at the mo i have the standard one that came with this pc (packard bell) heres the spec :

COLUMBIA II MOTHERBOARD SPECIFICATIONS
Form Factor
µATX 24.4 x 22.9 cm
CPU Support
Socket mPGA 478B
Supports Intel® Pentium 4™ FC-PGA2 processor (Flip-Chip Pin Grid Array), 1.4 to 2.5 GHz
Supports 100 MHz data bus support (400 MHz using Quad-bumped technology)
Supports 133 MHz data bus support (533 MHz using Quad-bumped technology)
System Memory
Supports 2 memory slots
Serial Presence Detect (SPD) support
Supports a maximum memory size of 1 GB (using 2x512 Mb memory modules)

Supports only 2.5V DIMM DDRAM configurations
Unbuffered type support
266 Mhz DDR interface
Core Logic (Chipset)
The SiS 651 IGUI HMAC 3D Graphics SDR/DDR Chipset features:
Processor Host/Bus support (533MHz data transfer rate)
Support for DDR266 and DDR333 SDRAM
AGTL+ & AGTL compliant bus driver auto compensation
AGP V2.0 Compliant
Supports Additional AGP4X/2X interface and Fast Write Transaction
The SiS 962 MuTIOL Media I/O features:
PCI rev 2.2 specification support
supports PCI bus at 33 MHz
3 PCI bus masters slots (1 of which is combined with the CNR connector)
133MByte/sec maximum throughput
Integrated IDE controller supporting PIO Mode 4 transfers at up to 14MB/s, Ultra ATA/33 mode transfers at up to 33 MB/s, and Ultra ATA/66 mode transfers up to 66 MB/s, Ultra ATA/100 mode transfers at up to 100 MB/s and Ultra ATA/133 mode transfers at up to 133 MB/s
Three USB controllers, supporting wake-up from sleeping states S1-S3, and legacy mouse/keyboard software. Note about the USB features: There is support for 6 USB ports on the motherboard, all of which are active at the same time (thus no need for a USB selection jumper).
AC'97 link for audio and telephony CODECs (AC'97 2.2 interface)
SMBus interface
PC2001 compliance
I/O Controller
The motherboard integrates a WINBOND W83697HF I/O controller with the following features:
PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse controller.
Floppy disk controller supporting one 360KB, 720KB, 1.2MB or 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drives.
2 serial ports, both 16C550 Fast UART compatible.
1 Parallel port supporting SPP (Standard parallel Port), EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), ECP (Extended Capabilities Port) and BPP (Bi-directional Printer port) modes.
1 MIDI/Game port.
Hardware Monitoring:
Fan speed monitoring.
Built-in case open detection circuit.
Watchdog comparison of all monitored values.
Audio Chipset
The functionality related to sound is provided by the integrated Sigmatel STAC9750T Codec, featuring:
DirectSound AC'97 2.2 Audio.
Inputs and Outputs: Stereo inputs for line-in, CD audio, Auxiliary, mono inputs for microphone and TAD, MPU-401 (UART mode) interface for wavetable synthesisers and MIDI devices.
Integrated game port.
Mixer Features: mixer with stereo for line, CD audio, auxiliary, music synthesiser, digital audio (wave files), and mono for microphone and speakerphone.
3D stereo enhancement for simulated surround.
Power management support.
SPDIF output for PCM & AC3 sound formats.
Ethernet Controller (Optional)
Realtek RTL8100(BL) PCI/Mini-PCI Single-Chip Fast Ethernet Controller with Power Management10 Mbps 10 Base-T and 100 Mbps 100 Base-TX support, includes the following features:

Conforms to IEEE802.3u 100Base-TX and IEEE802.3x Full Duplex Flow Control.
10/100 Mbps Half/Full duplex operation and IEEE802.3u auto negotiation.
Supports Wake on LAN features.
Remote Power On.
Remote Wake Up.
Advanced Configuration & Power Interface (ACPI) 2.0 & PCI Power Management Specifications 2.0 compliant.
Supports Wake-On-LAN function and remote wake-up (Magic Packet).
The ethernet address, Vendor ID and Configuration register are stored in the EEPROM.
Compliant to PC99/PC2001 standard.
PCI 2.1 and PCI 2.2 compliant.
BIOS
AMI BIOS includes the following features:

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) 1.0.
2Mb Flash device.
Supports Desktop Management Interface (DMI).
Supports Windows Plug and Play.
Supports Advanced Power management (APM) 1.2.
Year 2000 compliant.
PC 2001 compliant.
Supports S3 power mode.

the processor i have is a PENTIUM 4 2.53 GHZ, and ive got a geforce 4 ti4200...with 512mb of ram

The only reason i ask this question is that newish games such as freedom fighters (EA) run a bit poor. To be honest i thought this machine would be good but its not really immpressed me on the gaming front at all.

so will i get better performance if i upgrade my motherboard?

sorry for the long post!

cheers

stepp

You've already had a pretty good microATX system. I would get a better video card with 128/256MB video memory. Look at the Radeon 9600 Pro or better with DirectX 9.x supports.

would the radeon be alot better than my geforce then? you see i dont know whether my motherboard supports 8X agp......is 8X a lot better than 4X? i know it sounds double but does it make that much difference?

thanks for the help anyways...ill look at getting a new graphics card and see how it goes

stepp

First of all, the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro is much better than the TI4200, and FX 5200/5600 family.

I have an XP 1800+ old system with Abit KG7-RAID board that has an AGP 4x slot. I recently installed a 128MB Radeon 9600 Pro on it for my younger brother to play games. It works wonderfully even on the 4x slot. In present time, try a new graphics card first, which you can easily move to a new system later. I don't see much advantage of 8x over 4x for the time being as most games are optimized for the majority of the users who have AGP 4x slots on their system. Thing will change in the future and by that time, newer and more advanced mobos will be available that make the mobo you buy now obsolete. Just try a new graphics card first and if it still doesn't give what you want then buy a new mobo later. You'll need a graphics card that is better than the TI4200 anyway.

PB still makes computers?

How fast the computer you have is depends on all the stuff in it & the operating system & how often you maintain it.

How much more performance do you want and for what, gaming, video??

I would imagine that for the vast majority of users, your specs are more than adaquate. It would only be intensive editing with something like Photoshop and a couple of the latest games in high detail that would stress your current configutation.

It's up to you if you think you will benefit from any extra money spent.

mainly want it for games. Im gona go for a new graphics card and see how things go, the geforce i have is a cheap make i think (cant remember the exact make).

cheers for the replies :)

stepp

right gona order one online tonight...few questions first :)

does it matter which make of radeon 9600 pro card i get (ie connect 3d, hercules etc? ) or are they all the same?

anyone know of any good places in the UK online that has any decent ones in stock for delivery now?

cheers

stepp

If youre doing it for games your monitor has to be fast enough too.

Originally posted by stepp
does it matter which make of radeon 9600 pro card i get (ie connect 3d, hercules etc? ) or are they all the same?

stepp

Not all cards are the same, depending on the memory used some cards are faster and more overclockable.

Since you mentioned Hercules, this is one of the 9600 Pro cards that I love. The Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 Pro got very good reviews since it uses exclusive 0.13 micron GPU which runs cooler (than the 0.15 micron) and this in turn gives you excellent performance in terms of speed and OC'ing. The default core/memory speeds of this card are 400/600MHz, respectively, but the card could be OC'ed easily to 540/700MHz from several reports I read. This excellent OC'ing is due to not only the 0.13 GPU but also the copper heatsinks used on the chipset/memory and the very fast memory (about 2.x ns, if I remember correctly) on the card.

Now, too much for Hercules. You should not limit yourself on the 9600 Pro. Take a look at other Radeon models as well to see what gives you the best performance/money value.

There can suprisingly be a large difference in performance between cards with the same chip. Their design, quality and rating, and layout of components etc will decide the best performer.

I am just reading my October copy of a PC mag here in my neck of the woods and they have a pretty good comparision of some cards.

They tested about half a dozen of each chip, and out of the 9600, the top two were Hercules Pro and Creative. I'd definately go for the Hercules Pro, although it's also more.

The only other cards I normally like that perform well would be Gigabyte. They unfortunately didn't test them, but they usually perform really well, although they can also be pricey.