Author Topic: Upgrade? (Read 276 times)

humble · « **on:** November 17, 2005, 12:45:18 PM »

I've got the opportunity to upgrade my current box if it makes sense since I'm upgrading the kids (older AMD stuff) a bit. Currently I have a socket 754 DFI lanparty with a X800pro and 1 gig of PC3200. Aquamark benchs are in the 62,000 range and FPS in AH is usually good (pegged at 60 which is LCD refresh)...however system will occasionally bog down in the weeds still. I currently have an AGP vidio card so I either migrate board and card to kids system and upgrade board VC and mem or throw more memory (or better) in box....doesnt seem to make sense to "upgrade" to another AGP card.

Money isnt an issue but certainly dont need to throw bucks for no real "bang"....box is great for everything else.....

buzkill · « **Reply #1 on:** November 17, 2005, 01:36:13 PM »

whats your cpu? everything else you have is fine as long as you upgrade the mobo driver to the new one.(a friend of mine had a problem with sometimes losing his GART driver before the update)

humble · « **Reply #2 on:** November 17, 2005, 03:32:11 PM »

is a 3200+ winchester core

buzkill · « **Reply #3 on:** November 17, 2005, 06:35:02 PM »

YA... MOBO AND PCI-E CARD AND YOUR'E GOLD:aok

eagl · « **Reply #4 on:** November 18, 2005, 12:43:59 PM »

I think it'll probably take a 7800GT or ATI 1800something to get a really noticeable improvement from your current setup.

If you have $500 to spend, consider a new mobo and 7800GT or GTX. The problem you'll still have though is the 754 cpu. It's tough to go anywhere from a 3200 if you're stuck with socket 754. You can get 3800s in socket 939 fairly cheap I think, but then you're talking $800 and a near-complete system rebuild.

I think I'd recommend sticking with what you have for now... An nvidia 6800 Ultra might give a little speedup as would a faster cpu, but you won't get anywhere going to pci-e unless you also jump to the next generation of vid cards, and at that point it would be crazy to buy a new mobo and cpu and stick with socket 754 cpu. You'd never be able to go dual core, lose out on dual channel memory, etc.

This is why I always thought socket 754 was a bad idea... No way to incrementally upgrade. If you want to upgrade one thing, you toss out the whole mess.

That said, for $800 you should be able to get a nice socket 939 mobo, cpu, and 7800GT. 2 gig memory (2 1 gig sticks) would be a nice bonus if you can fit it within your budget and BF2 definately wants 2 gig ram, but that's gravy right now if you're not into BF2.

x0847Marine · « **Reply #5 on:** November 18, 2005, 06:20:21 PM »

I'd be interested in buying that 3200+, if youre inclined to sell. I have a spare 2500+ box that could use a bump.

humble · « **Reply #6 on:** November 18, 2005, 07:49:41 PM »

eagle...

You pretty much summed up my thoughts. At the time I bought the PCI-e cards were still at a premium and the 754/AGP combo made the most sense. There was really no siginificant performance combo better then what I bought. The system really didnt measure up to my expectations but that has more to do with AH then the box itself since it benchmarks well and plays everything else very very well. At the time I figured it was an "18 month box" then i'd kick it down to one of the kids....seems like thats still the most logical course of action....

Thanks again for all the replies.....

humble · « **Reply #7 on:** November 18, 2005, 07:51:31 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by x0847Marine
I'd be interested in buying that 3200+, if youre inclined to sell. I have a spare 2500+ box that could use a bump.

I've got a "vertical downstream" of my own:).....both kids are running 2500+ barton cores right now....one of em will get this one sometime next year I'd guess....

38ruk · « **Reply #8 on:** November 19, 2005, 12:01:48 AM »

Humble , if AH is the problem here is my theory . If i overclock my 3400+ , my frame rates improve with every 30MHZ or so . IF i overclock the video card , i doesnt improve frames one bit . I think the x800's arent being pushed by our cpu's right now . as i have relatively the same set up . Try urs out if ya want to overclock a bit , im pretty sure you will see the same .Im cpu bound , and being a 754 aswell , 3700+ is the biggest ive seen , and i dont think that is going to be much of an improvment . 38

buzkill · « **Reply #9 on:** November 19, 2005, 05:21:12 PM »

a friend of mine has a 754 socket 3700+ and it really beats mine out for performance, mainly because of the 1M L2 cache:aok