Upgrade - lil help P4/celeron sdram/ddr

[aucassia]

Alright, my p3 system went south so I bought a ml922 MB

http://www.pcchips.com

and a 1.7 gig 128k cache celeron processor combo ($112). Using my old SDRAM 133mhz memory.

The board supports DDR or SDRAM, celeron or P4 (478). video card is a gf2 64mb.

Games seem laggy/choppy. Running winxp and taskmanger shows 305/328mb memory used but 100% cpu while game is running. I don't think cpu should be 100% all the time. Should it be 100%?

Question is: I can only upgrade the memory to DDR266 or CPU to 1.8gig p4 512k cache this week. Which one should I go for? Doubt its video lag cause it wasn't choppy/laggy on a p3 600 with same video card.

I'm thinking that that either the cpu is getting bogged down because of the PC133 memory, (mb has 400mhz fsb) or the cache on the celeron just sucks and I need a p4. my p3 l2 cache was 256k.

 

[JimInKS]

I would try running Sandra (

http://www.sandra.com)

on it to benchmark the cpu and memory. See how your system stacks up to similar ones. This will give you a clue whether your current configuration is optimized.

Have you checked BIOS RAM settings? It could be they are set very conservatively.

I would guess that going with the DDR ram will give you a big performance boost. It is intrinsically faster and the MB is probably optimized for it. Also, with faster RAM, cache size is less important. Plus, FAST CPU + SLOW RAM = Waste of money. (Just my opinion, no experience with this MB)

 

[JimInKS]

WOOPS! Web site for Sisoft Sandra should be:

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/

 

[Enkrypted]

Were you using the same type of motherboard in your previous system. To be honest, those motherboards are really built well enough to support gaming.

How much memory is currently in your system now?

What I would do is upgrade the processor to the P4. You can use the PC133Mhz SDRAM without really seeing a huge drop in performance, but you will definetly want to upgrade to DDR soon.

The reason I recommend you get the processor now is that it looks as if CPU prices are slowly on the rise whereas RAM seems to be holding at a steady price.

You can also check on the net for game tweak settings for your games that will reduce the amount of lag/chopiness that you've been receiving. Enkrypted
A+
Let others know how much help they are by marking the helpful posts.

 

[aucassia]

Diff MB, was using a abit slot 1 MB w/ my P3. ~328mb in new sys.

 

[Enkrypted]

Yeah, I would definetly say it the motherboard. Those types of motherboards were really designed to handle too much of a workload, which sometimes, gaming can be on a system. I still recommend upgrading the CPU now and then eventually upgraded the type of RAM. Enkrypted
A+
Let others know how much help they are by marking the helpful posts.

 

[aucassia]

What do you mean by the MB? The MB is a socket 478 400mhz FSB w/ 4xagp. The MB would be running at 133mhz though because of the RAM. The celeron can run at 400mhz, least advertised.

I think Ima buy the DDR memory at a local store and test it. If performance doens't increase i'll take it back and then get a p4.

 

[ceh4702]

PCCHIPS is a very low grade motherboard which has a high rate of return. Try to get your money back. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.