Upgrading

mick42

OSNN Addict
Joined
18 Dec 2001
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95
Abit KT7A mobo,AMD AthlonXP 2000+(1.6Ghz),Nvidia GeForce 2MX/MX 400,640Mb SDRAM,Creative SB Live Soundcard.

I am thinking of upgrading the above to Gigabyte 7NNXP mobo,AMD 2800 Barton(DDR333) cpu,ATI Radeon 9600pro graphics card and 512Mb (pc2700) 333Mhz DDR memory,is this all compatible?Would I notice an improvement,especially in games.Also I believe that the above mobo has onboard sound,is it better to use this or my sound card,I am not bothered about great sounds as I am deaf in one ear anyway.Your thoughts and observations would be appreciated.

Cheers.
Mick.
 
You definitely will, even in your old games! They will run a lot smoother than ever. I just went from a 2100+ to a 2800+ myself, and it's been great.

The biggest improvement you have made is on your video card. If you still had a GF2MX and upgraded your processor, it would hardly make a difference in most games.

My GF4 Ti 4200 is STILL choking my processor. I'm aiming for a 9700 Pro or a 9800 Pro next.
 
yea, your stuff seems like it will run fine, especially with games.
 
Thanks for prompt reply people,any input on the soundcard question.

Cheers
Mick.
 
well about the sound card if i were u i would hold onto it..the sound blaster live is a good card i've heard of people having problems with an onboard sound cards..
 
Sound is only as good as the speakers producing them. If you don't have high-end sound, it shouldn't matter either way. But if you do, go with the Live!
 
Personally, (2- ) 6 channel repro on gigabyte boards does not have the depth of sound of Creative Live cards, subject of course to having reasonable 4.1 or 5.1 speakers etc.
Comes across as slightly "hissy"
 
Hang on to the SB Live, they are nice cards. On board sounds can have 'problems".

Also, make sure you get the 512 ram in 2 - 256 sticks or you will not get the advantage of the Dual DDR feature (twice the memory bandwidth) on the new MB.
 
I would get the Abit NF7-S instead of the Gigabyte. it's a better board, and it's onboard sound will kill the SB Live! in performance
 
yea, i would say that you should get a soundcard, rather than onboard sound because onboard can lower your performance.

although, sometimes you have to let the soundcard "warmup", sometimes it doesnt render sounds/it stutters. at least, thats been my experience with my SB Live 5.1
 
Unless the board you are looking at has something similar to nVidia's SoundStorm APU (like the both the Gigabyte, and Abit boards have)

It has better CPU utilization, better fidelity, better sounding, and more features than an Audigy, let alone a Live! 5.1

For example the Soundstorm will fully encode Dolby Digital 5.1 in realtime with no CPU hit.
 
Originally posted by mick42
Abit KT7A mobo,AMD AthlonXP 2000+(1.6Ghz),Nvidia GeForce 2MX/MX 400,640Mb SDRAM,Creative SB Live Soundcard.

I am thinking of upgrading the above to Gigabyte 7NNXP mobo,AMD 2800 Barton(DDR333) cpu,ATI Radeon 9600pro graphics card and 512Mb (pc2700) 333Mhz DDR memory,is this all compatible?Would I notice an improvement,especially in games.Also I believe that the above mobo has onboard sound,is it better to use this or my sound card,I am not bothered about great sounds as I am deaf in one ear anyway.Your thoughts and observations would be appreciated.

Cheers.
Mick.

That is one great MOBO , mine is rock solid and runs like a tank, I use it with my SBlive, but the on board sound is also very good, and as for the comment about which board is better, well I have yet to see a bad review for the G7nnxp, only draw back I know if is the ite raid chip is not as good as it could be for a raid setup, but with SATA who cares :)
 
Thanks for all the replies people,as I said in my first post quality of sound is not paramount,the only thing now is yesterday I went to my local pc shop to get prices for the kit I want and they advised getting any board with Nforce2 chipset but Gigabyte,they have had a lot of returns of these mobos with problems,so I am also looking at Asus mobos,bit confused now.Still, no rush,plenty of time to weigh up my options.

Cheers
Mick
 
The following are good boards as reported by people I know:

Manuf Part No Comments
ABIT NF7-S top of line $115
ASUS A7N8X Ultra top of line $120
ASUS A7N8X-X value version $85, no raid no sata

I'm somewhat down on gigabyte. They don't seem to be providing enough support as the boards age. I know many who were left high and dry with the 7VRX series.

Just about every high performance board is getting problem reports these days. The worst of which is not running with overclocked Nvidia graphics cards so watch out for Gainward vid cards (factory overclocked) on any MB with a >=333 FSB.

Avoid any Rev 1 MB versions and make sure the latest Bios is installed.

For the video cards make sure you are using an older driver to start with. (Radeon 3.4 and Nvidia 41.09.) These were very stable, friendly drivers. You can always advance the driver version once the system is installed and stable.

Make sure that ALL the jumpers, clock speeds, multipliers, voltages, etc are set right to start with.

On the dual ddr MB make sure the 2 DIMMs are in the right sockets or the MB may not boot or "dual" won't work.

That covers most of the persistent problems I've heard about. Nothing earth shattering there. Good luck and have fun. Remember upgrades are for enjoyment, not suffering.

PS Weigh on. CPU prices are dropping next week and there seems to be MB price softness, or at least more "affordable" versions of the nforce2 400 mhz FSB chipsets coming out.
 
Thanks for the info,I have narrowed it down to the following,
Asus A7N8X deluxe
MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR
Leadtek Winfast K7N?-PRO 11

Still need to research these products thoroughly,before deciding,which the last post said is fun and enlightening.I have learned a hell of a lot since joining this forum and thank everyone who participates.

Cheers
Mick.
 
Stay away from the MSI I have one its not all that great works ok at stock speeds but It is not even close to the G7NNXP that I have , as for all the returns on the G7NNXP I dont see where you get that info , most all the forums I have been too , and talked about this MOBO most all the people who have this board are very satisfied.
 
Sorry I mislead you on the G7NNXP,what I meant was that the shop was talking about other Gigabyte mobo`s not the one in question.

Cheers
Mick.
 
Originally posted by mick42
Sorry I mislead you on the G7NNXP,what I meant was that the shop was talking about other Gigabyte mobo`s not the one in question.

Cheers
Mick.

Ahhhhhhhh ok no problems just that anyone that would buy this MOBO is going to see that is really is a solid , very stable board and its not because I have one, we also have the K7GN2 MSI and I dont recommend that as freely, not that it is a bad board just that its not as good as this one, even though it is running very strong at stock speeds, it is fussy on ram and does not overclock as well as I would have wanted.

:)
 
Upgraded(Nearly)

Well folks just upgraded to the Asus mobo,Athlon Barton,2x256 Crucial Ram but not new Radeon 9600 pro as there is a postage strike on at the moment here in London,got my old grahics card installed.Also decided on on new aluminium case,but not to jazzy.
Every thing running ok at this time,keeping my fingers crossed.

Cheers
Mick.
(ps:Happy halloween to our American friends).
 

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