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UPGRADING SINGLE CORE 3700 WHAT TO DO

bigjonnyauk

bigjonnyauk

bigjonnyauk

Associate
Joined
5 May 2004
Posts
2,389
hi guys well at a loss here been a while since i upgraded my comp

i now have around 130 quid to mess with but not sure what to do


currentley have

K8NGM2-FID in a sugo
1 gig of 3200 ram
san diego single core 3700 proccy

running xp and will be for a while

i do play a few games mostly pes but most of my gaming is done on 360

do a bit of encoding here and there

just want a bit more umph thats all to see me through another year or so


now do i just get a x4200 dual core proccy and another gig of ram


or a low end intel dual core new ram and new mobo

budget will be tight though

will i see much difference going from my 3700 and 1 gig ram to d/c 4200 and 2 gig
 
I'd say assuming you see yourself getting the funds to do a propper upgrade in a wee while another gig of ram and dual core upgrade would be a good way to keep you going for a little while longer.
 
allllec said:
I'd say assuming you see yourself getting the funds to do a propper upgrade in a wee while another gig of ram and dual core upgrade would be a good way to keep you going for a little while longer.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

You'll see nice performance boost in dual core apps (of which more will appear) and general multitasking with a dual core.

The 4200+ X2 isn't necessary, go for the 3800+ X2 and overclock it. They've been hitting anywhere between 2.6-2.8Ghz recently. Will save you £25 odd too.

The extra gig of RAM, bringing it up to 2Gb, will make a massive difference in games and memory intensive apps. It also gives a bit more scope for the X2s multitasking abilities to do themselves proud.

Jon
 
GeForce said:
Agreed.

You'll see nice performance boost in dual core apps (of which more will appear) and general multitasking with a dual core.

The 4200+ X2 isn't necessary, go for the 3800+ X2 and overclock it. They've been hitting anywhere between 2.6-2.8Ghz recently. Will save you £25 odd too.

The extra gig of RAM, bringing it up to 2Gb, will make a massive difference in games and memory intensive apps. It also gives a bit more scope for the X2s multitasking abilities to do themselves proud.

Jon
Click to expand...

i see your point there mate but with me being cramped in a sugo id rather not try to overclock to much

i already have a gig of geil 3200 2x512 sticks

is it best to get the same again or sell it and get 2 x 1gig sticks
 
2x1Gb will be marginally faster, although 4x512mb should be fine. Both ways the RAM will run in dual channel mode.

Just something to look out for if you go for the 4x512mb option: almost all of the dual core So939 chips were E6 revisions, but there are a few E4 revision ones floating around.

The E4 revision had a problem with the onboard memory controller which meant that it couldn't run 4 sticks of RAM at DDR400 - it dropped them down do DDR333.

The E6 revision, however, will run all 4 sticks at DDR400 without a problem.

As I said though, the E4 duals are rare as anything, and you're extremely unlikely to get one, even less so if you purchase it new. I just thought I'd let you know in case you're looking at getting a second hand chip :)

As for overclocking, the recent 3800+ X2s seem to be hitting these speeds on stock voltage. So whilst they'll be a bit hotter, it won't be by much. Of course, it's up to you, but I think overclocking at least to 4200+ speeds (2.2Ghz) would be no trouble at all, even in small case, and would see very little, if any, temperature increases.

Jon
 
How about this - slightly over budget but after selling the 939 stuff it would be well under budget.

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)
EVGA nForce 650i Ultra (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (122-CK-NF66-T1) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)

Sub Total : £146.97
Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £27.16
Total : £182.38
 
ill be putting my proccy in the kids comp to replace there old 3000 so no cash back there

also that mobo is a atx one i have a silverstone sugo which is matx and apart from going for the ultra cheapo one they are like 73 quid


also with that proccy being just 1.6 even though dual core would it perform much better than the x2 4200 from amd which is 2.2


way i am looking at it is no point shelling out for mobo ram and cpu if its going to be no faster than just shelling out for the 4200


only want some extra umph for about 15-18 month when i will get a whole new build
 
bigjonnyauk said:
will i see much difference going from my 3700 and 1 gig ram to d/c 4200 and 2 gig
Click to expand...
Definitely! :)

I am in the process of doing the exact same thing. Personally I feel an single core A64 running at 2600MHz is plenty fast for most things, it certainly nips along nicely in games for sure but recentley I got into a bit of video editing and thats when I first noticed the difference between a mono and dual core.

I personally recommend one of the socket 939 X2 chips that overclockers are selling, starting at around the £40 quid mark. I went for the X2 3800+ chips because they were the cheapest and also the fact I have some nice ASUS NForce-4 chipsets that are happy to run 300MHz-FSB + (i.e they wont hold back a cpu overclock). If you have limited overclocking options on your uATX mobo then maybe the X2 4200+ may be more suitable.

In a nut shell one of these X2 chips (and ram) will breath some fresh life into your existing system and keep you ticking over nicely until your ready for the 'motherload' upgrade in the future! :cool:
 
Why not look into something like this, maybe try the MM first, got me a e2160/4Core mobo for £79.50inc P&P. It means you can have a C2D but keep everything else, i.e AGP gfx card and DDR1
i1052434_untitled.bmp
 
Cairnsey said:
Why not look into something like this, maybe try the MM first, got me a e2160/4Core mobo for £79.50inc P&P. It means you can have a C2D but keep everything else, i.e AGP gfx card and DDR1
Click to expand...

could be a good idea, how well do those boards oc?
 
not very well unfortunately. Think you get a 33mhz fsb increase max because the PCI lock fails any higher. I'm going to just clock my e2160 to a nice round 2Ghz until I get a new board/ram/gfx card
 
In that case hes probably gonna get a better performance increase from a higher spec AMD for now.




i dont know the figures dont hold me to that
 
PCMARK05 CPU test



They're pretty similar tbh with each CPU taking the lead in different tests. Don't know how much the AMD CPU costs either.

*EDIT* Just saw £62
 
He could still get the 4Core mobo and a 2nd hand e6600 (there's been quite a few going on the MM for ~£80) as everyone seems to be upgrading to quad core at the moment. You'd still be under your budget of £130 and it beats the x2 4200 into the ground.
 
id recomend keeping your amd stuff. if your not doing much gaming then more ram wont exacly make a big difference either.

imho: get the X2 4200+ maybe clokc it a bit. depends how you feel.

stick the rest of the cash into the pot. if you want more poerformance get 2*512more elsewise save it and get something nice for the kids maybe :)


-


I upgraded from a 3700+ to an X2 4800+. notably faster in games and windows, much faster encoding etc...
 
have decided im gonna go for the x2 4200 i think

but the prob i now have is i can only find oem ones this means i need to fund for a heatsink/cooler


whats so hard about that i hear u say

its going in a sugo and heatsink and cooler cannot exceed 78mm in height :(
 
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