BlakeSauner

Hello all, hope everyone's having a great day

I recently upgraded my motherboard, processor, and also my power supply. Recently my old PSU died on me, so I thought, why upgrade one part for an increasingly aging P4 system, when I can just jump into the dual-core pool?

It's still a pretty budget-friendly build, but I'm also not a huge gamer outside of casual WoW. For me, the system runs more smoothly than I really need for most of what I do.

Here's some specs...

XP Home Edition SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ (2.6Ghz)
2GB of DDR2 Ram (OCZ)
Thermaltake - 450-Watt ATX CPU Power Supply
All attached to this:
Motherboard

Now, I'm looking around on Best Buy's website and this caught my eye...
ATI Radeon Card

Is that card probably a bit more than I need you think? I don't want to put any unnecessary strain on my system for something I'm not going to fully utilize.

The internal graphics alone are ok to push most of what I do, including WoW (to a point), but I'm looking to just get a little more oomph in there. Any suggestions off the top of anyone's head would be welcome, I'm looking to keep the vid card purchase in the range of 50-80USD if possible.

Thanks in advance.

tecknomage

Some cautions on Dual Core motherboards.

The Dual Core motherboards I looked at for my last upgrade had a problem. Most came with SATA connections and ONLY one IDE connection. Half had NO FLOPPY, and none had AGP.

For me, upgrading to a Dual Core motherboard was not cost effective because I would have to change at least one set of drives to SATA and change my new GeForce 7300GT 512mb AGP to a PCIE version.

I DID find a MSI motherboard that had everything (SATA, 2 IDE, Floppy, AGP). It took a P4 3GHz Hyper-Threading CPU, which give close to Dual Core performance. I upgraded to the faster 2gb RAM. Appx $150 for the whole upgrade.

So look at the total upgrade cost for your existing hardware.

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Tecknomage
Computer System Specialist
IT Technician

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wrench97

If your going to upgrade it makes sense to go PCIE over AGP
Make sure you use the OCZ configurer on their web site to select the correct memory for the board you select.
IMPORTANT! Before You Buy Memory
The power supply you've chosen wouldn't be my 1st choice.
For a PCIE card you need at least 26 amps on the 12v rail.
Power Supply Information and Selection

If you have an IDE Hard drive and an IDE Cd drive the board selected will support both, but if you want/need a third or fourth drive you'll have to add Sata drives.







P

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Houndog777

Hi, If you are not much of a gamer, why buy an extra card?

The ATI 2600Pro is also not too popular on the boards and forums, with regard to install and performance problems. Add to that the increased power demands of an add-on video card, and I'd say you are better off with just the onboard graphics.

If the performance isn't good enough with WoW, then you can always add a card later.
Your processor and 2GB of memory should add that little bit of oomph you're looking for!

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BlakeSauner

Ah thanks for the replies thus far everyone, I appreciate the detailed feedback.

I understand the power supply might not be top notch, but I didn't see it wallowing in the mud as far as performance reviews. The board itself has some very minor setbacks, as far as some bus speeds being in an odd number, but again, for the most part, it suits my needs.

Video Chipset:ATI Radeon X1250
Video Memory: 256MB Share Memory

that's the listed "integrated" video on the motherboard itself. and yeah, my pc boots and runs like a dream, when in WoW, with mid range settings (let's face it, even maxed the game looks like a cartoon)

I'm still seeing some small hiccups in the video, frame rates sit around 45 out and about away from other players, and can get into the 23fps range in crowded areas, I'm mainly looking to boost that frame rate, and get a slightly better card, regardless of it's video memory being 256MB listed on the board itself.

I'm thinking, and I could be wrong (hope not) that it's probably just a better idea to find a PCIe card in the 256ish range and toss it in there for more juice? my last system looked something like this (keep-my-pentium-alive-system):

p4 2.6Ghz
1GB DDR2 ram
ati radeon x800xl 256MB AGP card
pc case stock PSU.

as far as wow went, the card ran warm, after fans/heatsink added cooled down.
frames would hit and stay at 60fps non crowded, 20ish crowded, but no graphics "locks" while running around, much like the little "stutters" im seeing off the new board.


So as long as I'm tossing on a new vid card which has the same 256mb+ of video memory I'll probably see some improvement, overall? I'm pretty sure the PSU can handle a mid-range card, I just don't like the idea of forcing the on-board to do the all the work.

Enkai

Looks like you are on a budget or something. You can go for this Sapphire Radeon HD2600XT 256MB AGP, one range higher than 2600Pro, should be more than sufficient for WOW or some other 'not so demanding' games.

If you are willing to splash, you can go a notch higher with Sapphire Radeon X1650-Pro 256MB AGP. Good luck!

emosun

The x1250 should be fine for wow.

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