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bysmitty · 05-15-2006, 08:38 AM

Well, the Biostar mobo I linked earlier in the thread is an awesome, cheap motherboard with all the bells and whistles (minus the 2nd PCIe slot). It can be had for about $70. Even a lower end PCIe video card like a x1600xt or 7600gt will be quite a bit of an improvement over your vanilla 6800 and can be had for around $150-$175 usually. Something like this or this will smoke a 6800 agp will keep you gaming on that computer comfortably for another year or two until you have enough to pony up for a faster card. Plus you can put that 6800 and old mobo on ebay and get around $100 back.

That CPU can usually hit fx55 speeds fairly easily with a bit of overclocking. You can talk to my man Lenin in this thread over at FiringSquad. Just post your specs in detail and he'll tell you what bios settings to change to get a blistering overclock. If you plan on swapping out your mobo soon, you should hold off posting until after. Also, some aftermarket cooling for the CPU will help get better results. A nice aftermarket heatsink and fan will usually run $30-$40.

As for upgrading myself, I'm a tinkerer so I've always got a few of my rigs open swapping in and out parts. I'll upgrade until the core components become too out of date, like having an old CPU socket style, then build a new one from scratch. That is why it is nice that you have a socket 939 CPU as that 3200 is still a fast processor and even when it does get too sluggish, you can just pop a 3800 x2 in there for another year or two of life. You only need a nice motherboard to be on a good upgrade path.

...bysmitty

05-15-2006, 08:38 AM	#18
bysmitty Bad command or file name Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: NE Ohio Posts: 932	Well, the Biostar mobo I linked earlier in the thread is an awesome, cheap motherboard with all the bells and whistles (minus the 2nd PCIe slot). It can be had for about $70. Even a lower end PCIe video card like a x1600xt or 7600gt will be quite a bit of an improvement over your vanilla 6800 and can be had for around $150-$175 usually. Something like this or this will smoke a 6800 agp will keep you gaming on that computer comfortably for another year or two until you have enough to pony up for a faster card. Plus you can put that 6800 and old mobo on ebay and get around $100 back. That CPU can usually hit fx55 speeds fairly easily with a bit of overclocking. You can talk to my man Lenin in this thread over at FiringSquad. Just post your specs in detail and he'll tell you what bios settings to change to get a blistering overclock. If you plan on swapping out your mobo soon, you should hold off posting until after. Also, some aftermarket cooling for the CPU will help get better results. A nice aftermarket heatsink and fan will usually run $30-$40. As for upgrading myself, I'm a tinkerer so I've always got a few of my rigs open swapping in and out parts. I'll upgrade until the core components become too out of date, like having an old CPU socket style, then build a new one from scratch. That is why it is nice that you have a socket 939 CPU as that 3200 is still a fast processor and even when it does get too sluggish, you can just pop a 3800 x2 in there for another year or two of life. You only need a nice motherboard to be on a good upgrade path. ...bysmitty __________________ Things I need to do today: -change out of pajamas -~~come up with witty yet sophisticated signature~~ -sober up -~~watch simpsons at 6pm~~ -UPDATE MY WEBSITE!!!