Upgrade from S939

sakluce

sakluce

sakluce

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Joined
5 May 2009
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34
Hi everyone, as the title says, i'm looking to upgrade my socket 939 system and I could use a little advice.

Current sytem is:

AMD 64 x2 4200+ (2.2 Ghz)
MSI K8N SLI Platinum
XFX Geforce 8800 GTS (320MB)
2x1 GB Corsair PC3200
OZTech StealthXStream 600W
Maxtor SATA 80GB
Windows XP

I've just posted the guts of the system, everything else is either easy for me to decide on or not in need of an upgrade. Its use is mainly for casual gaming, watching streams and general web use.

I've had this system for quite some time now, the GFX card and the PSU are the youngest components and I would like to keep them for the new system if possible (will the 8800GTS last a bit longer on a better system?)

I'd like to play most games at a good graphics level without the system struggling, at the moment I think its my processor that is the bottleneck and possibly the Motherboard?

I've researched as much as I can but i'm still unsure what to get. I would like to avoid spending a lot of money but at the same time i'm not against spending money on parts that will last that bit longer.

The Phenom II X3 720 BE (AM3) on an AM3 board seems to be a good starting point, i'm assuming socket AM3 should be around for a couple of years? and if I wanted to, I could upgrade to a more powerful processor later on.

The motherboard is the part that i'm unsure about, should I spend a lot on a good MB? I'm hoping that if I was to do this, it would last me a bit longer.

I'm open to and would appreciate any advice!
 
don't need to spend a lot on the mobo just a solid one, processor should overclock pretty well on anything so don't forget an after market cooler for it.

have a look at the Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P.
 
The motherboard will never be a bottleneck :) and you wont see much performance increase upgrading the CPU for gaming. The graphics card is all you need to upgrade.
 
My honest opinion, since its only for casual gaming, video and internet use, then there is really no need at all to upgrade!

For a start that GFX card is a perfectly capable card to play pretty much anything out there, and while no its not going to play some of the really high end games at 1600x1200 it will play them at lower settings just fine.

The CPU is also a fantastic CPU, again, you might hear people say things like bottle necks and so on, but to be honest with you, thats a crock.

The system will do what you ask it to just fine. Save your money.

As a thought for you.

My main PC is a Q9550 @ Stock, DS4 Mobo, 4GB Geil, and a 8800UltraOC
I also have a similar PC to the spec you mentioned... AMD 4200, MSI Neo4-F, PNY 320MB 8800GTS, 2x1GB Crucial, and a SBLive and limited by its screen, I can only play 1280x1024 on that one and it pklays everythign I throw at it just as well as my main PC does.

Admittedly, on my main PC I play games at 1680x1050 and the 4200 would struggle at this rez, but at 1280x1024 its perfectly capable of even playing Crysis etc just as well as My Intel Quad Cores.
 
Thanks for the replys guys.

I am looking to run this PC on a Sony Bravia LCD 40" HDTV at 1920 x 1080 resolution, at the moment I have another PC with an ATI Radeon 2600XT running on that screen and it seems to run games fine on 'medium' settings (e.g. Fallout 3, Oblivion, Dawn of War 2, PES 2009).

The PC seems to struggle at times when streaming at full screen, although the processor is only an AMD 64 3800+ on that system, do you think the 4200+ would cope with streams at this resolution or is it better to upgrade to a newer system?

The other option is for me to overclock the 3800+ or 4200+ (or both), in which case, what would be the best way to go about it? The current motherboards I have, give simple and complicated options in the BIOS to allow overclock but whenever I try, the system becomes unstable, even with the slightest of changes, perhaps investing in a better cooling solution would be best, if so, which one would do you think would be best?
 
FatRakoon said:
My honest opinion, since its only for casual gaming, video and internet use, then there is really no need at all to upgrade!
Click to expand...

Um yes there is.

Coming from a 4200+ to a core2 (E5200), there was a massive difference. My 4850 was bottlenecked by the processory significantly. Now it depends upon the app.

Back last year, the 4200+ struggled on single threaded video apps - large size H264's.., though I admit you can get apps for most anything that are multithreaded now.
 
No there is not.

He has a 320MB 8800 not a 4850 plus he only does casual gaming

Struggle on single threaded 3D apps?
He only wants to watch them, not re-encode his movies to DVD, and so therefore the 4200 is more than enough.

Of course there is a massive difference between the S939 and S754 CPUs, but in the context of the question, upgrading his PC is NOT worth the worry

There are already too many people running massively overspecced systems purely because they are told they needed it to get their emails faster... Dont fall into this category

If the games you are playing, are running well enough for you in good enough detail, then dont upgrade.

If your PC is doing its tasks fast enough for you... Dont upgrade.

If you feel you could do with a bit more boomph then by all means, upgrade.

Its up to you!

While I feel that JTrickle is being a bit silly in seemingly making out that your 4200 has suddenly lost any ability to do anything, he is right in the fact that the E5200 is ridiculously quick compared to the AMD 4200, but I stress... Dont waste money unless you really want/need to
 
sakluce said:
I am looking to run this PC on a Sony Bravia LCD 40" HDTV at 1920 x 1080 resolution, at the moment I have another PC with an ATI Radeon 2600XT running on that screen and it seems to run games fine on 'medium' settings (e.g. Fallout 3, Oblivion, Dawn of War 2, PES 2009).

The PC seems to struggle at times when streaming at full screen, although the processor is only an AMD 64 3800+ on that system, do you think the 4200+ would cope with streams at this resolution or is it better to upgrade to a newer system?

The other option is for me to overclock the 3800+ or 4200+ (or both), in which case, what would be the best way to go about it? The current motherboards I have, give simple and complicated options in the BIOS to allow overclock but whenever I try, the system becomes unstable, even with the slightest of changes, perhaps investing in a better cooling solution would be best, if so, which one would do you think would be best?
Click to expand...

I think that the GFX are more of an issue than the CPU here.

But yes, ok, this is a very high res and so the CPU ( Both the 3800 an the 4200 ) would start to suffer.

There really isnt all that much difference between the 3800 and the 4200, although the 3800 would probably clock higher and most do 2.7 even 2.8 with relative ease, but as you say, you cannot clock these much, then thats your Motherboard. Leave them at stock then.

I have thrown DOW2 onto both my S939 Opteron and even my single core S754 Newcastle @ 2.4 Ghz and both those systems play it perfectly fine at 1280x1024... Only when its really loaded up with stuff going on, does it suffer, but really not much at all.
 
I would just get a new GPU for starters, see if that solves your problems. The 8800GTS 320 is kinda low spec now, specially for playing games at 1080p, £70 cards can beat it.

Get a 4850, OcUK GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm", 4870, or something like that to see if all your games are smooth. If you're still not happy then go for the system upgrade (as you're still gonna need a new card anyway)

Although your old X2 s939 will sell for a pretty penny, as will your 2GB of DDR, so it might essentially be a cheap upgrade if you sell your old gear for the right price.
 
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Just as another spanner in your confusion works, when you say you want it for "CASUAL" Gaming... What kind of casual gaming are we talking here?

I mean, are we talking Solitaire casual, or Crysis2 casual?

Because while yes, the 320 GTS is certainly not thebest card around, it should be more than adequete for most games out there.

My sons PC is running the Point of View 320 GTS and its more than good enough for everythign we throw at it, however we do not play games over 1280x1024 as I said... In fact the more complex games I have it set to 1024x768 and even crysis plays just fine there.

So, if you are a casual gamer, do you truthfully need to play at 1920x1080?

If the answer is yes, then the whole system will need upgrading eventually.

Otherwise, just because the screen is capable of THIS x THAT it does not mean that you must run it there.

I mean, I cannot really see any difference between 1280x1024 and 1680x1200

Either way, there isnt a single game on the planet that wont run on your current PC.
Sure, a lot of recent games will push the card, and you are going to have to drop the quality on many games, but if you are only a casual gamer, does it really matter?

Dont do what I have a habit of doing and upgrade just for the hell of it.

I have 13 PCs - 7 of which are currently running and setup on the lan. They are all fairly well specced, the slowest is an Opteron [email protected] and its got an X1800XT and 2GB and the most played game on the lan is UT Classic... A Game that will probably run better on a 1Ghz P3 with an MX440 than it does on a Core2Duo and 280GT

Then again,stoping yourself takingan upgrade is also as silly too.

You get a better system overall, AMD or Intel, ATI or nVidia, it does not matter what path you take really but whatever you do go for, it will be double what you have right now and then you will find that the whole experience will be much better.
 
Well I actually play games on my PC often, whenever I can find the time in fact. However, i'm not a competitive FPS gamer that needs every frame per second I can get however I would like it to run the games I play, smoothly.

I was hoping not to replace the GFX card as I only bought it a year and a half ago. I have 2 PCs, similar setups, the difference mainly being the processors and the GFX cards.

One is a dual core 4200+ with a 8800GTS 320MB running on a 19" LCD at 1280 x 1024, the other is a single 3800+ with an 2600XT running on the 40" HDTV at 1920x1080.

I guess the main reason behind me wanting to upgrade has come from swapping out the VGA cable for a DVI to HDMI cable. Before I did this, the PC was running everything fine at 1360x768.

Now, when I stream and push it to fullscreen, it will occasionally lag out but run fine in a smaller window. I cant say i've noticed any problems with the games I ran before apart from running more than one thing.

I will try to find the time to put the 4200 dual core with the 8800 on the HDTV, if that runs things fine for what I want then perhaps i'll hold out for a while with upgrading. The problem is, one of them is the server for our work files so its not so simple a switch.
 
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sakluce said:
Well I actually play games on my PC often, whenever I can find the time in fact. However, i'm not a competitive FPS gamer that needs every frame per second I can get however I would like it to run the games I play, smoothly.

I was hoping not to replace the GFX card as I only bought it a year and a half ago. I have 2 PCs, similar setups, the difference mainly being the processors and the GFX cards.

One is a dual core 4200+ with a 8800GTS 320MB running on a 19" LCD at 1280 x 1024, the other is a single 3800+ with an 2600XT running on the 40" HDTV at 1920x1080.

I guess the main reason behind me wanting to upgrade has come from swapping out the VGA cable for a DVI to HDMI cable. Before I did this, the PC was running everything fine at 1360x768.

Now, when I stream and push it to fullscreen, it will occasionally lag out but run fine in a smaller window. I cant say i've noticed any problems with the games I ran before apart from running more than one thing.

I will try to find the time to put the 4200 dual core with the 8800 on the HDTV, if that runs things fine for what I want then perhaps i'll hold out for a while with upgrading. The problem is, one of them is the server for our work files so its not so simple a switch.
Click to expand...

You can hope all you like but the graphics cards are the fastest aging component in any gaming PC these days.
 
I saw a massive increase in minimum frame rates on games at the time. This, using the same 4850 gfx card. I can really only give examples of some games I was playing at the time that benifited, but there are plenty of benchmarks out there (eg tomshardware cpu charts) that corroborate this. These are not new games.

Oblivion /w mods
Vanguard (viewdistance in that mmo can be as long as you like)
Mount and Blade (/w mods)

I tried to give an example of non gaming above, but its difficult to quantify when things just seem better in Windows. However a further is when I was encrypting a large folder yesterday, but was able to keep using the system (up to 60% on a 3.5 core 2 would be at least 100% on an old AMDX2).
 
Agree with FatRakoon on this.

I guess a lot depends on what screen res you want to play at. A example is my brothers PC, that has a overclockes Sempron 2800+ and ATI 1800XT and that still plays plently of games and your system is much better than that.
 
Ok, I guess the most important thing is to be able to play at 1920x1080 resolution, I dont have an alternative for this PC unless I buy a new monitor or move back to the VGA cable but if I do this, I dont think I will be able to watch blueray movies, which is something i'm hoping to do in the near future also.

So I need to find out if the 8800GTS and the 4200+ X2 will be ok at this resolution or if i'm going to need to upgrades.
 
Ok then, the answers are now going to be simple.

You want to play games at 1920x1080

FACT 1 - Your GFX Card Will struggle at heavy games on that resolution
FACT 2 - Your CPU will stuggle to play big games

Solution
Id get a new Graphics card first, then consider a Core2Duo / Phenom system whenever you can.

As for watching Blueray movies... Why not?
You can get DVI and VGA to HDMI adapters and this will let you do it.

In fact, many VGA cards come with them these days anyway.

Both my 280GTX cards did, as did my daughters 260!

And I tried the adapter on an X1800XT and guess what? - its fine.

And the X1800XT is a less spec card than the 8800GTS.
 
Ok, thanks again for the advice, it is very helpful.

Now I need to come up with an upgrade path that is going to last me for the next 2 years. AM3 seems to be the best option for me at the moment, I think...

What do you think of this?

AMD Phenom II Tri Core 720 BE 2.8 Ghz (AM3)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=

MSI 790GX-G65 DDR3 Motherboard(AM3)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-111-MS

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) 1333MHz Dual Channel
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-109-OC

OcUK Value GeForce GTX 260
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-OK

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-245-WD


I've included an HDD, I think its time I upgraded my current one, 80 gigs just doesn't cut it anymore :p


edit: forgot to include GFX card.
 
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Tri Core AMDs seem to be a perfect blance and are incredibly powerful setups.

One thing you have forgotten to add here, is a PSU

So, I assume that you have a really good PSU already then?
What do you have... Just like to know.

If this lot is pushing your budget then hold off on the GFX card for now, get the rest of it sell off your current AMD 4200 or 3800 with its Mobo & RAM, for the make up price of the 260GTX and get that next time.
 
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