Upgrading CPU - Need Input

[vikingblade]

hi. im thinking its time to upgrade my cpu. unfortunately, i cant afford to get a new motherboard etc.. im stuck with my socket 939 for now. i currently have an amd 3500 venice cpu. my motherboard is the EPOX EP-9NPA+ULTRA nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64(FX) Skt939.

question is, what is my best cpu upgrade choice while staying with the 939?
i need some suggestions...

also, what is involved, will i need to format hd and reinstall windows?
thanks

 

[DyslexicHobo]

It's going to be really hard for you to get an upgrade worth your money. I suppose you could go for something in the X2 category; I hear they're supposed to run fairly well (but nowhere near as well as Intel's dual core).

And no, you shouldn't need to reinstall windows for a new CPU. You may, however, need to update the BIOS to be compatible with the processor you decide to buy.

 

[f4phantom2500]

nope, just plop in a new cpu. the single core non-fx cpu's will be your cheapest option, you could go up to a 4000 which you could probably get for $60~70 in the fs/ft forum. Also available are the 3700 and 3800's. You could jump up to dual core, I just snagged an x2 3800 for $75 shipped, but that was a remarkably good deal they usually go for $100~$130. of course, the higher models will be more. You can go opteron, which are basically athlons with better silicon and 1mb cache on all of them (2x1mb on dual cores), but they go for notably more than athlons due to their overclocking prowess, so if you dont overclock it's not worth it. then there's the fx cpu's, which are gonna be expensive no matter what. what do you use your computer for? if you do a lot of things at once do what you can to get an x2, if you game i'd suggest a faster single core for now since they're so friggin cheap. also if you have like 512mb of ram or something like that i'd recommend a ram upgrade much sooner than a processor upgrade; a64 3500 is not a bad processor.

 

[DaveSimmons]

What programs are you upgrading for? Your CPU is still a good one for gaming.

 

[happy medium]

Go with a x2- 3800 if you overclock and as fast as you can afford (x2 5200) if no overclock. No you will not have to format or reinstall windows. You might want to upgrade your bios to use a duel core processor.

 

[vikingblade]

thnx guys. the 3500 seems ok, but i need to have like 10 ie explorer windows open plus a voice recognition app, and want to be able to game at the same time. im experiencing chugging in-game with my voice app and game running. im thinking its a cpu issue, since ive got 2gb ram and im actually getting 90+ fps with chugging/lag.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Dual-core will be a big help then, the voice recognition can max one core while the game uses the other.

An X2 3800+ is slower than your 3500+ for games unless you overclock it. If you plan to run at stock speed get at least a 4200+. Newegg had a good deal on a 4200 or 4400 OEM last I checked, remember that OEM processors don't come with a heatsink.