Best upgrade?

[Bill Kunert]

I'm currently running Win7 64 bit on a homebuilt. CPU is a Athelon X2 3600 @ 2.7GHZ, 4 gig of PC 3200 ram, An EVGA 8800GSO 384 meg, a WD 250gig SATA drive and an Antec 400 watt Smart Power. I'd like a few more fps in FSX. I'm considering upgrading to an EVGA 9800 series card. Good idea or not? I'm on Social Security so I can't afford to overhaul the whole syste. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

 

[Bill Kunert]

I can't believe there are no opinions on this. One other thought. If I go for a video card - 9800 series or 250 series

 

[Syran]

I'm assuming that's a S939 X2 and not an AM2 X2 (based on the speed of your memory)?

What would be your overall budget? From this old article on Tom's, looks like you are better supplied by an upgrade to your cpu/motherboard/ram then video card once you get into any 88xx series video card, even thou the 8800GSO isn't really a powerhouse.

Other then memory (which has rocketed lately in price for DDR2), you can find some nice cpu/mobo combos that should be fairly inexpensive and work well.

 

[Pederv]

From what I've heard there's not much difference between an 8800 series card and a 9800 series card.
A faster card would help, I saw a difference in my system when I went from an X1900 card to a 4890 on my X2 4800 (2.4GHz) but your power supply may need to be upgraded also in order to support the new card.
People may say that your video card will be bottlenecked by the CPU, but who cares as long as games run better.

 

[kalrith]

From what I've heard there's not any difference between an 8800 series card and a 9800 series card.

I'm pretty sure the 9800 will yield the same performance as an 8800.

What resolution are you running? And what's your budget?

 

[brandonwh64]

GSO is what gets him on the video card! if it was a GT or GTX or hell MAYBE a GTS 640Mb it would be better but he would be better off with a new CPU/MOBO/RAM due to having DDR1 RAM

 

[Syran]

Maybe look at this Combo + an AMD Athlon II X2 420 for around $60, and you have a nice upgrade for $210 after rebates.

 

[Bill Kunert]

Maybe look at this Combo + an AMD Athlon II X2 420 for around $60, and you have a nice upgrade for $210 after rebates.

I think I'll probably go with this combo plus a Phenom II 550 BE for $102.

 

[Bill Kunert]

I think I'll have to rethink the motherboard. This particular ECS board does not allow unlockin cores on dual and triple core AMD processors. That's kind of strange for a 785 board.

 

[Syran]

I think I'll have to rethink the motherboard. This particular ECS board does not allow unlockin cores on dual and triple core AMD processors. That's kind of strange for a 785 board.

Go with one of the Gigabytes imho, I was going on best possible price with the athlon 2 and such.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tech_savy]

Both of them perform almost the same way...

 

[Syran]

Here is a AMD Phenom II X3 720 & GA-MA790GPT-UD3H combo for $194 + shipping. There's also a $15MIR from Gigabyte.

 

[Bill Kunert]

I appreciate the time y'all are spending on this thread, especially finding bundles I haven't run across.

 

[JimKiler]

I'm assuming that's a S939 X2 and not an AM2 X2 (based on the speed of your memory)?

Bill, if that is in fact a socket 939 dual core you can sell it for $100 on eBay. I sold my old dual core 939 on eBay in April with 2GB of RAM for $150. It is insane people will pay that considering i turned around and bought a new mobo AM2 with built in AMD 3200 GPU, and AM2 dual core CPU, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and 450 WAtt PSU for $175 after rebate.

I know the rebates and deals were better back in the spring but with new faster parts and Christmas time you should be able to get one nice system for a cheap price.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Bill, if that is in fact a socket 939 dual core you can sell it for $100 on eBay. I sold my old dual core 939 on eBay in April with 2GB of RAM for $150. It is insane people will pay that considering i turned around and bought a new mobo AM2 with built in AMD 3200 GPU, and AM2 dual core CPU, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and 450 WAtt PSU for $175 after rebate.

I know the rebates and deals were better back in the spring but with new faster parts and Christmas time you should be able to get one nice system for a cheap price.

I seen a used S939 X2 4800+ going for $180 on Ebay...Just the CPU alone! Even a brand new 3GHz AM3 X2 with mobo and 4GB DDR3 is going less than $180 on Newegg.

What's the deal with so many people spending so much on dead-end tech, I wonder.