Do I need a new motherboard?

[valleyvampiress]

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or the motherboard forum, but I just decided here would be the best for the more specific questions.

I do gaming sometimes on my PC, and when I do, I sometimes have trouble with stuttering (dropped frames/lag time). Recently I upgraded my video card from an AIW 9600PRO to an AIW 9800PRO. I haven't seen much difference in performance though. Recently, I've been playing Rome:Total War with my new card and I don't see much of an improvement over my old card although I did jack up the video settings from medium to high. I put it in 16bit color mode though instead of 32bit because I noticed still a lot of stuttering. It didn't seem to help as much as I would have liked it to. Also, I'd like to be able to play other games at a decent res. without having lagging issues.

Anyway, I have 1gig DDR333 RAM (one slot left), P4 2.6HT 8k primary cache/512k secondary cache (I didn't want the HT, it just came with the computer I picked out a long time ago), and two hard drives. One is a Maxtor 7200RPM 8MB cache 160G (master), and the other a Maxtor 7200RPM 16MB cache 300G (slave). My optical drive I use for gaming is a generic brand (don't remember the name) that runs at 48x cd and I believe 8x dvd. I have a seperate drive for recording that is slower and I don't use this one for gaming. My sound card is an Audigy LS. My motherboard is an ASUSTek P4SD-LA with a bus clock speed of 200mhz. I didn't chose this motherboard, it just came with my computer. I've practically upgraded everything else that came stock with this computer over the last two years, except my motherboard/processor.

So my question is do I need to upgrade it? Will this improve performance for gaming? If you recommend upgrading it, I would like to spend no more than 200 dollars. Also, since I just bought my new agp video card, I'm obviously not going to want to get a pci-express motherboard, although I would have liked to if I had enough to upgrade that and my video card to it. I don't know much of anything about buying a new motherboard. I know it has to work with my type of RAM and processor, but I don't know the specifics. If you recommend something to me, please explain why you're recommending it to me since I don't know what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance guys.

[Poci]

That rig should be able to handle todays games weight,no need to turn down color depth,thats something that used to be done back in the TNT days where 16 bit vs 32 bit showed a vast performance diference but with todays cards ever since Geforce 3 generation 32 bit is a standard running mode,in fact running in 16 bit mode with a modern card might even degrade performance since the cards are optimized for 32 bit performace.

[valleyvampiress]

Really? Ok, thanks for the info. I didn't notice it changing anything so that's probably why. So if upgrading my motherboard isn't needed, what else can I do to keep so many frames from dropping during intense processing? I have the latest video driver, and sometimes I'll rip my games to my hard drive so that when it accesses it it's faster. Other than that though, I'm not sure what else I can do. Any suggestions?

[StompinRound]

Just a question, did the PSU come with the PC as well?

and out of curoiusity what kind of minitor are you using

[Poci]

Sounds like a software problem to me man,make sure you close all unesecesary programs while gaming,remember the more system RAM available to the game the better.

[valleyvampiress]

Just a question, did the PSU come with the PC as well?

and out of curoiusity what kind of minitor are you using

Yes, I still have the old PSU in there. It's only 250watts. I was going to get a 450watt one because the AIW 9800PRO has to be plugged into it. I figured I was pushing it enough with that many things connected to such a small power supply, so this was the last straw to holding back in buying a new one. I don't know how to go about choosing one though. Brand-wise, I'll take the cheapest OEM, but I don't know if I need to get a specific one for my motherboard or what.

My monitor's an HP f1905 19" with 16ms response time. I recently upgrade that too from a 15" CRT.

Pic:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Mo...oductDetail.do


Ganji, I do have Norton Antivirus, but I shut down as many processes as I can. I use SpybotSD to go through all my running processes and shut down what I know is safe to. I just don't know what some of the stuff is though.

Here's Spybot's list currently:

Spybot - Search && Destroy process list report, 4/30/2005 12:41:43 PM

PID: 0 ( 0) [System]
PID: 4 ( 0) System
PID: 264 (1704) C:\Program Files\ATI Multimedia\RemCtrl\ATIRW.EXE
PID: 336 ( 808) C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe
PID: 344 (1704) C:\WINDOWS\system32\Wtablet\TabUserW.exe
PID: 352 (1704) C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zapro.exe
PID: 508 ( 4) \SystemRoot\System32\smss.exe
PID: 544 ( 628) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSetMgr.exe
PID: 560 ( 508) csrss.exe
PID: 584 ( 508) \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
PID: 628 ( 584) C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
PID: 640 ( 584) C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
PID: 692 ( 628) C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTsvcCDA.exe
PID: 760 ( 628) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccEvtMgr.exe
PID: 808 ( 628) C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
PID: 856 ( 628) svchost.exe
PID: 896 ( 628) C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\navapsvc.exe
PID: 916 ( 628) C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
PID: 1012 ( 628) svchost.exe
PID: 1048 ( 628) svchost.exe
PID: 1236 ( 628) C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
PID: 1364 ( 628) C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\AdvTools\NPROTECT.EXE
PID: 1536 ( 628) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\CCPD-LC\symlcsvc.exe
PID: 1576 ( 628) C:\WINDOWS\System32\Tablet.exe
PID: 1636 ( 628) wdfmgr.exe
PID: 1660 ( 628) C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe
PID: 1692 ( 628) C:\WINDOWS\System32\MsPMSPSv.exe
PID: 1704 (1476) C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
PID: 1784 (1704) C:\Program Files\Creative\SBAudigy LS\Surround Mixer\CTSysVol.exe
PID: 1792 (1704) C:\Program Files\Canon\BJPV\TVMon.exe
PID: 1804 (1704) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
PID: 1848 (1704) C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-aware 6\Ad-watch.exe
PID: 1912 (1704) C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\atiptaxx.exe
PID: 1928 (1704) C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\TeaTimer.exe
PID: 1948 (1704) C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\Mozilla.exe
PID: 2072 ( 628) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\SymWSC.exe
PID: 3164 ( 628) C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\SAVScan.exe
PID: 3184 ( 628) alg.exe
PID: 3992 (1704) C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\SpybotSD.exe

Usually, I'll shut down ZoneAlarm, as many things from Symantec as it will allow, mozilla quick start, TeaTimer (auto checker for Spybot), Ad-watch, and Remote Wonder.

[StompinRound]

I take it from your mobo this is an HP computer (P4SD-LA is a HP mobo built by Asus)


that stock 250W has got to go, but I am not sure about compatiblity with the HP system on whether or not it will fit either

[valleyvampiress]

Yeah, I agree. I guess I'll just have to do some research. And yeah, it's an HP or atleast was, from what's left of it.