If you could upgrade one thing for this system..

[Ruahrc]

Right now I have a meager but still pretty good system:

TBird 1.333
Asus A7V133 Mobo
512MB PC133
GF3 64MB (Original)
Audigy 1 X-Gamer
OS is XP Pro

It plays games well (GTA3, Freelancer both run smooth at 1024x768 max detail and 2x antialiasing) but I think for some games out now and some upcoming games its performance will start to lag a little.

Right now I'm saving up for a laptop purchase, but given that the laptop I want doesn't exist yet (Apple Powerbook based on the PPC970 chip with an OLED display and spdif output ) and will cost an arm and a leg, I was thinking about maybe plunking a small amount of money into upgrading my computer to tide me over a little more.

There was really only 2 things I was thinking of upgrading: either the CPU or the graphics card, but I am not sure which will provide greater benefit. Athlon XP chips don't seem that expensive right now but I am not sure if my mobo will be able to handle one. Can it, and if it can- how fast can I go? The problem I see with upgrading the CPU is that for any BIG benefit I'd need to move to DDR RAM, which means a new Mobo/CPU/RAM set which can be expensive.

The other option was to beef up the graphics card and pop at Ti4200 or some ATI card in. The problem with doing this is that I am not sure if it's my CPU or my graphics card that is holding me back now.

Any advice?

Ruahrc

[nukes]

What GF3 is it? Ti?
Looks good anyway, I'd upgrade either CPU/Mobo.

[bladeoftruth]

How much is a small amount of money? I remember that when we upgraded our computer 6 months ago, for around $449, and with that we got a new XP2000 CPU a new fully loaded motherboard, a new case a new power supply & 256 mb ddr pc2700 333mhz ram. All i have to say is that it was without a doubt worth it.

It looks like you upgrade your CPU to an XP2100+ according to here

That's a pretty good bump IMO.

You could probably up the vid card as well.

[Ruahrc]

When I menat "small amount of money" I was thinking maybe like $150-200 max. I see that XP's can be had for under $100 which sounds like a reasonable price.

nukes: It's the original GeForce3 before they came out with those newfangled "Ti"'s. (Original GF3 is basically in between a Ti200 and a Ti500).

thanks for the link EvilRick- if you could only choose either the 2100+ CPU or a new vid card which would you choose?

Ruahrc

edit: The asus website has both an XP2100+ model 6 and an XP2100+ model 8. What is the difference. Was 2100+ one of the jumping points where they moved to a smaller transistor size or something? The A7V133 can only take the model 6 proc, so there must be something big different.

[Ruahrc]

Looks like I answered my own question- it appears that the Model 6 CPUs are 266MHz FSB and the Model 8 CPUs are .13 micron and can go up to 333MHz FSB.

My question is though shouldn't I still be able to use the model 8 cpu? The FSB will just run a little slower and I'd get the benefits of lower power dissipation via the smaller die process.

Someone please confirm this for me?

Ruahrc