What to do with £200

A5H

A5H

A5H

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Well, it's my birthday coming up, and as a result I'll have £200 or so to spend.
My current rig is:

3200+ venice S939
1GB corsair 3200 RAM (2x512 unfortunately)
Gigabyte NF4 jobbie. None SLI. S939 (Unsure on exact model number)
Sapphire 256mb X800GTO PCI-E graphics

Now my question is, would it be wise to stick with S939 and go dual core? Probably a 4600+ X2. Or would you wait, save the money and go to conroe?

Mostly used for photoshop etc.

Cheers,
Ash
 
I would probably wait for conroe, but that depends how soon you want a new rig.

If you choose to go to an X2 - get a 3800+ or 4400+. 4200+ and 4600+ are rubbish.

SiriusB
 
I would get ( in this order of preference ) bearing in mind you can clock your cpu :

1. New GFX card ( maybe an x1800xt )
2. X2 3800+ and another gig of RAM
 
Your best upgrade would probably be 2 gigs of ram and sell your 512meg sticks. If you want to go dual core then I'd go to a 3800+ and over clock it as to upgrade to conroe will cost at least £400.
 
Sparky191 said:
What are you finding slow?
Click to expand...


Nothing really.
To be honest I just fancy an upgrade before I go to uni.

I think after reading peoples replies I'll stick with S939. May aswell get the most out of it before I move on.

I'm guessing a 4400+ X2 with a decent PCI-E card and 2GB RAM would play games at an acceptable level?

Would it be worth selling my current RAM and CPU? How much would they get me approximately?

Cheers for the help,
Ash
 
I think you would be lucky to get 100 quid for the pair, but I could be wrong.

4400+ is a fine CPU, however if you are on a budget I would go for the 3800+. It has a smaller cache than the 4400+ but it clocks like a beast. 2.6 and 2.7GHz is very common.

SiriusB
 
SiriusB said:
I think you would be lucky to get 100 quid for the pair, but I could be wrong.

4400+ is a fine CPU, however if you are on a budget I would go for the 3800+. It has a smaller cache than the 4400+ but it clocks like a beast. 2.6 and 2.7GHz is very common.

SiriusB
Click to expand...


I'd rather have decent stuff so I guess I'd just have to upgrade in steps.

Is S939 stuff going to become hard to get anytime soon? It is end of life right?

I could buy the 4400 X2 and sell my CPU and RAM to get a 2GB kit (aswell as the change from the 4400). Then just wait to get a graphics card. TBH, I've not played any games recently anyway.

Thanks for the help :)
 
939 is at the end of life yes. IIRC they stopped making them not long ago.

There are still plenty of new 939 chips knocking about and the prices can only get cheaper! I wouldn't wait too long however.

Having said that, I foresee a lot of second-hand 939s making appearances in the near future as more people go Conroe.

SiriusB
 
If you are happy with the PC as it is I'd wait. I think in a few months we'll see a significant jump in performance, and it would be worth waiting for that.
 
I think you could buy a new case for it maybe a CoolerMaster Stacker 830 that work wonders for you and its only £164.44 form OCUK then you would have a good amount of change to buy BF2?? lol ;)
 
If I were you and wanted to play games with better quality, try an X1800XT? Although behind the X1900s, I'm sure it's much better than your current card.

With regard to your CPU, probably could wait a bit if you want dual core. The 939s will get cheaper as someone mentioned. If you decide the Conroe route, it would mean replacing the majority of your system, but at least you're getting the latest tech. I'm certain to keep my 4400+ for good time yet until it struggles.
 
greenlizard0 said:
Damnit...I only bought a 4600 a few weeks ago. Why is it much worse than the 4400?
Click to expand...

The 4600+ only has half the cache of the 4400+ X2. Although 200MHz faster at stock.
 
greenlizard0 said:
Damnit...this was from OCUK as well, they don't mention the cache sizes on their shop front grrrr.....
Click to expand...

Nevermind, it's still a dual core. :D :cool:
 
kbc said:
Nevermind, it's still a dual core. :D :cool:
Click to expand...

I suppose. I really should have done my research. The chips are selling for so much less than I bought them for. I should have waited for the pentiums to come out. Garrrhh..
 
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