• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

upgrade help from Athlon 64 3200

akien86

akien86

akien86

Associate
Joined
2 Jun 2005
Posts
42
Hi, I have a evesham pc, which is a quality manufactured pc, but i am in the market to upgrade now....

I currently have an msi socket 754 motherboard (msi-7030) and an athlon 64 3200.

I also have 1gb RAM, a raddeon 9550 graphics card, and a western digital 200GB hard drive, and a creative 2 zs sound card.

Does anybody have any suggestions for an upgrade? namely on the processor/motherboard side? budget for upgrade could be 500 max, preferably around 400.

Cheers
 
akien86 said:
Hi, I have a evesham pc, which is a quality manufactured pc, but i am in the market to upgrade now....

I currently have an msi socket 754 motherboard (msi-7030) and an athlon 64 3200.

I also have 1gb RAM, a raddeon 9550 graphics card, and a western digital 200GB hard drive, and a creative 2 zs sound card.

Does anybody have any suggestions for an upgrade? namely on the processor/motherboard side? budget for upgrade could be 500 max, preferably around 400.

Cheers
Click to expand...


AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY)
Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)


try that
 
I use it for university work, internet, music, dvds and occasionaly gaming.

I do prefer getting quality components rather than getting supposed better specs but with cheaper makes.... is there much difference between asus and msi motherboards?

cheers
 
save your money, get a good cooler for your cpu, overclock it, and try and pick up a 2nd hand x850st or 6800gt agp. if you only play games occasionally what you've got should be OK really

asus vs msi. well asus are notoriously bad overclockers and have a terrible return policy. msi?

best makes i've found are abit and dfi - great support forums as well
 
what exactly are the merits of using a cooler? I know a fair bit about computers, but i know nothing about coolers, overclocking, etc.

what are they used for? why dont you have one already? how do you overclock it? is it safe? how much faster will it run?

cheers

Andy
 
Hi there, you don't need a new cpu as there is nothing wrong with what you have. Get yourself a good 754 pci-e motherboard such as the Abit NV8 (good overclocker) or similar and a decent pci-e graphics card such as a 7600gt (mobo and gfx card £190 for both) or if you want to go higher get a better gfx card such as the ATI X1800/1900 or Nvidias 7900 series which could cost from £270-£500+ for the card and mobo.

There is a good buy in "this week only" for a Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB at £170.32. This is a very good buy and with the mobo would cost you only £225. You couls always get another 1GB of memory or sell the sticks you have and get a 2gb kit. It seems to be getting beneficial in games these days.

***If you do not play games very often then there's not really a lot of point in upgrading anything as what you have will do what you want with no problems. Maybe get a new gfx card but don't go mad. Even the likes of a AGP 6600gt would suffice. Get a decent new DVD drive such as an NEC and maybe splash out on a good monitor.***

Coolers are what cool your components down. That big lump with a fan sitting on your cpu is a cooler. Modern ones such as the AC Freezer 64 pro are quieter and more efficient.
 
Last edited:
Pastymuncher has some good ideas.

Why not get a nice case perhaps? If you rarely do any gaming, a better monitor would be a good idea.

I'd look into getting 2GB of RAM, makes a good difference when using a lot of windows applications.
 
well i have a 19" viewsonic 191b monitor.

so if i got a new motherboard and cooler, would that have much of an effect on the speed of my computer, or is that only so i can get a better graphics card? or would a new motherboard enable me to overclock better, giving a better speed?

cheers
 
A new motherboard by itself would'nt make a lot of difference. If you wanted a pci-e graphics card then you would need a new mobo so that you could as yours is AGP. The cooler would give you some extra overclocking headroom.

Hang on a minute. A MSI 7030 is a MSI K8N Neo Platinum. Thats not a bad board actually. I know i had one, still have it in another pc actually. First off use live bios (on the mobo driver disk) and get the latest bios for it if you have'nt done so already. It's easy to use and does it all automatically. In your bios there are some auto overclocking options if you are not too sure about O/C. Set it to say Sergeant (3% overclock) and see how you get on. If everything is ok then try Captain (5%). This is all in the dynamic overclocking option in the cell menu. Overclocking in the bios manually is by far the best way to go though.

If all you do is university work, internet, music, dvds and occasionaly gaming then why do you need more speed? For gaming i would get a better graphics card but as it's only occasionally i would'nt go mad. Just get an AGP 6600gt or similar. You can get them for under £100 these days and will more than satisfy your needs.
 
How do you know whether it is a Neo FSR or a Neo Platinum though?

I've put it up to sargeant. nothing has gone wrong. I downloaded motherboard monitor...

it says case is 56oC, cpu is 59oC. is that ok? any things i should be looking out for?

cheers
 
Hmm, as you only game occasionally, not really much point changing anything. As suggested by others, a PCI-E board + something like a 7600GT would be handy if the occasional games you do play get a bit demanding. Generally, something like bringing memory upto 2GB might be useful (especially if you change to MS Vista whenever that is ever released). Hard to say.... depends whether you want more CPU power just for the sake of it, or you're finding the applications you use could do with some extra power of a faster CPU.
 
A 7030 is a Neo Platinum. As i said i have one. This one.

Keep checking temps and stability. Case temps are a bit high. What fans have you got at the front for the intake and the rear for the exhaust? If you have none then i would advise getting some. I have a lot more heat producing components in my case and the case is only hitting 25 degrees while the cpu is sitting at 29 idle/40 load. Thats the advantage of a good cooler.

Have you got the latest drivers/bios fot it? Last bios was 11/11/05 and last chipset drivers was 23/11/05. Use live bios for the bios update and live update for your chipset drivers. It is all automatic and selects the correct bios/drivers for you.

If you are happy then try the next level. Captain i think it is. I still say it's better to do it all manually in the bios. Have a read of the how to overclock thread and have a go. Don't forget overclocking causes extra heat to be produced and stresses your components.
 
For speed, get a raptor for your os.

Or simply fresh install of windows and see how that does.

Head over to the oc and cooling forum and see what you can learn, that will also speed up your pc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom