Best upgrade from 939 AMD 4200X2 2.2

[Herojuana]

Hey everyone !

Just wondering if anyone could help me out with this,
I'm looking to upgrade my system and am wondering whether its worthwhile switching to AM2 or 775 so that I can use DDR2 and get a more powerful processor. How beneficial would it be to do this from my current spec?

This is what i've got right now.

AMD 64 X2 4200 2.2 (939)
3gb DDr1 RAM
939 DUAL SATA 2 Mobo
8800GT 512
running Vista HP64

I mainly use my computer for gaming, photoshop, music, video etc no major 3D editing or the like.

I'm going for under a budget of £200 max really, for a motherboard, CPU and RAM (preferably 4 gig). Does anyone know whether a budget like this could significantly boost my pc or should I stick with what I have?

Is it worth having quad core over a faster dual core CPU?
Bare in mind i don't know a lot about overclocking really.
Thanks in advance, any additional information is appreciated.

Sam

 

[Herojuana]

Would this CPU not be better in exchange for a cheaper motherboard?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £76.99
(£90.46)

I don't know much about motherboards except the chips they support, other than that, what is the advantage of having a more expensive mobo generally?

Thanks!

 

[Herojuana]

Can I ask what is better about the intel setup?

If possible i'd like to upgrade the CPU from my current one, and if i got the Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz wouldn't i be stepping back or staying about the same rather than upgrading?

 

[Herojuana]

what do you guys think to this?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £85.99

Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA (Socket AM2) AGP DDR2 Motherboard £29.99

2 x GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)

Sub Total : £175.96
Total : £216.45

 

[Herojuana]

I don't know how to overclock so I dont think so. Unless its a relatively effortless task lol.

 

[Herojuana]

Ah nice one for that.
I'm just wondering whether its worth actually learning how to overclock.
To do a CPU does it take much time/learning/effort?

I see the point of getting the E2180 2.0Ghz and overclocking it to around 3Ghz.
Would doing this mean getting the same performance as say, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz ? In which case i'd be saving £40-£50 in learning how to overclock?

 

[Herojuana]

My RAM is DDR1 and running at 133Mhz, is it worth the upgrade to DDR2 for this?
Other than that I'd like to upgrade to AM2/775 sock ideally.

 

[Herojuana]

Alright I suppose your right however I thought the DDr2 RAM would be significantly faster and if I went to AM2/775 I would go for a faster CPU anyway. I guess I will wait until the Quad cores come down in price and some, maybe in Q1 2008 get one then.

Thanks for the info guys

 

[Herojuana]

I've got a Asrock 939-DUAL SATA2 motherboard and using 2 x 1GB 3200 Crucial and 2 x 512MB some other random brand which I robbed from my Dad's pc.

 

[Herojuana]

I say you save up longer and buy bit more bang for the buck hardware.

What would you suggest to be more bang for buck?
Do you mean a quad core rather than dual?

 

[Herojuana]

As said your ram seems to be running a bit too slow for PC3200 ram.

Yeah I think its the 2 x 512 sticks bringing it down to that, they must not be DDR400.

I had a little go at overclocking today and managed to get mine from 2.2GHz to 2.45Ghz with quite some ease. I did a test on it using Prime1995 (i think thats what it was) and it went up to about 53 degrees highest, is this safe?


As for my upgrade I'm thinking about the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ Black Edition 2.60GHz. If I wanted to overclock this to about 3Ghz, would this motherboard be sufficient? - MSI K9N Neo V3 nForce 560 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 £46.99 inc VAT



Thanks again for your help and advice.

 

[Herojuana]

You're right on the whole there's nothing really that wrong with my setup.

Though I can sell my current mobo/cpu/ram to my dad for about £100+ i would guess.

This being the case I can probably afford to upgrade to
AM2 DDR2 motherboard with
AMD 64X2 Black 5000 @ 3.0Ghz and
4Gb of RAM running at 400Mhz (from 133 + 3Gb which is what I have now)

for about £100-120 on top of the £100. This is pretty good in my opinion.
Whilst my pc is capable of playing games it could do with some oomph since I started running vista64 gaming has slowed down a bit (although general desktop use seems very efficient). I play quake wars quite a lot and despite having just got a 8800GT 512 I get a fair amount of stutterring .
Aswell as this my motherboard isn't supported by Vista 64 and by this i mean the LAN drivers don't work. Currently I have to use cmd prompt everytime I logon to connect to the internet ("ipconfig/all / route delete 0.0.0.0 / ipconfig renew").

So all in all I think its worth upgrading for £100-120 assuming I can get £100 off my dad for what I've got.

 

[Herojuana]

If it's gaming that you're interested in then it's your GFX card that will make the biggest difference - for <£200 you could get an 8800GT that will make just about everything out there fly. What card have you got ATM and could you confirm that the Asrock is pci-e not agp?

Yes mate I have an 8800GT 512mb which I recently bought and the Asrock is PCI-E.