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Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 10:01 am
by SiDaBa
It's probably an AMD Thunderbird if it's 1.3 Ghz? Any hoo
www.cclcomputers.com pretty cheap as well if your looking to get new CPU, may as well get the whole lot new MB and ram if ya fancy it/afford it.
But then again this whole post is about getting a cheap grahpics card!!
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 10:03 am
by metz
Yea thunderbird thats what it is, i forgot what they were called so didn't wanna guess.
Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:12 pm
by Tahrey1043
BUT is it really worth stuffing a £130 GeForce 4, or a Radeon 9800 into a 1300mhz or even 800mhz machine, regardless of which card widdles on which other one? At the end of the day, the rest of the PC is going to become the bottleneck and neither card will offer any real fps advantage over some slightly older but much cheaper one... like putting a Voodoo 5 onto, say, a p233, you probably wont see much difference between that and a V2... (and is why its not worth me getting a faster CPU for games, without a new gfx card as well.. the poor old V4 has served me very well, but simply cant keep up with what it's being fed even by a 1600)
Mind you, the upgrades to something a bit swifter aren't pricey, SO LONG AS all your stuff is compatible. If you end up finding you need a different PSU hookup (rare), different hard disc connections (rare, but probably not for long), a new sound card because it's an ISA connector (highly likely), different flavour of memory (almost certain, if you're still using PC133), maybe even a different case, etc etc, the price can mount up...
If you choose wisely however, you can have a decent high-speed motherboard with reasonable features from ebuyer for under £20 (or even £15) so long as you choose wisely (my £18.99 one is quick, rock solid and was an easy install)...... your choice of chip.... and maybe even some fresh mid-range memory... and one of their clearance cases with a low-noise power supply (less than a tenner for some of 'em!)... all in under £100. Add a second-best video card on top, and you're golden - updated for less than ten purple notes.
PS SHOP AROUND! You could cut 10% at least off your bill, unless you get VERY lucky and your first choice is actually the cheapest.