Motherboards, graphics cards, and processors.

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ilovepiano

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Jul 9, 2002
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Right, I'm all that clued up on the inner workings of PC's so can anyone be so good as to help me out a bit here?

I have a Asus A7N266VM motherboard, with a Athlon AMD 2000XP processor. Is there a limit as to what CPU I can put on this motherboard? Coz I was thinking about upgrading.

As for graphics, it's intergrated with the motherboard, and it's only 32bit, so I was also thinking about sticking a AGP card in for good measure. I've been having a look and all the cards say AGP X8, but the specs for my board say AGP X4. Will this be a problem, or does it just mean I won't get the maximum results out of the graphics card?

And finally, what's the difference between a 256Mb card that costs 300 quid, and one that costs 50 quid? What will the 300 quid one do that's so much better than the 50 quid one?

Thanks peeps! :thumbsup:
 
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fugjostle

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Oct 12, 2001
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The motherboard supports AMD Socket A with a 200 or 266FSB, which includes the Athlon Thunderbird, Duron, and Athlon XP up to 2400.

I believe that most AGP8x GFX cards can happily run at 4x and some even prefer it (i.e. you get better performance). I have an 9800XT and it likes to run at 4x rather than 8x.

The difference in cost is usually only important if your going to play games like Doom 3 and Halflife 2. These games use a lot of new technologies and you'll only get that type of support with the newer (and therefore more expensive cards).

If your going to fork out for a top card then I would suggest waiting about 6 months and the new PCI express cards and motherboards will be appearing. These will p*ss on the current crop by at least least doubling current AGP8x speeds. Not sure if your an nVidia or ATI man but you can pick up a 9800 pro for around 120 squid if you shop around.

The newer X800 and G-Force6 card have lots of new features and support that new games will take advantage of but you will have to pay a lot for em.

I'd suggest buying the best if your a hardcore gamer or going for the previous best if your looking for performance at a cheaper price. If you just use word processors etc then go for something around the g-force 3 or 9600 series.

Just my opinion of course.

Regards,
f.
 
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fugjostle

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I should add that I used the top of the range G-Force 4 and its struggled with some of the newer games like BF1942 and Call of Duty. I use a 9800XT and it has no problem with them.

At the same time a decent CPU and memory always boost your performance. At the moment I'm running the following and my machine doesn't flinch at anything:

Intel P4 3.4 GHz (800FSB) HyperThreading CPU
Abit IC7-Max 3 Motherboard
Corsair 1GB XL Pro PC3200 Memory
Hercules ATI 9800XT
Creative Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX
 
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ilovepiano

Active member
Jul 9, 2002
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Cheers mate, actually the reason I wanted to upgrade was to play Half Life 2 properly. The first one runs fine on my comp at the mo, as does Wolfenstein, and the demo of Call Of Duty was ok too, I just couldn't run it on max resolution - it was fine on 800x600. It made a massive difference when I stuck another 256Mb of ram in it.

I'm not really a die-hard gamer, but just need something so I can play with a reasonable ammount of detail without it jerking around all over the place.

So I guess that even if I spent 50 quid, I'd see an improvement on what I've got at the minute.

Have to see how much cash I get for my b'day next week! :) :thumbsup:
 
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fugjostle

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Well, Doom 3 lowest supported gfx card is the GeForce 4 MX and ATI 8500's.

Personally, I wouldn't bother buying anything less than ATI 9800's or GeForce 5's. Its just a waste of money.

You can get a GeForce 5500 (256Mb) or an ATI 9600 for around 50-60 squid.
 


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