Single core AMD 3700+ upgrade path?

[DJCrunkMix]

Hi guys,

I would appreciate if you can provide me some advice regarding the upgrade path for my AMD system.

I've got the following at the moment:

AMD 3700+ OC'ed to 2.8Ghz
2 GB DDR OCZ
x1900XT OC'ed a bit

I am getting choppy frames in XP/Vista. Actually, its worse in Vista than XP.

Thinking about upgrading to a Core2Duo but the problem is that I will have to buy a mobo and RAM to go with it. Plus X1900XT doesn't cut it anymore (oh! good ol' 2005 when AMD Dominated the market)

Please provide a few suggestions. Budget is flexible if things make sense and justify the expenditure. But nothing too ridiculous, under 500$.

Thx,
Neil

 

[narreth]

new Mobo gigabyte DS3L $90
Gskill 4GB ram kit $79
8800GT $220
E2160 to OC to 3.0 Ghz $75

you could always leave your x1900xt in there if you dont have money and save up for the 8800gt

Also, what do you consider "not cutting it anymore"? How much FPS do you get in recent games?
have fun

 

[CurseTheSky]

I'm assuming that's Socket 939? You could pick up an X2 3800, 4200, 4400, etc. to tide you over, but you're probably going to pay $100-200 for it anyway.

Here are two possible builds. The first focuses on graphics, while the second focuses on processing power. Either one should work great, and you can mix and match as you please. I also included a single 2GB stick of memory in the second system, which would give an easy upgrade path to 4GB later on.


System 1 - $425 (after rebates)

Intel E2180, 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache - $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116052

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L, P35 - $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...2E16813128059&Tpk=DS3L

Corsair 2x1GB, DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 - $30 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145034

BFG 8800GTS (G92) - $225 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814143119



System 2 - $520 (after rebates)

Intel E8400, 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache - $260 (OOS)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115037

ABIT IP35-E, P35 - $60 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127031

Mushkin 2GB, DDR2 800 5-4-4-12 - $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146732

XFX 9600GT - $145 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150277

 

[narreth]

Okay i think curesthesky's system 1 build is better than mine.
i'd go with that (you can always add 2 more GB of ram if need be later but 2gb is enough for now)

 

[v8envy]

Best bang for buck:

ABIT IP35-E - $70 AR
E2160 or E2180 - $70
2 or 4 GB ram, whatever's on sale from Crucial, G.Skill, Corsair, etc. 667 (PC5300) is fine, no need to get the primo stuff - $30 AR
9600 GT - $135 AR

So around $300 AR, about $500 before. Once that CPU is at 3 ghz you'll be a hair away from the $500 builds performance wise. Should last you for a year or two. You should be able to pawn that OCZ PC3200 ram off on someone for decent coin as well.

All the other builds are a variation of this as well. You can't go wrong with any of those choices.

 

[DJCrunkMix]

Thank you so much guys. I've got a couple more questions, if you don't mind.

1) Is it worth buying 9600GT or 8800GT or even 8800GTS over my current card (x1900xt)? If so, how much improvement should I expect in new games (FEAR, Oblivion, NFS Prostreet, COD4, TF2, COH, and upcoming ones...)?
2) Same thing with E2180. How much improvement will it offer over AMD 3700?

Just to get an idea...I just want approximation. I have tried to read reviews and benchmarks but I still don't quite comprehend the magnitude of improvement over a 2 yr old system.

Thx in advance,
-Neil

 

[alfa147x]

I don't have much to say but
the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L, P35 is a AWSOME board, I love this board and have never had a problem with it

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: DJCrunkMix
Thank you so much guys. I've got a couple more questions, if you don't mind.

1) Is it worth buying 9600GT or 8800GT or even 8800GTS over my current card (x1900xt)? If so, how much improvement should I expect in new games (FEAR, Oblivion, NFS Prostreet, COD4, TF2, COH, and upcoming ones...)?


For gaming, especially the FPS type games you listed, the performance increase of any of the new cards you listed will be huge compared to an x1900xt. The difference will be slow and choppy vs. fast and smooth. This upgrade alone is where you will see the biggest performance improvement. If you short of cash and want the best bang for you buck, buy one of these and stick it in your current rig and save to upgrade your cpu/mobo/ram later, you will see a huge improvement in all games. Yes some of the newest games that really take advantage of multi-core (Supreme commander, Crisis, COH, FS X etc...) will be bottlenecked by the 3700+ but you will still see a large improvement over your current situations.



2) Same thing with E2180. How much improvement will it offer over AMD 3700?

In the newer titles that really use multi-core, and especially rendering heavy games like MS Flight sim X you will see a significant performance increase. In older singles threaded games you will see a smaller improvement but an improvement none the less.
And general usage and multi tasking will fell much snappier and smoother. This upgrade obviously also requires new mobo and ram. If you want to get 75% of the effect of this upgrade without spending on new mobo and ram, pick up a s939 X2 on ebay

Just to get an idea...I just want approximation. I have tried to read reviews and benchmarks but I still don't quite comprehend the magnitude of improvement over a 2 yr old system.

Thx in advance,
-Neil

 

[wbynum]

Originally posted by: DJCrunkMix
Thank you so much guys. I've got a couple more questions, if you don't mind.

1) Is it worth buying 9600GT or 8800GT or even 8800GTS over my current card (x1900xt)? If so, how much improvement should I expect in new games (FEAR, Oblivion, NFS Prostreet, COD4, TF2, COH, and upcoming ones...)?
2) Same thing with E2180. How much improvement will it offer over AMD 3700?

Just to get an idea...I just want approximation. I have tried to read reviews and benchmarks but I still don't quite comprehend the magnitude of improvement over a 2 yr old system.

Thx in advance,
-Neil

I was in a very similar situation to yours just a couple weeks ago. My main gaming PC was an Athlon64 single core at ~2.4ghz with an x1950xt card. I got it in my mind to upgrade as it had been a couple years.

I went with a $70 e2180 oc'ed to 3ghz, the cheap $80 Gigabyte MB and $30 DDR2 memory. Probably around $200 after shipping. You could save some if you get the Abit MB ($60 AR).

I went with an 8800GT at $150. You can get around $75 on ebay for the x1900xt. Plus if you sell the other parts on ebay you can save a bit more. Of course if you are like me your old PC always becomes your media server/linux pc.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The 8800GT is kind of the sweet spot right now. Great performance, good value. The 8800GTS (G92, 512MB) performs slightly better, but often costs quite a bit more; if you could get the GTS for only ~$10-15 more than the GT, I'd grab it. The 9600GT is a newer card, but performs slightly worse than the 8800GT in most cases. If you can grab it MUCH cheaper, it might be worth your while.

Core 2 Duos perform well at stock speeds, but one of the nicest "features" is their overclockability. Grab a good $20-40 cooler (Freezer 7 Pro, Tuniq Tower, etc.) and you should have no problem getting one to ~3GHz.

The one thing I might suggest is going with a single 2GB stick instead of 2x1GB. If you decide to go with 4GBs in the future, there are a number of motherboards that don't handle 4x1GB well. 2x2GB is usually no problem, though buying one stick at a time may give you some problems with dual channel.

Here's an at-a-glance idea of the performance increases you're looking at. Keep in mind that your own mileage my vary.
CPU: http://www23.tomshardware.com/...2&model2=883&chart=421 (roughly twice as fast; the AMD shown is a slightly faster model and the Core 2 Duo is a slightly slower)
GPU: http://www23.tomshardware.com/...&model2=1057&chart=297 (again, roughly twice as fast)

Play around with the graphs a little bit and see what it's like for the games and whatnot YOU play. Also, try to figure in what the processor would be like at 1 and 1/2 times its current speed.

 

[DJCrunkMix]

Guys, thanks a lot. Especially to CurseTheSky for providing that golden link to all-in-one cpu/gpu comparison! I think, its time to upgrade!!! I just missed the 199$ E8400 deal...*waits for it to come back in stock.*

Also, 8800GT is quite a hefty upgrade too.

Thanks again!

 

[DJCrunkMix]

Does it make sense to buy a factory OC'ed GPU? Such as EVGA KO and SSC editions!?

I reckon that it wouldn't be that hard to OC it by myself. I've done it with my X1900XT (but at that time there were no factory OC'ed options for it)

 

[GuitarDaddy]

If the price difference isn't much, I usually go with the O/C version because it may be a higher binned GPU. But I wouldn't pay much more than $10-15 more because overclocked the difference is not likely to be much.