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Upgrade recommendations

fustercluck

fustercluck

Diamond Member
I kinda want to upgrade my system here little bit, mainly my CPU, because it's had heating problems from day one, maybe a faulty heatsink. If i could keep my Mobo/Ram that'd be good, but i think i'll probably have to upgrade those too along with the CPU. Or is there a way i could keep my mobo/ram and upgrade my CPU to something like a 3.2C?

Anyways, since i probably need a cpu/mobo/ram, my budget is around $400, not a strict budget, could go higher. I think i'd rather have a Pentium with Hyperthreading, but you can suggest whatever. I'm hoping i can overclock as well. I never could OC this current system because of the heat.

So can you guys recommend me some hardware? I'll read up on any hardware suggested and see if i like it or not. Thanky.
 
ASUS "P4P800 SE" i865PE Chipset ~$90
Intel Pentium 4/ 3.0E GHz ~$189
2X 512MB PC3200 @ outpost for $120 AR.

If you went with 512MB total memory than you could spend as little as $86 for RAM.


For AMD:
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS PRO" nForce3 250 ~100
AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor
2X 512MB PC3200
 
The best 533 FSB CPU is the 3.06 GHz. It also has hyperthreading.
If you mainly use your rig for gaming and you want to get a completely new CPU/mobo/RAM combo, I would get the following:

Athlon 64 3200+ (will drop about $30 in price after Octover 15th due to the price cuts by AMD on that date)
MSI K8N Neo Platinum ($123 at newegg)
and 1GB of brand 400MHz RAM (don't bother going with cl 2.0 RAM, it's not worth it at your budget, get ValueRAM instead).
 
I have that mb and a p4b 2.67 chip... Also have a 9800pro and Audigy2 ZS, our systems really look quite similar. I thought about the 3.06 HT, but for ~$200 U.S. it seemed a bit steep for the modest performance I'd see - I can also relate in that my chip has always run a bit hot and won't OC to even 2.8 :frown: Matter of fact I had to buy an aftermarket hsf to keep it under 60c load in the summertime without my a/c on. At any rate, I think about the most cost-efficient upgrade you could make would be to go with 1gb of ram. For another $60, give or take, you should see system performance increase all across the board, especially in games. I recently had to give up one of my 512mb DIMMs for a week; I was building a new PC, and the stick I got for it was defective, so while Newegg RMA'd it I donated one of mine - I was aghast at how slow my rig felt. I didn't even bother playing many games, as settings which were smooth with 1gb became slideshows with 512mb. My plans personally are to wait until BTX and pci-x become the standard, and build an entirely new rig then. You can see specifics of my rig in my sig (Rigs -> Coffee Magnet).
 
Thanks for those recommendations, i'll have to read up, i haven't really paid any attention to new hardware like CPUs or Mobos for a long time.

Yeah, it is a pretty good chunk of cash for a slight upgrade, or maybe a mediocre upgrade if i can overclock, which i doubt i'll be able to do. Though the resell value of my current rig also goes down the longer i wait to upgrade, i could probably get around $150 for my current CPU/Mobo/Ram, that resell value keep going down the longer i wait, so i'm considering that as well. Plus i've just never been satisfied with this rig, bad heat problems and no ability to overclock, so i think i'd be happier with something new, hopefully the heat problems wouldn't follow and i could have a shot at overclocking, even just a little bit. I think the heat in my current system is damaging my Radeon 9800 as well, which i don't like.

This has no doubt been talked to death, but why take the AMD route over Pentium? More overclock ability? Which (if either) has lower temps usually? I'll definitly do my research, but right now i'm leaning toward a P4 more.

I also forgot to mention i'm a huge gamer, if that makes any difference.

 
It's been gone over ad nauseum (and is to blame for quite a few entertaining flamewars 😀) but basically, AMDs are faster for gaming (produce higher framerates) while Intels are faster for video encoding (lower encoding times). AMDs are less expensive as well. If you enjoy games and are on a budget (who isn't?), AMD is the clear choice. That's why they're more popular with tech-saavy people, such as those who post on AT. I have an Intel because when I built the rig I knew no better, but I ended up using it for quite a bit of video encoding (more than gaming), so it wasn't a bad choice for me after all. My next rig will probably be dual-cpu and AMD-based, however.
 
I keep hearing that AMDs are cheaper, but it doesn't seem to me like they are. Even back when i bought this rig, AMD cost more. To get a 2.2 GHZ Athlon 64 now would cost about the same as a Pentium 3.2E, so it seems like Pentium is definitly the better bang for the buck, guess i'm missing something though =p, do AMDs overclock really well or what? I haven't got a chance to read up on anything yet, later tonight though i'll start my research.
 
AMD chips are cheaper....so they're the better bang for the buck (for most users at least). Also AMD isn't based as much on clock speed as Intel is. It's shorter pipeline allows it to execute more instructions, thus making it more efficient in general applications and gaming. Both types of chips oc well too.
 
Originally posted by: jacktackle
I keep hearing that AMDs are cheaper, but it doesn't seem to me like they are. Even back when i bought this rig, AMD cost more. To get a 2.2 GHZ Athlon 64 now would cost about the same as a Pentium 3.2E, so it seems like Pentium is definitly the better bang for the buck, guess i'm missing something though =p, do AMDs overclock really well or what? I haven't got a chance to read up on anything yet, later tonight though i'll start my research.
Click to expand...
A 2.2 ghz Athlon64 3200+ will beat a P4 3.2E in almost any benchmark. You can't compare ghz....
 
2.2Ghz A64 > P4 3.2E in gaming. Look at AMDs PR ratings - thats what you would look at when you compare it with Intel cpus. Their cpu architectures are different so you can't compare AMD and Intels soley by Ghz. The A64s run way cooler than the P4E and they are also great overclockers, especially the inexpensive A64 2800+.
 
Well, I don't want to sound skeptical, as i'm not against going with AMD, but where's the proof? In the pudding? 😛, from all of the benchmarks i've seen, in many different catagories, at different sites, P4s pretty much always win, it's pretty clear they win the price/performance ratio from what i've seen. I might do what's in this thread here too: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...8&threadid=1386931 - Looks pretty cool.

Thanks for the replies.
 
trix are for rabbits? 😛

So anyways, if someone could link me to some benchmarks where AMD is the clear winner, i'd be happy to check them out. Otherwise i'm going with the P4, like i said though i wouldn't mind going with AMD, especially if they do run cooler, which i need, just can't see why they're better. It also just seems like a downgrade to go to a 2.2 ghz processor, heh. That's a lot to pay for a downgrade of sorts, even though it would probably kick my 2.4b's arse.
 
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