What are my upgrade options?

lufc · 1 Mar 2007 at 22:47

I've been spending a bit more time recently looking into my upgrade options and I'm not sure which way would be the best to go.

My current setup is as follows:

AMD X2 4400+ (939)
2GB Corsair XMS3200 memory (DDR400)
Asus A8N SLI Premium
Nvidia 7800GTX

I'll definitely be keeping everything else, except I'll be needing a new PSU.

I've been looking at the 2.4Ghz Conroe that everyone raves about but considering I already have a dual core chip running at 2.2Ghz would I see that much of an improvement?

It would be a lot cheaper to just buy an 8800GTX and a new PSU to power it than purchase a Conroe, new motherboard and new DDR2 memory aswell, but would this create a bottleneck between the graphics card and the rest of the system? Afterall it is a year and a half old!

I noticed in the OcUK shop that they actually still sell my chip and its more expensive than the Conroe i've been looking at!

So which would be the better option? At the moment I'd prefer to spend as little as possible

hai · 1 Mar 2007 at 23:29

E4300 £110ish, P5N-E/ABIT 650I £80ish, OCZ 2GB pc6400 £113, overclock to 3.2 with not too much trouble then think if a graphics card is needed.

mp260767 · 2 Mar 2007 at 00:27

ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA £45 ish and 4300c2d £110ish, use you're current 2gb memory til u can get ddr2 and maybe change the mobo at a later date.

d1am0nd g33z3r · 2 Mar 2007 at 02:43

Yes, you should see a good performance hike over your X2. The Core2 architecture is just that much better. Clock for clock, it wins hands down.

Your X2 chip may be more expensive as its Socket939 and I believe stocks of 939 parts are running low now they're no longer manufactured (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Still demand but no supply. :rolleyes:

lufc · 2 Mar 2007 at 12:01

thanks for the info guys, was kinda hoping you'd all just say buy the card for now and upgrade to quad core later on, but thats just me being optimistic

I'm surprised that the 4400+ chip is more expensive than the Conroe, I understand what you're saying diamond geezer, but I'd have thought that there wouldn't be any demand for them at all when you can buy a 2.4Ghz Conroe for 30-40 quid less.

I just wanted to add that the main problem I'm having at the moment is getting games to run at decent framerates with as much detail as possible turned on. The other main problem is I can't run barely any games at my monitors native resolution of 1920x1200. I would have thought an 8800GTX would've solved this problem without the need for a processor/motherboard/memory upgrade, but if the X2 is going to cause major bottlenecks then I'll have to bite the bullet and do a full upgrade in the near future

mp260767 · 2 Mar 2007 at 13:38

i reckon the main reason their dearer is that people want them as an upgrade from a single core, and not go the full hog on conroe/mobo/memory etc, so its a case of supply/demand.

what games do you play ?

lufc · 2 Mar 2007 at 13:47

Yeah that would make sense.

I mainly play FPS's, i'm currently playing Rainbow Six Vegas, which I've had to knock down to 1280x960 (or something like that anyway) with most settings at medium. I managed to play the C&C 3 demo at 1920x1200 though, seemed to run ok.

I'm thinking ahead to Crisis, Stalker, Halo 2, Hellgate London, UT2007 etc. Can't see my current setup being able to play those at decent settings.

mp260767 · 2 Mar 2007 at 13:53

do the current settings ruin the gameplay for u ?

tbh if you're waiting on games i wouldnt bother upgrading the gfx card being as ati have there equivalent being worked on as i understand it.

once the games are released and you have issues then think about the upgrade, possibility that new stuff will be out etc.

lufc · 2 Mar 2007 at 14:07

I wouldn't really say ruin it for me. I've just noticed them getting more sluggish in the past few months, which is usually the time I start thinking about upgrading. Last upgrade I did was for Fear and some others I can't quite recall.

I'll hold fire for a bit longer but I would imagine I'll be upgrading at some point in the next 6 months.

mp260767 · 2 Mar 2007 at 14:11

lufc said:
I wouldn't really say ruin it for me. I've just noticed them getting more sluggish in the past few months, which is usually the time I start thinking about upgrading. Last upgrade I did was for Fear and some others I can't quite recall.

I'll hold fire for a bit longer but I would imagine I'll be upgrading at some point in the next 6 months.

best idea imho, get the funds up, hopefully new ati cards possibly nvidia might help with the prices, get demos released for you to have a test run to see how low you have to move the setting/ how you're current setup handles them.