New motherboard?

[Twist]

Currently I have a Pentium 4 1.80ghz and I was looking to upgrade to make it more "game worthy" So my quesion is my computer came with the P4 1.80ghz and I was wondering if I got a Athlon would I also have to get a new motherboard to run the athlon? Also if you could be so kind explain the diffrence between pentium 4 and athlon.



(also for games fps how do you make your fps better for game play for games like far cry ravenshield etc)

 

[72montecarlo]

If you wanted to go to an Athlon you would need to change your mobo. As far as differences between P4 and the Athlons is, they are made by two different cpu companies and they have very different architecture behind them. Some people believe athlons are better others feel pentiums are better but they both do the same thing and its really just your choice which one you would prefer.
If you want to get better FPS for a game such as far cry you would want to have at least 512 of good pc3200 or 3700 memory and a rather expensive graphics card such as a 9600xt. but really their are multiple combinations you could come up with to get better frame rates in far cry or any game.

 

[72montecarlo]

Here are the recommended system requirements for Far Cry...

Supported OS: Windows 98SE/2000/XP (only)
Processor: AMD Athlon 2400-3000+ or Pentium 4 2-3 GHz
RAM: 512-1024 MB
Video Card: 128 MB GeForce 4 128 MB to GeForce FX 5950; ATI Radeon 9500-9800 XT

 

[Twist]

Yea I have far cry which is the main reason im asking lol. I have a Geforce 5200 128 card and 768mb ram going to get another pentium 4 and a 512 stick so I can get 1024 seems cheaper and if there isnt a HUGE diffrence between the 2 theres no reason to go athlon. Thanks alot for the info

 

[Praetor]

I have a Geforce 5200 128 card and 768mb ram going to get another pentium 4 and a 512 stick so I can get 1024 seems cheaper and if there isnt a HUGE diffrence between the 2 theres no reason to go athlon

1. There is a huge reason to go Athlon ... cheaper CPU/Mobo = better video/memory subsystem
2. FarCry will benifit from a jump to a midrange/highend video card

 

[Twist]

Quote:
1. There is a huge reason to go Athlon ... cheaper CPU/Mobo = better video/memory subsystem
2. FarCry will benifit from a jump to a midrange/highend video card


ok im a computer idiot so just making sure Athlon is better for gaming then?
Also I notice they sell motherboards will I still have to pay the $80 to buy/install a athlon board and then buy a athlon processor and will my card and memory still work with the new board?


(is there a good site that explains athlon?)

 

[72montecarlo]

Some people would say Athlon , others would go with pentium. personally i feel neither one is lacking when the clock speeds are the same for game performance. yes the mobo and cpus are cheaper but that would mean he would have to purchase that rather then stick with what he has now and put more into a better performing graphics card. your graphics card and memory will still work in your new board as long as its relatively new it will support 184 pin sdram ddr sticks.

This should be helpful 3.2ghz P4 vs. AMD Athlon XP 3200 With Comparison Charts

 

[Praetor]

but that would mean he would have to purchase that rather then stick with what he has now and put more into a better performing graphics card

Well unless he wants to upgrade to a just faster chip, he'll have to upgrade the motherboard anyways; if I'm not mistaken, the mobo only supports NorthwoodA -- which is antiquated -- and the NorthwoodA's only go up to 2.4Ghz.

And since he might be buying a new mobo/cpu core then he might as well go AMD in order to spend more on the video/memory subsystems

 

[Twist]

ok so lets say I have $500.00 to spend to upgrade which in your opinion is the way to go? (note that I need a new motherboard and athlon 2.0ghz+ processor and 512 stick of 3200 memory) which is the best way to go?

 

[Alin.s]

ok id get a ati radeon the new one.
then id go for a AMD 64bit processor.
and id check into those 2 videocards doing half the work. i mean it can make a big fps change.

 

[Twist]

Heh ok first my folks are best buy nutz so I cant buy from sites like newegg cept for memory sticks. So that limits the options of things I can get. (warrenty freaks I guess) So with that said how does this look

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1058188520438&skuId=5801386&type=product

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...26904&productCategoryId=cat01071&type=product


It falls under the price my mom is willing to pay. Trying to boost the system for my father for his b-day hes a first person shooter nut like me and hes been complaining about it being slow and laggy.

Just wondering if what I have picked out is a decent upgrade (its not set in stone as I said im just looking to learn at this point)

Also If anyone wants a good laugh go to the Hp website and put in 751n and thats my system ^_^ lol

 

[Praetor]

then id go for a AMD 64bit processor.

If you didnt noticed A64 procs cost around $500 ... so there goes the budget ... not to mention the mobo. To maximize the $500, you're probably going to Option 02 as ive specified here: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/93097 and since you dont need the HDD and possibly the fancy memory, you can easily drop the price down from my spec'd $800. If that's not enough, drop the processor to XP2500 (mobile preferably) which runs at 1.83Ghz ... those chips can easily OC up to 2.3Ghz-2.4Ghz.

and id check into those 2 videocards doing half the work

Which two? The Voodoo's running SLI??? That's ancient and if you mean the ALX-type setup, note that those systems cost $5000+ and its a proprietory setup

 

[72montecarlo]

The motherboard looks good, but the cpu i dont think so. The AMD cpu your looking at appears to be the Tbred athlon xp 2800 because the clock speed is at 2.25ghz. it has 256kb of L2 cache on board. You probably want to go with the athlon xp 2800+ Barton cpu that has 512kb of L2 cache. The clockspeeds are slower but it is much more efficient since the l2 cache has doubled. I dont see the Barton version on best buy though so you might want to go with newegg. This one here is 121$ Barton Cpu

 

[Twist]

Yea I noticed that one when I was searching on newegg. Showed my folks how much they would save going threw newegg and let me just say they were happy.

Also what is l2 cache?

 

[Praetor]

L2 is on-die, fullspeed SRAM there for the CPU to be able to perform faster. The more the better (MUCH better)

 

[72montecarlo]

L2 is on-die, fullspeed SRAM there for the CPU to be able to perform faster. The more the better (MUCH better)

what he said^

 

[Praetor]

Showed my folks how much they would save going threw newegg and let me just say they were happy.

Just dont forget that although NewEgg is good stuff there are other sites which occasionally will beat them pricewise and selectionwise.