Upgrade Predicament

GreenMint

GreenMint

GreenMint

Soldato
Joined
11 Dec 2003
Posts
21,634
Location
Sol
Hey guys, i'm in 2 minds about an upgrade right now, i'm using the system shown in my sig, and thinking of 2 upgrade paths, not sure what would be best:

Current spec:

MSI K8 neo4 Platinum
AMD 64 3500+ w/ Arctic Freezer 64
300gb & 80gb SATA HDD
2gb Geil Value PC3200
Ati X850XT
485W Enermax noisetaker PSU
Akasa Eclipse Case

1 of my ideas is just the obvious clear out cpu/mobo/ram/maybe PSU and go for a C2D setup, or save some cash (if this is possible) and dump a Socket 939 X2 4800 in the board and throw a TT Big Typhoon on top?

Either way i'm gonna hop on with a DX10 gfx card in march time when they have been out for a bit, but i'm not sure which setup idea would be the best, i know the C2D setup would be more of a boost, but also cost more, whereas the Socket 939 X2 4800ish idea would be cheaper (if it will work on this mobo) and still quite a boost, usually used for internet usage, graphics work and looking to get back into BF2, Flight Sim and then some 9 Dragons/LOTR online when they come out. I would go straight C2D if i could afford it quite so easily, but i'm really in 2 minds right now.

Your thoughts?

Also, worth upgrading to a non-onboard sound card? using the AC97 on the MSI board right now.

Thanks.
 
The motherboard should support an X2 4800 but you might find problems in acquiring one unless it is secondhand, OcUK don't appear to have any socket 939 X2 CPUs at all now but if they did it would likely cost about £200 on it's own.

A Conroe based system like this would offer you roughly equivalent performance at stock speeds but should overclock very well also. You could hopefully recoup most of the costs by selling off your existing parts anyway. :)

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £164.99
(£193.86) £164.99
(£193.86)
Sub Total : £358.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
Vat : £64.26
Total : £431.47
 
If i did go for that (Just got a 1gb sempron 2800 system i can sell off too) Do you think that my PSU would be ok for it? I'm thinking i'd prob need to switch it out when i go for a big DX 10 card?

Is the 6300 as good as people make out? Wasn't sure if i do it would it be worth going bigger or would that see me right for some time?

Is the Arctic Freezer 7 pro very loud? Can't remember how loud a sone is, even though i have an Artic CPU cooler as it is :)

Sorry about the noobyish questions :)
 
The PSU would be fine, initally at least, I wouldn't necessarily go for the major overclocks with that PSU because PSUs become less efficient over time but it will be fine to power the system.

The 6300 at stock speeds is about on a par with an X2 4600 but costs a lot less and many make it to around 3ghz (or more) on air cooling alone.

The Arctic Freezer 7 is supposed to be pretty quiet but I don't have one personally to advise further. :)
 
Thanks for that, yeah the PSU is about 18 months old, so prob pushing out about 450w now! :D

Surprisingly i've never actually overclocked anything (So how i ended up here i don't know) I actually have a feeling the PC3200 in this machine is running at 166mhz :eek: Something tells me i should be stepping that mofo up to 200? lol :D

The only reason i was really thinking of the X2 over C2D (Which i have heard is far superior) Is the fact of popping the 3500 out and Popping that in is a lot cheaper! lol

Would i be safe to go from nforce4 to the C2D without format, or does it usually warrant one for the sake of drivers etc..?

Thanks!
 
You would be changing the motherboard and the CPU, that is normally the sort of major change that prompts a re-activation code to be required from Microsoft anyway so I'd simply re-install as it will give a cleaner system. :)
 
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