Hi I'm looking to upgrade my current fx 5200 for a maximum of about £120 or so. I am going to need a new psu but I'l pay another £50 or so for one of them. I currently have an asus p5 s800 motherboard with a pentium 4 3.06 ghz procesor. I have 1 gig of ram and a fsp 250-60 psu (hence the need for an upgrade). Anyway cruising around on ebay and other sites have led me to believe that the best options are an ATI x800 xt (or an rx if they're better) , Nvidia 7600gs (the oc 512 version from bfg) or maybe a 6800 ultra if I can find one at a reasonable price. I was just wandering if I'd missed any options and what you guys would opt for (ideally telling me what psu to get too). I've looked at some benchmarks and the 800 xt seems to be leeding the way. As I said I currently have an nvidia fx5200 which came with the pc, my friend says I should stick with nvidia is this really an issue or does it not matter whether I go ATi or nvidia.... Thanks, chris
Yes, i have an X800XT PE agp, and it is the best out of those, the down side is that the X8xx series of ATi cards dont support SM3.0, this is usually require to use HDR rendering (High Dynamic Range i think it stands for) in games, some games like Half Life 2 support HDR with SM2.0 cards like the X8xx series, but its not that much of a loss, if you can find an X800XT, i would recommend getting it, its a good card for AGP, but if you can find an X850XT /PE, get that
If you're running Linux, then you defitely want to avoid ATi, as nVidia's open source drivers give them a massive lead over ATi here. For Windows, ATi offers very competitive products. ATi has been horrible with their drivers in the past, and may have some issues today. However, I don't recall any major issues currently. If someone is bringing up drivers, that criticism is rather dated given how ATi has been doing great since the Radeon 8500 days a few years back. So, yes, ATi is a viable option. FSP is a great company, but, yeah a 250W unit likely doesn't have the grunt where it's needed for today's equipment, so an upgrade is a good move on your part. Here's a few PSU's that would do the job: OCZ Modstream 450 £50.00 w VAT Seasonic S12 430W £49.00 w VAT Fortron Source (FSP) ATX-400PNF £42.01 I have the OCZ unit and the rails are solid. Seasonic would be a great choice if you're particular about low-noise. Fortron/FSP is a great, no frills performer. Don't let the wattage fool you: that unit could've easily been spec'd as a 500W+ unit, but like the other two brands shown, they're conservative on their wattage ratings. Your choice of cards is good, but I'd also throw in the 7600GT, as they do exist in AGP format. The 7600GS is roughly the same or a little faster to the 6600GT, while the 7600GT trades blows with the 6800GS and 6800. If you'll stretch a little more, you can pick one up for £125.34 w VAT, specifically the Leadtek 7600GT that eBuyer has.
When the psus say 20/24 pin what does that mean? That you can use either or am I being a complete dolt?
Older motherboards used a 20-pin main ATX connector. Because of a larger demand for the 12V rail(s) a move to 24-pin, previously found on server PSUs, was instituted. 20/24-pin have the extra 4-pins removable (and this is separate from the auxillary 2x2 power connector). So, to answer your question, yes.
