Upgrade advice ...

[keiran]

Well I had been looking to buy myself a graphics card for a while but noticed a bundle deal for a motherboard and AMD 64 3000+ for £126.99 so this made me think. Is it really worth spending £135 on a AGP graphics card when I could upgrade the whole board and CPU for less. I'd rather spend my money better and be more future proof so thats why I'm asking your lot advice :)

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=97166
My main question is whats the view on the bundle deal?? Is it pretty future proof and is the motherboard good ?

Someone recommended I buy http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=3SYF&refererid=WQ&GCID=C16358x004-Motherboar&KEYWORD=ASRock+S939+Athlon+ULi+m1695+ATX+A+L
But the price difference would be quite a bit between the bundle and buying this motherboard + CPU. Would it be worth the price difference ??

Thanks in advance for any help as I'm not to sure on all this stuff :p the computer world moves to quickly for my liking :tilt:
Keiran

[thsancho]

Well do you even need to upgrade your whole system?:scratchch If so the I might look at your first bundle upgrade bc it is my understanding that pci express is starting to to take over in the graphics card field bc its faster. If your system does not need upgrading then I would just go for a new graphics card.

I'm not sure how much of a gamer you are but that is a definately a concideration becuase I kinda consider myself one and I am constantly looking to upgrade and make my system faster.

I hope I helped:D .

[Forbin]

If you currently have an AGP video card, buying the bundle will require buying a new video card as well since it has no AGP. The ASRock motherboard has both AGP and PCI-E. That's actually the board I want to get since I'm in the same situation. Use the AGP card now, upgrade to PCI-E later.

[Bob Smith]

I wouldn't buy a 64-bit system at the moment, they're going to introduce yet another incompatible socket format early next year.

[keiran]

Thanks for the info but nut sure if I could afford the latest socket :razz: is there any ideas on the price range for the CPUs and Mobo ? The reason I'm looking at upgrading the motherboard is because I only have a AGP slot in my computer and at the moment im running on the onboard card. So I feel rather than spend a good bit of money on a AGP card which is outdated I'd be better off upgrading to 64. I can get a hold of a sapphire x800GTO^2 256mb pci-e for £130 which seemingly can be overclocked to the better model :D For that money I can just get a AGP 6600GT 128mb :shrug:

The only slight annoying thing is my computer has a 3 years warranty on all original components but most of them will go when I upgrade :razz:

Keiran

[Gabkicks]

i just got an sapphire x800gto AGP. :) it runs farcry perfectly on high and very high settings.:) F.E.A.R runs very well too with medium-high settings.

RIght now i am trying to unlock the card from 12 to 16 pipelines with a BIOS flash. that should increase performance signifigantly. :tilt: