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Advice on an older computer please

timbo2410

timbo2410

timbo2410

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2009
Posts
764
Hello all. I have an older computer:
Asus A8N sli deluxe
Athlon 64 Fx 55 cpu 2.61 Ghz
Sli Asus gtx 7800's
2 gig ram
Win xp pro

Now I have tried to overclock as much as I can but it hasn't made a whole lot of difference. I went for advice from my local comp store and was told that I was rather limited in what I could do. I was told to get rid of the sli cards and go for a single 9800 card. I could also step up to an FX 60 dual core but then that would also create issues with some older programs I am running. So I would probably have to stick with the FX55. Can somebody (and you seem to be the people to ask), suggest what I can upgrade to to get the most out of this aging system?
Hope you can help
Regards to all
:)
 
timbo2410 said:
Hello all. I have an older computer:
Asus A8N sli deluxe
Athlon 64 Fx 55 cpu 2.61 Ghz
Sli Asus gtx 7800's
2 gig ram
Win xp pro

Now I have tried to overclock as much as I can but it hasn't made a whole lot of difference. I went for advice from my local comp store and was told that I was rather limited in what I could do. I was told to get rid of the sli cards and go for a single 9800 card. I could also step up to an FX 60 dual core but then that would also create issues with some older programs I am running. So I would probably have to stick with the FX55. Can somebody (and you seem to be the people to ask), suggest what I can upgrade to to get the most out of this aging system?
Hope you can help
Regards to all
:)
Click to expand...

how much you got to spend does it have to be nvidia or will ati be ok too
 
Well I can pretty much spend what I want to on it. I was just trying to get the most out of what I have before getting a second computer solely for gaming. I did want to stay with Nvidia though. I am open to suggestions.
:D
 
what kind of gaming do you do? I would go with a 5770 or a 5850 or if u want to stick with nvidia something like a 285 or 260, but you prob want to think about upgrading the full system to something newer if you play more demanding games then wow etc, or maybe wait for the i9's to come out and things should drop in price.
 
Will the newer cards fit in my system? And if they do, will the bottleneck be the cpu? Down the track I plan on upgrading to a new system, I'm really just waiting for a dx11 Nvidia gpu to come along (and for the price to drop). But in the meantime I want to see the current computer as far along as the motherboard and cpu will go. So that pretty much means the gpu out and a different one in .... but I don't want to waste my time getting a new gpu and still be no better off due to bottlenecks elsewhere ... correct me if I've got it wrong please
:confused:
 
no no you get me wrong ... I will upgrade everything down the track. I just want to give my old system a n upgrade as far as it will go ..... are the nvidia 9800 gtx cards able to fit my motherboard? Or even sli? or is the slowest part going to be the cpu?
 
ok reading more info off the net ... it seems that there is little point in upgrading my graphics card as the cpu will be the slowest part and cause a bottleneck. Now I have the athlon 64 fx-55. If I first got a higher cpu, then got a better graphics card, would that be a better option? Or does that open up a can of worms? Is it as easy as mounting a dual core Athlon 64 fx-62? Or will that screw up any programs I am running at the moment ... what I'm getting at is if I swap the cpu is it as easy as firing my system up and carry on as normal?
 
got the system built back in 2005 so I couldn't give you a price I'm afraid. the whole system cost around $3000 Australian and that was with flat screen, keyboard, 5:1 speakers, etc etc
 
Too expensive to be viable IMO - an FX60 is likely to carry a high premium as it is one of the fastest S939 cpus going. They seem to go for over £100 on ebay which is a helluva lot of money for old tech.

Currently you have a fairly balanced system and to beef it up you will need to spend quite a bit of money and end up with something still distinctly 'mediocre' by modern standards - certainly a long way from the glory days of owning FX55 and SLI 7800GTX back in 2005! Don't forget that 2GB RAM is a bit on the low side for modern games and again being DDR1 it will be costly to upgrade. As I said currently you have a well balanced system and they are the hardest to upgrade because you keep having to throw good money after bad to eliminate bottlenecks.

By far the better option would be to look at moving to a new socket. This would have course mean new mobo, cpu and RAM. But you will get something a LOT more powerful (tri/quad core, 4GB RAM) for not a hugely excessively premium.
 
Last edited:
HangTime said:
By far the better option would be to look at moving to a new socket. This would have course mean new mobo, cpu and RAM. But you will get something a LOT more powerful (tri/quad core, 4GB RAM) for not a hugely excessively premium.
Click to expand...

+1

The price of DDR1 ram :eek: Is it more expensive than gold yet?:p
 
Damn ... oh well old faithful has served me well to date and is still going, so I suppose I should be grateful.
The new system I have been thinking about is:
Antec p193 case
Antec true power quattro 1000 psu
Asus P6t Deluxe v2 mobo
Intel core i7 extreme 975 cpu
6 gig ram
and I am waiting on a dx11 card from Nvidia .... that will bide a bit more time to save. I was even considering having a go at building it myself ..... bit afraid to though :confused:
 
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