Scourge December 25, 2005 Share Scourge Member December 25, 2005 Ok some background first. I bought this comp in july mainly for photo manipulation, not really planning on gaming with it. At that point I didn't know that much about hardware, I just kind of went to the store with a friend and asked what would work(I did build the comp myself however). After getting into gaming a bit, I wanted more then the onboard video could offer(duh!) so I ended up getting a Gigabyte FX5500 (I didn't realize at that point that you truly get what you pay for). Now I've been into CS:S for about a month and I want more, lol. Current setup: Asus P4GE-MX Celeron D 2.6Gb 533FSB(S478) GIgabyte Geforce FX5500 256mb 1Gb stick of DDR400 512mb stick of DDR400 Also running a SB Audigy 2 And if it matters, a crappy samsung 7200rpm 2mb cache 80Gb HD Now, I was looking at building a whole new comp but alas, the wallet will not allow it at this point. So I decided to go out and grab a better case(the old one sucked!). I got an Antec Sonata 2 .... I love it. The only problem is what I realized while I had everything apart...... The Mobo only supports AGP 4X Boooo.... It gets worse..... It only supports pc2700 ram Boooo. At this point I can afford a new Mobo, it's not that big a deal. I cannot however get a new cpu with it. So, will something like the P4P800-E Deluxe still let me use my current CPU? It supports 533 and 800 fsb, and it is s478. AND it has AGP 8X. AND it can take DDR400. My system will currently averages about 40fps on the stress test (I can get it up to 44 with the VC overclocked). While playing I seem to hover around 30fps most of the time, it can drop to ~18 in heavy firefights, and runs 40-50 in "stress free" areas. I don't think it's ever gotten up past 60 in gameplay, if it has, then only for a second or two. If this Mobo will work, what results could I expect from it? Thanks for the patience with my questions! I'm still learning. -George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kruten December 25, 2005 Share Kruten Member December 25, 2005 (edited) Switch to AMD, better for gaming. Intel is better for multi-tasking stuff. New HDD. A 2MB buffer is too slow. Better vid card. Your current one's not bad, don't know what it's letting out though. x800 or 6800. EDIT: Your processor's not bad. You could just get a new mobo. I think I have a P4P800 actually. I should check.... Edited December 25, 2005 by Kruten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie December 25, 2005 Share mookie GC Alumni December 25, 2005 Hopefully someone will step in and correct any error here, but here goes: You probably don't need AGP 8x. That mobo will probably run your CPU just fine. You probably don't need your RAM running at 400MHz (as opposed to 333MHz). If I had to guess, you won't see a noticeable improvement with a mobo upgrade. Cujo posted an interesting thread on CPU use in Source ("CPU dependency thread" I think it was called). Probably the CPU is what's keeping the framerate down more than anything. Try watching the CPU use while you're playing (just leave the Task Manager running for a while) and you'll probably see it going to 100% a lot of the time (or > 50% most of the time if it displays as two processors). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scourge December 25, 2005 Author Share Scourge Member December 25, 2005 Switch to AMD, better for gaming. Intel is better for multi-tasking stuff. New HDD. A 2MB buffer is too slow. Better vid card. Your current one's not bad, don't know what it's letting out though. x800 or 6800. EDIT: Your processor's not bad. You could just get a new mobo. I think I have a P4P800 actually. I should check.... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The plan was to get an Athlon 64 3200+ and a Gefroce 6600GT, but like I said, I can't build a whole new comp right now. I also don't want to buy a new IDE HD, I'd much racher wait until I have a Mobo with SATA. The P4P800 is supposed to have Sata, but the pic on the asus site doesn't look like it. I was told not to bother with a new Vic card by the guys at the store I buy my stuff from. They said the mobo wouldn't be able to do any better then it can with this one. Any truth to this? Thanks -George Merry Christmas!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookie December 25, 2005 Share mookie GC Alumni December 25, 2005 A SATA connector can be tough to spot on a picture, it's really small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r December 25, 2005 Share All Kill3r Member December 25, 2005 How much $$ are we working with ? With your current setup a video card upgrade is needed the most for gaming imo. Just keep your cpu/mobo that you have now, upgrading to an Asus P4Pxxx isn't going to do much for you as far as performance goes, it's just buying old tech at this point. If you buy a new mobo it should be an AMD board. A new card wouldn't be affected much by being limited to 4x by your motherboard, as long as its more then 2x. Just remember when you go to build a new computer, you can prob keep most of you stuff. From the looks of it you should be going for a : Video card Mobo/cpu possibly power supply in that order i think. You got the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kruten December 25, 2005 Share Kruten Member December 25, 2005 Hey, I do have a P4P800! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scourge December 25, 2005 Author Share Scourge Member December 25, 2005 How much $$ are we working with ? With your current setup a video card upgrade is needed the most for gaming imo. Just keep your cpu/mobo that you have now, upgrading to an Asus P4Pxxx isn't going to do much for you as far as performance goes, it's just buying old tech at this point. If you buy a new mobo it should be an AMD board. A new card wouldn't be affected much by being limited to 4x by your motherboard, as long as its more then 2x. Just remember when you go to build a new computer, you can prob keep most of you stuff. From the looks of it you should be going for a : Video card Mobo/cpu possibly power supply in that order i think. You got the rest. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, it's christmas, so as little $$ as possible, lol. My PSU is good, I just got the Antec Sonata 2 case. It comes with a 450W "Smart power 2.0" psu. It should handle lots. The guy at the store claimed the old Sonata with a 380W psu would have no problems with the system I wanted to build. I don't want to buy a VC first because when I do get a new mobo I'll be going PCI-E. Right now I'm using AGP, which means that if I get a new mobo(AMD style) I won't be able to use the current VC. And if I get a VC now, it'll be AGP and I won't be able to use it when I do get a new mobo, lol. So I'll have to do it all at once. The P4P800 I was looking at is around $140.(Probably around 100 tomorrow) If I go AMD, I'm not going to want to have to upgrade for a little while at least. The CPU would be a little under $200(64 3200), and the mobo would be around $170(A8N-E I think it was), then the VC is $240(although I can get it for about $210). I'm looking at over $600 by the time you put the taxes on, ouch. Can't do that right now unless there's some CRAZY deals tomorrow. Bah, stupid stuff costing money, haha.. What do you guys reccomend? Suffer for a while and upgrade all at once later? Grab a better mobo to utilize what I have?(with this route, I could grab the 6600GT in agp format) Is there anything else I can do to maximize what I have? Thanks again all! -George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Kill3r December 25, 2005 Share All Kill3r Member December 25, 2005 I wouldn't get a new board for the Celeron. It's just not worth it. Worst case is you should just hold off on buying anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kruten December 25, 2005 Share Kruten Member December 25, 2005 Where are you looking to get this all from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scourge December 25, 2005 Author Share Scourge Member December 25, 2005 Where are you looking to get this all from? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I buy stuff from a local place called Summit Direct. They're prices can be a little high at times, but overall, the service is worth the extra 5$ here and there. Those prices are all in Canadian too though. If Summit's prices are too high on something, I have another place called Wintronic Computers that is usually a bit cheaper, but they seem to be johnsons most of the time. -George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scourge December 26, 2005 Author Share Scourge Member December 26, 2005 Ok ..... so with all the settings on high the CS:S stress test was running 24.31FPS, OC'ing the vid card to 335 and 475(core and mem respectively) raised it to 28.41 FPS. OC'ing the cpu didn't make a difference. Because of these results I decided to just grab a Vid card and see what would happen(from staples for I could return it within 30 days with no questions asked). Holy ****!!! I got the BFG Geforce 6600GT OC. ..... First shot, same settings .... 63.13FPS :D:D:D I'm not going to bother with anything else. Just the vid card works fine for me. Thanks for all the words of wisdom. -George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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