Upgrading.. looking for feed back.

[tsneer]

Plan A.
Intel P4 3.2ghz, 800mhz fsb... yadda yadda yadda
ASUS Motherboard for Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron Processors, 800Mhz FSB Model# P4C800 DELUXE Retail w/ ASUS AI Features
AI feature: AI Audio, AI Overclocking, AI NET, AI BIOS
Supported CPU:P478 Pentium 4 / Celeron HT Ready
Chipset: I875P Canterwood + ICH5
FSB:800!/533/400 MHz
RAM:Dual Channel DDR PC2100/2700/3200 Max 4GB
IDE:Ultra DMA 100/66/33 Max 4 Devices
Slots:AGP 8X
Ports:2xPS2,1xCOM,1xLPT,4xUSB,1xLAN,1xFirewire and Audio
Onboard Audio:ADI AD1985 SoundMAX 6-channel CODEC
Onboard LAN:3COM Gigabit 10/100/1000Mbs
Onboard Firewire:VIA 1394 Controller
Onboard SATA: 2 x Serial ATA
and Onboard Raid: Promise 20378 RAID - RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, Multiple RAID 1 x UltraDMA 133 support two hard drives More... Model#: P4C800

------------------------------------------------------------------

Plan B
Intel 3.2 ghz chip
ABIT IC7-G MAX2 , Intel 875P chipset for Socket 478 800MHz Canterwood ATX Motherboard RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU:Intel® Pentium® 4 Socket 478 processors, Hyper Threading Ready
Chipset:Intel® 875P / ICH5 RAID
FSB:800/533MHz
RAM:4x 184pin Dual DDR 400 Max 4GB
IDE:2 x Ultra DMA 33/66/100 Connectors up to 4 Devices
SATA:4 x Serial ATA 150 Connectors up to 4 Devices
Slots:1 x AGP PRO, 5 x PCI slots
Ports:2xPS2,1xLPT,1xCOM,2xUSB,1xLAN, and Audio Ports:
Onboard Audio: 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC
Onboard LAN: Intel CSA Gigabit LAN More... Model#: IC7-G
Review from HardOCP

------------------------------------------------------------------

Plan C ( suggested by a techie at my computer store )
Intel 2.4ghz 800mhz fsb
Abit same board

He suggested buying the slower chip and then overclocking to run like the 3.2.

Which one?

I dont like the idea of the overclocking, but since the guy is trying to sell me a chip that is much less expensive than the 3.2, I figure he's on the up and up.

Its a sad day when my AMD 2400+ with a gig of RAM is not enough.
Darn you Microsoft and your system eating flight simulator game

He also suggested upgrading from the Radeon 9700 to the 9800 with the money that Im saving from buying the lesser chip.

My thought is to be happy with the 9700, get the 3.2 chip and not overclock. My concern is the motherboard. Which one is the best, they are both comparable in price.

Right now with the system that I have, I am getting usually 18-30 fps depending on on surroundings with sliders at 3/4.

Its a shame to have this year end bonus to spend :)

[MadMaster]

I would suggest going with the Abit, a little faster and it got great reviews.

I would suggest going with a 2.8 ghz P3 800FSB. It will save you about $150 off the 3.2 and it is only less that $50 more than the 2.4. You will notice very little difference from the 3.2 to the 2.8, or much less a difference from a 3.2 to a 2.4. This is all without overclocking.

Keep the 9700. The $500 to upgrade from a 9700 to a 9800 is not justified. You won't see a major improvement.

I hope this helps!

[javelin]

See my system specs. below!
I have all of the sliders maxed out and sitting on the defaut runway at Seattle, at nite, with the thunderstorm option on for weather, in the default Lear jet with VC option on, looking at the main gates and AI set at 80% I get frame rates from 10.3 to 18. When I am away from a lot of texture like over the sea I can go up to 50 which I have set as my limit.
I have cooked the cpu to 3.5. Upper the core and memory speeds on the 9800 card 2 notiches.
I have read on other posts that the onboard sound and game controllers may be limiting the cpu? I think that I will unplug them to see if I get more frame rates. If I do get more rates I may need to get a seperate card for both?
GEE- do you think my wife will understand this problem?
Otherwise I can not complain too much. The sim. seems to work great just depends on how much eye candy you need for your fix!
Hope you get your MOJO work'n.
Good luck!
Cliff

[tsneer]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
I am pretty sure that I am going to go with the ABIT board. Definitely not upgrading to the 9800. As for the processor, that is where I keep going back and forth. I am kind of leaning toward the 2.8ghz and then maybe overclocking a bit on that but I just keep looking at that 3.2 and thinking that I should get that one and not overclock. The price difference is about 200.00.

The big question is... is the .4ghz worth the 200.00???

[javelin]

Just rember more HP = more eye candy.
Get it if you need a good fix!
Good luck!
Cliff