AMD 3200 s939. Is an upgrade realistic ?

[DetConan]

Let's say I have $250 to spend on my computer.

Here is my system
Case : Sonata II, 450 PSU
MSI K8N-NEO4f s939
3200+
XFX 7600gt xxx
2 X 512 DDR

Mainly to play (for me) and scrapbooking, music, internet (for my wife)
No Overclocking. I repeat, "No overclocking"

For now, this system is very good for me. I did not want to upgrade the processor before next year. I wanted to buy a LCD monitor with the money. But now, as the s939 processors are disappearing, i feel that I have to upgrade (against my will).

Should i try to get a new processor now ? Like a X2 3800 ? 4200 ? Opteron 165 ?
Will I see any differences with my actual rig ?
Should I stay with my actual rig and wait at the end of the year to upgrade the videocard instead of the processor (as by the end of the year, i presume that it will be impossible to find any s939 processors) ? Will a video upgrade be sufficient for a while ?
Is is realistic to think that next year, I will be able to upgrade the motherboard + CPU + RAM ? (and the PSU to support all this ?) at nearly the same price that I would pay for an upgrade to a X2 processor ? My computer store offer me an AMD 3800+ (not X2) for around $100 : would it be a wise compromise or is the performance gain is not enough to take the trouble to do that ?

I would gladly not upgrade now to buy me a LCD monitor but I do not want to have to buy an all new computer next year, so

Any opinions ? Ideas ? Suggestions ?

Thank you very much

 

[swtethan]

save your money 939 is dead

 

[SlowSpyder]

I got an Opty 165 as I planned to overclock it, getting a nice return on the money spent. Personally, that's the only way I'd upgrade a 939 system, I wouldn't recommend spending more money on a higher clocked part for a dead socket/memory.

 

[gplracer]

It depends what you are going to use the computer for.

Can you play all your current games ok? If so you do not need a new video card.

Is the computer fast enough? If so you do not need a new processor. If you upgrade the processor then get a dual core.

I would hold off until you upgrade the cpu, ram, and motherboard. Then I would get a Intel processor or wait for AMD's processor after it is reviewed.

I would buy a 20" widescreen lcd. I bought one for my 10 year old and he likes it. Of course my 24" does look better......

 

[Binky]

Save your money. A dual core wouldn't be any faster for what you do, and the fastest single cores wouldn't make much of an impact either. Your bottleneck is probably memory more than anything. I'd put 2x1gb ram in before touching the processor for daily use but even that would make a relatively small improvement under WinXP. Do NOT install Vista with 1gb of ram.

 

[o1die]

Unless you do alot of video editing or encoding, I doubt a dual core will do you much good. I recently got a spare 939 3200 and agp board before they're all gone for my 6 sticks of pc3200. Hate to change memory. DDr2 isn't that much faster.

 

[nyker96]

yes I agree with others here, first don't dump cash into 939 no more. Second get a nice 8800xxx for your upgrade will give ya way more for games.

 

[lifeblood]

About six months ago I went from a single core 3200+ to a dual core 3800+ and was quite pleased. Although it didn't increase the speed of any specific application, it did allow multiple applications to run without affecting each other. When I play online games I frequently have Skype running as well as Firefox open with game maps. With the single core switching between them was painfully slow. With dual core it's very responsive.

 

[Kur]

I used to have a 3200+ and gamed alot, I had alot of conflicting issues because I was doing multiple things so I upgraded to a 3800+ X2 S939 and saw a huge increase in multi tasking. So I would say go for the upgrade before S939 dies before you have to make the move to AM2

 

[Boyo]

939 is dead. I would put the money towards either more RAM or a nice LCD monitor. But wait until you have the money to upgrade the whole rig.

 

[cubeless]

Originally posted by: Boyo
939 is dead. I would put the money towards either more RAM or a nice LCD monitor. But wait until you have the money to upgrade the whole rig.

ddr is dead, too...

go with a new monitor... for what u do it will make u happiest, and be the most xferrable to your next rig... for $200ish u can get a nice samsung 20in from buy.com right now...

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: swtethan
save your money 939 is dead

The very reason why now AMD is dead. Countless thousands of business computers run e socket 939 systems and now they have been cut off from any simple upgrade path.

IT managers everywhere will never again recommend an AMD system when one as stable as the 939 was EOL'ed so quickly

Never before in the history of computing could a company upgrade their entire inventory of PC's from single cores to Dual cores and buy years of usefull life with just a simple CPU swap. No OS reinstall, No App reinstall. The cost savings would have been enourmous, the sales to AMD would have been Enormous

 

[formulav8]

Dual core cpu's are so cheap now that I would get a 3800+ X2. You can get the cpu for about $118 shipped or so.

You can get a Opty 165 for $155 or so.

If you want more straightline speed, you can get a single core 4000+ for $78 at newegg.com. A possible 15%-20% increase in overall performance. Video would probably be the best route if your strictly playing games.

You could also sell your current cpu for $40 or whatever and have very little out of pocket.

Just my humble opinion.


Jason

 

[undeclared]

Whoever says DDR1 is dead, look at the benchmarks..

Socket 939 has MORE memory b/w with DDR400 than Core 2 Duos do with DDR2-800!

Don't forget, he has to buy a new motherboard, sell his CPU, sell/trade his ram, etc..

It's not a piece of crap system no matter what anyone says.

Someone once asked me, what's the difference between Intel and AMD..

"Do they play games at good fps? do they run windows pretty fast? can you get the cutting edge with them?"

The answer is simple, minus your benchmarks showing the difference between 176 FPS and 281 FPS on doom 3, is it really going to make a difference?

I mean, I'm not at all saying that a core 2 duo isn't a better choice, but what I am saying is.. is 939 crap? hell no.

Pop an FX-60 there for about the price of an E6400, OC some with unlocked multi and you got yourself a really good system, regardless of what anyone would tell ya.

No rebuilding of system, just pop in a new CPU, more ram as needed, better video, etc.. based on what you want to do.

939 is dead in the way that there is no future updates, but it doesn't mean that the current offerings are garbage either..

FX-60, 8800 GTS, 2gb ram.. tell me that's gonna be a ****** computer that's gonna fall behind, because I don't seem to think so.

 

[Zero001]

Since your budget is $250, you can actually make a pretty significant upgrade.

- Buy a Brisbane + TForce 550 combo for $143.99

- 2gb of G.Skill Ram for $139.99

For under $285 you've just upgraded the main parts of the PC. It?s actually cheaper after the $10 MIR for the motherboard. You can sell your current motherboard, CPU, and RAM to bring you under that $250 budget.

 

[Showtime]

Just wait a few weeks for the intel price cuts to hit and your $250 will go a lot further. Im hoping to see <$100 3800+Dual Core combos at frys or <$75 for the proc by itself.
Corsair VS ram seems to be dropping and 2 gigs is all you will need with that proc for xp.

 

[A554SS1N]

I'd just get a bit more RAM..... only if it's really needed though.