the 9700.

My source.....
http://reviews.designtechnica.com/guide13.html

But its the quality of the pipelines im worried about. Im hoping if I get a genuine ATI card it will have less chances of being a 9700 throwback than an OEM or cheapo card.

The 9500pro is pretty well outta my price range, but the 9600pro looks ok for £150.
Whatever card im gonna get, im gonna overclock it.

Motherboard comes first for me, so if I end up with an Abit IC7 max 3, ill probably get an fx or summit. Crap cards still work well IMO, im still quite ok with my mx420. Since ive reinstalled windows Ive manged to get 50fps in GTA VC with full quality driver settings (including 4xs AA) and 1024x768. Same goes for Enter the Matrix and Midnight Club 2.
I find it hard to justify spending £400 on a 9800pro when I can play the same games, nearly as well ;), with a £100 card.
 
That place really is good. It even sells Micro ATX power supplies.

I gave away an old celeron 633 comp not long ago, simply cos I couldnt find a power supply to fit it.

P4c 3.2ghz for $398!!!!!!
in dollars, from a cheap supplier in the uk P4c 3.2ghz = $900
 
Yes, Newegg is excellent. If I can't get it locally I'll buy it off Newegg. Great service and prices all around.
 
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