Should I upgrade to an XP 3000 or total upgrade to Athlon64 system?

[Winchester]

I currently have a Athlon XP 1800, Gigabyte GA-7VAXP, and 1GB PC2700 ram. I am wondering if it would be better to upgrade to a Athlon XP 3000+ and max out my mobo or just do a total upgrade and get a Athlon64 setup with new CPU, RAM, Mobo. It would cost me about $50-60 to upgrade to the 3000+ after selling my current CPU and $$$ for the Athlon64. I am just wondering what the performance difference would be.

All I pretty much do is Web Design, Photoshop, no gaming.

 

[Silversierra]

Depends on your budget/ requirements.

 

[aatf510]

Differences between the 1800+ and 3000+ should be quite sufficient.
What about your other hardware? Are you upgrading because you want to game better?

 

[Winchester]

I dont game anymore. Just better performance with Photoshop, GoLive, Dreamweaver etc.

Other Hardware:
Audigy Platinum
3x120GB HD 7200RPM 8MB Cache, 2XMirror RAID
DVD/CDRW Combo
Firewire/USB etc
GeForce Ti 4200 AGP

 

[Ike0069]

I'd stay with the 3000+ if you plan on keeping you MB for a while.
If you're going to upgrade the MB as well, get a S754 2800+.

 

[mordantmonkey]

any video editing? with web design and photoshop only, the 3000 upgrade would be the better choice. of course you will probably want to upgrade again sometime, so really you're just putting off a newer platform. Just think about how long till you want to upgrade again...is 50-60 bucks worth that extra time? my guess would be yes.

 

[Scurvy]

I'm in a similar situation only I'm even more in the Iron Age than you ... XP1700+, KT266A board, 512mb PC2100.

My system is 50% web browser, and 50% home theater (DIVX played thru 9600PRO's TV-out). It does get used for some gaming, but it's MAME arcade emulation, and console emulation like SNES and N64. Nothing the antiquated specs can't handle.

I recently tried to get into Battlefield1942, but the time commitment required was impossible for me. Married, job, 2 kids, and just learned the wife is pregnant ... again. (12 year old boy from wife's first marriage, 18 mo old girl, and new baby coming.)

I love my wife, my kids, my life. But I do wish every single day for three things I no longer have: 1) some real recreation time to spend on my PC, 2) the money to keep it up to date, 3) and a hefty bag full of ganja.

Anyway ....

I'd go for a Socket754 Athlon 64, or nothing. Another upgrade in Socket A wouldn't be money well spent considering you can get a Ath64 2800+ and decent mobo for around $185. The 3000+ will run it to about $200. You can still use your PC2700 for a while and then upgrade it.

Or, do what I'm doing. Suffer on with what you've got, until youre ready to pop on a respectably current Socket939 system.

 

[Winchester]

I would need a mobo with RAID capabilities.

Would an Athlon64 system still be able to utilize my PC2700 ram, or would I have to buy new ram. (almost the biggest issue to me) RAM = $$$

 

[Scurvy]

as long as the mobo you pick out supports DDR 333, it will still run your PC2700. The PC just won't be as fast as it could be if it were running PC3200. We're talking degrees of performance which you probably wouldn't notice for the most part. Most mobo's for socket 754 support DDR 400/333/266, so I could even use my old PC2100 in a pinch. (although that would be much more noticeable I think)

There's usually a jumper on the board that you set to correspond to the speed of the DIMMs your using.

 

[memories2002]

Get the xp3000. But not off ebay. I got burned recently on a xp3200.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Scurvy
I love my wife, my kids, my life. But I do wish every single day for three things I no longer have: 1) some real recreation time to spend on my PC, 2) the money to keep it up to date, 3) and a hefty bag full of ganja.

OT, but is it just me, or is there a strong but subtle subconcious connection between AMD's choice of strongly "green" marketing material, and a good portion of their customer base. I wonder.

Originally posted by: Scurvy
I'd go for a Socket754 Athlon 64, or nothing. Another upgrade in Socket A wouldn't be money well spent considering you can get a Ath64 2800+ and decent mobo for around $185. The 3000+ will run it to about $200. You can still use your PC2700 for a while and then upgrade it.
Or, do what I'm doing. Suffer on with what you've got, until youre ready to pop on a respectably current Socket939 system.

But.. by the same token, if the eventual goal is to move to a Socket939 system, and the OP could stand holding off for a while longer, while making use of his current system, but with a Socket-A 3000+ CPU, why shouldn't he? If one is going to spring for a new system, I would think that they would want all of the trimmings, like PCIe and whatnot, which might require replacing a number of peripheral cards as well, and possibly upgrading the PSU.

My vote is to keep the Socket-A and PC2700, and upgrade the CPU, if you can do it for significantly less than $100. I'm toying with the same idea myself, currently have an unlocked XP1800+ TBred-A in this rig that doesn't really overclock at all. (I partially blame my mobo's limited vcore adjustment range for that too, I can't even boost it to 1.65v, which is the nominal vcore for faster XP chips.)

 

[Zimdesign]

I think an upgrade to socket 754 would definitely be worth it, especially if you have a buyer lined up for your CPU and mobo. Oh and keep the RAM for now.

 

[imported_Mitchell]

Money is always an issue and everyones situation is different, but I would get a 64 processor, there is a price range where the are very close and the speed increase is worth it.

 

[ribbon13]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-104-217&depa=0

how does that fit the bill?

 

[Winchester]

What is the difference between XP and Sempron other than .16ghz

EDIT: Regarding the 3000+ CPUs

Agreeing with VirtualLarry here:

I dont have the $$$ to fully upgrade my system. If I could get ~$100+ for my CPU/Mobo combo then it might be worth it to get the Athlon64 for a few $ more. But, I dont have a need IMO for a PCI-E or SATA at this time. I have two 120GB IDE drives set up as RAID and I really dont want to spend $ on SATA, which if I could I believe it would be a temptation .

I dont game @ all anymore. I would love too, but just decide not too. At least for a while. School, work, getting married. Need to spend time on better things.