MY current system:
AMD Opteron S939 144 ([email protected]) single core on air.
ASRock Mobo (AGP & PCI-E)
2GB Geil DDR
8800GTS 320MB pushed hard around 650/990 on air.
My reasons for upgrading is that even though this system is a strong single core system it's now beginning to struggle in the very latest games at max detail (1280x1024). I'm looking for the best bang for my buck in terms of raw gaming performance.
My options are as follows:
1) Upgrade the graphics card to a 8800GT 512MB, the GT is in benchmarks around 10-20% faster, with it's lower nm die it should clock harder too.
Total cost will be around £50-60 after the sale of the GTS.
2) Upgrade the CPU and RAM. The beauty of the ASRock mobo is that combined with a £18 riser card it accepts AM2 and DDR2.
So AMD 5000+ Black Edition and 2GB DDR2, from reading around the web on air overclocks should hit 3.4-3.5GHz with virtually every chip comfortably reaching 3.3GHz at stock volts.
Total cost £140.
3) Wait for Phenom.
And before anyone jumps in with Intel this Intel that, AMD provides more then enough performance for any of the latest games. Sure it's not currently the fastest but it's not that far off in real world terms.
Anyway what does everyone think?
AMD Opteron S939 144 ([email protected]) single core on air.
ASRock Mobo (AGP & PCI-E)
2GB Geil DDR
8800GTS 320MB pushed hard around 650/990 on air.
My reasons for upgrading is that even though this system is a strong single core system it's now beginning to struggle in the very latest games at max detail (1280x1024). I'm looking for the best bang for my buck in terms of raw gaming performance.
My options are as follows:
1) Upgrade the graphics card to a 8800GT 512MB, the GT is in benchmarks around 10-20% faster, with it's lower nm die it should clock harder too.
Total cost will be around £50-60 after the sale of the GTS.
2) Upgrade the CPU and RAM. The beauty of the ASRock mobo is that combined with a £18 riser card it accepts AM2 and DDR2.
So AMD 5000+ Black Edition and 2GB DDR2, from reading around the web on air overclocks should hit 3.4-3.5GHz with virtually every chip comfortably reaching 3.3GHz at stock volts.
Total cost £140.
3) Wait for Phenom.
And before anyone jumps in with Intel this Intel that, AMD provides more then enough performance for any of the latest games. Sure it's not currently the fastest but it's not that far off in real world terms.
Anyway what does everyone think?
