Help with a long overdue upgrade

JayAre

JayAre

JayAre

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Joined
13 Dec 2005
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22
I have an old system, 4 years now that is definately starting to show its age even though it was state of the art for about a week when it was bought but needs a face lift.

I'm only look at replacing the CPU, Mobo and RAM as I already have an IDE and 2xSATA HDD, a Create Audugy Platunim and LiteOn and Pioneer 110D DVDRW's.

AMD XP1800
Epox EP-8KHA+ VIA KT266 Socket A DDR ATX Motherboard
3x256 PC2100 DDR Ram
Enermax EG465P-VE 431W ATX Power Supply
Leadtek Winfast GeForce3 64mb DDR AGP TV TDH

I'm not a big gamer but do a lot of work at home and also music ripping, DVD burning, Photoshop, video editing etc.
I haven't done much overclocking but it's something I suppose I should look at to at least pimp my PC to get the extra out of it for free.
I'm not looking at upgrading my graphics card but as PCI-E seems the way to go, I'll get something cheap to replace my Leadtek without going mad.

Obviously first decision is AMD or Intel. I've always been a fan of AMD as their price / performance has been much better than Intel. Is this still the case?

I want a good future proof upgrade path as I don't upgrade that often so don't want to be stuck at end of line products.

I'm looking at AM2 rather than 939 for the same reason. Even though AM2 doesn't offer much performance over 939 it seems to be the one with a future.

There's a lot of talk about Conroe. Is this really something to be waiting for or am I fine going with AM2 now.

AM2 DDR2 memory is more expensive. Should I be looking at 6400 or 5300 or does DDR memory run on AM2.

Investigating AMD at the moment this is what I'm thinking
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ 2.40GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-170-AM) £387.69
or
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-169-AM) £323.07

Mobo's
Abit KN9 SLi nForce 570 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-097-AB) £111.57
Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-144-AS) £109.22
MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-069-MS) £117.44

Memory
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 ZX PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-011-GS) £170.32
or
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL) £129.19

What do you all think?

Basically I'm wanting to get more umph under the lid without breaking the bank.
 
JayAre said:
Basically I'm wanting to get more umph under the lid without breaking the bank.
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CPU: cross the 4600 straight off the list, it is only a 200MHz speed bump (which you can do yourself) and only has 512kb L2 cache, whereas the 4400+/4000+ has 1MB. You could just get a 4000+ and overclock the nuts off of it.

Mobo: I don't know, it's all a bit of a gamble with AM2 mobos because hardly anyone on the forums has given feedback (we're all waiting for conroe or already have 939 rigs). Just read the reviews and pick what one you like.

RAM: Gskill if you can afford it.


Now the important part: If you wait until the end of July, you will be in a very good position. Why? 1) Conroe will be here 2) AMD is slashing X2 prices by upto 50%!!!
 
Explicit said:
CPU: cross the 4600 straight off the list, it is only a 200MHz speed bump (which you can do yourself) and only has 512kb L2 cache, whereas the 4400+/4000+ has 1MB. You could just get a 4000+ and overclock the nuts off of it.

Mobo: I don't know, it's all a bit of a gamble with AM2 mobos because hardly anyone on the forums has given feedback (we're all waiting for conroe or already have 939 rigs). Just read the reviews and pick what one you like.

RAM: Gskill if you can afford it.


Now the important part: If you wait until the end of July, you will be in a very good position. Why? 1) Conroe will be here 2) AMD is slashing X2 prices by upto 50%!!!
Click to expand...

I agree wait for Conroe to come out and the price drop, they are suppose to be out by the 24th of July

Stelly
 
JayAre said:
What will Conroe give me or is the idea to wait for Conroe so the AMD X2 chip prices fall?
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I BELIEVE the expectation is for Conroe to be competitive with current AMD pricing ( or maybe slightly more )... with AMD chip prices falling however the likelyhood is that AMD will be the better value option. Benchmarkers will probably go Conroe but pound for pound the AMD will be the better option. On top of that an AMD solution isn't suddenly obsolete having plenty of life left in it.
 
End of July was just too long for me to wait. I went with the AM2 setup with a AM2 3500+. Bit of a bargain at the price. I simply plan to wait around six months to see what offers the best bang for buck on a dual processor at that point. Conroe sounds impressive but there will be a competitively priced AMD at that point as well I'm sure.

Quick question, will I get a decent framerate in BF2 / Oblivion with an AMD 3500+, 2 Gig DDR2 and ATI X1800XT ?
 
I have a 3200 A64, 2gigs of DDR400 and an x1800xt, on a fresh install i run it maxed out at 1600 x 1200. I did however notice as things were added onto the HDD, and yes i defrag EVERYDAY, lag did start appearing here and there, but that tended to stay whatever i changed the sets to. I've changed to Omega drivers and have yet to re-patch (not had the time yet), but so far, on version 1.0 its running maxed out again with ZERO lag.

If thats not a good enough answer i don't know what is..... ;)
 
t31os said:
I have a 3200 A64, 2gigs of DDR400 and an x1800xt, on a fresh install i run it maxed out at 1600 x 1200. I did however notice as things were added onto the HDD, and yes i defrag EVERYDAY, lag did start appearing here and there, but that tended to stay whatever i changed the sets to. I've changed to Omega drivers and have yet to re-patch (not had the time yet), but so far, on version 1.0 its running maxed out again with ZERO lag.

If thats not a good enough answer i don't know what is..... ;)
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Sweet, looking forward to it now. Was that BF2 or Oblivion you were referring to?
 
Yes, sorry, thats BF2, havnt got round to Oblivion yet, still tweaking programs and OS for a bit more stability, it gets dead laggy when i add programs that amount in total easily less then 20% of the drive, yet having too many seems a real drag on the system at some times more then others, weird but a problem nonetheless.

Just patching BF2 now and about to get a few hours in, i doubt i'll hit 1600 x 1200 maxed out after patching but i'll let you know either way.
 
Ran BF2 for about an hour online, it was maxed out till i realised the res was set lower somehow, could have swarn i changed it but anyway, i'll give BF2 another bash soon at higher res, as it stands though, BF2 high everything on 1280 x 960 is smooth......
 
That's the intention although there is no confirmation. I chose to risk a buggy introduction to AM2 over being stuck on S939 and having no upgrade path. The main concern I had was in the choice of motherboard. In the end I opted for the Asus M2NPV-VM. Has anyone heard of any feedback regarding this board? There seems to be a real lack of information on AM2 mobos as there are a lot of people shelving upgrades for the moment.

Conroe sounded good but I need the pc in the next week. Plus, AMD will remain competitive in some capacity, I reckon we'll be able to pick up an X2 AM2 Chip for very impressive prices in about six months time.
 
Motherboard looks good but as you say not much feedback.

One of my issues with AM2 board is only 1 IDE controller. At the moment I already have 1 DVD ROM and 1 DVDRW and also have an IDE 60Gb HDD OS disk with all data on 2 300Gb SATA Now, I can pick up a small SATA HDD for a boot disk but it's always good to have IDE options as sometimes I dual boot with another OS on another disk.

Also how will the OC work on the mobo as I want to get it up to at least 4600?
 
JayAre said:
Ah, didn't spot the mobo is Micro ATX. I need a full ATX board.

So, on the hunt for full ATX AM2 with 2xIDE
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Why do you need a full ATX, a mini ATX will fit the majority of cases out there. As far as the IDEs go I'm starting a new machine, 1 IDE for Dual Layer CD/DVD RW and SATA Drives from now on.
 
Scottie2004 said:
Why do you need a full ATX, a mini ATX will fit the majority of cases out there. As far as the IDEs go I'm starting a new machine, 1 IDE for Dual Layer CD/DVD RW and SATA Drives from now on.
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you don't even need the IDE for the CDRW/DVD now - I bought a Samsung SATA Writemaster and it's smashing :D
 
I have been looking today at something called Abit Serial ATA Adaptor which is a little thingy you plus into the back of an IDE device which can then be plugged onto a SATA interface
 
JayAre said:
I have been looking today at something called Abit Serial ATA Adaptor which is a little thingy you plus into the back of an IDE device which can then be plugged onto a SATA interface
Click to expand...
yes my brother uses one in his machine - seems to work alright

I got one when I bought my Abit board a few years back now and didn't have the need for it so gave it to him - it's worked since so must be alright :)
 
Just installed this mobo and everything is sweet. Also, the board has 2xIDE. The picture of the board may be misleading. The primary IDE port is black and faces away from the mobo and the secondary is blue and faces vertical. Nice board, no overclocking options but fits the bill of a very quiet mobo with plenty of compatiblity. Got my 3500+ AM2 with 2 Gig DDR2 on it now and everything is going well. One thing, the AM2 stock cooler was very difficult to get on the bracket. I don't know if it was the mobo bracker or the AMD cooler but I can't close the lever for fear of damaging something.
 
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