upgrade, what to do?

hardkore

hardkore

hardkore

Soldato
Joined
13 Mar 2004
Posts
3,038
Location
Norfolk
hey peeps!

Well today i got a nice big tax rebate and decided my rig could do with abit of overhaulin"!

current specs are...

athlon64 3200+ 939
1gb (2x512) pc3200 cas2
powercolour x800gto16 256mb
Asus A8N5X mobo

I tried playing supreme commander yesterday and it was so laggy! Even on lowest settings its like a slide show. Ive heard that game is very cpu intensive and was thinking of going for a athlon64 4000+ single core. Also was going to get 2gb of geil value ram. Is this the best upgrade i can do for around £220? Going to get a X1950XT soon but i will also need a new psu if im getting that card.

Opinions on what to do would be appreciated. I realize the whole DDR2 thing is better etc but this upgrade will just be to bring my system up to date for the time being, dont use it that much anymore anyways.Also im never really fussed with AA or AF and dont mind dropping the odd eye candy setting.

cheers :)
 
I would get the special offer GeIL ram yeah, and possibly upgrade to a X1950 Pro 256MB. That would cover your budget and give you considerable improvements.

What you could so is sell your CPU and upgrade it to 4000+ as you say. You might be able to get £30 for the chip!
 
ASROCK 4 Core VSTA mobo (around £40, you'll have to search OCuk doesn't do them for some unknown reason) supports DDR, AGP, DDR2 and PCI-E
and an E4300 for 110.

150 quid and you have an upgrade path to DDR2 (do that last though the difference is not compelling), and DX10 PCI-E cards
 
How much of a rebate? You could get a new C2D setup that will last you longer.
 
So is the 4000+ any good? Much better than the 3200+? Or should i get a athlon X2?

sorry for all the questions ive been out of the game for a while :(


To artaxerxes, i would like to get a new mobo but i only want to extend this rigs life for a little longer, not build a new machine. Plus the car is costing a lot at the moment lol. Also im looking at a X1950XT for £158. Would the 4000+ bottleneck it any?

Rebate was only £182 and with my wages is £315, but not all of that is rig money.

thanks guys
 
It's faster but its still single core. You could also sell your graphics card for £30? That would give you close to around £300. You may be able to go down artax route that he suggested.

Could get a 4300, Asrock mobo, and a decent graphics card like a X1950 Pro to accompany. Using your old RAM. You can always upgrade it later. It would be covered in that £300 too. :)
 
ok changed my mind on what im going to do now. Going to get a 4200+ X2. Im not switching mobos as its out of the question right now. Remember this is just a temp 5-6month upgrade. I will rebuild then.
 
It is. I take it X2 isnt 939 compatible? Is it AM2 then?

EDIT: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ (Socket 939) - OEM £99.99 (£117.49)
 
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Yeah its 939 you wanna go for but just look at the price... you would be more better off going Intel core 2 duo.

Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £95.99
(£112.79) £95.99
(£112.79)
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)

Hunt down that motherboard artax suggested and you have yourself a core 2 duo rig. You could then upgrade RAM some other time!
 
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cool ill have a look into it. Thanks for your help mate :)

BUT.... if i had to choose between x2 4200+ or a single core 4000+ which once would i choose. The 4000+ in only about £70 where as the X2 is about £117. Is the price difference worth it?
 
hardkore said:
Will the core 2 duo work with regular pc3200 DDR?
Click to expand...

Yup and the 4300 will work well with it - you can overclock! It's madness. You can also use your old AGP card with it. DDR, DDR2, AGP and PCI-E on a board with decent performance, and useful (not stellar!) OC potential.

There is a whole thread in the Motherboard forum on this board's predecessor the Dual VSTA.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8774866#post8774866
 
hardkore said:
cool ill have a look into it. Thanks for your help mate :)

BUT.... if i had to choose between x2 4200+ or a single core 4000+ which once would i choose. The 4000+ in only about £70 where as the X2 is about £117. Is the price difference worth it?
Click to expand...

From wikipedia Supreme Commander, recommended; 3.0 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor or better. A dual-core processor is greatly recommended for acceptable performance.
 
It would be silly to get an X2 in my opinion, if its in the possibilities so should the core 2 duo as it would only cost you another £30 for the motherboard and you would have a much better system. A core 2 duo system would last you a long while too.

It would be worth getting the 4000+ but thats only if you were to sell you current chip, that system wouldnt last you very long though I wouldn't have thought. The best option is the core 2 duo route.
 
ok well you've convinced me to get a core 2 duo rig lol. But just wondering how much would my 3200+ bottleneck a X1950XT or PRO?
 
I think it would bottleneck myself, that is a high-end DX9 card. Its a wise move, I was going to go AMD myself when I first started making plans to upgrade until I researched a little and had a few discussions on these forums. :)
 
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