Performance increase?

[Xab]

I'm thinking of upgrading my rig right now, and just wondering if you guys think I'll notice a speed increase with what I'm considering doing.

Current:

P4 3.0C
ASUS P4800C Deluxe mobo
1GB DDR400 RAM
Fujitsu MAS 36GB 15,000 RPM SCSI Drive
2x WD 1200JB
ATI X800 Pro (16 pipes enabled)
Soundblaster Audigy 2NX
CDburner
DVD player

Thinking of getting a a new Cooler Master Wave Master case, a Athlon 64 3500+, and an nForce3 motherboard (havent exactly decided which one yet)

Those are the main things I thought about doing, since I'm not sure what else to upgrade at this point. I thought about replacing my SCSI drive with a Raptor, but from what I hear it isn't going to be any faster.

Comments? Suggestions? Anything is appreciated

 

[Philippine Mango]

Seriously, don't bother. If your here to "pump up" your ego because you want to feel your system is the sh!t then you seriously need to leave.. If your not, don't bother to upgrade your machine for at least a year because it's plenty good. If you feel like bitching about performance, think about overclocking a few of the things you have in there (CPU, Graphics card..) Look at my sig, I was pissed at how crappy the performance was of a 2.8GHZ processor but after overclocking I find it to be much more satasfying. I tried playing the sims2@ 2.8GHZ and it was slow as hell, overclocked the machine and things were much smoother. You have a good video card, so you'll want to overclock that as well because it will give you a bit of a performance increase.

 

[Xab]

No it is a serious question, I've just been hearing a lot about 64 bit and how the CPUs are kicking Intel's ass performance wise, and with XP 64 coming soon I was wanting to move 64 bit as long as I'll notice the difference from what I ahve now.

 

[halfadder]

Philippine is right on target. Your specs are really good. What resolution are you running your games at that you're not happy with performance? I too would suggest just overclocking for now. To get a signficant performance boost you would have to upgrade both your CPU and your graphics. If you're loaded with cash, get a GF6800 Ultra and the best A64 you can find. But I still say just wait for now.

------------
3 GHz P4
1 GB RAM
Radeon 9600 Pro

 

[halfadder]

Originally posted by: Xab
No it is a serious question, I've just been hearing a lot about 64 bit and how the CPUs are kicking Intel's ass performance wise, and with XP 64 coming soon I was wanting to move 64 bit as long as I'll notice the difference from what I ahve now.

64 bit is actually slower than 32 bit unless you're using an application that really does need to address large amounts of RAM and/or work with 64 bit words. It will be at least 2 years before we see games actually running better with 64 bit registers and 64 bit addressing. Save your money for now, you're not missing out on anything.

My bet would be to wait until the A64 4000 and whatever gfx replaces the 6800 or the X800/X850.

 

[ts3433]

Your setup is great, and that 15K RPM SCSI drive should be better than a Raptor (10K RPM). You shouldn't need to worry about upgrading for quite a while (at least not until the 7800GT or XI850XT is out), especially if you overclock that processor a bit. Yes, an A64 would perform better at most everything, but there's no point since your system can handle virtually everything out there right now, and any difference wouldn't be noticeable, for now.

 

[stevty2889]

You have one of the better boards for overclocking an Intel CPU anyway, so I think you'de be better off keeping what you have and overclocking. The SCSI drive will be at least as fast as the raptor, if not faster, so no reason to change that. I think with good cooling, your 3.0 can hit 3.5 to 3.6ghz if not more.

 

[Cerb]

Get a DVD burner.
That's all you don't have that might concievably be considered a real upgrade.

64-bit = marketting. The real things x86-64 brings to the table are more registers and better management of several of them. It will address more than 4GB w/o tricks, but that matters not for normal users.

AMD does kick Intel's stuff right now in every way...but at worst, you are 20% behind in performance, and that would just be for encoding. An upgrade late this year might not be bad, but right now I think it would be a waste of money and time. If you were building a new box, a A64 would be superior for the cost, raw performance, and power consumption...but that doesn't make what you have bad.

 

[RussianSensation]

Keep your current rig. Unless you can sell your cpu and motherboard and get A64 3000+ and S939 for cheap, then it's not worth it. Another problem you have is AGP videocard, and it's better to get PCIe if you are going to upgrade now. Your best bet is to let this rig stay in there for 1-2 years and then buy a new videocard + dual core cpu + motherboard. Imagine buying S939 with AGP right now and then having to buy a whole new motherboard all over for PCIe videocard later. That'll be 2 motherboards instead of 1. Also A64's main advantage is in office tasks (which mostly depend on how fast you can actually do the work not the computer) and Games (but that's mainly at 640x480 and 800x600). Once you enable 1600x1200 4AA/8AF, A64 gaming advantage goes down the drain in 90% of games. So don't bother wasting money.

Get some nice speakers for now if you dont have a good set.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Don't upgrade your rig, you are having the Acute Upgrading Syndrome (AUS) . If you really want more performance you can always overclock your existing 3.0C.