Opinions on minor PC upgrade

[tza88]

Ok so i got a little bit of cash for my birthday and am contemplating a minor upgrade. This is my current rig

Athlon64 4000+ San Diego
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
1gb PC3200(2-512mb's in dual channel mode)
2-Evga 7800GT SLI
Maxtor 250GB HD
Thermaltake Tsunami
Antec TruPower SLI 550W

I need a bigger hard drive due to running out of space and want to go with an external partially for the backup idea and so i can move it from one computer to the next. I also want to get more memory and possibly a dual core processor. Now i dont want to upgrade my motherboard so i am going to have to stick with a socket 939

So i am thinking of upgrading to the Athlon X2 4200+ with another 1gb of ram and a 250gb external HD. I have $160 in cash which will get me the CPU and HD from newegg and i have $80 in best buy gift cards that will get me the memory. They have the memory i need for $30 per stick of 512mb. In order to stick with the dual channel memory setup that i have now i would buy 2 - 512's to make it a total of 2gb in my machine.

My biggest thing is do you think i will see the difference in the processor?? I know i will see a diff in the memory due to all the stuff i do and based on how much is being used by the applications. I play a lot of games, do a lot with media(encoding/decoding, MP3's, video, photoshop, etc) and i want to be able to do a lot of this at the same time. I also use a virtual environment for software and security testing. With my current setup, i feel a slow down when i am using a lot of applications at once or using the virtual env & anything else, thus prompting the change to Dual core

Now i will be losing 200mhz which is very little in todays standards but the L2 cache is smaller on the dual core.

The last option i have is to skip the dual core and just get a bigger(500gb) external drive and the memory and have a little money left over.

Opinions??

 

[Blain]

Go shopping in the For Sale/Trade forum for your stuff. Your money will go much farther.

 

[MarcVenice]

CPU wise you're not going to notice any big difference in day to day apps, I didn''t when I went from 3000+ venice @ 2.6ghz to x2 3800+ @ 2.6ghz. In multitasking and stuff like that you will notice though. So if you wanna squeeze another year out of your s939 rig, go with the dualcore, perhaps x2 3800+ at newegg for 65$ or so, OC it to 2.4-2.6ghz, get the 1024mb ram extra and be a happy camper ... I also bought another 1024mb ram when I got the dualcore CPU, so can't really tell if it was the memory or the cpu or both that speeded things up ^^

 

[JackMDS]

You are wasting your money on upgrading the processor the probability is 70% that would see No gain, and 30% probability that you would see minor gain.

Get 1GB of memory, and a very fast hard drive.

Install the OS and core application on the fast drive and put the old 250 drive into a USB enclosure.

The drives, as oppose to an already obsolete cpu can be used for future upgrades.

 

[tza88]

Well getting the memory and the external hard drive are pretty much set in stone.

You don't think i will see a difference in multi-tasking with the dual core? I do a lot of video encoding and running virtual environment with other applications. I would think that i would see a difference with this.

The CPU is only $80 and i pretty much already have a buyer for my old CPU($50) so in the end it will only cost me $30 to upgrade to the Dual Core. Do you still think its not worth it?

 

[JustaGeek]

As Jack mentioned, you won't see the diference after CPU upgrade.

Just add 2x512MB and get a fast HD. Use the old one as either external or internal data drive.

 

[JackMDS]

The 939 Dual core do not perform better than the 4000.

I have two twin systems (same Mobo, same drives, similar Video) one with 4000 and one with Dual Core 4400 the 4400 does not do better, Multitasking and all.

 

[MarcVenice]

I can't believe that you are saying that a dualcore processor won't be faster then a singlecore processor in apps where both cores are utilized. In a lot of encoding apps, be it audio or video, the dualcore 4200+ clearly outperforms the 4000+ san diego. For 30$ it is a no brainer if you ask me.

 

[tza88]

JackMDS - Do you have any benchmarks showing this? I am just having a hard time with the fact that for about $30 a dual core 939 would not perform better in multi tasking.

 

[JackMDS]

Making a general statement using terms like Audio, Video, etc. is deceiving since the majority of End-Users applications (including Video and Audio) are Multicore ignorant by themselves.

It is like the statement about a professor of Statics that end up drowning in a pond that the average depth is 10".

So unless you know very specifically that you have a Multitasking concoction that can take advantage of the Dual Core it is rather useless, and actually might be slower if a single core is slower than the 4000.

However, it does not really matter, $30 is a very good price if it makes one feeling Good.

 

[tza88]

Someone on HardOCP hooked me up with this link and according to most benchmarks.....the X2 4200 would be an increase the performance of my pc. Its not huge but when it comes to doing mulitple things at once - it looks like the better option for $30

http://www23.tomshardware.com/...9&model2=486&chart=174

 

[JustaGeek]

I would just upgrade the RAM to 2GB and put $30 towards the complete system overhaul in 1 year or so.

It seems to me that you are just kinda curious about dual core, and perhaps you might gain a bit in terms of multitasking performance.

But it is not a "real" upgrade, IMHO.

BTW, you will actually have to update XP with the "dual core patch", if you don't want to see the decrease of the gaming performance, when the OS is constantly switching between cores looking for the one that is less "loaded".

 

[MarcVenice]

He didn't specify what apps he uses to encode/decode. There are plenty that take use of dualcore cpu's though. And he uses photoshop which also takes advantage of a dualcore, even when it's at a slower clockspeed it will still be faster. 30$ isn't a lot, and even when saved it's still not a lot. What is 30$ in a new upgrade, when he could be enjoying a dualcore right now for a year or so.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: tza88
I know i will see a diff in the memory due to all the stuff i do and based on how much is being used by the applications. I play a lot of games, do a lot with media(encoding/decoding, MP3's, video, photoshop, etc) and i want to be able to do a lot of this at the same time.

Opinions??

I would get the X2 4200+ for a net of $30, and then simply OC it up to 2420MHz. Run a 220FSB shouldn't be much of a problem. You might have to tinker with the memory multiplier, if your ram isn't up to the full 220MHz FSB.

$30 bucks net... I'd do it.
I'd still try and find an X2 in the For Sale/Trade forum to get more for the $$.

 

[Serradifalco]

You will definitely notice a difference with a dual core cpu. I had people telling me I wouldn't get much of a gain before I upgraded. Try running a spyware scan, stock ticker, and web surfing all at once with a single core cpu. I can now do it without missing a beat where before it was impossible.
Dual core cpus are a good upgrade for anyone. Most computer users nowdays do some kind of multitasking.

As far as the ram goes...I thought on the 939 boards you are better off with 2 1gb sticks versus 4 512mb sticks. I don't think you will see a benefit at all from occupying your other 2 slots. Do some research on this before you shell out the dough.

 

[tza88]

Thanks for everyones input. I unfortunaltly will not be getting the dual core. It turns out it would end up costing the purchaser of my existing CPU too much to implement that upgrade so he bailed.

So i have decided to upgrade my ram to 2 - 1gb sticks of pC 3200 and upgrade my hard drive. From what i have read my motherboard(Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe) performs better with 2-1gb sticks instead of 4-512mb sticks.

of course a monkey wrench has been thrown into what i thought was an easy decision. Buy.com has a 320gb external HD for $80 or i could get a faster quieter 250gb internal drive and turn my existing 250gb into an external with the purchase of a external case.


What does everyone think? These are the 2 internal drives i am looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...4701%2CN82E16822148262

The Seagate looks to be a little faster and is a new perpendicular drive but i have never owned a seagate drive. I want something fast and quiet. The other thing i was thinking about is that i could get the internal and use both as internal and still but the external case. This would give me the option to take it out any time i needed to. There are always free after rebate external cases online.

Thanks again for your input

 

[JustaGeek]

As I have said many times - Seagate drives come with 5 years of no-questions-asked warranty.

No other manufacturer has so much confidence in their products.