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Is it worth it for me to go C2D?

A

Azndude51

Platinum Member
I'm planning a upgrade for my rig, here are the current specs:
A64 3200+ Winchester S939
MSI Neo2 Platinum Nforce3
2x1GB Corsair XMS DDR400
6800GT AGP
Everything else I plan to keep the same

I mainly want to upgrade GPU, but want to get something better than the X1950pro AGP. That means I have to get PCI-e, which means a new mobo. I haven't thought about which GPU, so ignore that for now.
Would it be worth going C2D? I would sell CPU/mobo/RAM and buy new ones.
or should I just get a new S939 AMD X2 CPU/cheap mobo and just keep the RAM?

The C2D setup will be faster with much more overclock potential, but it's expensive.
The AMD route would be much cheaper as I could keep my RAM and just buy a cheap mobo and then upgrade again sooner than I would w/the C2D.

Which would you guys suggest?
 
Originally posted by: Azndude51
Is it worth it for me to go C2D?
Click to expand...
Eveything depends on HOW you use your PC... everything. :laugh:
What applications do you run? Do you run them at the same time?

 
It is going to depend on your budget. If you can afford C2D then it is well worth it, the performance at stock is veryy good and the overclocking potential superb.

I recently went down the C2D route having previously had an X2 4400+ and I'm very impressed, however the overall setup wasn't exactly cheap.

 
Originally posted by: Blain
Originally posted by: Azndude51
Is it worth it for me to go C2D?
Click to expand...
Eveything depends on HOW you use your PC... everything. :laugh:
What applications do you run? Do you run them at the same time?
Click to expand...

A lot of gaming, usual internet/e-mail/AIM multitasking. I also use a lot of Photoshop and DVD ripping, mp3 encoding.
 
Originally posted by: George Powell
It is going to depend on your budget. If you can afford C2D then it is well worth it, the performance at stock is veryy good and the overclocking potential superb.

I recently went down the C2D route having previously had an X2 4400+ and I'm very impressed, however the overall setup wasn't exactly cheap.
Click to expand...

Well, I have up to $800 to spend, including the graphics card. However, I want the best bang for my buck as I would prefer saving some of that money and not spending all of it.
 
It's not worth it unless you are overclocking since X2 4600+ Dual Core = E6300 in both price and performance and you already have the ram and ram is very expensive right now. If you want to overclock E6300 is only way to fly but that mem costs even more leaving you no budget for what you really need, a video card.

I wouldn't even get dual core until I saw a need and games, which seems your main intrest, don't need DC ATM. So: I'd just get a 939 PCIe mobo and the best video card out like 8800 GTO/GTX and be sitting around $500-$700 in upgrade.
 
Originally posted by: gerwen
You could also go through a transistional stage with the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. It will allow you to use ddr or ddr2, and agp or pci-e. Not much of an overclocker though. Get your conroe, new gpu, and mobo now, keep your old ram. In the future, upgrade to a better mobo, and ddr2.

Added bonus, it's pretty cheap:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157092
Click to expand...
This is an excellent suggestion. I got one of these ASRock boards last August with a new C2D and used my old DDR RAM and AGP card. First I upgraded the videocard to PCI-E then replaced the DDR with DDR2 and then when Christmas rolled around I did the final upgrade and replaced the 775Dual-VSTA with a Gigabyte DS3.

I gotta say the ASRock board was really good for what it does. Very stable and worked with everything. Only downsides are the lack of overclockability and the PCI-E only running at a max of 4x instead of 16x(not that I could tell any diff, hehe).

Looking back, if I wasn't interested in overclocking I would've stuck with the ASRock because it just plain worked good and was cheap to boot and definitely gave you the C2D experience. :thumbsup:
 
I'm in a similar situation with a 3200+, 1Gb Ram, but with a 7600gt. My system still runs everything medium/high-ish so I'm sticking with it at least for another year. On that note, I will NOT upgrade a single piece in the system. Nothing I change, other than the VC, can be carried over to a new system, and Mobo, CPU and Ram are near/at their end of 'life'. So I'd suggest holding on for a few more months, then just overhauling the whole thing (until Vista blows over).

If you change the mobo, thats about $100 for an outdated piece of hardware since you'll be keeping AGP. Don't bother with crappy ASRock AGP/PCI boards, I have one and it was a nightmare (defective part). The Ram will last you a long time, but it's DDR and can't carry over to a C2D or AM2 (? ~forget name). If you get a mobo with PCI, it means a new VC which will be bottlenecked by the processor.

As for the upgrade scenarios, a C2D sounds good since its affordable and top of the line, as is an AM2 route (cheaper, not so top). I wouldn't get another S939, it's about dead. And you said it yourself, you'll get a cheap upgrade now, then do it all over again in a short amount of time, so why not just go all out?

So I'd suggest you just hold off until Vista comes, wait a few months to see how things go, then just do a completely new build, sell this one if you can. Good luck.
 
Originally posted by: Azndude51
Originally posted by: Imp
So I'd suggest holding on for a few more months, then just overhauling the whole thing (until Vista blows over).
Click to expand...

I don't have the patience 🙁
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reason I went with C2D now. By the time I sold my old parts I only had about $350 in a complete upgrade. The longer I had waited the less I would have got out of my other stuff. But of course the parts I got would have been cheaper. So I don't think it matters much if you do it now or later.

One thing I would do is not go hardcore on the video card. Some budget DX10 cards are due in the next couple months. I spent $165(used) on a X1800XT 512mb to hold me over till something comes that has performance quite a bit better, with DX10 and is at or below $200. I won't side grade to another card just for DX10 it will have to be a decent performance boost(20FPS or more at least)
 
If you didn't care that much about gaming I'd say just snag a 939 3800+ or 4200+ X2 & call it a day, but since you do want to game you have a problem... really the best bet to purely increase FPS would be to grab the X1950 Pro AGP & overclock the 3200+ as far as possible ... the NForce 3 you have now is a pretty decent performing board & you'll see a very nice performance increase in newer games over the 6800GT in the same rig.

Otherwise, just bite the bullet & spend a bit more for decent C2D system & a Sapphire X1950XT PCIe for $249 ... the cost of 2gb's DDR2 will hurt you a bit, but the upside is that you should be able to offset the cost because your old stuff still has some value on FS/FT.
 
Originally posted by: Beachboy
Originally posted by: gerwen
You could also go through a transistional stage with the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. It will allow you to use ddr or ddr2, and agp or pci-e. Not much of an overclocker though. Get your conroe, new gpu, and mobo now, keep your old ram. In the future, upgrade to a better mobo, and ddr2.

Added bonus, it's pretty cheap:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157092
Click to expand...
This is an excellent suggestion. I got one of these ASRock boards last August with a new C2D and used my old DDR RAM and AGP card. First I upgraded the videocard to PCI-E then replaced the DDR with DDR2 and then when Christmas rolled around I did the final upgrade and replaced the 775Dual-VSTA with a Gigabyte DS3.

I gotta say the ASRock board was really good for what it does. Very stable and worked with everything. Only downsides are the lack of overclockability and the PCI-E only running at a max of 4x instead of 16x(not that I could tell any diff, hehe).

Looking back, if I wasn't interested in overclocking I would've stuck with the ASRock because it just plain worked good and was cheap to boot and definitely gave you the C2D experience. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

The ASRock dual motherboards are an interesting option, I'll consider it.
 
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