Upgrading after xmas- advise please.

lancer

There is no answer!
Political Access
Joined
7 Oct 2004
Messages
3,093
Well i'm planning on doing a little upgrade after christmas when all debts are paid etc.. etc..

I need advise on the processor, i've always been an AMD fan for years, but i now have a p4 2.4 478.

i think, i'm going to need a new mobo as well, as i'll be going to a 775 socket if i stay with intel or a 939 if i go back to amd.

The price range i'm thinking of is about $300 or so, what to get is the question. I'm never going to overclock it. so with all that in mind what should i get. I'll be doing games and maybe dvd authoring.
 
lancer said:
Well i'm planning on doing a little upgrade after christmas when all debts are paid etc.. etc..

I need advise on the processor, i've always been an AMD fan for years, but i now have a p4 2.4 478.

i think, i'm going to need a new mobo as well, as i'll be going to a 775 socket if i stay with intel or a 939 if i go back to amd.

The price range i'm thinking of is about $300 or so, what to get is the question. I'm never going to overclock it. so with all that in mind what should i get. I'll be doing games and maybe dvd authoring.

everything I have read says get a 3600+ but dont bother with any of the FX chips as they dont give you that much better performance for the $$$

HERE you can find extremetechs Bang for the BUCK PC listing with all components...
 
what about that x2 3800?

Also i haven't been lazy, its just that i've looked at loads of cpu's so i'm in overload right, now.

I was looking at the amd 3500 64 clawhammer, but also at the 3.0ghz p-4 and also at the p4 3.4ghz.
 
lancer said:
what about that x2 3800?

I wouldnt have linked to it, if it wasn't something I myself wouldnt consider... and extremetech posts all test and how/hwat they tested... very clear cut testing...

Mastershakes said:
man that 3600+ does look pretty good....

An Intel Solution

I posted a 3600+ the one they posted was the 3800+ both very good procs...

EDIT: Hmmm someone tell me if my memory is wrong, I dont see one at all... X2s I SWORE the bottom of that ladder was the 3600+??

I want to see what the yonahs do...
 
Last edited:
NOPE, I am on crack it seems.... X2 3800+ it is...

nothing on AMDs website to support my possibility of being sane....
 
Intel will make some major processor announcements at the beginning of the year. Do you want to wait until then to see what happens?
 
yeap i can certainly wait, in fact i am planning on waiting till the middle or end of jan, so who knows maybe a lot can change before then.
 
OK, that's probably for the best. Not that you'll necessarily get a newer Intel chip, but it will be nice to know all your options. :)
 
Here is a reference guide so you can know from the numbers what you are getting from places as some have old stock (stepping E3 or something).

I have been looking at E6 processors as I plan to upgrade next year as well.
 
AHA... so I AM on cRacK.. I knew it...

NO 3600 to be found..
 
Ok i have settled on this AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego.

I was looking at the dual core, but right now not much even uses them, and i don't really use loads of apps at the same time, so i'll hold off and just get a good single core cpu, what are your guys thoughts on this cpu?

Also now i need to get a new mobo, so which one, the budget there i guess is about $70-$100 or so. And again i wont be overclocking anything, so should i go with a cheaper board, is a more expensive board even worth the extra money if i'm not even going to be using the features?
 
Mastershakes said:
hey muzi, they moving past the 820, 830, 840 Pentium Ds already?

Well, there will be Yonah, Sossaman, Merom and Conroe -- all probably coming next year.

Yonah = A dual-core Pentium M successor; 65nm process; 32-bit; SSE3; improved FPU performance.

Sossaman = A desktop Yonah derivative. This chip will have very low power consumption for a dual-core desktop design.

Merom = A dual-core Pentium M (Banias) successor.

Conroe = A 64-bit desktop version of Merom.
 
ok whats better a via or a nforce 3, i have a 6800gt and i think its fine for now, i'd rather a new processor than a v/card right now.

So i'm left looking for a new mobo, which needs to support agp, i know a dying horse. who knows maybe after xmas i'll feel differently.
 
There are benefits to going with the X2 IMO; but with a $300 budget set aside, the real question is what will fall in budget. Now is this $300 just for the CPU, or for the total upgrade?

Anyhow, if you're waiting till January, you might want to see what Intel's announcement might be; and if it will be in time for you to upgrade. (AKA if it's something slated for 4th quarter 2006, you might simply not want to wait, that long.)

An A64-3600+, or if you can still get your mitts on one (as I think AMD is discontinuing them), I got an A64-3500+ using the Venice core a few months back, for about $220. Given the discontinuing, you might be able to find one for "bargain basement" prices, though you might need to do a little digging on online shops.

Personally, I went with an NF-3 chipset, rather then Via... And needing AGP is just going to be needed if you're to stay in the budget you slated.

Now some good, and some bad news.

The good news is that once this upgrade is done, swapping out for a mobo that supports PCI express won't be that expensive and can be coupled with a gfx card upgrade. The mobo I got was about $82. Against the cost of a new gfx card, eh, that's penuts by comparison.

If you decide to go X2 latter on, the mobo should support it, making it possible to get a BIOS upgrade (if needed), and pop one in. Course I'm not sure what BIOS your mobo would ship with.

Now some possible bad news:

- The socket 939 uses a 128-bit memory bus, and as such to make full use of this you'll need paired DIMMs. You probably could get away with using a single DIMM (though I'd have to look into this); but then not be able to use dual channel memory mode.

If you're DIMMs are of mis-matched types for your Pentium 4; then definitely get a Venice core, as among other improvements were greater compatibility with the on-die memory controller, and support for mis-matched DIMMs added. New RAM, might or might not be necessary if your DIMMs aren't paired already, though you can always try it.

- You might or might not need a new PSU. Again it depends what you have. Recomendations I've seen is that you want at least 18a on the 12v rail. My old 400 watt PSU was below that with 13a; so I replaced...
 
MB - I have a VIA (for now) and would recommend an NF3 or 4 depending on whether you want PCIe or AGP.

Note Do not get a dual video mode MB. The AGP slots on them are brain dead running old style PCI mode only.
 
yeah that is what i was looking to get.

the $300 was just for the cpu. i wont pretend i really just use my pc for gaming mostly and it seems time and again amd come up the winners in this field. My only issue here is that 939 socket boards with agp support are few and far between, i don't really need a new v/card right now, but it may just have to happen as i don't want to buy an agp 939 mobo now only to have to buy another in say 2-3 months that supports pci-express.

Can you guys advise me on a good board as well, i've always gone giga-byte but im starting to find that restrictive and just want a change of scenery as it where.

thanks
 
Well, the first decision is whether you want to upgrade gfx now, or wait... Course when I was saying that one could buy a AGP board, and then upgrade it with the gfx card to go PCI Express; I was thinking more then 2-3 months away.

Once you get the chipset sorted, which if going nVidia? would be either an nForce 3 or an nForce 4; you might want to do a price comparison with either Asus (who I had good luck with until the A7N266-E which did die an early death), MSI, or one of the other companies. So far my MSI K8N Neo2 is holding out; though I've only had it for 2 months. 2 months of experience with a product isn't enough time for me to be comfortable making a recommendation based off of, as I don't how it will hold up in the long run...

Edit: I can say one thing with the board I do have, though it's an odd one. Basically the onboard ethernet adapter won't play in Windows (or hadn't with the older set of nForce drivers I had setup)... I did put an old Intel NIC I had lieing around still in, to get out on the Internet

This wasn't a hardware problem however, as Linux both detects the onboard NIC, and does play with it, favoring it over the add on card. There's been newer nForce drivers released since, though I haven't tested it with the newer drivers...

Edit: OK, I tested it again, the driver is fubar. Not only does it not work, but requires a reboot after changing IP settings (something neither win2k or winXP itself required). Doing anything to it without a reboot results in a BSOD from the NV driver itself...
 
Last edited:

Members online

No members online now.

Latest profile posts

Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

Forum statistics

Threads
62,015
Messages
673,494
Members
5,621
Latest member
naeemsafi
Back