Upgrade path. I'd appreciate your opinions

[phaxmohdem]

I have been tossing around al sorts of crazy ideas for my next upgrade path lately. and have finally come down to this. Let me know what you think.

Current situation. I'll be upgrading the rig in my sig.

Option #1 - Just new Motherboard/Video Card..... ASUS K8N-DL + Trade in my AGP x800XL for a PCI-E version (this way I can use my existing RAM adn FX-51 CPU until dual core opterons come down in price enough to grab a couple 270's or 275's) With this oiption I will have to upgrade to a PCI-E Video card since this board does not have AGP


Option #2 - New Mobo/RAM/CPU..... DFI UT NF3 Ultra-D Socket 939 + Athlon X2 4400+ + Some Fast Timing RAM. (This way I will keep my existing video card but everything else goes. I may be able to use the RAM but the timings of it are 3-8-8-8 (ECC))

I'm currently leaning towards option #1. I'd appreciate your thoughts, or other suggestions. I use my rig for 3D animation/Video Editing/Gaming (Far Cry/Doom 3).

 

[ProviaFan]

The ASUS board doesn't have much in the way of expansion for future needs other than processor and RAM. No PCI-X, PCI-E x4 or x8, etc. It's still a great board, and I would hope that with a BIOS update it could handle dual core Opterons (I assume you've checked this).

On the other hand, getting the X2 4400+ system will give you a great performance increase right now, though you'll be limited in the future due to lack of PCI-E.

I would probably go with an X2 plus NF4-based system, keep your RAM, and get a new video card. Then, upgrade to some overclocking RAM in the future.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Thanks for the input. The K8N-DL as listed on ASUS's website does support Dual core function with BIOS 1004, so I don't forsee that to be a huge problem.

Are PCI-e 4x & 8x slots THAT important? The only other add-on card (besides video) I use is my Audigy2ZS and its just normal PCI. I don't have a use for any other add on cards in my system, and I'm not interested in SLI.

 

[ProviaFan]

The reason I would want a PCI-E 4x or 8x (or second 16x) slot would be for a SAS or SCSI controller. I couldn't imagine four cores of Opterons without an enterprise-level disk subsystem to match, though if what you're doing is incredibly CPU limited while not depending much on the disks, you won't have any need for the extra expandability. In that case, the dual socket Opteron board may well be the better option for future growth in CPU and memory capacity.

 

[Zebo]

Seems to me you're gonna lose a lot of money upgrading what is already a very fast computer. I mean I guess it depends on budget but anything less than x2 is a sidegrade and anything less than 7800GTX is a side-grade. So a real upgrade would consist of.

4200/4400 $500-630
Good Mobo like ABIT AN8 Ultra $130
Videocard like 7800GTX $550
2 x 1GB non-ecc ram like Crucial 16T $220

totaling out at ~$1500

How much can you sell what you got? not much since FX-51 is on a really dead platform skt 940 and AGP are both dead....maybe ebay dimwits will buy it.

Edit: oh and don't forget 24 pin PSU either if you don't already have one.