Wanting to upgrade, need some advice

[Satchmo]

Hello,

PC specs:

CPU: 2.2ghz athlon 64 800mhz newcastle

MOBO: No clue, its got radeon x200 integrated which i never used, only has 2- dimm slots, one pciX16 slot, bios wont let me OC anything. its an award-pheonix bios, no options for clocks/multipliers/voltage for ram/cpu.

RAM: 2x (1g G.skill) pc3200 ddr 400 both CAS 3.3.3.8, very loose timings but like i said mobo wont let me touch timings. benchmarks report read/write are both ~3gb/s so im not too concerned.

Main Video card: X1600 XT with HIS aftermarket fan @ 650 core, 810 ram (1620 effective)
which claims to be crossfire ready but doesnt use the external connector for communication.

I upgraded from an X600 pro when i first bought this computer, which i was not happy spending $120 at the time.

so reviewing what i have, i check out my favorite store newegg to see what the next step for each item would be.

the only upgrade for 754 socket is athlon 64 2.4ghz for ~ $150 which is a very good price but the speed increase wont be worth it as its the same processor just x12 clock instead of my x11. So spending $150 wouldnt be worth it in my mind.

so i thought instead why not buy a new mobo which i can overclock the cpu to 2.4-2.6, and up my ram timings. this way, i will get an increase in perfromance from many components for the price of an upgrade to one component.

so my main questions are, should i stick with socket 754 and get mobo i can OC?
if so what would be a good motherboard to buy that supports ddr400 pc 3200, athlon 64 2.2Ghz+ cpu 2-4 dimmslots, and will let me overclock cpu ram and voltage.

and can my x600 pro be used with x1600xt for crossfire?
if so what mobo has crossfire and all of the above?

money isnt really an issue, i just finished payments on my car, and have $800 to spare.
thank you in advance for your advice.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

I'd say get a new mobo and overclock... as for which motherboard to buy, I'd recommend looking on a few sites, reading reviews, looking for one that matches your criteria.

 

[trog100]

if u want noticably better gaming performance buy a better grfx card..

noting else will give u any real benefits except in cpu and memory bandwidth benchmarks..

and if money really aint an issue.. make it a x1900xtx.. u might need a better psu to go with it thow..

trog

 

[Satchmo]

well, i ordered a new mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123257

its got duel lanes x16, will this work for crossfire?

i have x600 pro will this work for crossfire?

if yes for the 1st and no for the 2nd, if i buy x1900xtx will they work together with this mobo for crossfire?

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

The X600 Pro's aren't Crossfire Ready. The X1600XT's are and I think on the new RD580 MoBo's you don't need an external dongle, just another X1600XT from HiS. ATI is having a contest selling 2 X1600XT's of the same kind from Sapphire and they don't use the external dongle either, they're not even slave or master cards too, which I like because getting Master/Slave cards isn't as simple as nVidia's SLI, where you just get the exact same card.

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Wait, I just noticed that you got an SLI MoBo, so you can't use CrossFire anyway because you don't have the RD580 chip on the MoBo, it uses nForce.

 

[Satchmo]

yeah lol i saw that too afterwards...i came to realize there is no such thing as a crossfire ready motherboard for socket 754 cpus...thats crazy.

so im doing an RMA for the SLI one and getting this combo instead

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130038R
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535

so im moving from 2.2ghz newcastle 754 to 2.0ghz venice 939...200 mhz less on a 400mhz faster FSB, should i expect a difference in overall performance if i leave the 2.0 venice at stock speed?

ive read people pushing the 939 2.0ghz venice to 2.53 with stock cooling and voltage... im getting a arctic 64 so i think ill up the voltage and see what i can do.

so my x600 wont work but my x1600xt will... so next time i buy a video card does it have to be the one with the fat Y cable and plug? or do they communicate across the pci bus?

 

[trog100]

nope i would guess overall performance would work out about the same..

u will when u buy another x1600 and run two grfx cards thow.. he he

being able to run crossfire is about the only real gain u have made.. not doing it would be a waste.. course just bunging that x1900xt type card in your old set up would have given u a super gaming system with two gigs of system memory.. but there u go..

trog

 

[yogurt_21]

at stock it should work out to about the same as the 939 has dual memory and a higher fsb to make up for the clock loss, as for temps you'll notice ahuge drop vs the newcastle and the 3200 venice is capable of hitting 2.8 on a good aircooler like the one you bought.