Best upgrade for an Athlon64 X2 4800+ S939 rig w/2GB DDR?

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, I bought an X2 4800+ S939 chip and 4x512MB DDR chips off of a member here, because I had a 939dual-VSTA ASrock board to put them in.

I built a machine around it, for a friend, and put Win7 64-bit on. The friend just uses it for web browsing and listening to music.

I was thinking today about helping them upgrade their rig. Where to start? All four RAM slots are filled, and although I think in theory, I could replace them with 1GB sticks, I think that wouldn't be cost-effective.

I have some FM2+ A55 boards, and some A4-6300 APUs, and some SSDs.

Would an A4-6300 be a noticeable step up from an X2 4800+ S939 CPU? They were pretty beefy for their time.

Edit: Ok, Passmark shows about 2200 for the A4-6300, and 1300 for the X2 4800+. I guess it would be worth it, with an SSD. Have to bounce it off him.

 

[sm625]

It would be a nice step up. G3258 @ 4 Ghz would still be twice as fast in all respects, but if you have the parts then yes its a no brainer.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I have some FM2+ A55 boards, and some A4-6300 APUs, and some SSDs.

Would an A4-6300 be a noticeable step up from an X2 4800+ S939 CPU? They were pretty beefy for their time.

Edit: Ok, Passmark shows about 2200 for the A4-6300, and 1300 for the X2 4800+. I guess it would be worth it, with an SSD. Have to bounce it off him.

Defiantly worth it. Especially with SSD, even if nothing else the newer FM2+ platform will have better onboard audio, and way better integrated graphics then anything available for Socket 939 (Geforce 6150...?). Graphics may not seem important on such a system, but video acceleration is.

 

[Tsavo]

The 6300 will be 3-4x faster than the 4800+, not to mention a vastly superior chipset. Toss in an SSD, and he'll think he's piloting a starship.

 

[gorion]

I think single thread performance matters the most to your friend. A4-6300 passmark single thread is 2x the one of the X2.

 

[soccerballtux]

you just need more RAM. I haven't needed a CPU upgrade for 8 yeras.

 

[VirtualLarry]

you just need more RAM. I haven't needed a CPU upgrade for 8 yeras.

I agree, mostly. But the problem is, if I spent $20 ea on four 1GB DDR400 DIMMs, that's $80.

For the same $80, I could approximately get:

MSI A55 FM2+ mobo $27
AMD A4-6300 FM2 APU $37
4GB DDR3-1600 DIMM $30?

And then a 60GB SATA6G SSD refurb for $35.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I agree, mostly. But the problem is, if I spent $20 ea on four 1GB DDR400 DIMMs, that's $80.

For the same $80, I could approximately get:

MSI A55 FM2+ mobo $27
AMD A4-6300 FM2 APU $37
4GB DDR3-1600 DIMM $30?

And then a 60GB SATA6G SSD refurb for $35.

In a nutshell, I don't think its worth it to invest that kind of money in a 939 system. Better to pension it off, and take the plunge with a new system.

Two things though. To get best results with any AMD APU, dual channel memory is a requirement. Also that 60GB SSD is going to feel small soon, if not already. You could experiment with WIM boot, if you want to maximize those 60GB...

 

[soccerballtux]

I agree, mostly. But the problem is, if I spent $20 ea on four 1GB DDR400 DIMMs, that's $80.

For the same $80, I could approximately get:

MSI A55 FM2+ mobo $27
AMD A4-6300 FM2 APU $37
4GB DDR3-1600 DIMM $30?

And then a 60GB SATA6G SSD refurb for $35.

oh, DDR, nevermind lol, I didn't think anyone was on that still.

You really want more than 4GB RAM.

do you want to limit yourself to $80?

 

[VirtualLarry]

oh, DDR, nevermind lol, I didn't think anyone was on that still.

You really want more than 4GB RAM.

do you want to limit yourself to $80?

Well, I was thinking roughly $100 for the upgrade, but I already have all of those parts listed.

I agree, personally, I prefer 8GB or more, but for this person, they don't do anything "heavy" with their PC (that I know of), so I think 4GB would work well for them.

Will an AMD FM2 APU decode 1080P YouTube, while running on single-channel DDR3-1600?

Edit: Now that I think about it, I've already seen it possible. I built another friend an AMD APU rig with a A6-5400K (I think it was A6), it's a dual-core, unlocked multi. Didn't overclock it, had a single 4GB DIMM. Tested watching a 1080P twitch.tv stream on it, CPU usage was around 60-70%. Seemed smooth.

 

[dbcooper1]

I'd hang onto it or delay it until I could scavenge whatever you decide to upgrade from and older system; that's about the only way you can make it worthwhile. I try to draw the upgrade line at core2duo or newer these days- can't justify anything older.

 

[myocardia]

Will an AMD FM2 APU decode 1080P YouTube, while running on single-channel DDR3-1600?

I highly doubt it, but 2x2GB sets are only a couple of dollars more expensive than 1x4GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

 

[SPBHM]

unless you can get free DDR1 use it as it is, install a 32bit OS to save a little memory and that's it... or buy a new motherboard+CPU+mem