How would rate this upgrade?

Ricochet J · 13 May 2007 at 14:13

Reason I ask is my current specs are as follows:
AMD Athlon 64 3200 Winchester sckt 939
DFI UT NF4 Motherboard
GeIL 1Gb Value RAM
HIS X800xl

I'm thinking of changing the
CPU from 3200 Winchester to a 4200 Dual Core X2
Graphics card from a x800xl to a x1950 Pro or an nVidia equivalent
GeIL 1Gb RAM to 2Gb RAM

Sell the old componants

What do you think?

Naffa · 13 May 2007 at 14:15

If it was me, I'd be holding off and going all the way to Core2Duo/DDR2. But if you're really itching for an upgrade then you'd see a nice increase with the spec you've put together.

Ricochet J · 13 May 2007 at 14:22

I don't want to go for a new system tbh. Prob around £200 - £250 i'm going to spend max. So a new Core2 duo is out of the question, though, I understand where you're coming from.

Jaffa_Cake · 13 May 2007 at 14:26

my 4200+ X2 is actually slower at benchmark than my old 3200+ Venice.

It adds the dual core but its not worth it in my opinion. Save your money for a new pc or a proper upgrade

Ricochet J · 14 May 2007 at 16:16

Wow! I didn't know that! But socket 939 is my only upgrade option atm. I'm sure the X2 4200 will be an improvement to my current system

Egosh · 14 May 2007 at 16:46

or you can get an am2 mobo and cpu (cheap ones for the time being) which will enable you to upgrade to the new amd's when they come out..am2 processors are also a lot cheaper (not to mention a lot easier to get hold of) than s939..

im in the same situations as you ive got the same exact parts apart from the mobo and havent really got the money to do a complete system overhaul and this was something im considering as it'll be cheaper then getting a c2d system..

Ricochet J · 14 May 2007 at 16:52

Ahh cool, let me know how you get on! AM2? Mmm, wouldn't buying the mobo add to costs?

Jaffa_Cake · 14 May 2007 at 17:42

Egosh said:
or you can get an am2 mobo and cpu

That would also mean DDR2.

The X2 4200+ is about %20 slower at benchmark than a 3200+ at stock.

It adds the dual core yes, I found i could run 20 things at once on a single core. The only thing that it lets me do is run fraps, which I do once every 6 months.

Clock the Venice because the 4200+ doesn't go much above stock ( got mine 350MHz oc but unstable )

Clock the venice up to 3.5GHz and keep the single core until you can afford a worthwhile system

Ricochet J · 14 May 2007 at 18:26

Jaffa I think you misread. I have a Winchester

Jaffa_Cake · 14 May 2007 at 18:30

Ricochet J said:
Jaffa I think you misread. I have a Winchester

I live in Winchester

That aside, it will still probobly clock better than a 939 X2

Naffa · 14 May 2007 at 18:32

Jaffa_Cake said:
Clock the venice up to 3.5GHz and keep the single core until you can afford a worthwhile system

3.5GHz? Don't think so. Even if he actually had a Venice then that wouldn't be attainable.

I've seen 4200X2s hitting 2.9GHz stable. A 4200X2 is a definite improvement over a Winchester.

Egosh · 14 May 2007 at 22:05

Jaffa_Cake said:
That would also mean DDR2.

The X2 4200+ is about %20 slower at benchmark than a 3200+ at stock.

It adds the dual core yes, I found i could run 20 things at once on a single core. The only thing that it lets me do is run fraps, which I do once every 6 months.

Clock the Venice because the 4200+ doesn't go much above stock ( got mine 350MHz oc but unstable )

Clock the venice up to 3.5GHz and keep the single core until you can afford a worthwhile system

yeh completely forgot about the ddr2...although there some bundle deals that include cpu/mobo/ram and even a hd in some of that are well within in his budget on an auction site..

Chris19 · 14 May 2007 at 23:15

What you have choosen there is pretty good imo. If you want to save a few pounds can go for the 3800X2 which can oc well (have had mines at 2.6 for over a year now), yet again 4200X2 all the better with the 1MB L2 Cache. If i was you i would wait abit see whats going to happen to the graphics card prices as you may see some falling soon and cold get the 1950Pro cheaper or even a nice dx10 one

St0rmer66 · 15 May 2007 at 00:45

Sell the lot and get this:

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
OcUK GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit

Sub Total : £248.96
Shipping : £8.25
Vat : £45.01
Total : £302.22

That's copied and pasted from another thread that I recommended to someone so you can use whatever cash you want to make it better. Maybe an E6xxx CPU and better graphics card.

Naffa · 15 May 2007 at 08:24

Chris19 said:
4200X2 all the better with the 1MB L2 Cache.

The 4200X2 has the same L2 cache as the 3800X2. 512KB per core. The both feature either a Manchester core, or a Toledo core (which my 3800 does) with half the cache disabled.