Upgrade options

[jackace]

I have a DFI nf4 ultra-d and an amd athlon64 3000+ venice with 1 gig of OCZ ram (ocz4001024wv3dc-k)

I play world of warcraft and plan to upgrade my video card and monitor (6600gt and 17in CRT currently), but was also thinking about getting one of the new dual core proccessors (AMD) and another gig of ram.

I was wondering if upgrading the processor will be of much use for me or just stick with what i have and wait for after xmas and see what the new intel pricing looks like? (keep in mind i mainly play world of warcraft and some MP3 stuff)

Another question i have is can i just get 2 more sticks of 512 ram (same model as above) and just put them in my computer and have no problems or am i better off buying a 2 gig kit and replacing what i have now?

 

[Roguestar]

Your choice is to get a cheap-as-chips dual core socket 939 processor now, which will tide you over for a good while yet, or wait until christmas and reap the benefits of competition in the market. You need to decide if you want to spend a little money now and get good performance for a while, or more money later and get better performance for longer.
The problem is that if you make a purchase now, 6 months down the line you'll wish you had saved your money. The catch with this is that this always, always happens, even if you wait until Christmas something better will be out after that. You have to bite the bullet some time .

If you have the 4DIMM slots you can stick another 2 512Mb sticks in and it'll work fine, it just means that if you want to upgrade from there you'll need to be buying bigger sticks and chucking older ones out.

 

[jackace]

Yes my MB has 4 DIMM slots but i remember when i set it up i had to put the chips in certain slots since the chips were double sided and not single sided chips. Was wondering if there was any problem i could run into with that.

edit- as far as the upgrade processor goes i was wondering more on how much performace boost i would see by going with a lower cost amd dual core 939 over my current processor. Remember i play world of warcraft with lots of other players and NPCs on the screen at any given time.

 

[Roguestar]

Your graphics card will bear most of the strain on WoW, and your internet connection will determine choppiness and stuttering, but a CPU upgrade won't show as much of an improvement as a newer graphics card. Something like an X1900GT or 7900GS would let you turn detail up and keep smooth framerates though if you're spending money on a new graphics card now instead of a CPU you might be better off waiting to see what Christmas has in store. At the least, current graphics cards and athlon X2s will be cheaper.

 

[Viditor]

Be warned however that the 939s are being discontinued at the end of the year, so if you want to upgrade to the same mobo you best do it soon (939 stock is starting to dry up already...)