Should I upgrade from a Mobile AthlonXP 2500+ running at 2.4Ghz?

[IReBait]

:Q HELP - Please !
I have been reading about the popularity of the Opterons (144 & 146).
Any sober and insightful advise you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Questions: :roll:
Should I upgrade to an Opteron 144 or Opteron 146?
Will I see any noticable performance increases in Windows Boot Up, Navigation, Applications, or Games? That is - is it gonna run faster?
:thumbsup: IF your answer is yes, can you please suggest a Mobo that will also take an AGP card, and has at least 4 PCI slots?

My Current system is as follows:
Mobile AthlonXP 2500+ running at 2.4Ghz (Overclocked).
Motherboard: DFI LanParty NFII Ultra A
Video Card: AGP - ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (128Mb)
TV Capture Card: Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP Deluxe
Memory: 2Gb - Two sticks of Samsung DDR 3200 @ 2.5-3-3-8
ATA Hard Drives: Two 200Gb Maxtors ATA133 and Two 160Gb Western Digitals ATA100
SATA Hard Drives: None
CD-RW: Lite-On 48x-32x-48x
DVD-RW: NEC 16x-8x-48x DL
Wireless 54G card - for home network (3 PCs)
V92 Modem: Yes, I am still on Dial-Up ! (but mine is Free - Not NetZero)

What I use my PC for:
Internet Browsing / Email / Downloading.
TV program or Pro Tennis Captures.
Burning Family Movies (captured from a JVC DV Camcorder)
Editing Family Pictures (from a Canon Powershot S230)
Backing up Family Movies and Music CDs.
Frontpage 2003 & Dreamweaver MX for web site editing.
CorelDraw 12 for graphics work for web site development.
Quicken 2005 for home budgeting.
Paperport 9 - for scanning documents.
MS Office XP - Excel and Word (Spreadsheet and Word Processing).
Windows Movie Maker, Nero Vision, Nero Wave Editor.
Pinnacle 9 and 10, Roxio Videowave 7 Professional (because it supports DivX).
Some Games: NBA Live 2005, Fifa 2005, Aquanox, Startrek Armada I & II, Descent Freespace and others. Not a regular or frequent gamer.

Thank-you for your help!

 

[fbrdphreak]

Sounds to me like the only worthy upgrade you'd be looking at is a dual core system. Yes a 146/148 at ~2.8GHz will be smokin' fast, but I'd say a dual core at 2.4-2.6GHz would be a better investment.

If you're not ready to put that kind of money into it, I'd just wait.

Keep in mind any new system you get you will need to get a new PCI-E video card. You could get the ASRock dual PCI-E/AGP mobo, but if you're looking to OC an Opty I'd personally go with something else.

 

[themusgrat]

I agree. The best thing for you might be getting an Opteron 165, OCing it to like 2.6 or 2.8, maybe 3.0, and geting the above board. It does only have 3 PCI slots, but you could ditch the wireless card for a USB one.

 

[peleejosh]

Dual core opties work on nf3 boards as well, so you could go with a MSI Neo2 Platinum and keep the agp. Do expect an Opteron 165 to get to 2.8 or 3.0 without a big voltage increase and really good cooling. But based on your needs i would recommend a dual core instead of single core. The dual core will really shine when editing photos and movies. You might want ot wait for m2 or am2 or whatever they are calling it now to come out.

 

[IReBait]

Thank-you for your input - From what I have read from a post in another forum, an upgrade to a 144 or 146 may not / would not yield much of a performance improvement in comparison to an Athlon XP 3000.

 

[IReBait]

Hmmmmm.. and Opteron 165 eh?

Currently (12/29/2005) going for $330 on Newegg. And, $333 on Chiefvalue. $309 on mwave.

Hmmmmmm..
And thanks for the recommendation!

 

[IReBait]

Indeed, I was looking for a MSI Neo2 Platinum but haven't been able to locate one yet.

Thanks for the input.