Cheap Upgrade for Socket A system

Associate
Joined
17 May 2006
Posts
219
I'm looking for something to keep me going 'till about christmas time/early next year. I know it's old but if I can squeeze say a 10% improvement out of it for only a few quid I might as well go for it. OK this is my current system spec:

Abit NF7-S rev. 2
1gig DDR RAM @ 198 FSB (2 x 512mb dual channel)
Athlon XP-Mobile 2400+ @ 2400MHz (1.85Volts)
Nvidea 6800LE
HSF/Cooler: Not sure. Think its Thermalright. Was popular when the XP-M's first came out.

I think I've clocked the CPU as far as I can while remaining stable, though I can get it to 2500 but crashes often. Maybe its overheating. It runs at about 55-60 degrees when busy.

So what would you do with this for a cheap upgrade (~£50). Maybe a second hand CPU? Not sure what the best chip is I can use.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2005
Posts
4,171
Location
Northants
Everything there is balanced, theres nothing you could really upgrade that wouldn't become bottlenecked by something else i'm afraid.
My advice is to hold onto it and save the £50 for a complete overhaul later.

Edit: Hope its folding. see sig.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Apr 2004
Posts
1,815
Your doing well with what you have.

For games have you tried unlocking the 6800LE's diasbled pixel and vertex pipelines? May be a free boost if your lucky. If your not lucky then you should be able to get a faster used graphics card by selling that one and adding the £50.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
17 May 2006
Posts
219
Thanks, might as well leave it for now then and buy a new system later this year. I've tried unlocking the pipes but can only unlock 2 vertex :( . I get acceptable FPS in the games I play anyway.

BTW if you owned this setup would you sell it off now while it can still play modern games and get a new system or upgrade in about christmas time when hopefully conroes will be cheaper and dx10 cards will be coming out, bearing in mind I have an AGP card so will likely have to buy a PCI-E now and then another when dx10 ones come out?
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
17 May 2006
Posts
219
I could buy it all now if I wanted. Problem is I have an AGP card so I will need a PCI-E if I upgrade, and then will need a new card again when DX10 comes out. But if I sell my rig now I might get more money for it than when I sell early next year when the next gen games come out because it will be clearly outdated by then. Ah well its probably not worth much now anyway
 
Associate
Joined
14 Mar 2005
Posts
2,202
Your rig is already outdated enough that between now and christmas you will see little extra devaluation. Save your money and buy a full system once DX10 graphics cards are out.

Edit: Spelling.
 
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