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Should I upgrade?

F

fredhe12

Senior member
I'm debating an upgrade and trying to decide if I'll see any appreciable gains by doing so. My setup is in my sig, but the way I see it, it comes down to processing power.

I'd probably go w/ similar setup besides new CPU - E6300, memory - 2GB 800mhz, and motherboard - probably GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3.

My current setup works fine for everything I do, just really looking for a bit more performance and future proofing as new games start to roll out.

Any thoughts? thanks.
 
If you're after gaming performance then you should just keep what you've got and upgrade your video card to an 8800gts or higher. I recently upgraded my mb, cpu and ram after problems on my s939 opteron 175 and did see an improvement in performance moving to c2d. I did this because I experienced hardware failure and if I had to buy more stuff I wanted an upgrade path. That 4200+ will do just fine for a little while so I believe that a video card upgrade would do more to meet your goals.
 
Everyone is way too practical 😉

Sounds like gains won't be too much. I'll explore the video card - 8800GTS sounds good. Any suggestions on a particular card?

Also, would additional memory make any difference?

Thanks.
 
2gb should be enough memory so leave well enough alone. As for video cards I would suggest an eVGA as they have one of the best, if not the best warranty.
 
Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
2gb should be enough memory so leave well enough alone. As for video cards I would suggest an eVGA as they have one of the best, if not the best warranty.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: Good advice.
 
if everything is running fine then wait. New better/cheaper/faster hardware is always just around the corner, so if you can run everything you want to run then wait. Yes you would see an appreciable gain from a c2d, however you would likely see a bigger gain from barcelona or peryn in the fall (around when the games that it might make a difference for (crysis...) will be out) or even a faster c2d thats priced lower because of the second round of price drops.
 
Originally posted by: Blain
Originally posted by: fredhe12
Should I upgrade?

My current setup works fine for everything I do
Click to expand...
No
Click to expand...

I agree.

I'd wait for Intel's future cpu's or even the August Q6600 price drop (~270).

C2D is a great upgrade for people running skt 939 single cores, Pentium chips, or lower. But an X2 is fast enough for current software/games.
 
VIA's were fine in the old P3 days, maybe even some AMD XP versions. But since then, there are better alternatives.

Don't tell anyone at VIA Arena I said that. 😛
 
I wouldn't.

I'd wait. What you've got now serves your needs. A computer is just a tool, and your tool works. Why waste $?

If it was me, I'd wait a while. I don't see myself building a quad cpu system, but I expect there'll be a lot of new developments soon in conjunction with the quad stuff they'll be trying to sell us pretty soon.

Let's you & me wait a while, maybe 6 months or so, & see what is useful to us from out of all that new wave of products they'll bring out soon for quad core.

About the only thing I see on your components list is to consider adding a 2nd hdd, for backups. I recommend Acronis True Image for the backups. That works for me.

Maybe this one: ZipZoomFly item 101220-12 WS Caviar 250 SATA 16 mb cache free shipping, or similar if you spot a better deal somewhere. I bought that one.
 
Originally posted by: scott
I wouldn't.

I'd wait. What you've got now serves your needs. A computer is just a tool, and your tool works. Why waste $?
Click to expand...
Have you been so long here for nothing?
You'll probably get banned for saying that "a computer is just a tool" :laugh:

They keep us warm, challenge us, make us smile, frustrate us, enrage us...
Computers are our best friends here.
QUICK... Edit your post before anyone sees it. 😛

 
Yeah everyone know man's best friend pecking order: Wife with mute button > Computer > Dog 😛

I'd say upgrade your monitor if anything.
 
I'm in a very similar situation OP. I got an X2@2.4GHZ with 2GB of RAM. Judging from this thread, I think that we should both hold on for a while. I own a 7900 too, but I'm keeping that until Crysis comes out. If you're looking for a video upgrade, I'd also wait for the ATI R600 to see what happens.
 
Don't believe the hype!

Don't work yourself up all over these c2d procs. Wait a few months and you will be happy you waited a little while. Since you're X2 is still relatively new! It's not healthy for your bank account to keep upgrading everytime something faster comes out. Because in this world of computer hardware. Every 2 months there will be something faster.
 
Why would you want to upgrade to 6300? If you want to upgrade today I would get a X2 6000, its faster then 6300 and you don't need to change your mobo. But the best option is to wait a bit till new generation of processors comes out.
 
Originally posted by: St1m
Why would you want to upgrade to 6300? If you want to upgrade today I would get a X2 6000, its faster then 6300 and you don't need to change your mobo.
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They don't make the 6000 in Socket 939.😉
 
I have 2 systems. One is an E6300 and the other is an AM2 4200+ X2. Both with 2 gigs ram. There is no noticeable difference. The E6300 will beat out the 4200+ doing some encoding tasks.

My 4200+ just has onboard video so I cannot comment on gaming... but my quess is there is little difference.

Save your money and wait for a cheap quad core cpu to be available.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. Looks pretty cut and dried - WAIT!! Having gone w/ AMD for my last 4 or 5 PCs, I was getting a little worried of getting left behind by the latest Intel offering. But it looks like I'll be okay, and the post by rudder pretty much cinched it.

As far as video card, I'll wait also. The AnandTech Video Card evaluation article puts an 8600GT on par or even below my current 7900GS, so unless I go big there, not much to be gained.

Thanks all for the reality check antidote to a mild case of upgraditis :laugh:

Originally posted by: rudder
I have 2 systems. One is an E6300 and the other is an AM2 4200+ X2. Both with 2 gigs ram. There is no noticeable difference. The E6300 will beat out the 4200+ doing some encoding tasks.

My 4200+ just has onboard video so I cannot comment on gaming... but my quess is there is little difference.

Save your money and wait for a cheap quad core cpu to be available.
Click to expand...

 
I'm currently beta testing a new game coming out somewhere around June-September, and am surprised by the difference in performance between people with systems like yours versus mine. It is a first person shooter, but I'm under a NDA agreement so that's all I'll say.

The specs below are copied and pasted from signature system specs on the beta forum that users cannot edit, and the fps taken from a thread on performance :

Windows XP Pro SP2 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ 2048MB RAM DirectX 9.0c
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX GeForce 7900 GTX 512.0 MB 6.14.0010.9371
5.12.0001.1187
User running at 1280x1024 medium settings, dynamic lights off
Frames per second : 20-50 fps (in battle semi-full server to empty server fps)

While my frames per second, with my specs copied from the same thread :

Windows XP Pro SP2 Intel Core2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs) 2046MB RAM DirectX 9.0c
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS GeForce 8800 GTS 320.0 MB 6.14.0010.9792
5.10.0000.5286
Running at 1600x1200 all ultra settings and dynamic lighting, but no AA
Frames per second : 50-200+ (full server major battle to empty server)

As you can see, I get much better performance even at higher settings. This probably has alot to do with my 8800 over the 7900 series used by the other player, but exactly how much is hard to say. I tried to find a X2 user with a 8800 in that thread, but there wasn't one. However, I'll list this last spec :

Windows XP Pro SP2 AMD Athlon 64 Processor 4000+ 2048MB RAM DirectX 9.0c
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS GeForce 8800 GTS 320.0 MB 6.14.0011.5819
5.12.0001.1196
User running 1024x768 medium settings, no dynamic lights
Frames per second : 30-55 (half full server to empty)

I'm just bored, so thought I'd post this for reference. The game is in beta, and they haven't started optimizing much yet, so the results may be much different later.


 
get the E6300 with an Asus x975 mobo and 2gigs of DDR800 RAM

new PSU and an 8800GTS

OC everything, you will notice a lot
 
If you upgrade anything get a WD5000YS hard drive. It's generally the weakest link in most PCs, right after "provider's fault" slow internet service.

DDR3 is going to have a lot of impact on upcoming chipsets... so yeah, wait.
 
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