graphics card upgrade advice

[rwg]

--Current system--
CPU: PII-300 slot 1
MB: BCM QS440BX (great board, dead reliable)
Video: Voodoo-3 (AGP-1)

I am upgrading the above system to try to get a couple more years of use out of it with absolute minimum expenditure. I plan to install a slot1 adapter for a Celeron 1.4 GHz cpu and I would like it to be a viable machine for game playing.

I plan to buy a decent AGP-4 card in a couple of months. So, the question:

Will it be worth installing a AGP-4 card in this upgraded system? Or should I save my money for buying a new system and poke along with the Voodoo3 for now?

A better phrasing of the question is this:

How much of a performance hit does an AGP-4 graphics card take by installing it in a motherboard capable of supporting only AGP-1?

[JPMiller]

In my humble opinion you have already maxed out the viable upgrade-ability of this machine...you will have too many other obvious bottlenecks for speed and performance for any CPU or graphics card to fix.
Your money would be better spent toward a new system.
If you want an affordable gaming machine I can list a midrange setup that would be upgradeable as you went.
You might also be able to sell this machine and put money toward new.

[tony_j15]

I agree with JP. That machine is too outdated. It will be cheaper in the long run if you just get a new one.

[rwg]

Thanks for the reply.

I understand your response completely. I am stuck with a fast hard drive on a ATA 33 controller right now. The CDROM is 12X speed. A dog. My goal was to upgrade the video card in 6 months or so and then carry that and my hardrive over to a new system in a year or two.

Unfortunately, I am limited to approx. $90 right now. No foreseeable chance to spend the $200+ needed for a new MB, CPU and ram, not to mention the graphics card. As it stands now I effectively have a 1-computer household with 2 users. If I can make this box passable for my son's games I can bump him off the XP2000 box. :-)

Going by prices on Dealtime.com and spec-ing out a minimal upgradable system Athlon XP system:

MB: $60
XP1800 $60
256 MB DDR 2700: $45
video card $50

$125 over budget, rats.

Your motherboard is capable of 2x operation. I don't know if your mobo will take the 1.4 celeron, but if it can, great! You should be able to find a PIII 800 - to 1000 if it doesn't. I would also upgrade the ram, too.

You aren't really suffering with th HDD being limited to ATA-33, as the sustained throughput for any IDE HDD isn't that great anyway.

Mind you, this stuff isn't really worth doing unless you can get the parts cheap or already have them lying around.

As for the video card, you might want to stay away from the nVidia lineup since they are very power demanding. The power supply you have installed won't be the issue, either. I have owned systems like this that would not work with any GeForce 4 cards because the AGP slot wouldn't provide enough power to the card. It did work with the GeForce 2 line. I eventually settled with the Radeon 7500, although the Radeon 8500 would have been a better choice.

So, if you really want this system to limp through the next year, you could possibly do what I have mentioned. Just don't expect to play Unreal 2 at any good speed. With mine, a PIII 1ghz, 256MB PC100, Radeon 7500/GeForce 2 Ti, Maxtor 7200 RPM 8mb cache 80 gb HDD, I easily played any Quake 3 based game, all the Half-Life based games, Medal of Honor; basically anything that wasn't super advanced. It had difficulties playing Unreal 2.

The Geforce 2 Ti and the Radeon 7500 scored very close to each other in 3DMark 2001 and performed similarly in games. Like I said, a Radeon 8500 (FYI - The Radeon 9100 is an 8500 LE in disguise) would have been a better choice, as it didn't suck power like the GeForce 4.

EDIT:

Links would be nice, no?

www.powerleap.com - They have a large lineup of Slot-1 adapters and software to help you find what's right for you. The software is helpful.

http://www.newegg.com/ - A good source of video cards and ram. Good prices.

http://www.starsurplus.com/ - The only place I have found that has a decent supply of Slot-1 processors that go up to 1GHz. Pricey!

[JPMiller]

Please indulge me by listing exactly what you have in your system right now...I may have suggestion.

[rwg]

Thanks for the help everyone. Yes, this is a short-sighted, but short-term solution to a short-term problem.

Current system:

BMC QS440BX motherboard
PII-300 cpu
3Dfx Voodoo 3 video
256 MB PC66 RAM
WD 80GB hard drive (7200 rpm)


Possible upgrade:

Slot-T adapter card $25
Cerleron-A 1.3 GHz cpu $45
256 MB PC100 RAM $20

6 month from now, a new video card.

I was intially interested in a slot-1 PIII, but they are still quite expensive. The Tualatin Celerons supposedly don't give up much to a 1Ghz PIII on most points and they are about 1/3 the cost.