Worth getting a s939 upgrade for me?

[Grabo]

Helloes.

I've got a Shuttle st20g5, meaning overclocking is limited to around +20MHz fsb, which means an Opty 165 could work at around 2.0Ghz(rather than 1.8)
An incredible waste of its potential, but that goes for virtually any CPU I could put in it.

Query is, would this be a grand idea if I'm currently running an A64 at around 2.2Ghz?
I do some gaming (Oblivion would be the most intensive; planning on getting Silverfall though), and my graphics card is an X800xl. I'm not really planning on replacing the entire Shuttle anytime soon. (It cost too much to be used as a door-stop anytime soon! (And the choir in the background sings 'DEETEE EX! DEEE TEE EX!')

Reason for Opteron 165 is because there is one online store in Ireland, and that's what's available, (as opposed to the X2 3800+). I know the s939s are being phased out, so..

 

[myocardia]

You're one of the ones that would be much better off just spending that money on a motherboard, so you could overclock the cpu you already have. You'd get alot more performance that way. Of course, your cpu is already considerably faster than your video card, so it isn't going to help all that much.

 

[Grabo]

Except that I've got a Shuttle. Haven't actually heard of anyone changing the motherboard of one.

Hmm, I was thinking the CPU I have now was somewhat evenly matched with the x800xl, or even that the CPU was a tad slower?

 

[deadseasquirrel]

The type of monitor you have and game settings you play at will dictate your best upgrade path. If you have an LCD that limits you to 1280x1024 resolution or lower, the Opty would be an ok upgrade. It will definitely help you out in other cpu-intensive tasks such as video encoding (and future games will likely take advantage of multi-core chips moreso than today's games). If your monitor supports higher resolutions, you'd be better off buying a faster video card and cranking up the resolution to 1600x1200 or higher with AA/AF for a truly great gaming experience. Your A64 won't be holding you back much at all if you can do that.

 

[Grabo]

Hey, thanks alot for that piece of advice.

I'm fully content with (and indeed limited to) 1280* 1024

I'm guessing upping the video card (because I won't do both right now) instead of the CPU won't be as beneficial if I go max the resolution mentioned above? Maybe borderline, maybe with AA..

 

[catalysts17az]

for a quick bang go with the 7900gs or the X1900 pro. because you have a shuttle i would go with the x1900 pro as the fan on this card is farther to the back so it can get some cold air or at least cooler air as opposed to being block by some other card.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Grabo
Except that I've got a Shuttle. Haven't actually heard of anyone changing the motherboard of one.

Hmm, I was thinking the CPU I have now was somewhat evenly matched with the x800xl, or even that the CPU was a tad slower?

Hah, I forgot that all Shuttle's are SFF's. In that case, you'd get much more return on your money by buying an X1950 Pro. You'd be able to crank both the resolution and the AA/AF, making for a much more enjoyable gaming experience. And you should definitely consider spending $80 for the 2.4 Ghz, 12x multiplier 4000 processor. You could be running it at more than 2.6 Ghz with your motherboard, and it has double the L2 cache of your current processor, also. You'd still have a fairly midrange system, but it would be pretty decent for an SFF.