Upgrading socket 939

[TheOverLord]

Hi all,
I bought a midrange comp last year around august, heres the specs:
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (only a Clawhammer)
Gainward BLISS Geforce 7900 GT "Golden Sample" 512MB GDDR3
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939)
Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01
X-Fi Xtreme Music
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache (x2 in raid)


Well anyway, im feeling in certain games (mainly oblivion) that the processor is holding my computer back, ive thought about overclocking it but its the old 0.13tech and runs pretty hot at stock volts (idleing around 40c).

Now the question is, would i see a good increase in performance if i got a x2 4800 (nice "this week only" offer) or an opteron (165 or more?). Or should i just grit my teeth, get the absolute max out of my crappy clawhammer 4000 and just buy a shiney new core2duo cpu/mobo/ram combo (or even wait for the new amds??) in the summer when the new stuffs out?

If i do get a new processor, ill overclock it as long as its not gonna melt . Cheers all

P.S. sorry for creating another amd4000 thread, just that the others are old and quite lengthy

 

[steve258]

Depends how long you are willing to wait for your next big upgrade; if you are upgrading to C2D soon then there is no point getting a X2 CPU now.

But i'd say you have a pretty decent rig there so a X2 or opty will easily tide you over until AMD's next gen CPU. Besides for games you can always get a new GFX if your current one is struggling in new games.

X2 4800 is nice but an opty can be clocked higher if you have a decent stepping, get the opty 170 with 10* multi if you think your mobo is not capable of high FSB.

 

[El Jimben]

I totally agree with Steve, go for an Opty 165 or 170, it'll be a good £30 cheaper at least and will almost definately overclock better. The rest of your setup looks like it'll run most games/apps for a while yet!

 

[Tetras]

Well anyway, im feeling in certain games (mainly oblivion) that the processor is holding my computer back, ive thought about overclocking it but its the old 0.13tech and runs pretty hot at stock volts (idleing around 40c).

How do you mean? What settings are you using in Oblivion? Sure a clawhammer is a little slower than a san diego but we aren't talking by much here, 4000+ of any core is still a fast CPU.

 

[TheOverLord]

thanks for all replies

Well i dont mean its a slow cpu, its just that i think its holding my graphics back abit, i can turn graphics settings up or down, and i dont get a huge effect on framerate; coupled with a framerate in the 25 region in oblivion, i cant get above 33ish without turning everything off. Btw games dont have motion blur unlike films, so it is still possible to detect differences in framerate well above even 50.

Onto a new cpu, im liking the idea of a opteron 165/170, the dual core should future proof me quite well for a good while yet. Ive heard very good things about the 165 in overclocking, as long as you have a good stepping; so does any1 know if the "Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra" is capable of a high FSB to get the most out of the 165, or should just go with a 170?

Thanks again for all replies, a great forum with speedy, informative replies

 

[man_from_uncle]

It's not a bad board for overclocking, but I'd go for a 170 over a 165 as you will struggle to get 300+ fsb which you'll need if it's going to outperform an overclocked 4800.

 

[TheOverLord]

After thinking long and hard about this, i decided after seeing what temp i get under load from orthos, which is ~54c with stock cooling. Ive decided to get a nice cpu cooler instead, which i can transfer to a better cpu around autumn. Ive looked around and not a lot of people have used the stock coolers on the 3xxx/4000 range, so as a rough guess, i would hope to knock 5c on load, which should give me some headroom to overclock.

Now, since ive got a wavemaster, i'm restricted in height (nothing above 14.5cm), so im looking at the Zalman CNPS9700. My Question is: just to make sure, can I buy a nice cooler now and reuse it later on? Sorry for going off on a tangent, but thanks for all replies