Spec and advice please!

DazedNFuzed · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:05

I am just using my work colleagues account while I wait for my own to be activated.
I want to upgrade my machine and need some advice. I am planning to buy a new motherboard, processor and graphics card. I currently have an old socket 478 Pentium and am thinking about going over to AMD. The machine will be mainly used for gaming, are the AMD chips better for this? I have been looking at either the 3700+ San Diego chip or the Dual Core 3800+. Is the Dual Core chip worth the extra money?

Any help for the above much appreciated!!

Admiral Huddy · 10 Apr 2006 at 14:23

Dual core is here to stay, and when the software vendors and developers catchup, you'll be glad you went for this. IMO.. go for a DC.

AMD socket 939 supports both single core and dual core. Therfore, has an excellant upgrade path.. So you could go for a cheap single core for now and buy a dual core at a later date without the expense of another mobo upgrade.

wellibob · 10 Apr 2006 at 15:04

What a nice Sig

Octavarium · 10 Apr 2006 at 15:26

DazedNFuzed said:
I am just using my work colleagues account while I wait for my own to be activated.
I want to upgrade my machine and need some advice. I am planning to buy a new motherboard, processor and graphics card. I currently have an old socket 478 Pentium and am thinking about going over to AMD. The machine will be mainly used for gaming, are the AMD chips better for this? I have been looking at either the 3700+ San Diego chip or the Dual Core 3800+. Is the Dual Core chip worth the extra money?

Any help for the above much appreciated!!

I had a Skt 478 2.8 P4 on an ASUS Mobo, with a Radeon 9600Pro.

Moved to the spec in my sig.

Graphics card made a major difference for games, but the proccessor wasn't mega-impressive, hopefully it will get faster once more programs are written to make use of DC.

How much are you looking to spend?

DazedNFuzed · 10 Apr 2006 at 15:52

Looking to spend about £400. Was looking at the GeForce 7800GT with the Athlon 64 3700+ and the Asus A8N-SLi SE mobo.

ACESHIGH · 10 Apr 2006 at 16:07

DazedNFuzed said:
Looking to spend about £400. Was looking at the GeForce 7800GT with the Athlon 64 3700+ and the Asus A8N-SLi SE mobo.

that should be a great upgrade.

though if you want to encode & multitask also, then the dual core X2 3800+ is the clear winner. Also the CPU of choice to ensure future proofing imo, as much as is possible anyway.