upgrade advise please

[Smelly-Finger]

Hi i wonder if you can help me out here I have a limited budget to perform an upgrade with (£500)

My current system is

CPU: AMD +3200
MoBo: Abit UL8 1gb PC3200 DDR SDRAM
Nvidia 7600GT 256mb (AGP)
SB Audigy 2 platnium
x2 Maxtor 6Y120L0 120gb HDD (IDE)
500w PSU

Would it be worth just sticking in a new CPU ie a cheap Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ or just go the whole hog and get an intel system?

What i was thinking of going for is:

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
MSI 975X Platinum PowerUP Edition (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

BUT I'm confused as to whether i'll need to change my hard drives from IDE to SATA also I'm aware i'll need to change the graphics card but since it's not a major gaming rig i'm ok with mid/low range performance. My biggest question is what CPU to go for, conroe or kentsfield?.

 

[Sazar]

You should still be able to run your IDE drives w/o any issues.

Kentsfield is the quad-core procs. Using conroe tech, but conroe is dual-core.

If you are running multi-threaded apps, you are far better off going with the Kentsfield.

 

[LeeJend]

What are you doing that makes you feel your current system is inadequate?
-Gaming?
-Video or audio editing?
-Stability problems?

The answer is different depending on why you want to upgrade.

Many new MB's have only 1 IDE controller which means with 2 IDE HD's you won't have room for a DVD/CDROM. Make sure you get a MB with 2 IDE Controllers (that's 4 devices).

Word of Caution if you want high end video performance:
If you go whole hog now with a new Intel system and use your existing AGP video card the MB will only support AGP. That means that when the current video card dies (or is no longer fast enough) you will be forced to get another AGP card or spend an extra $100 for a new MB to support PCI-e video.

AGP is essentially dead. Investing in new AGP hardware at this time is a bad move. AGP video card prices have been going way up, especially performance cards.

You might just want to hang on another year and do a whole system upgrade then. The changing socket types (DDR2, AM2, PCI-e) have made piecemeal upgrading painful. If top video performance (i.e gaming) isn't an issue then going Intel w/AGP now isn't as big an issue.

 

[madmatt]

Thread moved...

 

[ShepsCrook]

I personally would buy a new processor. Save some cash... Yeah, you can push some more FPS out on the new Intel Core 2 Duos and whatnot, but in game performance is mildly better. I'd save the cash and wait it out. Get a decent dual core in the AMD line and move on later.

 

[Iceman]

What are you doing that makes you feel your current system is inadequate?

You might just want to hang on another year and do a whole system upgrade then. The changing socket types (DDR2, AM2, PCI-e) have made piecemeal upgrading painful. If top video performance (i.e gaming) isn't an issue then going Intel w/AGP now isn't as big an issue.

Couldn't agree more, IMHO wait another year, back in the day we would never upgrade unless we could double our processor speed at least, not sure if that same adage holds true today, but I wouldn't upgrade given those stats.