wanting to upgrade to amd x2

[magnumty]

currently running a socket 754 amd 64 3200, 2.2 ghz newcastle with 1.5 gigs crucial pc 3200 ddr 400, I only have a limited cash, my question is can I run my old memory in a new dual core system, or do I have to buy ddr2? I would like to save the cash on the new memory, to buy a new pci express video card, thanks, any links or suggestions appreciated, oh by the way not an overclocker..

 

[mancunian]

You could get a cheap 939 board that has PCI-E and an X2 chip, which would enable you to re-use your DDR400.

However, if you're going to rebuild to that extent, I'd just save up a bit more and go for a new C2D system.

$0.02

 

[SparkyJJO]

At this point considering DDR2 is at a premium I don't blame you for wanting to keep your current memory. You can get a decent s939 board and an X2 CPU for relatively cheap now, so go ahead and go for it

 

[magnumty]

can you reccomend a good reliable cheap motherboard?

 

[Rottie]

Asrock and ECS are the two cheap motherboard

 

[magnumty]

i have been looking at the asrock mobo that supports agp and pci express, seems like a good deal.. that way I can use my 6800gt agp, until I get the cash for a new pci E card..

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: Rottie
Asrock and ECS are the two cheap motherboard

ECS is utter shite.

Asrock is okay for the price, I run one and it's been superb. Also had experience with other peoples' ECS boards and they were nothing but trouble.

So I'd stay away from ECS.

Stick to Asus, DFI, Gigabyte and stuff of that ilk. Socket 939 boards by these manufacturers would serve you well for what you need.

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: magnumty
i have been looking at the asrock mobo that supports agp and pci express, seems like a good deal.. that way I can use my 6800gt agp, until I get the cash for a new pci E card..

That's the one I run. It's been pretty good for me, although user reviews seem pretty mixed.

This one is Prime stable with an overclock of 2.6Ghz on a 3200+ 939 Venice chip.

I'd go for that one if you want to re-use your grafix card as well.

It'd be a nice upgrade to dual core for not so much cash.

 

[imported_wicka]

MSI stuff is sometimes priced well, and I have a Chaintech 939 board that was like $50 and it's pretty nice. Only one PCI-E though.

 

[RallyMaster]

I say go for it. The ASRock is by far one of the better options if you're sticking with AGP for a while. X2 4200+ FTW.

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: mancunian

Originally posted by: Rottie
Asrock and ECS are the two cheap motherboard

ECS is utter shite.

Asrock is okay for the price, I run one and it's been superb. Also had experience with other peoples' ECS boards and they were nothing but trouble.

So I'd stay away from ECS.

Stick to Asus, DFI, Gigabyte and stuff of that ilk. Socket 939 boards by these manufacturers would serve you well for what you need.

I am using ECS mobo for almost a year now no problem so far. I am happy with this board.

 

[fluxquantum]

i ordered an X2 4800 the other day. should arrive by wednesday. i'm keeping all my current hardware. i want to extend the life of my system for a while before doing an entire system upgrade. good luck with your purchase. since the X2's are more affordable now, i couldn't resist buying.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

I'd recommend the Biostar TForce6100-939. It has an integrated GeForce 6100 video card that will handle light gaming, especially with 1.5gb of system memory. You can always pop in a PCI-e video card when you have more cash to spend. This mobo & an X2 3800+ should be about $220.

 

[jelifah]

Speaking of an X2 on Socket 939, and it being more affordable:

How much longer will the X2 Socket 939 continue to be available?

I've noticed these past few weeks that the price has continued to climb, and NewEgg doesn't even offer the 3800 X2 anymore (the 4200+ is like $190 now...)

:/

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: Rottie

Originally posted by: mancunian

Originally posted by: Rottie
Asrock and ECS are the two cheap motherboard

ECS is utter shite.

Asrock is okay for the price, I run one and it's been superb. Also had experience with other peoples' ECS boards and they were nothing but trouble.

So I'd stay away from ECS.

Stick to Asus, DFI, Gigabyte and stuff of that ilk. Socket 939 boards by these manufacturers would serve you well for what you need.

I am using ECS mobo for almost a year now no problem so far. I am happy with this board.

Well then I guess you got lucky. Most people will tell you that ECS has generally been poor quality over the years. Perhaps now they've got their act together.

Asrock is probably not that much better, but I'd take one over an ECS board any day.

 

[VooDooAddict]

On ECS:
ECS is a good cheep intermediate solution for running things at stock speeds/settings. The main issue I've seen with ECS isn't long-term stability, but initial perceived out of the box quality. Many people complain about ECS boards being Dead On Arrival (DOA). Unfortunately this could also be skewed as ECS is the cheaper boards ... and many inexperienced people decide to go with the cheaper board for their first try at building a system.

That said, I wouldn't run ECS on anything other then a Budget Home (e-mail/browsing/word processing) or Budget Gaming system.

If you want to do any overclocking you need to spend the extra 20%-50% on a well known motherboard.


On the Main Topic:
There's another option if gaming is your focus... you could get a Socket 754 motherboard with PCI-e and dump the $$ into a highend video card. This will give you better gaming bang for the $$ then an X2. That way you can save up for a Core 2 Duo or AM2 system with DDR2 (or wait for DDR3).

If gaming isn't your focus ... there are Core 2 Duo motherboards that support DDR1 and AGP.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

heh there are ECS boards for skt 775 that utilize ddr and ddr2 slots... saw it paired with an e6300 at my local fry's.

ECS isn't bad if you don't want to OC and keep the system as basic as possible (and cheap). i've been using them since 2000 and they're all reliable

nothing's failed on me except for an old ECS board, but that was due to me screwing up with the screwdriver (RIP). I've got one in my gaming rig right now (at least till I upgrade this december) and it OCs my 3700 to 2.5ghz, which i'm happy with.

 

[Captante]

ECS has actually improved quite a bit in the last year or so to the point where reviews are mostly positive ... I've built several systems using the 3400+/ECS NF4 $99 combo off Newegg for cheapo customers & they've all gone together & booted right up without a hitch ... as long as you arn't oc'ing they work fine.

Having said that, I'd suggest going with an Asus A8N-E NForce 4 Ultra for $78 ... the only issue these boards have these days is that somtimes the NB fan fails & they oc pretty well in case you change your mind about that ... then grab either a 3800+ or 4200+ X2.

 

[magnumty]

Well I decided to go with the Asrock board with agp and Pci express on one board, paired with a socket 939 X2 4200, this way I can use my old memory and my 6800Gt agp card until I decide to go pci express whenever Unreal Tournament 2007 comes out. The chip and board will only cost me about 270 bucks, so not alot of money for a worthy upgrade, thanks for all the input.

 

[mancunian]

Good choice, it's a pretty special board, especially if you are not overclocking.

Bear in mind that coming from a 3200+, you won't see a massive increase in gaming performance. You will however be able to encode a DVD while gaming or do other CPU intensive tasks simultaneously.

Nothing wrong with futureproofing though.

 

[Rottie]

Who said about first timer or inexperience who know nothing about the quality of ECS? This is the second ECS motherboard I had bought. First one was ECS K7S5A motherboard for 5 years until BIOS died. Now I bought ECS KV2 Extreme motherboard. Nice cheap motherboard

 

[magnumty]

ok got the chip and motherboard changed out, everything is fine, except my ddr 400 is only running at 333mhz, any ideas?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Rottie
Who said about first timer or inexperience who know nothing about the quality of ECS? This is the second ECS motherboard I had bought. First one was ECS K7S5A motherboard for 5 years until BIOS died. Now I bought ECS KV2 Extreme motherboard. Nice cheap motherboard

If ECS were one of the better motherboard manufacturers, they wouldn't be the absolute lowest priced brand available. But, go back and reread VooDooAddict's post. He was saying, correctly, that ECS is the brand chosen more often than not by first time builders.

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: magnumty
ok got the chip and motherboard changed out, everything is fine, except my ddr 400 is only running at 333mhz, any ideas?

I think you may have to turn off 'memory flexibility mode' in the BIOS. That may be knocking your memory speed back.