Upgrading an old 775

[Arkaign]

Originally Posted by Eureka

Thanks for all the help guys. I think I'm going to try and pick up a cheap CPU off the FS/FT section. I found out my friend probably has at least a gig of DDR2 RAM, so that'll bring me up to 3GB.

Would it matter to move past 667 RAM for an E7400/7500/8400/8500?

And why the video card upgrade? Is the x850xt worth upgrading to a 4850?

I've been using Passmark's benchmarks to compare all these choices, too. The 7500 scores about 1800 stock. A6-5400K scores about 2200. I can't really justify going from a $30 CPU to an entire A6 board setup for $90, and the E7500 is definitely faster than an A4-3400 which scores a 1700. But to be sure, how relevant is Passmark to what I'm look at?

Passmark isn't the best, but those numbers are about right.

667 vs. 800 ddr2 isn't really a big deal, less than 5% gain in most things. It shouldn't be hard to find a 2x2gb 800 pack though for cheap used.

Yes, x850xt to 4850 is a truly staggering upgrade, and will make everything better. It's these generations :

X8xx
X18xx/x19xx
HD2xxx
HD3xxx
HD4xxx

So, 4 generations ahead, drastic improvements in every area. And the upgrade would let you drop Vista, 7, or 8 on the unit with no problems. X8xx aren't fully compatible with 7/8 due to lack of WDDM 1.1. But more than just that, it opens the door to reasonable performance with low/medium details in many recent games. A few of the more high end games like BF3/Crysis3/etc, won't run well on the dual core, but really most titles will run okay with the right settings. And flash with proper acceleration will make the more advanced recent flash games lag/stutter-free.

If you can get a 6670 or so for around the same price, that would even be a better deal. Similar performance, but less power/heat and some newer video acceleration features.

On the Nvidia side, don't get anything less than a 9800GT imho.

[Hubb1e]

The fm1 and fm2 suggestions are more expensive yes, but that includes a usable video card upgrade.

[SPBHM]

Originally Posted by Eureka

Thanks for all the help guys. I think I'm going to try and pick up a cheap CPU off the FS/FT section. I found out my friend probably has at least a gig of DDR2 RAM, so that'll bring me up to 3GB.

Would it matter to move past 667 RAM for an E7400/7500/8400/8500?

And why the video card upgrade? Is the x850xt worth upgrading to a 4850?

I've been using Passmark's benchmarks to compare all these choices, too. The 7500 scores about 1800 stock. A6-5400K scores about 2200. I can't really justify going from a $30 CPU to an entire A6 board setup for $90, and the E7500 is definitely faster than an A4-3400 which scores a 1700. But to be sure, how relevant is Passmark to what I'm look at?

x850xt is from 2004, with no DX9C support, you can't even start most of the "newer" games, and it doesn't support video acceleration like the newer cards do.

imo it's definitely worth the upgrade, but the 4800 is also getting old by now, it uses to much power for how it performs, and AMD now considers it a "legacy support product", with no new drivers for the last 5-6 months I think,
you can find a 6670 DDR3 for $50, it's slower than the 4850, but for what you described I think it's a better fit, without the excessive power usage and better driver support.

the A6 uses a single module, shares a lot of stuff between the 2 cores, in some cases it would be clearly slower than the e7500.

but overall it should give you a comparable experience I think,

but again, I think your motherboard does not support the e7500 (or any 45nm CPU).

anyway, I would rather use the IGP from the 5400k than the x850xt
as a CPU it's also an upgrade compared to the e2160.

[Insert_Nickname]

Originally Posted by Hubb1e

The fm1 and fm2 suggestions are more expensive yes, but that includes a usable video card upgrade.

^^ This

You have to look at the whole picture. The low-end AMD APU might not be that impressive on the CPU side. But they include a pretty powerful GPU core as well. It even includes the UVD3 video decoding engine, that has HW acceleration for all commonly used codecs. Far as I remember the the X850XT has no video acceleration features to speak of...

An APU setup will also use substantially less power, then a discrete GFX card. Compared to newer GFX cards, the HD4850 is quite a power-guzzler (I have owned one myself...).

my 2c...

[Hubb1e]

I would not bother with the dual core a6 Trinity chips on fm2. When l said a6 l was talking about llano. You will want the quad core parts on fm1 or fm2. I'm too lazy to look up names and l am on a tablet but stick to quad k models on fm1 if you get a deal or the k model quad Trinities on fm2. The a8 5600k is 100$ and unlocked. With ram board and tax you are at $200. The gpu is an upgrade. The CPU is an upgrade. and ram is an upgrade.

[2is]

And the motherboard is an upgrade

[eBauer]

Why not simply overclock the e2140? 333FSB would get you to 2.66GHz if your motherboard is capable. Definitely a lot of headroom in those chips.