Upgrade?

[Mister_Penguin]

If I were to upgrade my system to improve BF2 what would be best to upgrade?
I built this a few years back at a two week college camp type deal. I have upgraded the graphics card.

Intel D845PESV Motherboard
2.0GHZ Celeron (Craptacular, I Know. If I were to uprgrade this, I would probably need to switch motherboards, because Intel doesn't seem to make many processors for my mobo's FSB speed)
640 MB RAM (128 and 512) This would be the cheapest and easiest.
128 ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Personally I would change this last, as I got it fairly recently, and it does a pretty good job with HL2 and Far Cry)
40 GB HDD
Onboard Sound (A sound card would take a little strain off the CPU)

What do you guys think
Upgrade:

Memory ( My first choice) It seems like I'd get a lot of bang for my buck here, but I'd still have a CPU bottleneck in the long run.

CPU alone: This seems like the one of the least cost efficent, as the motherboard is behind the curve and the FSB is already slow, and Intel doesn't have to many decent CPUs for my motherboard.

Motherboard and CPU: This seems more cost efficient when it comes to long term thinking, as I would remove the CPU bottleneck and I would get a faster FSB speed, and the system would be able to handle a lot more upcoming tech. PCI express, 64 bit etc. For about $300 US I can get a pretty good motherboard and an Athlon 64.

Graphics Card: This seems like the worst choice, as mine is still low-middle of the road, and supports DX9, and I would still have a bad CPU.

Total Overhaul: I wish

What are your opinions? Thanks a bunch!

[Tempus]

I would get a cheap sound card. That can add over 5 fps right there and prevent 'sound lag'.

After that, a new mobo/cpu/memory.

[Acid]

my thougts too, you cant really make that many substantial upgrades until you get a better motherboard. it seems tempus is beating me to the responses.

[kormendi]

Your video card is definitely most powerful part in your PC. The 9800 is still a good videocard for its age, and with the hardware feeding it I would imagine its not even running at 60% its full potential.

CPU, RAM, MB is my suggestion.

A memory upgrade wouldnt help much if at all. Information isnt moving fast enough for the extra wiggle room to make a differnce.

[Mister_Penguin]

How about this:
Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 939) $143
MSI K8N Neo4-F $85

[Telorn]

You definitely need to look in to upgrading your motherboard/CPU/Memory. You'll have to go all new, as your MB and memory will not be supported by a newer processor.

[Telorn]

Originally Posted by Mister_Penguin

How about this:
Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 939) $143
MSI K8N Neo4-F $85

You'll also have to buy new memory. 1 Gig of PC3200 would do nice. Or if you want to be able to overclock your bus, go with PC3700.

[Mister_Penguin]

Ah, thanks! I was w/ondering what sort of memory would go with that motherboard/cpu.

[Acid]

definatly go with an asus mobo with pci-express. you can get a good one for around 300

corsair memory

amd fx processor, 64 bit


those are the comp parts of the future.

[Mister_Penguin]

I'm trying to stay under $500, though.

[Mister_Penguin]

How well should my current setup run BF2 if all settings are low?

I'm curious, because I can't tell wether some of my problems are lag, or the system.

[Scooper]

If you could spring for a bit more - less than 2 minutes on newegg.com

Kickass system:

ASUS A8V-E Deluxe Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131523
$124

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Integrated into Chip FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103539
$325

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145500
$139

... $588 before shipping



Better deals can be found and minor downgrades are optional.
For example:

ASUS A8V Socket 939 VIA K8T800 Pro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131541
$93

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500DIK4BI - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103494
$258

Same RAM as above
$139
Total = $490 <-- under $500



Keep in mind the differences between 512 and 1MB of L2 cache. This IS a big deal.
Also RAM is cheap right now. I could shop around and get a better deal pretty easy. Check zipzoomfly.com

Good luck.
With $500 or more dollars you could be kicking serious ass in no time. Woo Hoo!!

[USN_Squid]

Originally Posted by Mister_Penguin

How well should my current setup run BF2 if all settings are low?

I'm curious, because I can't tell wether some of my problems are lag, or the system.

Depending on your connection you should experience very little lag on the TG server. I have cable with about 3mb dl and I get none. Try a ping trace to the server and see what you get.

[Acid]

ya, the under 500 dollars thing is changing things. i would go with what scooper said up there . my earilier post is what im going to do to my system. add on a nVidia 7800 SLi graphics card and thats what my pimped system is going to look like! i hope . i will probably end up with a chipset sticking out the back end and the graphics card in a freezer

[beretta]

I bought an AMD dual proc system about 3 years ago and have had ongoing overheating problems. Even with an impressive array of fans, heatsinks and compounds the damn thing overheats at random and freezes up. I'm told that this was common with AMD 3 years ago. I'd love to partake in these 3700+ deals but I've been leaning towards Intel because of my bad experience.

Has anyone had overheating probs with the newer AMD chips?