Have Barton 2500 want help w upgrade

[Laudas]

I plan on ditching my 2500 (running at 2800 speeds) barton in lieu of a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, 1 gig pc 3200 ram and a new cpu. The problem is I am hung up on which CPU to buy. I was gonna get an AMD 64 3500 then cheaped out and am considering a 3200. Now I am thinking mebbe the 3000 is better to get and use the saved money for better quality RAM. I am not a skilled overclocker and think I would only overclock a touch....Maybe to the next CPU speed. Can anyone give me input on where best to spend the money? Thank you so much, Laudas.

BTW I have an AGP 6800 GT which is why I am considering the upgrade....I hear the 64's give this video card more headroom....

Thanks!

 

[d2arcturus]

Yep that video card is awesome. I've got one with my 2500 Barton and the 2500 bottlenecks it baaad. You'll really see the GT shine on an A64 system.
No need for expensive RAM, the performance increase is negligible, and you can put the saved cash towards a better CPU or CPU heatsink like the XP-120 or 90 if you're going to OC.

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535
XP Heatsinks: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...ry=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

 

[Laudas]

Well I dont think i plan on overclocking it. Is there much of a speed difference between the 3000,3200 and the 3500?

Laudas

 

[d2arcturus]

If you're not going to OC, you want a more powerful CPU. It's all a question of how much you're willing to spend on all this

 

[Furen]

At the risk of sounding like I'm obsessed with socket 754 here's what I'd recommend:

If you are not overclocking AND you dont plan on upgrading within the next year, I'd go for an athlon 64 3400+.

Why? you might ask. Here's my reasoning:

1) A 3400+ is clocked at 2.4GHz w/512kb of cache. This makes it's performance pretty much right in between a socket 939 3500+ and a 3800+ (dunno about the 939 3700+). The lack of dual-ddr hurts performance a bit but the high stock clockspeed more than makes up for it.

2) It's dirt cheap... I mean, it's a bit more expensive than a socket 939 3000+.

Here's some other stuff I want to mention:

Personally, I never upgrade a cpu without upgrading the motherboard (I normally make a new computer out of the old parts I dont want in my new system), so even if you plan to upgrade within a year, socket 939 upgradeability might be moot. Socket M2 should be (hopefully) pretty widely available by next year's fall and hopefully the dual core semprons will be out as well (and hopefully they wont suck nuts).

Did I say it's cheap?

If money is NOT an issue, then I suppose I'd recommend anything above a 3500+ (S939)