Worth it to upgrade??

[wifi4lyfe]

Here are my current system specs:

Abit IT7 max 1
P4 2.26b @ 2.7ghz w/Alpha pal8945
512mb pc2700 Samsung original
Sapphire 9700 non-pro
Liteon 52x burner
Pioneer 16x dvd
Powmax 550w PSU
onboard sound (optical )
250gb WD special edition 8mb cache 7.2krpm
80gb WD SE 8mb cache 7.2krpm
40gb maxtor 5400rpm
10gb fujitsu (linux drive)

Basically, my system lags alot when I have a bunch of programs open at once. I ran all the Sandra sisoft benchmarks and everything tested normal.

Example of programs I currently have open= 4 firefox windows with tabs, trillian, winamp w/~7k songs loaded, direct connect++, bittorrent++, netlimiter, alarm clock app, and then sometimes I play games,watch DVDs, write papers, etc all while the above "usual" programs are running. IS this an extreme workload? seems somewhat basic to me.

So with the above workload, the computer lags quite alot. things such as opening new firefox windows may take like 10+ seconds, browsing HDs is verrry slow, etc


ANYWAYS-- I'm wanting to upgrade. I'm only looking to upgrade Motherboard, Processor, RAM, and I need a new soundcard. I was considering upgrading the PSU also since all the components are now around 2yrs old except for the 250gb HD and burner, and i've heard of people having problems with Powmax PSUs...

I'm wanting to go AMD this time. I'm thinking A64, but I could only afford the A64 3000+ or MAYBE the 3200+, and I'd probably get 1gb of some faster RAM and a decent motherboard, but I dont know if I'll even notice a speed increase?? Or should I just buy More/Faster RAM for current setup since its pretty decent for what I do, right?? I do edit pics, movies, etc but very rarely....

Thanks for all your help

 

[wifi4lyfe]

ALSO - My original Idea was to just buy another stick of 512mb pc2700, but I figured this would be a waste of $ since I need not only moar but FASTER, RAM, right? and I doubt my current motherboard would support like PC3200 and up, right? although I;m not sure...

 

[wifi4lyfe]

ok so I'm thinking of getting the following:

A64 3200+
2x 512mb A-DATA pc4000
MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R mobo

will I be able to overclock well with that setup? I'm getting the mobo for 45 at newegg, refurb. I would prefer not to OC somwehat since I want a stable setup, but would if the speed increase is significant enough...?

help?

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: wifi4lyfe
ok so I'm thinking of getting the following:

A64 3200+good choice, yes you can OC, get good cooling though
2x 512mb A-DATA pc4000-What the heck is A-DATA? get Mushkin, Kingston, Geil, OCZ...
MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R mobo-good

will I be able to overclock well with that setup? I'm getting the mobo for 45 at newegg, refurb. I would prefer not to OC somwehat since I want a stable setup, but would if the speed increase is significant enough...?

help?

well, OC returns depend of course on how much you overclock. with good, cooling, say a $40 HSF, you can probably get a %20 clock boost. i don't know much about OCing the A64's, so get a second opinion.

 

[wifi4lyfe]

thanks for the help. the A-DATA pc4000 is supposed to be a really good deal. lots of people around the forums recommended it, plus its cheap .

I noticed that the MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R mobo doesnt have pci/agp lock. Since I wont be using ANY PCI slots, will this affect me much in OCing ability or what? any other cheapish mobos that I can get with similar features that have the pci/agp lock?

Still unsure if its worth it to o/c though. Minimal gains and stability risks...

 

[AristoV300]

Yes AGP/PCI doesn't refer to just the PCI slots. AGP/PCI going over 66/33 will screw up your hard drive and video card for sure. If you are going with an A64 I would hold out to the new chipset will come out. I believe the a64 still requires registered memory under the current chipset. If you can't go with a p4c they have great overclocking potential, with a 875p chipset.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: wifi4lyfe
thanks for the help. the A-DATA pc4000 is supposed to be a really good deal. lots of people around the forums recommended it, plus its cheap .

I noticed that the MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R mobo doesnt have pci/agp lock. Since I wont be using ANY PCI slots, will this affect me much in OCing ability or what? any other cheapish mobos that I can get with similar features that have the pci/agp lock?

Still unsure if its worth it to o/c though. Minimal gains and stability risks...

hmm...well, i have a feeling that A-DATA ram probably isn't real good for overclocking, but your right, it is cheap, though i'm not sure if that is good or bad.

You should only need to worry about the PCI/AGP lock if you are doing massive overclocking(correct?) and that is a good mobo. i suggest you go look at the skt754 mobos on newegg and read some of the buyer reviews.

As far as stablility goes...as long as you stay within the limits of your hardware, you will have no stablility problems. what does this mean? well, don't do anything crazy. you should be safe with a good 300Mhz-400Mhz OC. as long as there is nothing physically wrong with the hardware, and your Vcore is at an optimal setting, you will have no stablility problems. you may not even need to raise the Vcore. Once again, i don't know much about the A64 OCing, so seek more knoledgeable opinions.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: AristoV300
Yes AGP/PCI doesn't refer to just the PCI slots. AGP/PCI going over 66/33 will screw up your hard drive and video card for sure. If you are going with an A64 I would hold out to the new chipset will come out. I believe the a64 still requires registered memory under the current chipset. If you can't, go with a p4c they have great overclocking potential, with a 875p chipset.

that comma changes the meaning of the sentence completely. and NO, ECC RAM is only required on the skt940 processors. if by new chipset you mean skt939, then...its already out...

 

[wifi4lyfe]

I can get a refurb A64 3200+ DTR mobile for $204 refurb at newegg. should I jump on that?? the non mobile version, new oem, is 270

 

[wifi4lyfe]

Ok think I've settled on the following:

A64 3000+ oem (refurb)
MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R motherboard (refurb)
2x 512mb pc3200 Mushkin

comes out fairly cheap which is awesome. I've also decided not to OC.

want to order this ASAP so please gimme advice?

thanks

 

[Cerb]

A A64 or P4 w/ HT is what you're wanting for multitasking. non-HT P4s get doggy quick.

A A64 3000+ would be a good buy. For gaming and such, it would be a slight, but noticeable upgrade. For multitasking, a fair upgrade. Also, the IT7 Max, IIRC, uses the 845PE (or maybe GE) chipset, which isn't as fast as newer P4 chipsets, either.

I wouldn't go with a refurb mobo myself, but aside from that, looks good.

 

[nageov3t]

honestly, with what you do with your computer, I can't see upgrading to 64 making that much of a difference.

 

[caz67]

A64 or P4 w/ HT is what you're wanting for multitasking. non-HT P4s get doggy quick

Agreed.

Go with the HT P4

 

[wifi4lyfe]

well some of the refurb stuff went outta stock, so looking at the P4 options now.

Which P4 processor/mobo would be best bang for the buck? worth it to overclock?

thanks

 

[Cerb]

2.4C to 3.2C, and yes.

 

[3chordcharlie]

yeah from your description, you want to go with an HT P4 - there's quite a few threads in the last few days about intel systems, and they're mostly full of a lot of us telling the eople they want AMD for what they're doing. Ignore that bit, because if you're a die-hard multitasker, a P4 with HT is definitely what you want.

 

[Markfw]

Hey I love AMD, but if the gaming is "occasional" as you suggest, but you run a lot of stuff at the same time on a regular basis, even I say go P4. Make sure you get a gig of ram though, as even just that could make your system lag. You might even try 1 gig before you upgrade the rest of the box. What is your peak memory usage ?