Author Topic: what would you do? (Read 404 times)

38ruk · « **on:** January 11, 2007, 11:57:12 PM »

Well i'm having a hard time deciding what to do with my system . I can either drop in a X2 44or 4600 or opteron of same speed into my current box, 3700+ @3ghz (+FX57 speeds) 2gigs corsair XMS ddr1, 7800gt . Or wait till this chip is toast and upgrade to a conroe . The dual core opty's are pretty cheap and are good overclockers most reaching FX60 speeds . I'm just having a hard time putting any money into this dead end skt 939 system . It seems that the 939 X2's are starting to dry up so it's either do it now or never . Any thoughts Thx

Brenjen · « **Reply #1 on:** January 12, 2007, 01:19:14 AM »

I dropped an FX-60 into mine while the getting was good. But I was originally going to go with the 4800+ X2 but Newegg didn't have any at the time. I saw they had some more in the other day, OEM, decent price.

MrRiplEy[H] · « **Reply #2 on:** January 12, 2007, 06:49:18 AM »

I went for AM2 and now regret it dearly. It was a poor $80 saved.

Ghosth · « **Reply #3 on:** January 12, 2007, 07:50:18 AM »

38ruk unless you "need" to upgrade I would be very tempted to sit on the sidelines for a bit.

I'm not sure exactly where computers are going for sure.
But they seem to be hitting the high end speed barrier, at least thats what it looks like to me. Othewise why start doubling & quadrupling cores on a chip?

Whatever they end up doing for sure long term you know it will take software a year to catch up to where they can USE that fancy hardware.

So sit tight for a bit & see where it goes.

MrRiplEy[H] · « **Reply #4 on:** January 12, 2007, 08:37:28 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Ghosth
38ruk unless you "need" to upgrade I would be very tempted to sit on the sidelines for a bit.

I'm not sure exactly where computers are going for sure.
But they seem to be hitting the high end speed barrier, at least thats what it looks like to me. Othewise why start doubling & quadrupling cores on a chip?

Whatever they end up doing for sure long term you know it will take software a year to catch up to where they can USE that fancy hardware.

So sit tight for a bit & see where it goes.

The barrier is not here yet, Moore's law is still valid.

wooley · « **Reply #5 on:** January 12, 2007, 11:39:00 AM »

Indeed,

However Moore's law refers to performance rather than clock speed. Clock speed is a poor measure of computer performance these days. Its a bit like saying 'the engine in my 1.2 liter Fiat rev's to 8000rpm whilst the engine in your 6.0 liter Corvette only revs to 6000rpm therefore my Fiat must be faster'.

Clock speeds will not go up much above 3Ghz until manufacturers work out how to deal with the heat such speeds create. However performance will increase as the chip designers continue to figure out how to achieve more with each clock cycle. AMD figured this out a while back and their chips for some time delivered better performance at lower clock speeds than their Intel P4 equivalents. Intel finally caught on and with the Core 2 chips have leapfrogged AMD in performance whilst reducing clock speeds as compared with their P4 predecessors.

Bottom line - don't let the current chips relatively low clock speeds fool you into believe they are not a significant step forward in performance over the previous generation.

wooley · « **Reply #6 on:** January 12, 2007, 12:00:16 PM »

I've the same issue - I've a 939 board with an X2 3800 and AGP 6800. Really want to upgrade but going conroe will mean buying almost a complete new system and I can't bring myself to shell out for new bits for this system.

Other question I need to keep reminding myself to ask is 'why do I need to upgrade?'. Usually I've no good answer to that other than 'because I want to'.

Keeler101 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 12, 2007, 01:31:45 PM »

I just went to the 4800+ from stock 3500 and it was a big improvement for AH not so much for FSX but now I can do alot of stuff better like dropping out to check fso orders maps etc..

I think there drying up so i got one

republic · « **Reply #8 on:** January 12, 2007, 02:36:18 PM »

I used to upgrade all the time...but I just stopped seeing a benefit relative to the money I was throwing at my system. I'm currently running an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Running at 4200+ speeds). I need the dual cores because I'm an avid multitasker, and the 2gb of ram I have helps too.

I don't know of anything my system can't run smoothly...so no need for me to upgrade.

I imagine I'll be happy with my 3800+ for all of 2007...probably.

SunKing · « **Reply #9 on:** January 12, 2007, 02:37:17 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by wooley
I've the same issue - I've a 939 board with an X2 3800 and AGP 6800. Really want to upgrade but going conroe will mean buying almost a complete new system and I can't bring myself to shell out for new bits for this system.

Other question I need to keep reminding myself to ask is 'why do I need to upgrade?'. Usually I've no good answer to that other than 'because I want to'.

But aren't those chips only 6% faster than the best 939 still in stock?

I'm in the same boat with a 3200+ considering the AMD Athlon 64 FX-60

Link

SIK1 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 12, 2007, 02:40:19 PM »

38ruk I'm in the same boat as you. I have the same +3700 Athlon. My machine runs AH just fine right now, if anything it is limited by the vid card Nvidia fx5700. So I'm probably just going to upgrade the vid card (what the heck decent agp cards are cheap now) and see if I can get by for another year or so.

SIK1

Brenjen · « **Reply #11 on:** January 12, 2007, 06:57:19 PM »

The reason I did it was to go dual core while the price was reasonable. If you wait the supplies will slim down & the price will rise again. My FX-60 was a steal from Newegg for the price & now my box is in the top 1% & I didn't have to build a completely new system. 939 is still a competitive socket, I don't know why everyone is in such a hurry to dump it & move on when the next gens aren't significantly better. Sure the core duo systems are the new thing & perform well & the cost to build one is similar to a comparable AMD 939, but if you already have a 939 with a mobo that will support dual core go ahead & get the dual core. The software coming out this year will make use of it much more than the software of last year did.

tapakeg · « **Reply #12 on:** January 13, 2007, 01:06:09 PM »

I recently did some upgrading as well.

My weakest link was not my 939 chip 3700 but my X800 AGP

I found the cheapest 939 + PCI-E mobo I could find and spend the money on a good vid card.

I think the processor is fine, but now my 512Meg 7950 makes the games PURDEEEEEE.

I saw no need to spend the extra money on the 8800's

Tap

38ruk · « **Reply #13 on:** January 13, 2007, 10:35:27 PM »

+Thx for all the replys gents, i think im going to go ahead with it and upgrade . I'm basically trying to get alittle more life out of the 939 skt , atleast 8-10 months and then look from there . My 7800GT is still fast enought to keep me happy , and hopefully with a new 46-4800 X2 or opteron on water (that i'll try to overclock to the hilt 8) ) my box will run the games of 2007 at a playable FR. I'd really like to jump on the conroe wagon but already having 2gigs of pc3200 and an X2 Mboard i think i will finally use some will power and not jump on the latest and greatest . This 3700 box is the longest ive ever had a machine without upgrading (11 months ) i must be getting old hehe.

The other reason for going X2 is ive finally got broadband for the first time ever !!! I fought with the cable Co for the last 4 years to run the lines down my road (only 500ft ) , and last month they finally gave in. So now i find that im jumping all over the place with different windows open and apps running , i never realized the amount of porn that is really out here , frickin Lew and his bright ideas ! Again thx for the reply's ,and for those of you that are in the same boat i will post an update after i install the new chip. Thx 38

outbreak · « **Reply #14 on:** January 14, 2007, 07:39:05 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by 38ruk
+Thx for all the replys gents, i think im going to go ahead with it and upgrade . I'm basically trying to get alittle more life out of the 939 skt , atleast 8-10 months and then look from there . My 7800GT is still fast enought to keep me happy , and hopefully with a new 46-4800 X2 or opteron on water (that i'll try to overclock to the hilt 8) ) my box will run the games of 2007 at a playable FR. I'd really like to jump on the conroe wagon but already having 2gigs of pc3200 and an X2 Mboard i think i will finally use some will power and not jump on the latest and greatest . This 3700 box is the longest ive ever had a machine without upgrading (11 months ) i must be getting old hehe.

The other reason for going X2 is ive finally got broadband for the first time ever !!! I fought with the cable Co for the last 4 years to run the lines down my road (only 500ft ) , and last month they finally gave in. So now i find that im jumping all over the place with different windows open and apps running , i never realized the amount of porn that is really out here, frickin Lew and his bright ideas ! Again thx for the reply's ,and for those of you that are in the same boat i will post an update after i install the new chip. Thx 38

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