What should I upgrade?

[Waylay00]

Hey guys,

I built my first rig over two years ago with the following parts:

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Thermalright XP-90 Heatsink)
eVGA 7800GT CO 256mb (overclocked)
2GB (2x1GB) OVZ EL Platinum Rev. 2 (CAS 2-3-2-5) PC3200
74GB Western Digital Raptor SATA (10k rpm)
Antec TP 2.0 550w

I've upgraded my monitor to a 22" Widescreen Samsung Syncmaster 225BW (1680x1050).

Since then, I've noticed a few weak spots in the computer. Obviously, the larger resolution is preventing me from maxing settings out on newer games. I'm also running low on HDD space, to the point where I can only have a few games installed on it at one time.

However, I'm undecided as to what I should upgrade. Should I just stick to upgrading the HDD, video card, and CPU?

Also, do I need to upgrade to Vista?

Or should I put some money towards a new Intel-based build altogether, and then pass this rig down to my parents?

Thanks,
Wade

 

[Waylay00]

Well, looks like there aren't many viable socket 939 upgrade paths out there anymore, so I'm thinking to go ahead and plan for a new rig centered around Penryn.

 

[s44]

Upgrade the PSU before the Fuhjyyu caps die.

 

[Skott]

Your two weak spots are the cpu and vid card. Video card wouldnt be too bad but for more processing power you need to get a new mobo. That in turn would allow for better cpu and video if you got a pcie mobo. Then of course new ram is needed. So yeah, if you want to come up to something considerably better its time to build a new rig. Although that 74Gb Raptor is still fine for today's gaming. You'd need to decide wether to pass that rig on or salvage parts of it for a new rig.

To save money you could reuse the Raptor. It'd make a fine 1st hd for the O/S and then add a secondary hd for storage. You could also reuse that psu but personally I dont like Antec units so I'd go for a Corsair or something of better quality but that psu would work for a while if you needed to save some cash.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I would drop a x2 4200+ $68 in and upgrade the GPU to an 8800 series.

That way you get a huge increase for pretty cheap, and you've only sunk $68 in the 939 platform as you can reuse the 8800 when you do decide to make the switch to penryn/nephlam

I just added the 4200+ and 8800gts 320mb to my sons s939 system and it is a gaming beast. And the 4200+ easily overclocked to 2.7ghz.

 

[Waylay00]

All right, thanks for the suggestions guys.

Originally posted by: s44
Upgrade the PSU before the Fuhjyyu caps die.

Can you enlighten me on this? I did a search, but is it essential that I upgrade the PSU? This PSU has been going on strong now for 2+ years.

 

[MarcVenice]

Hmz, if you upgrade to dualcore and a 8800gts, your PSU might get in trouble. 550w should be enough though, but it's not really a qaulity PSU. How much amps does it have on the 12v rail(s) ?

 

[Skott]

Is it this Antec psu by any chance?
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=33

 

[heyheybooboo]

That's a pretty impressive rig yah got.

A big new hard drive with a fresh install of XP might seem like a new rig . . . Put your OS and fav games on the Raptor (don't go over 50% capacity) and install your other games and data on a big new SATAII. Use the WD40gb as a scratch/page file disk (though it's a great size for OS/Apps).

Have you OC'ed the 3700? That sucka should zoom on up to 3 GHz with a little planning and effort. The X2 4200+ has half the cache and is a little slower than the 3700+. It may seem a little faster if you have alot of backgroud services going on. And it probably won't OC quite as well as the 3700+. An Opty 165 would cost around $30 more than the X2 4200+ and OC to around 2.8GHz if yah get a good one.

That's not such a bad vid card you have - pulls half the amps of anything that would give you a big boost - but any vid card you get could be moved to a new rig down the road so that's up to you. There are no good cards in a decent mid-price range - maybe $300 for a 8800gts ??? Hopefully things will change in the next few months

If the games you play are not multi-threaded I would not upgrade the cpu just for the sake of upgrading - though 939s will be getting harder and harder to find.

 

[Waylay00]

Originally posted by: Skott
Is it this Antec psu by any chance?
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=33

Yeah, that's the one. I've since sleeved it myself (blue sleeving), and like I said, it's been running strong since day 1.

I'm thinking about at least purchasing a new case, HDD, and PSU though for the time being, as those components won't get outdated as fast as core components. That way, when the time to purchase the core parts (CPU, mobo, RAM, GPU) is right, I can just drop them in and go.