Should I change to AMD

[wiggyuk]

Hi all, I currently have a P4 3.2 on a Asus P4C800-E Deluxe board but my bro in-law as just brought a new board and is getting a new CPU so he said I can have his Ultra DFI Infinity board and AMD 3800+ 64bit CPU for £30, so I need you guys expertise to advise me on what I should do, the only problem is if I do swap over I will need to get a PCI-E graphics card and probably a new PSU to power is as my PSU is only 300w peak load and I don't really want to spend a great deal of cash.

 

[wiggyuk]

Definately do it for that price! Less heat and more speed always a plus.
What PSU/Graphics combo have you got right now?

So the AMD is quicker then my current set-up ?

What is the AMD and board like at over clocking ?

My PSU is a Jeantech 300w peak load and my graphics card is a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

Get a 939 dual sata board and it wont need an upgrade.

what's a dual sata board ? is that one that take AGP & PCI-E ?

That's even more money then though, I am looking to upgrade to a Q6600 in the next few months so I might get a PCI-E graphics card and PSU that will be OK for when I upgrade to the Q6600 ?

 

[wiggyuk]

Yes it takes both agp and pcie should be able o pick one up cheap as chips.

I thought the DFI NF4 Ultra was a good board though ?

 

[wiggyuk]

It is but it saves you from getting new gfx and psu until you need them> Twas only a suggestion. Although I would be tempted to get rid of the Jeantech asap.

Yeah true but the is no point in upgrading to the AMD if I still cant do what I want to do, the reason I was thinking of upgrading is because with the AMD and Infinity nF4 Ultra board my bro in-law plays games and they play very well indeed even some games on high graphics I think he as a ATI 1800 ?

 

[wiggyuk]

You could find an X1800 or a 7800 for about £50, which would still allow newer games to play and still look nice. Hell, probably pick up an 8600GT or 2600XT which would be alright.
That DFI board is a nice board, could probably get a reasonable clock out of the AMD, as for PSU, might aswell get a decent one now so you can just keep it for your Intel upgrade in the future.
I take it that it'll be the single core 3800 chip that you'd be getting?

Yeah its the single core, which is the better card out of the ones you listed above ?

Also what PSU would you guys recommend ?

If I do upgrade does that mean I can run Vista & XP 64 bit ?

 

[wiggyuk]

So which card out of the 8600GT & X1800 and I don't mind about the card being power hungry as I am going to get a new PSU anyway, so what card and what PSU and how much would I be looking at picking the card up second hand and even the PSU second hand if I could get a descent one I would be willing to spend £70 - £80 on the card second hand and about the same on a PSU ?

 

[wiggyuk]

This is a fantastic PSU:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-003-PP&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=928

And GFX wise I'd look at spending around £50-60 on a 8600GT or an X1800, maybe a little more on an X1900.

Word of warning though, X1800/1900s are not quiet cards.

Ok so the X1900 is the card to go for if I have got about £70-£80 to spend, do these pop up for sale often in the MM ?

 

[wiggyuk]

All the time, if you want to save a few quid you can pick up a bargain PSU in there too:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17796030

With the new 8800GT out on monday they'll be a flurry of X1800/X1900 and 7800/7900s in the MM.

Sounds good so is the much difference between the X1800/X1900 & 7800/7900

What power min should I be looking for in the PSU ?

 

[wiggyuk]

Look for a branded PSU around 400W+

Have a look at Tomshardware GFX charts to compare the GFX cards. Either will do you fine for any recent games. They don't support DX10 though so you'll miss out on some eye candy on new games.

They don't run direct X 10 that may be a problem as I don't really want to upgrade the graphics card again in the next few months when I upgrade to Quad, what's sort of price are the DX10 cards second hands ?

Plus I want my set-up to play Crysis when it comes out ?

 

[wiggyuk]

The 8600GT runs DX10 but not in any useful way, its too slow to run it at any good detail level. You should look at paying around £50-£60 ish.

The best bet will be a second hand 8800GTS over the next few weeks as people snap up 8800GTs, but you're looking at over £100. Or you could just buy a new 8800GT which are out tomorrow at around £135.

Its a big step up in budget though.

As for Crysis, even the 8800GTS struggles with it.

The 8800GTS is over £100 second hand but the new 8800GT is £135 brand new am I missing something ?

And you say the 8800GTS struggles with Crysis, is Crysis some sort of super game ? what set-up do you need to run that then ?

 

[wiggyuk]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-020-AK&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=507
Plus
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-020-AK&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=507

will see you sorted, better than those combos.

Otherwise an HX520W would be a good choice if you already have a decent case.

Yeah they are the same ?

And no I don't have a descent case it was about £40 over 4 years ago so you can imagine.

The 8800GTS is over £100 second hand but the new 8800GT is £135 brand new am I missing something ?

And you say the 8800GTS struggles with Crysis, is Crysis some sort of super game ? what set-up do you need to run that then ?

I might invest in the 8800GT then, are the 8800GTX out yet and how much would you be looking at for one of these second hand ?