Hi techs,I think of upgrading my 2700+ with FSB166/DDR333 to an 3000+ with FSB200/DDR400 (1 GB RAM each).Do You think this will make a SIGNIFICANT improvement on framerates?Graphic card is a 9800pro with 4.3 drivers.Thanks for any useful replyTorsten

Hi Torsten,It really depends upon what motherboard you have? On the surface (not knowing your MB), the answer is "No". The upgarde would not be worth the money you will have to spend, especially considering some of the hardware that will be available later this year.But tell us more about your system...

Thanks,okay, more specs...My mainboard is a ASUS A7V600 (Via KT600 chipset that tom's hardware described as a good alternative to NForce2 Single-channel), currently running 2xDDR400 Infineon modules @333 speed (2700+ only has FSB333). I could swap to native 333 CL2.5 modules from my other rig, in case it made sense.Drives are 2x S-ATA 120GB (no raid) with FS2K4&addons residing on an "own" 20GB partition, OS is WinXPpro Sp1 updated/patched to current Sp2 fixes; Swapfile on own 5GB partition so interference due to fragmentation should be minimal.But I already guess I should save my money for another month and go for a P4 proc / i865PE mobo combination then...I guess a Nforce 2 SPP board would bring no significant improvements as well...?Thanks again, Torsten

"I guess a Nforce 2 SPP board would bring no significant improvements as well...?"Some, but certainly not worth what it would cost you. Nor would the current P4 CPU's be worth the upgrade cost.I recommend that you wait another few months. By then AMD and Intel will have their next generation CPU's on the market. Till then major hardware upgrades are really not worth the cost.Much will be happening this year with regard to computer hardware.

Greg,thank You for Your kind and helpful replies. I'll do it that way, save some money an buy some kick-azz hardware in fall.Torsten

Hi Torsten,I agree with the others. Some time ago I built a computer for my father-in-law with the following specs:AMD XP2700+,Asus A7N8X,ATI Radeon 9500 Pro,768MB PC2700 RAM.My system is:AMD XP3000+ (333MHz FSB),Asus A7N8X Deluxe,ATI RAdeon 9700 Pro,1GB PC2700 RAM,Audigy 2 Sound CardComparing the performance of FS2004 on the two machines, mine performs slightly better, but it's certainly not a few hundred bucks worth of improvement, especially if you also bear in mind my slightly better graphics card and more RAM. If you want some performance gain, you could try to overclock your CPU a bit (provided you have adequate cooling). Your RAM can run at faster speeds, so you may want to try and set it in sync with the CPU to something like 350MHz FSB.Cheers,Gosta.http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2betateam.jpg

While we're on the topic of upgrading AMD CPU's;Im running XP2000+ and am thinking about getting the XP3000 as well. Would that be a noticeable change? Its basically just upping the gHz from 1.6 to 2.16 wich in my book doesnt sound like alot either.By the way, my mobo supports only XP3000 as its maximum for now(supports FSB400).