Motherbard Upgrade Question

jonnystv · 28 Apr 2006 at 23:22

I'm considering a budget upgrade to my machine.

I'm only an occasional gamer so my AGP GF6800 will do me just fine.

I'm considdering the ASrock 939dual-SATA2 (ULi M1695) coupled with an Athlon 64 Bit chip to replace my Athlon XP 2800.

Questions are:

My Athlon XP 2800 is running @ 3200 speed, will I see much of a performance bump with a 64 Bit chip?

Which one gives the best bang for my quid?

Or should I look at a dual-core processor?

Current Set Up:
Mobo: WinFast K7nCR18D
CPU: Athlon XP 2800 @ 3200
RAM: 1024Mb DDR 400
GFX: Gigabyte GF6800, 128Mb, Silentpipe

Yours in anticipation
Jonny

ajgoodfellow · 29 Apr 2006 at 18:34

How much money do you have?

What programs do you use?

If they're multithreaded then I'd get an X2 3800+ for £200

If not then a single core 3700+ for £140 would be a good buy

Both are great overclockers

jonnystv · 30 Apr 2006 at 04:12

Thanks ajgoodfellow

As I said I'm an only occasional gamer so purely brute power is not an issue.

I'm not a serious OCer either.

I use Photoshop (which I believe is multithreaded) and I'm starting to dabble in music & video editing so I expect the X2 is the best bet.

One more question.

I have an Antec True Power 380W PSU. I have, over and above the listed spec, 3 SATA drives, an NEC DVD writer and an Audigy 2 Platinum EX sound card, couple of 120mm case fans and an adjustable Gigabyte CPU cooler. No problems with power so far. Will the new mobo & X2 CPU need a bigger PSU?

Cheers
Jonny

vanandjuanunited · 30 Apr 2006 at 06:46

Short answer would be - No.
Hyper 425 running X1800xt overclocked 165 opty 2 HDD's and 2 optical drives along with 3 fans.
Hyper 350 running x800gto2 overclocked 3200 2 HDD's 2 optical drives 4 fans.

Dual core definitely for video editing and photoshopping. Games will soon become more dependant on dual core as well.
x2 3800 should also be a decent overclocker if you decide on a free upgrade.

ajgoodfellow · 30 Apr 2006 at 11:55

I agree with williamw11

Definitely get a dual core CPU for Photoshop (the later versions, CS and CS2 are multi-threaded). Your PSU, being a decent make, should be fine too

jonnystv · 30 Apr 2006 at 22:45

Thank you gentlemen.

Looks like I'm going for the X2

Cheers
Jonny