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Bored? Gimme some feedback on this upgrade!

Malladine

Malladine

Diamond Member
Current system:
Shuttle AN35 Ultra
AXP T-bred 2600+ (2.2ghz 266fsb)
128mb 9800 non pro
1gb pc2700 value

Upgrade 1:
MSI K8N Neo4 SLI
A64 Venice 3200+ (2ghz)
256mb 6800gt
1gb pc3200 corsair xms (to maintain dual channel)
$725

Upgrade 2:
ECS NFORCE4-A939
A64 Venice 3000+ (1.8ghz)
256mb 7800GT
1gb pc3200 corsair value
$708

i'm thinking 100% faster. Your thoughts/opinions? #1 or #2, neither?

EDIT for Upgrade option 2
 
Originally posted by: Kensai
I would guess closer to 60-70% faster depending on which applications.
Click to expand...
Sorry, for gaming and some photoshop exclusively.

Why so low? The 6800gt benchmarks 100%+ faster than the 9800np in all games and game related benchmarks
 
Yeah, I'd be inclined to say for gaming a 100% improvement (or more) is realistic. Just my guess, never fooled around with the 9800np.
 
Originally posted by: Malladine
Originally posted by: Kensai
I would guess closer to 60-70% faster depending on which applications.
Click to expand...
Sorry, for gaming and some photoshop exclusively.

Why so low? The 6800gt benchmarks 100%+ faster than the 9800np in all games and game related benchmarks
Click to expand...

But then for Photoshop and other CPU intensive tasks your lower clock speed will negate the effect of the memory controller on-die - it's your call, but I wouldn't upgrade until socket M2 comes out.
 
Woohoo, I hope it is.
<-- 2400MHz Barton, 1GB PC3200 and a 9800, looking to go to a 3200+ (to overclock), 6800GT and 1GB RAM sometime soon-ish.
Please update with how much better things are if you decide to go for it.
 
you don't have to get SLi unless ur addin' another card in also. but I'd rather spend the extra pepper on a 7800. it's faster than 2 6800GT's on SLi. the XMS won't matter unless you get a good motherboard to go with it.
MSI is a rip off in my opinion.
it's better for a 939 than a 754 socket. 754's are becoming old.
 
It is hard to judge something by % I think in terms of gaming. You can either (1) play the game on such and such settings or (2) not be able to play the game at such and such settings. %s don't really matter that much in gaming. With that in mind, you will be able to play most games at or near max detail without lagging. I don't have experience with AMDs and photoshop so I can't really say too much about that 😛.
 
Originally posted by: nick1985
screw that XMS stuff. READ THIS

get some regular value RAM, and use the saved cash for a 7800GTX. MUCH better performance if you do this
Click to expand...
Thing is, regular value ram isn't much cheaper now. That 1gb pc3200 xms ram is $123 🙂 I'd save $33 going value - don't you think that's worth it? I certainly couldn't afford to go from a 6800gt to a 7800gt (nevermind the gtx) on just $33 😛

The only reason ram is there is because it's an upgrade from 2700->3200 and I want to keep dual channel. Currently 2x512 @ 2700 are in dual channel - i could buy 1gb more of the same but bye bye dual channel. So, it's either keep 1gb pc2700, upgrade to 1gb pc3200 or go to 2gb pc2700 (2x1gb). More ram or faster ram for pshop?
 
Originally posted by: Valkerie
you don't have to get SLi unless ur addin' another card in also. but I'd rather spend the extra pepper on a 7800. it's faster than 2 6800GT's on SLi. the XMS won't matter unless you get a good motherboard to go with it.
MSI is a rip off in my opinion.
it's better for a 939 than a 754 socket. 754's are becoming old.
Click to expand...
What other 939 board would you recommend? Around $70 as that would save me, including the ram $33 savings, $80 or so which is almost enough for a 7800gt
 
Originally posted by: scottish144
Try this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131541
Click to expand...
thanks, looks good. Would the following ECS mb really be that much worse? I have an ECS board in my wife's rig and it has yet to fail after 3 years of fairly heavy use.

I just priced this out to accomodate a 7800gt for the same overall upgrade cost:

ECS NFORCE4-A939 (1.0) Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard -
$74.00

GIGABYTE GV-NX78T256V-B Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
$399.00

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model
$146.00

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
$89.50

Total: $708.50

Opinions when compared with the original build?

I'm really stuck on the ram thing. I obviously don't want to lose dual channel, right? How much better is ddr400 going to be in this system than ddr333? It should just open the bottleneck a little more, shouldn't it (what with the higher fsb that socket A->939 provides)?
 
Does the mb have hypertransport? The RAM speed shouldn't be much of an issue. Faster is always better, but the difference between 333 and 400 won't really impact application performance (especially if the mb has hypertransport). I've never used ECS (and am obsessed with ASUS and DFI), so I don't know their general rep. If you want a nice, albeit expensive mb, try the DFI Lanparty nF4 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136151).
If you need PCI Express with less price, try this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130491
I don't really know about MSI, but it looks good.
 
Originally posted by: scottish144
Does the mb have hypertransport? The RAM speed shouldn't be much of an issue. Faster is always better, but the difference between 333 and 400 won't really impact application performance (especially if the mb has hypertransport).
Click to expand...
What does hypertransport do that lessens the impact of a 333->400 upgrade?

Kensai: doesn't ECS actually manufacture motherboards for rebranding under the bigger names? Does anyone have experience with this exact mobo? (NFORCE4 A939 1.0)

Another question too. Would adding 1gb pc2700, thereby losing dual channel, make much difference? If I wouldn't lose much it might be worth having 2gb.
 
Originally posted by: Malladine
Bump for poll and upgrade path #2
Click to expand...


Wha.....I would say 2 for sure.

The 3000+ you can Overclock to about the same as the 3200+.
The XMS is nice memory but it's alot of money so the Corsair value looks good, maybe think about some OCZ as well.
The 7800 is the way to go!

I would think about maybe going with the Epox board for the second setup also.

 
A64 3000+ Venice @ 146$
1GB Corsair Value Select PC3200 @ 90$
eVGA 7800GTX w/ Free SLI motherboard @ 525$
-=Or the GT if you can't find the GTX=-

(Out of stock for the SLI boards, wait a while)
 
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