Upgrade from Athlon 64 to Athlon dual core?

[jagfan]

I'm currently using a 2 1/2 year old HP Athlon 64 3500+ PC with 2G of RAM. I us the PC for wordprocessing, web surfing, some photo editing and music. I do not do any gaming. I'm thinking of purchasing a Gateway PC with AMD Athlon x2 6000+ 3.0 processor. Would I be gaining an appreciably faster PC with the new unit?

 

[DSF]

Does anything feel slow? It doesn't seem like your current computer should have any trouble keeping up with what you're doing.

 

[jagfan]

I've had an itch for something faster - probably in my mind because my pc works just fine. Maybe, I should be talking myself out of spending $$.

 

[betasub]

It's unlikely that the 6000+ system will "feel" any faster for the tasks you list. The clock speed increase from 2.2GHz to 3.0GHz is only useful for heavy CPU-limited tasks, and the second core useful either if your apps are multithreaded (e.g. video encoding), or if you run heavy-duty apps at the same time (e.g. burn DVDs while video editing).

You probably should focus on keeping your current system running smoothly: defragment your hard drives, clear out old cache files, delete old startup programs and other systray stuff (run msconfig), and put CrapCleaner to good use.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Originally posted by: betasub
It's unlikely that the 6000+ system will "feel" any faster for the tasks you list. The clock speed increase from 2.2GHz to 3.0GHz is only useful for heavy CPU-limited tasks, and the second core useful either if your apps are multithreaded (e.g. video encoding), or if you run heavy-duty apps at the same time (e.g. burn DVDs while video editing).

You probably should focus on keeping your current system running smoothly: defragment your hard drives, clear out old cache files, delete old startup programs and other systray stuff (run msconfig), and put CrapCleaner to good use.

++

Also, if doing a lot of photo editing, a new 2nd hard drive or more RAM would help. Most of the time, the CPU isn't the bottleneck, it's the I/O that holds the CPU back.

 

[Schadenfroh]

If you have an nForce3, beware of the possible issues that may arise with the use of dual core CPUs.

(I have sigs disabled, so ignore if you say different in your sig's system specs)

 

[DSF]

If your PC works just fine, then I'd save your money.

 

[jagfan]

Thank you everyone for the very good information and advice. I have a second hard drive already and don't do heavy duty apps often or simultaneously. A also defrag, check start up programs, etc routinely. So, I keep what I have, and as DSF suggested, save my money.

 

[Twsmit]

Instead of getting a new computer, you might be able to get a dual core CPU for your current system if it is socket 939. For $75-150 depending if you buy new or used you could get dual core for cheap.

 

[jagfan]

Originally posted by: Twsmit
Instead of getting a new computer, you might be able to get a dual core CPU for your current system if it is socket 939. For $75-150 depending if you buy new or used you could get dual core for cheap.

Yes, it is a socket 939.

My specs:
Base processor
Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz
2000 MT/s (Mega Transfers/second)
Socket 939

Do you have any dual core CPU recommendations?

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: jagfan
Do you have any dual core CPU recommendations?

The best values are typically at the lower end, as the price increases much faster than the performance in the higher end, and they also run out of steam at some point. Socket 939 is pretty much dead, so it's grab what you can find / hunt for used items at this point. You might be able to find some deals used as many people are gravitating towards different platforms.

E.g. http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...y_slc.asp?Nav=|c:1948|

A dual-core can help during certain tasks when the application is multi-threaded to start. It seems to help in "snappiness" and it does help in avoiding system-wide slowdowns at some times. It of course won't do much when the system-wide slowdown is due to a bottlenecking event such as system disk access.

 

[jagfan]

Appreciate the info.. I've added RAM, changed out HDs, etc but never upgraded a CPU. I'll need to do some research and studying.

 

[angry hampster]

Can the processor even be removed from your motherboard?

 

[jagfan]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
Can the processor even be removed from your motherboard?

From what I've been reading it can. Its an HP a1130n
Here's the specs - but looks like it supports FX and not x2 processor :

MSI Part No: MS-7093


CPU
? Supports 64-bit AMD® Athlon64/64FX processor (Socket 939)
? Supports 3000+, 3200+, 3400+, 3500+, 3800+, 4000+, FX53 and FX55

Chipset
? ATI Radeon® XPRESS 200 Chipset
- HyperTransport connection to AMD K8 Athlon 64 processor
- 8 or 16 bit control/address. data transfer both directions
- 1000/800/400/200MHz "Double Data Rate" operation both direction
- PCI Express x16 Graphic Interface
- On-board Graphic shared up to 128MB

? ATI ® SB400 Chipset
- Ultra DMA 66/100/133 master mode PCI EIDE controller
- Supports dual channel native Serial ATA/RAID controller that will supply 150MB/s and support RAID 0 or RAID 1
- Integrated Hardware Sound Blaster / Direct Sound AC97 audio
- ACPI & PC2001 compliant enhanced power management
- Supports 8 USB2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 4)


Main Memory
? Supports four 184-pin DDR SDRAMs up to 4GB memory size
? Supports Dual Channel DDR400*/DDR333 DDR SDRAM (*Refer to MSI recommended modules)
? Support for 2Mx32 (with 64-bit interface), 4Mx32, 8Mx32 and 16Mx16 memory devices
Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability.
Example: Kingston HyperX DDR500 PC4000 operates at 2.65V, 3-4-4-8, CL=3.
For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufactures for more details.

Slots
? One PCI Express 16X slot (Recommanded ATi Radeon PCI-Express 16X video card)
? Three PCI 32-bit Master PCI Bus slots. (support 3.3v / 5v PCI bus interface)


BIOS
? The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
? The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.


Video
3D Graphics
? Full DirectX 9.0 Support (Vertex Shader v2.0 and Pixel Shader v2.0) with full precision floating point pixel pipeline, up to 4 Multiple-Render-Targets (MRTs)
? Supports Microsoft's next generation GDI+user interface and support resolution up to 2536x2536@32bpp
2D Graphics
? Highly optimized 128-bit engine capable of processing multiple pixels per clock
? Game acceleration including support for Microsoft's DirectDraw, Double Buffering, Virtual Sprites, Transparent Blit, and Masked Blit.
? Supports a maximum resolution of 2048x1536@32bpp
? Support for new GDI extensions in Windows® XP: Alpha BLT, Transparent BLT, Gradient Fill


On-Board IDE
? An IDE controller on the ATI SB400 chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA 66/100/133 operation modes. It can connect 4 Ultra ATA drives.
? Serial ATA/150 controller integrated in ATI SB400
- Up to 150MB/s transfer speed
- Can connect up to 4 Serial ATA drives
- Support RAID 0 or RAID 1


Audio
? 6 Channel software audio codec Realtek ALC658C
? Compliance with AC97' v2.3 Spec
? Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement


IEEE 1394
? Supports upto 2 x 1394 ports. one 6-pin 1394 connector on Rear I/O, the other is supported by onboard Pin header. Transfer rate up to 400Mbps.
? Controlled by VIA 6307 chipset


LAN
? Realtek 8100C
? Supports 10/100 Mb/s auto-negotiation operation.
? Compliant with PCI v2.2 and PC99 standard .
? Compliance with ACPI Power Management


On-Board Peripherals
- 1 floppy port supports 1 FDD with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
- 1 serial ports COM1
- 1 VGA port
- 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
- 8 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 4)
- 3 audio ports in vertical (Line-out, Line-in, MIC)
- 1 IEEE 1394 6pin out
- 1 RJ-45 jack

 

[angry hampster]

FX-55 is probably your best bet. Keep an eye on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATHLON...VWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Twsmit]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
FX-55 is probably your best bet. Keep an eye on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATHLON...VWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Not dual core... The OP should look for a X2 3800+ or maybe a little faster. Because it is an HP mobo I would stay away from an Opteron just in case the bios rejects it. Also look and see if HP has any bios updates, specifically ones that enable dual core use. Install it before you upgrade the cpu.

 

[JackMDS]

I did the same mistake with 939.

I have few computers with 939 and I upgraded two of them from 3500+ to what ever is availble as an upgrade on 939 CPU line.

It does not really make any difference in general use (like the way you use your computer.

If you want a real upgrade you need to spend about $220 and get a IP35 mother board with E218x and DDR2 RAM.