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Question on upgrading... Getting ahead of myself.

agathodaimon

agathodaimon

Senior member
First off, all I will be replacing is my motherboard, ram and CPU.
Everything else is completely adequate to accomodate the new parts.

I have a (939) X2 4200+ right now, and it chokes up pretty good during
Supreme Commander multi-player games.

So I'd like to opt for a relatively inexpensive upgrade around $300 USD.

I have basically two options:
1. AM2 - X2 5600 (or 6000), 2GB DDR 800 and Gigabyte GA-MA7700-DS3 motherboard.

What I like about the AMD setup is that it can support Phenoms as well as PCI-E 2.0.

2. C2D - E6550 or E6750, 2GB DDR 800 and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L.

The Intel setup supports quad core as well, but does NOT have PCI-E 2.0.

I really would like to bite the bullet on the intel setup, but the PCI-E 2.0 thing is bugging me.
Eventually I'd like to get a new video card, and want to make sure it won't be an issue if I go the C2D route.

The budget has to stay around $300. That's all I'm willing to spend ATM.
Would I be best off waiting for a little while?
Which option do you like better? Why?

Also... How long will you think each chipset will be supported?
I wouldn't mind having a setup that I could keep upgrading processors to down the line... At least for a little while.

Thanks!!!
 
A e8400 with a ds3l and 2gb of ram. Especially when overclocked the e8400 will kick any AMD cpu's ass, hell at stock speeds it's allready a lot faster. As for PCI-E 2.0, meh. Right now, the bandwith on PCI-E 1.0 isn't even maxed out at 16x lanes, and the fastest cards only take roughly a 10% performance hit on PCI-E 8x. Besides, the PCI-E 2.0 cards like the 8800GT and such are backwards compatible with PCI-E 1.0 or 1.1 to be exact, which the ds3l has anyways. So I'd say Intel all the way.
 
PCI-E 2.0 is backwards compatible, so you won't have trouble running such cards in 1.x boards. I understand that there's not much to be gained re: real world performance with PCI-E 2.0 tho, just depends on how badly you want it.

As for Intel vs AMD, either of the above systems would cost about the same and be fairly quick... the C2D would have a bit of an edge, tho nothing staggering IMO. And yes, you'd have a quad-core upgrade path with either system.

I don't think there's much to gain by waiting.

Edit: If you can manage the E8400 vs E6750 as MarcVenice suggestion, that would tempting.
 
cool, thanks for the replies.
I just wasn't sure if the PCI-E 2.0 video cards would wind up being incompatible with my board. Sounds like it isn't. 🙂

I could take the easy route and just get an X38 board, but I don't have AND am not willing to spend that much money on a motherboard.

How does AMD's quad-core future look? The Phenoms are "OK", but do they have another chip under their wings they plan on releasing soon? Will it be AM2+ Compatible?
 
hehe... Don't need anything fancy. No real overclocking or stuff like that. Just a good solid gaming and work computer.
 
Cool... Well I ordered it yesterday.
E6750
Gigabyte DS3L
2GB A-Data DDR2 800

Thanks for the opinions... I would have got that E8400, but it was $60 more at Newegg... Which I didn't want to spend.
I figure the E6750 will do nicely until Quad Cores come down in price.
 
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