Author Topic: Questions! (Read 291 times)

Ghosth · « **on:** February 10, 2006, 10:10:10 AM »

Ok looking at a new computer here, old one is 3 years old.
I'm on a tight budget, can't exceed 700$ Thats a fact of life, its all I've got or am going to get for computer for the forseable future.

As a result I've been looking at the 754 socket boards. I seldom end up upgrading my computers. So thats not an issue.

Why are there no venice cpus over 3000 for 754 boards? Is this as high as they are going to go? They have them up to 3800's for 939's. No demand for them in 754's?

Currently in the 754 boards I have a choice between

AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ (RETAIL BOXED 64-BIT W/512KB CACHE 130NM (NEWCASTLE) (184$)

AMD ATHLON 64 3000+ (ADA3000BXBOX) RETAIL BOXED 64-BIT W/512KB CACHE 90NM (VENICE) (118$)

The Newcastle is 130 nm vs 90 on the venice, And only 3200 vs 3000, so not that much gain for the extra $.

Granted if I went with a 939 board I could go with a faster processor.
But at a lot higher cost.
AMD ATHLON 64 3800+ RETAIL BOXED 64-BIT W/512KB CACHE 90NM (VENICE) BUNDLE
ABIT AN8 32X
512MB DDR400
Puts me at the 500$ mark. That only leaves 200$ for all the rest I need. In short, it won't fly. Granted I could shave some off of that.

AMD ATHLON 64 3500+ RETAIL BOXED 64-BIT W/512KB CACHE 90NM (VENICE) BUNDLE
# ABIT AN8-V
# 512MB DDR400
# ASSEMBLE/TEST BUNDLE

That still burns up 350$ vs 265$ for the 754 board/processor. But then I'm paying 85 $ more for again not much speed increase. (and only half as much ram)

If I did go with a 939 board I have to go with a PCI-E video card. With the AGP cards I've heard & read enough in the last 2 years to have a fair idea what to get. PCI-E I have no clue.

ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 2006 EDITION 256MB AGP 4X/8X
Granted its a tricked up 9600, but the price is right. Its feature packed, and should do what I need for the next couple of years.

How would this compare to

ATI RADEON X800GT 256MB PCI EXPRESS DDR3 ? (similar price)

The x800 has none of the goodies the 2006 all in wonder agp has.
But how does it stack up for pure game playing horsepower?

BTW I'm looking at a generic case, 500w power supply for 64$ Thats about as low as I dare go on case.

WD 160GB 1600JB UATA-100 7200RPM 8MB Hard drive. Nothing fancy, but at 84$ it should do nicely.

And a LITE ON 16X SHM-165P6S DUAL DVD REWRITABLE + DVD RAM DRIVE w/SW BLACK & BEIGE BEZEL at 54$. Could cut a few by going with a cheaper one, but hardly seems worth it for just 14$ difference.

With an 8$ optical mouse that leaves me at 641 plus 30$ shipping totals me out at 671$ So I have 30 $ I can spend on goodies.

So put yourself in my shoes, what would you do? What would you change?
Remember, your in MY shoes, I prefer Abit mboards, ATI viceo cards.
If your going to change from that you have to have a VERY good reason.

Thanks

38ruk · « **Reply #1 on:** February 10, 2006, 10:56:14 AM »

An x800gt would prolly double the frames rates of a 9600, ive not seen any benches on the 2006 AIW ,so its hard to tell how much it is souped up compaired to a 9600 . The x800gt also comes in agp if you go the 754 route . Looking at benches for the GT its right around a 6800 256 . Good card for the money. If the x800gto isnt too much more , it has 4 more pipes and performs very good . 38

Edit : http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/sapphire-14.html
Here is a good review , at the bottom there is a link to agp benches , they have most agp cards in there including a 9600 pro and xt .

Ghosth · « **Reply #2 on:** February 10, 2006, 12:48:22 PM »

Thanks for the link!
As a result of reading through that, I'm changing horses.

ATI RADEON X800GT 256MB PCI EXPRESS DDR3 DUAL DVI HDTV #X800GT256MB *Based on R480 Core Technology (OEM-POWERED BY ATI) $159.00
From everything I've been reading this is a good card.
So I'm changing the rest to go with it.

# ABIT KN8 nVIDIA nFORCE4 CHIPSET SERIAL ATA150 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xPCI-E(X16)/3xPCI-E(X1)/3xPCI/4xDDR W/SATA RAID,LAN(Gb),USB 2.0 & AUDIO (CPU TYPE:AMD ATHLON 64 - SOCKET 939)
AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ - VENICE
# 1GB DDR400 $323.00

And a SATA WD 160gig 8mb buffer hd.

New total 687$ with just enough left for shipping.

Getting dragged into the next wave of computing kicking and screaming............Priceles s

38ruk · « **Reply #3 on:** February 10, 2006, 11:26:53 PM »

Glad to see your going 939 , not that 754 is bad , i had one last year and it performed well . Heck ive seen nforce 4 boards with pcie in 754. But the 939's dual channel capabilty , and proccesor upgradabilty is a great choice . Ive seen people with venice core get stable 2.5- 2.6 ghz overclocks on air without much trouble . If you dont mind me askin , what are you upgrading from ? . 38

Ghosth · « **Reply #4 on:** February 11, 2006, 08:32:52 AM »

1.67 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

on an Abit KD7-E(VIA KT333-8235) Mboard
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz

256 MB DDR ram.

SAPPHIRE RADEON 9000 ATLANTIS PRO 128 mb (with Omega 2.6.37 drivers)

Western Digital 8mb buffer 80 gig HD Partioned as a pair of 40 gig drives. (they were new & hot 3 years ago.)

Creative Sound Blaster PCI512 (inexpensive, good quality, no problems)
Belkin 10/100 network card
LITE-ON LTR-48246S [CD-ROM drive] (This CD burner sold me on liteon drives)
PIONEER CD-ROM DR-A04S

System is 3 years old, cost me 600$ and still gets me solid 40's in AH for the most part. Shorted myself on the video last time. Partly because I built a matching pair of these. One for me, one for my wife who is quite active on ebay, does household finances, etc on it. Both used daily for the last 3 years with no major problems.

With a new AGP card, this system would do fairly well for a couple of more years if I had to. But the need for speed is calling.

buzkill · « **Reply #5 on:** February 11, 2006, 10:30:47 AM »

you'll love the upgrade you're talkin about, over what you've got:aok

JTs · « **Reply #6 on:** February 11, 2006, 05:38:47 PM »

dont forget a good psu

38ruk · « **Reply #7 on:** February 11, 2006, 09:14:01 PM »

Yep you will really be happy with this upgrade then !