Upgrade Possibilities

[Heffty]

My System Specs:
AMD XP3200+
Biostar M7NCD MBO (no dual channel or raid)
2 x 1G Samsung PC3200 DDR 400MHz RAM
2 x 80G Maxtor 7200rpm IDE Hard Drives
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
ATI X800XL Video Card
NEC DV-5700A DVD drive
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8520B

I bought this computer June 2004. I do not have money to buy a new system because I am throwing everything I have financially into student loan debts, house payments, car payments, and now I have a baby on the way. I likely won't be buying a new computer for at least 3 years so I'm hoping to get some serious milage out of this one. Right now I am playing BF2 at high settings...maybe I shouldn't be, but I am (feel free to make suggestions on that too) however I do know that within the next year I will likely not be able to play the best games on high or maybe even close to high; but either way I need to get milage out of this thing. In anycase, I was given $125 for my birthday between both sets of parents and they told me I was to spend this money on myself...no paying debts with it. Seriously though...$125 doesn't go very far these days. So, I thought I would buy some used things for my system to upgrade it a bit.

Motherboard > > > I was told mine is a peice of junk. I've been looking for a Socket A mbo that has dual channel and possibly RAID. The raid would be just to fool around with my 80G drives...I am aware it will not give me noticeable performance benifits. I have been looking in used computer shops and online for mbo's. I would like a suggestion as to what board I should get. I would also like to know if you think this mbo would be a good upgrade for around $50 - 75 or if it's just a waste of money. I am willing to take the risk by buying used online or in store.

Aside from the motherboard I have been exploring other ways of getting faster performance. Obviously a dual channel mbo was my first consideration. I thought about getting a used "low gigabyte" 10K SCSI drive just for putting games on. I'm not sure what kind of connections I would need for that so maybe I need to consider that when buying the new motherboard. I'm not sure what drive to get though for this purpose. I could use some help there too.

I am not a computer wiz by any means so maybe these ideas are stupid, but I would like to know some ways to get more performance out of this computer without overclocking anything (cause I don't know how to do it). I am happy to dump the $125 into the computer I spend most of my free time with even if there is a small improvement. Please be honest, please give me options, and please be descriptive in your explanations. Please do not tell me to save my money and buy a new system or a new 64 bit processor/mbo combination...that is not an option here.

 

[tweekah]

Welcome to the forums.

Dual channel mobo will not boost your performance much at all. If you had an intel processor it would. I'd save that money for a rainy day.

 

[Heffty]

Originally posted by: tweekah
Welcome to the forums.

Dual channel mobo will not boost your performance much at all.

Explanation?

 

[tweekah]

It's all explained here http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20031107/nforce2-400-11.html
Sorry, should have provided link earlier. If the money is burning a hole in your pocket, get some nice 5.1 speakers to enhance your bf2 gaming experience. It would probably be best spent there.

 

[kleinwl]

Actually, a new cpu/mb might be a good option.

Fry's has specials on semprons & 754 mb.... like the 2800+ ECS nf3 mb for $90 that is running today.

They also have a P4 506 (2.66GHz) w/ ECS socket 775 MB for $120

Edit: Forget it. According to Tom's, your XP 3200+ kills those 2 CPUs anyway.

Ok... with $125 I would go ahead and get 5.1 speakers too.

 

[alimoalem]

forget the speakers, you'll lose half your budget. just save the money. your system'll last until next year and dual cores will most likely drop at least 25% by then and single cores will drop even more. i would buy a new mobo/cpu then. the ASRock, right now ~$65 shipped, will probably be a little cheaper and the 3000+ CPUs might cheaper. i think that'll be your best upgrade

 

[The Green Bean]

save the money!

 

[Heffty]

Could I physically hook a 10 or 15K SCSI to my mbo? Would that make a difference with loading times? Is my mbo's SCSI controller good enough for a SCSI board? I noticed there is a driver for it in my device manager, but I don't have a SCSI drive.

 

[tweekah]

That's your SATA controller card showing up as a scsi controller. So the answer to your question is no, you cannot add a scsi hdd unless you add a scsi controller card. If you want faster loading times maybe invest your $125 in a 36gb/74gb raptor. A lot of people will say it's not worth the price but hey, it's your money.

 

[raanemaan]

Why not sale your board and cpu, add that money to your 125 and buy a new Asrock Dual 939 and a 3000+ off the for sale forums. Then if you get some extra cash you could go dual core.

 

[paulw86]

Originally posted by: raanemaan
Why not sale your board and cpu, add that money to your 125 and buy a new Asrock Dual 939 and a 3000+ off the for sale forums. Then if you get some extra cash you could go dual core.

agreed

 

[Heffty]

How long would that keep me in the game for? What would be a fair asking price for my M7NCD and the XP 3200+? What would they go for on ebay?...I guess you never know. If I was to put it on ebay with a reserve what should I set the reserve at to be safe? Thanks.

 

[Heffty]

Originally posted by: paulw86

Originally posted by: raanemaan
Why not sale your board and cpu, add that money to your 125 and buy a new Asrock Dual 939 and a 3000+ off the for sale forums. Then if you get some extra cash you could go dual core.

agreed

The manual says not to go dual core with this Asrock mbo. The manual states you either put a AMD 939-Pin CPU or a AMD 754-Pin CPU. It says to avoid instability and damage do not insert both of them into this motherboard.

Also, if you could please answer my question in the previous post, it would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: Heffty
The manual says not to go dual core with this Asrock mbo. The manual states you either put a AMD 939-Pin CPU or a AMD 754-Pin CPU. It says to avoid instability and damage do not insert both of them into this motherboard.

Also, if you could please answer my question in the previous post, it would be much appreciated. Thanks

You're obviously not looking at the manual for this board, as it doesn't have a socket 754 at all.

I'd say that board is your best option, allowing you to keep everything except your cpu.

 

[raanemaan]

Originally posted by: ribbon13

Originally posted by: Heffty
The manual says not to go dual core with this Asrock mbo. The manual states you either put a AMD 939-Pin CPU or a AMD 754-Pin CPU. It says to avoid instability and damage do not insert both of them into this motherboard.

Also, if you could please answer my question in the previous post, it would be much appreciated. Thanks

You're obviously not looking at the manual for this board, as it doesn't have a socket 754 at all.

I'd say that board is your best option, allowing you to keep everything except your cpu.

Check the for sale forums for prices that your old cpu and board are bringing. Check on ebay also. This will give you an idea what you can get. With the asrock board you can upgrade to dual core and pci-e as your finances allow. Thanks ribbon for the link.

 

[Heffty]

I do thank you Ribbon, this is an excellent option. I'm seriously considering this option and just need to scrounge up a few more dollars. What processor would you recommend I get at this point?, I don't want to break the bank...but I want to consider something that would take me through the time until the really great processor comes out that this motherboard would handle. I don't have a lot of money right now...so I would just need a processor that gets me through to the big boys later on. Could you explain what I should do in this regard in detail? Thanks so much.

 

[raanemaan]

Look for a used 3000+ on the for sale forums. You could find a used one for around 100-110. This would be decent setup.

 

[Heffty]

Originally posted by: raanemaan
Look for a used 3000+ on the for sale forums. You could find a used one for around 100-110. This would be decent setup.

This motherboard accepts both sempron 3000+ and Athlon 64 3000+. Which one are you refering to?

 

[raanemaan]

I have been looking for a Athlon 64 for the past few weeks. I found one for 95 shipped plus I am buying the Asrock Dual Sata board. It is a winchester core. I saw more around the same price but they usually don't last long. If you want to spend a little more there will be more choices. Me I am just cheap. I could have bought a venice core but I am just wanting something to run until I can get a 3800x2 which will probably be after the first of the year.

 

[tweekah]

Originally posted by: Heffty

Originally posted by: raanemaan
Look for a used 3000+ on the for sale forums. You could find a used one for around 100-110. This would be decent setup.

This motherboard accepts both sempron 3000+ and Athlon 64 3000+. Which one are you refering to?

Definitely Athlon 64.

 

[Heffty]

Well in the end I decided to not go with this asrock board. My original plan was as you said:
1. Buy the board and go with a cheaper CPU until I can afford a better one.

Overall this plan would cost me around $200. So basically I would just be paying 200 for upgradability. Actually it would be more like $250CDN for me. Secondly, I don't see a point in waiting for a while and getting a better CPU because the new standard of ram (PC5200) they are getting ready with will not be supported on this board. I don't see how a top of the line 939 chip a year down the road would get used to it's fullest without that new ram. Also, there is only 1 SATA2 slot. So in the end I'm basically paying for upgradability and I am committing myself to purchasing a specific kind of technology in the future. What happens if something really great chipset comes out? Go buy it? Well then this $250CDN in the long run will just be money down the drain.

Which brings me back to how I could increase performance on the computer I currently have. Like I said, I have 2G of ram already. So what more could I do?

My thoughst are still this:
1. Buy a motherboard with the Ultra 400 Chipset, RAID, and Dual Channel. (Max $25)
2. RAID my two 80G IDE hard drives which should improve load times.
3. Hopefully Dual Channel and the new Chipset will improve the performance slightly.

Does anyone else have any suggestions how I could improve things going this route?

 

[DavidoFoo]

Originally posted by: Heffty
Well in the end I decided to not go with this asrock board. My original plan was as you said:
1. Buy the board and go with a cheaper CPU until I can afford a better one.

So basically I would just be paying 200 for upgradability.
You're actually buying this board for upgradability AND a significant increase in speed
Secondly, I don't see a point in waiting for a while and getting a better CPU because the new standard of ram (PC5200) they are getting ready with will not be supported on this board.
Do you mean DDR2? That's a different SOCKET. You're fine getting a 3000+ venice and saving to purchase an x2 3800+

I don't see how a top of the line 939 chip a year down the road would get used to it's fullest without that new ram.
Refer to above
Also, there is only 1 SATA2 slot. So in the end I'm basically paying for upgradability and I am committing myself to purchasing a specific kind of technology in the future.
Backwards compatible
What happens if something really great chipset comes out? Go buy it? Well then this $250CDN in the long run will just be money down the drain.
It won't be for the reasons above
Which brings me back to how I could increase performance on the computer I currently have. Like I said, I have 2G of ram already. So what more could I do?

My thoughst are still this:
1. Buy a motherboard with the Ultra 400 Chipset, RAID, and Dual Channel. (Max $25)
Sure, but most here, including I, think that selling your current mobo/processor and buying a new set is the better route.
2. RAID my two 80G IDE hard drives which should improve load times.
Sure, but RAID doesn't do too much in non-server applications.
3. Hopefully Dual Channel and the new Chipset will improve the performance slightly.
I guess, but you can get that with a new mobo/processor

Does anyone else have any suggestions how I could improve things going this route?

 

[Heffty]

Do you mean DDR2? That's a different SOCKET.
Exactly, I'm committing myself to this socket and disallowing myself to go with the newer technology a year or so down the road.

You're fine getting a 3000+ venice and saving to purchase an x2 3800+
That processor is 1.8Ghz and my current one is 2.2Ghz. There may be a nominal difference in efficiency between the 64bit technology and the XP technology I currently have but it would not be a significant increase in speed like you say. I would have to go up to a 64 3200 for there to be a noticable difference and even at that it would only be roughly 15-20% faster.

http://www.ntcompatible.com/postprint160358.html
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2002Dec/bch20021218017827.htm
http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000299

You're actually buying this board for upgradability AND a significant increase in speed
So no, I'm not buying this board for a significant increase in speed. I would be buying this board to upgrade to that significant increase in speed which as I said is committing myself to a technology which is a highly volitial thing to do considering a year from now new products may come up and I'll be upset I don't have more freedom.

 

[ribbon13]

DDR2? You want to move to AMD's M2 platform in a 'year or so.' I'd imagine you'll need to buy a PSU, GPu, RAM, CPU, and Mobo all at the same time. Hope you considered that the price/performance compared the 939 isn't gonna be pretty.

The A64 3000+ is about as fast as your XP3200+ as a cpu (except for FPU) but your mobo is weak, so the Asrock & 3000+ would be faster.

As for highly volatile technology. Note: Socket A CPUs and motherboards are still available. Socket 754 CPUs and motherboards are still available. Socket 939 isn't going anywhere.

 

[Heffty]

The A64 3000+ is about as fast as your XP3200+ as a cpu (except for FPU) but your mobo is weak, so the Asrock & 3000+ would be faster.

Those links in my previous reply refered to tests that were done on the new chipsets. It was only 15%-20% faster. I just want to know how to get the best possible performance with what I've got. I think spending $20 on a socket A dual channel, sata, ide raid, ultra 400 board right now would be the wisest thing to max out my computers potential until the M2 comes out. Next time I buy a computer I won't cheap out on the motherboard like I did last time.