What to upgrade

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chaudx

Member
Oct 22, 2004
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CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
GFX: Nvidia 6600
HD: 2 different HDs, 7200 RPM, plenty of space
DVD Burner on par with today's
1GB Kingston Valueram, Single Channel, 2.5 Cas Latency, 3 RAS, 7 Cycle and blank cycle, 2T, Frequency in CPUz 166.4 MHZ (400DDR Ram)
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D

I play a few FPS games, want to play Halo2 when it comes out, mostly play WoW right now, with 40-50 fps with mostly everything on low at 1024x768, pretty low fps in 10 man raids. Would like to see an improvement there. CPU useage at 100% when wow is running.

Would like to buy a new parts and sell my old ones, so not spending more than ~100-200$ total.

Thanks in advance.
 
Puffnstuff

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,256
4,930
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I would make a short list of 3 things.
1. upgrade video card
2. add more ram
3. upgrade cpu to x2 3800 (best bang for buck)
 
C

chaudx

Member
Oct 22, 2004
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Do you think the RAM will help my gaming performance in any way? I haven't kept up with hardware since I built this machine, but wouldn't the CPU and video card give me better performance? By the way, it's S939.
Last I read, Dual core was still not as great for gaming as single core.

Man it's good to be back looking at hardware again.
 
Puffnstuff

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,256
4,930
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My son is still using the ultra-d with an opty 175 on it, 2gb corsair and a 8800gts 640 and his does pretty good gaming.
 
N

Nnyan

Senior member
May 30, 2003
239
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Dual core may not show up as an improvement unless the speed is faster then what yo have now. It will "speed" up your games if you tend to have a bunch of stuff in the background. I found when I upgraded my GF's XPC from single to dual that it wasn't much faster at any single thing but overall it was faster since multitasking was much better. Nowadays you'll pay a premium on a socket 939 X2 and they are getting harder to find.

Same thing with RAM. I've found that with modern games 2GB is becoming the minimum. You can get away with 1GB but many game clients are almost up to that size already.

I'm guessing that board supports AGP only? That limits your choices somewhat, but I agree that you should get your video card first then ram and CPU.
 
C

chaudx

Member
Oct 22, 2004
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PCIx. I made sure to wait for that before I built. Usually have the game + vent open, that is about it. So RAM > CPU so far as game performance?
 
B

betasub

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2006
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Originally posted by: chaudx
PCIx. I made sure to wait for that before I built.
Click to expand...

PCI-e, I hope. PCI-x another slot specification altogether.

So RAM > CPU so far as game performance?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, it's just that a lot of modern FPS games take you over 1GB of system RAM usage, and hitting the disk swap file can cause a serious drop in frame rates. These games also tend to be highly graphics-card limited, as long as you have a reasonable fast CPU (your A64 3000+ is OK, but overclocking a little to ~2.4GHz wouldn't hurt :) ). RTS games tend to put slightly more stress on the CPU (and Supreme Commander does to such an extent that multi-core benefits it greatly).

 
R

Roguestar

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
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Drop some a new video card in. I wouldn't add any more (presumably DDR) RAM, or a presumably Socket 939 CPU because you'll not be able to carry those over should you decide to perform a complete overhaul in the next year or so.
 
C

chaudx

Member
Oct 22, 2004
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Yeah, PCI-e. :eek:
So getting a 3800 for around $60 and then selling my 3000 for hopefully 30$ is not going to help significantly?
 
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hurtstotalktoyou

Platinum Member
Mar 24, 2005
2,055
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Socket-939 X2s are significantly more expensive than socket-AM2 X2s. Newegg has an OEM 3800+ (no hsf) for $81 shipped. You may be able to get it used for $60, but I wouldn't count on it. And even if you could, I highly doubt you could sell your A64 3000+ for more than $20 without the cooler. I'd say you're looking at about a $50 investment to upgrade to dual core. Now, that still may be worth it, but don't be expecting to pay any less than $40 or so, at the minimum.

Another GB of DDR-400 would run about $70 new, maybe $50-$60 used. If you already have a 1GB DIMM, that means you'd also be upgrading the speed of your memory (single vs. dual-channel).

So to go from this:

Athlon 64 3000+ w/1GB RAM

to this:

Athlon 64 X2 3800+ w/2GB RAM

...would run you about $100 if you bought used components. I have no idea what it would cost to upgrade the video card.
 
H

hurtstotalktoyou

Platinum Member
Mar 24, 2005
2,055
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Puffnstuff

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,256
4,930
136
You better get the x2 3800 before they all dry up. I just got one for the pc I just built my parents and it's a great deal. I also paired it with an arctic cooling freezer 64 pro hsf and it stays cool. In my house we are all power users so we usually upgrade every other year. My oldest is about to upgrade from the opty to c2d e6600 unless the quad core prices drop a bit more. I will probably go quad core later this year after the price drops more.
 
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chaudx

Member
Oct 22, 2004
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66
Okay, I guess dual core CPUs have improved since I built my machine.
I want to keep this cheap, as s939 seems to be gone now, and this CPU will only need to last another few years.
So ebay should not be an option then. I'll begin to look for an x2 3800.

BTW, I have never been able to make this RAM run dual channel. I put them in the correct slots, eased up on the timings, and lowered the speed but the system would not boot. Am I losing out on anything significant.
 
C

chaudx

Member
Oct 22, 2004
70
0
66
What about AMD64 4000+ Socket 939. I know it is single core, but for $48 shipped from FS/T forum it seems decent.
 
soydios

soydios

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,708
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0
In order you should do it, budget allowing:
1.) 2GB of RAM
2.) video card
3.) CPU (get 'em before they're gone, S939 is fading fast from the retail channels)
 
Z

Zardnok

Senior member
Sep 21, 2004
670
0
76
Originally posted by: chaudx
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
GFX: Nvidia 6600
HD: 2 different HDs, 7200 RPM, plenty of space
DVD Burner on par with today's
1GB Kingston Valueram, Single Channel, 2.5 Cas Latency, 3 RAS, 7 Cycle and blank cycle, 2T, Frequency in CPUz 166.4 MHZ (400DDR Ram)
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D

I play a few FPS games, want to play Halo2 when it comes out, mostly play WoW right now, with 40-50 fps with mostly everything on low at 1024x768, pretty low fps in 10 man raids. Would like to see an improvement there. CPU useage at 100% when wow is running.

Would like to buy a new parts and sell my old ones, so not spending more than ~100-200$ total.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

For under $200, I would buy another Gig of RAM for $75ish and an X1950GT for $120ish. Is your CPU overclocked? Could probably bump it up 500mhz easy...
 
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