System Upgrade

[simonalexander2005]

Hi, I have the following system:

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 motherboard
Athlon 64 3200+ CPU
2 x 17" 1280*1024 res monitors
1GB Kingston PC3200 DDR RAM (2*512)
GeForce 6600 GPU (Soon to be XFX 8800GS Alpha dog XXX edn or similar)

what would you recommend I upgrade in order to keep the system level? i.e: what is my weakest component at this point, and what would even it out?

cheers

 

[trog100]

nothing at a sensible price.. either leave things as they are with the new card or ditch the lot and go intel..

amd 939 just isnt supported any more.. am2 possibly but not 939..

trog

 

[Fitseries3]

i'd say your cpu is weak....but that would require upgrading your board and ram as well. i don't know how much you have to work with but you may consider getting...

p35 board
e2XXX chip
2gig's decent ram

that with your soon to be 8800gs will bring you up to date and would make for a great low/mid range machine. make sure you have a good power supply as well. that's commonly overlooked.

 

[simonalexander2005]

would an athlon 64 4000+ be worth upgrading to at the current prices (OEM £40($80), retail £50 ($100)?

google shopping search

 

[Fitseries3]

you wont see much difference from what you have now. you need to get a dual core chip and some more ram. ddr1 is 2x-3x the price of ddr2 and the 939 x2's are hard to find.
for what you're gonna end up spending to upgrade what you have, you would spend less upgrading to the new stuff i suggested earlier.

you could get an e1200 dual core celeron that would beat the AMD 4000 for about half the price of the AMD 4000 chip.

 

[simonalexander2005]

OK Cheers.

What would the athlon equivalent of that be?

 

[trog100]

not really.. your new grafix card will give u major boost in gaming.. probably double what u have.. a slight boost in cpu power wont make any noticeable difference..

why not talk about overclocking the chip u have.. if u havnt done it.. think about it.. that comes free..

trog

 

[simonalexander2005]

see http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=52774

 

[trog100]

OK Cheers.

What would the athlon equivalent of that be?

thats the problem.. with 939 their aint one at reasonable money..

the last time i loooked on ebay.. a 939 4800 was selling for £174.. i bought a new am2 mobo and 6000+ chip for that..

i go back two months..

trog

 

[Fitseries3]

yep. you could get...

p35 board for $89
e2140 chip for $73
2gigs ram for $45

that would beat the AMD 4800 X2 939 chip that goes for like $180

 

[trog100]

start a new thread and i will walk u thru the overclocking steps..

trog

 

[simonalexander2005]

Cheers. Will do when the new GPU arrives (hopefully tuesday!)

 

[happita]

yep. you could get...

p35 board for $89
e2140 chip for $73
2gigs ram for $45

that would beat the AMD 4800 X2 939 chip that goes for like $180

That's a very good low-cost solution.

 

[regan1985]

or just get a 3800 x2 for like $75 and overclock it to 2.8! job done for a cheap upgrade or as others are saying a new system rebuild

 

[simonalexander2005]

would that work with the mobo? The specs say it takes 64 and 64FX - doesnt mention dual core so not sure...

 

[trog100]

the old 939 x 2 chips didnt clock that well.. ones that did cost oodles of money.. the FX60 for 1200 dollars came at 2.6 gig.. i dont think life is quite that simple dude..

trog

ps.. i have an old single core 3000+ it comes at 1.8 gig and will clock up to 2.4 gig.. i would say the 3200 single core would go to 2.4 or 2.5 gig.. worth having if it costs nothing..

i have a single core 3700 sandy.. it came at 2.2 gig and clocked to 2.8 gig.. i also had later single core 4000 which came at 2.4 gig and cloked to a remarkable 3.2 gig.. this gamed very nicely with a 1900xtx card.. i used it for well over a year..

if u live in the UK i still have the 2.8 3700 sandy chip.. it got replaced by the 4000.. still sat on my shelf..

 

[simonalexander2005]

Hi.

New graphics card came - amazing card. very happy (Although Linux isn't liking it... )

That sounds awesome if you're offering... Never reseated a processor, but am sure i could manage

 

[CrackerJack]

i would upgrade to a AM2 board if i was you.

AM2 $75 for a good overclockable board
CPU $60-$120 for a cpu $100 for the x2 5000+ BE
RAM $45 for 2Gb G.Skill or ADATA DDR800


BUT FOR ALMOST $240 YOU COULD HAVE A NEW: BOARD, CPU AND RAM.

 

[simonalexander2005]

start a new thread and i will walk u thru the overclocking steps..

trog

new thread made Here

 

[simonalexander2005]

OK i have decided to basically buy new mobo, cpu, ram and case (woo for student loads )

thinking as follows:

Processor AMD Phenom 9500 quad (£118 ($136)):

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136388/show_product_specifications?spectype=extended#

Mobo ASUS M3A 770 (£53 ($106)):

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139890/show_product_specifications?spectype=extended#

Case Thermaltake Soprano Case - Silver w/ Window (or black) (£50 ($100)):

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=604747

what do you think?

 

[webwizard]

The XFX 9600GT XXX Alpha Dog would be a good step up for a card. A pair of these cards in SLI beats the GeForce 9800 GTX hands down.