$500 to spend on cpu/motherboard/ram! Help!

[semlethe3rd]

I was wondering if it would be worth buying new cpu/motherboard/ram with only $500 to spend. I may be able to go slightly over $500 especially if I sell my old parts. My current setup is:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processor (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Motherboard: 939Dual-VSTA
Memory: 2014MB RAM

1. Will be used for gaming.
2.$500-$550
3.USA
4.Was AMD-fanboy but looking towards intel.
5.Can still use 500watt powersupply,case, and 8800GT
6.I have been searching through threads.
7. I may overclock slightly but nothing to intense.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[jkresh]

Core2 cpu's generally have much more overlcocking headroom then x2's (at the moment), so with a good oc you should be able to get a decent performance boost (20-40% cpu) within that price range, but at the very least you should wait till January to get a penryn (as it will add a few more percentage points and likely better overclocking for no increase in cost).

Unless you are running into issues with specific games/apps or you want to go quadcore, you probably should just wait as outside of quadcores for multithreaded your current system is already pretty good and your current cpu shouldn't be holding you back in most games.

 

[jonmcc33]

IMO that's a good gaming rig. There's no need to upgrade that...

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: semlethe3rd
I was wondering if it would be worth buying new cpu/motherboard/ram with only $500 to spend. I may be able to go slightly over $500 especially if I sell my old parts. My current setup is:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 FX-60 Dual Core Processor (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Motherboard: 939Dual-VSTA
Memory: 2014MB RAM

1. Will be used for gaming.
2.$500-$550
3.USA
4.Was AMD-fanboy but looking towards intel.
5.Can still use 500watt powersupply,case, and 8800GT
6.I have been searching through threads.
7. I may overclock slightly but nothing to intense.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Are you running stock?

Since the FX60 multiplier is 13 and unlocked simply changing the multiplier to 14 should get you to 2.8GHz.

I'm sure folks around here will help you boost that FX60 a little if you like - the FX60 runs a little warm and is not a great OC'er but $500 worth of mobo/cpu/ram is not gonna get yah a great deal more than what you have now.

 

[semlethe3rd]

Yes im running at stock, do you know of a link for overclocking the FX-60? I dont have the stock cooler on it so a little overclocking shouldn't be a big deal. I was more concerned since im running with the 939 mobo socket.. i still dont have DDR2 memory. Do you think this would hurt my performance that much?

 

[Build it Myself]

i'd go with the rest of them, you don't need a new system, just consider an overclock if you feel slow and wait to see what Q1 offers...