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cheap upgrade from barton 2500

terminator

terminator

terminator

Associate
Joined
24 Aug 2006
Posts
5
Hi

This is my first time here. ;)

At present my rig is as follows:-

2500xp barton
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
2x512MB (1gb) Crucial PC3200 ram
120Gb Seagate SATA,40 GB Maxtor PATA
LG 16+- RW DVD cutter,LG DVD-ROM
PNY 6600GT AGP
Antec 550W Neo PSU


My next upgrade MUST keep my RAM and video card so I'm out as regards going for a Conroe because I doubt they will build an AGP based board but you never know.

I now want to upgrade as cheap as possible to 64bit. Was looking at the ASROCK SATA 2 and the AMD 3700 San Diego as a stop gap before I do a fulll system upgrade to Conroe. Reason for this choice is the now cheap 3700 cost and because the ASROCK has SATA connectors and AGP. One thing I do not know is how good is this motherboard at clocking the 3700 san diego and please advise on a good ,especially quiet ,HS/FAN. Any alternatives and/or advice much appreciated.
 
terminator said:
My next upgrade MUST keep my RAM and video card so I'm out as regards going for a Conroe because I doubt they will build an AGP based board but you never know.
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You can get the Asrock 775Dual-VSTA which supports conroe, has a AGP and PCI-E slot and has both DDR1 and DDR2 ram slots.
 
I just did a similar upgrade to one of my lad's PC's. I upgraded my 3700+ with an X2 & had a 3700+ spare. I used an EPoX EP-9NDA3i m/b to upgrade his msi + barton + crucial + ati 9800. Great little system, the EPoX EP-9NDA3i lets you o/c which may be a problem with the asrock. I used the retail heatpipe cooler from the X2 on the 3700+. I suggest you get the 4000+ if you are buying a cpu and get the Arctic 64 pro cooler.
 
I would reccomend getting the following:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-175-AM)
Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-002-AK)

The latest batch of 4000+ SD's are clocking to 3GHz easily so I would stretch a little further and get one of these over the 3700. Although Conroe is very quick a 4000+ overclocked is still going to last you quite a while.

As for a cooler, Artic Cooling Freezer64 Pro is quiet and very good for price.
 
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I like the sound of Asrock 775Dual-VSTA. Just found it on another site for only £34. Anyone had experience of this board? I would probably match it with the E6300 depending on wether this board will clock it to a 'reasonable' level'. ANy of these suggestions will result in a huge performance increase. Also I've seem my A7N8X-deluxe sell for over £60 online..unreal!! Probably my barton would sell for about £30 as well.

Many thanks for the feedback
 
terminator said:
I like the sound of Asrock 775Dual-VSTA. Just found it on another site for only £34. Anyone had experience of this board? I would probably match it with the E6300 depending on wether this board will clock it to a 'reasonable' level'. ANy of these suggestions will result in a huge performance increase. Also I've seem my A7N8X-deluxe sell for over £60 online..unreal!! Probably my barton would sell for about £30 as well.

Many thanks for the feedback
Click to expand...

Yes that does sound good if you don't have an AMD64 spare. see a review @ http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810&p=1
 
Just read the review... Does not seem that running PC3200 on this board makes much of a difference than buying more expensive DDR2 ram. Think the fate has been sealed. This board and an E6300 and can keep my AGP card and ram.
Would love to hear from anyone on here who has such a board...and/or similar setup

Cheers everyone
 
Wow, i had no idea that DDR could be used with either conroe or AM2. Got me thinking about doing an(other) upgrade myself now as these XMS3500LL Pro sticks didn't come cheap and still kick ass.
 
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It can make a much easier route to Core 2 Duo for sure but afaik (happy to be proved wrong) will never be done for AM2 cos of the memory controller being on the CPU.
 
Tetras said:
It can make a much easier route to Core 2 Duo for sure but afaik (happy to be proved wrong) will never be done for AM2 cos of the memory controller being on the CPU.
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Fair enough. But then again, who with a decent 939 rig would bother going AM2 anyway?

I am very seriously considering this option. I just really need to know how well (if at all) these motherboards overclock.
 
just a word of warning, i had a Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 and it refused to post with an agp card it has been tested by overclockers and deemed faulty. my replacement was also DOA so i assume theres a bad batch. The guy i nthe shop said there basically rubbish anyway. i got the board as an upgrade from a 2500 barton at 3200speeds to a 4600 939 x2 while keeping ram and my 6800agp.
 
Asrock are a here there brand. I've had a faulty mobo from them myself, but some people swear by them as stock brands, and afaik they're also a larger OEM/System manufacturer supplier, and an offshoot of Gigabyte Corp.
 
Im just in the middle of upgrading my dad from Socket A/AGP to Athlon 64/PCIE

Hes going from a 2400+ Tbred and Ti4200 to an A64 3200+ and GF6100 GFX.

He does a lot of video encoding so he should notice a big difference, he may notice a slow doen in games, but if hes that bothered he can fork out for a 7300GT.
 
mglover070588 said:
just a word of warning, i had a Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 and it refused to post with an agp card it has been tested by overclockers and deemed faulty. my replacement was also DOA so i assume theres a bad batch. The guy i nthe shop said there basically rubbish anyway. i got the board as an upgrade from a 2500 barton at 3200speeds to a 4600 939 x2 while keeping ram and my 6800agp.
Click to expand...

I bought an asrock dual sata2 myself recently along with one of those monster 4000+s (KAB1E) as an upgrade for my second rig. Everything went without a hitch and the CPU took a 10% overclock without needing to adjust a thing. I'm certainly happing going asrock again.
 
Ice Tea said:
Anything wrong with a VIA chipset ?
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Nowt wrong with Via chipsets, other than back in the days of KT400 + prior they didn't lock down the AGP/PCI buses meaning overclocking wasn't quite as easy. They could be quite picky with driver installation, but - as with many other things - they were fine with a little bit of patience. Other than that... nothing.
 
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