Computer Upgrade Questions

[LeChuck]

This seems to be mostly console questions going around here, but I imagine there has to be at least one person out there who plays around on the computer as well.My computer is over 2 years old and is not doing so well. I was thinking of upgrading, but since I built this thing everything has changed (of course). So I was thinking of putting in some new parts to not only run games better, but just to make the system run smoother and faster in general. Here is what I have now:

ASUS A8N socket 939 motherboard
AMD Athalon 64 3200 2 GHz
1 GB RAM DDR 400
6600GT PCIe
550W Antec TruePower Power Supply

I was thinking of throwing in some more RAM. Would an extra gig make a noticeably difference? Should I boost it to 3 gigs? My motherboard only accepts DDR, nothing newer.

As for the processor, I was thinking of putting in an AMD 4000 because it is only $40 at newegg. I also saw that they made a 939 dual CPU, either the Opteron or the X2. My question is this: for $40 dollars am I going to see a noticeable difference between my 3200 and the 4000? Should I wait until I can afford a newer CPU (the x2 is at least $150)?

The video card is mostly what I need to upgrade. I was planning on getting the 8800 as they have dropped to around $200, but I am not sure whether to get the gt, gts, gtx, gs. What the fuck? I did some google searching, but had some trouble finding any real difference between any of them. I was thinking the GT, but will I miss out if I neglect another letter? Also, I have an MSI video card now, should I be thinking about another brand?

Thanks so much for your help! I am trying to spend under 300 bucks.

[chlngr1970]

Originally Posted by LeChuck

ASUS A8N socket 939 motherboard
AMD Athalon 64 3200 2 GHz ( Your choice, A64 4000+ 40.00 )
1 GB RAM DDR 400 ( 2G DDR 400 Corsair Valuselect 77, OCZ Platinum 93 )
6600GT PCIe ( 8800GT, minimum, GIGABYTE GeForce 8800GT GV-NX88T256HV1 Video Card Comes with Neverwinter Nights II, if you are interested180 )
550W Antec TruePower Power Supply

This is a good system, For mild gaming, but it probably would have issues with some of the higher end games. Your CPU would be your limiting factor. It would be a good stop gap till the newer hardware comes down in price. The new line of video cards is coming out now, and CPUs and MBs are always advancing. For what you want to do ( assuming you have two 512 sticks of DDR, ) you could do for about 300. As long as you are running XP, you should have no problems with 2G DDR. You might notice a bit better performance with 3. Do you have a single 1G stick or two 512? If you have a single 1G, then picking up two more would help and not bust your budget. I don't remember if the AMD stuff is dual channel or not ( I have mostly Intel )

Originally Posted by LeChuck

I was thinking of throwing in some more RAM. Would an extra gig make a noticeably difference? Should I boost it to 3 gigs? My motherboard only accepts DDR, nothing newer.

DDR is still commanding a price premium over DDR2. You can get 4G DDR2 800 for a little more than 2G of DDR.

Originally Posted by LeChuck

As for the processor, I was thinking of putting in an AMD 4000 because it is only $40 at newegg. I also saw that they made a 939 dual CPU, either the Opteron or the X2. My question is this: for $40 dollars am I going to see a noticeable difference between my 3200 and the 4000? Should I wait until I can afford a newer CPU (the x2 is at least $150)?

Here is what I am planing on doing for my GF ( A64 3200+ 1.5G DDR, 80G HDD ):

• A64X2 4800+ 84.99
• GA-M57SLI-S4 89.99
• OCZ Gold 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 102.99
• 2X Western Digital 120GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
• My Radion X1900GT ( Replace mine with a Radion HD3870 X2 )
• reuse her DVD Burner and drive
• She just got a new APEVIA X-TELSTAR-JR G-Type X Blue
• New ergonomic KB ( She likes those )

Originally Posted by LeChuck

The video card is mostly what I need to upgrade. I was planning on getting the 8800 as they have dropped to around $200, but I am not sure whether to get the gt, gts, gtx, gs. What the fuck? I did some google searching, but had some trouble finding any real difference between any of them. I was thinking the GT, but will I miss out if I neglect another letter? Also, I have an MSI video card now, should I be thinking about another brand?

like I said above, with prices the way they are, minimum is 8800GT...go -S or -X if you can. The step ups, IIRC are more memory and faster GPU Clock speed...some even include a faster memory bus speed.

Thanks so much for your help! I am trying to spend under 300 bucks.

Sorry, I busted your budget...but that is what I do, and well But for about 450, you can have a pretty stout entry level system

j

[Damian]

The video card is mostly what I need to upgrade. I was planning on getting the 8800 as they have dropped to around $200, but I am not sure whether to get the gt, gts, gtx, gs. What the fuck? I did some Google searching, but had some trouble finding any real difference between any of them. I was thinking the GT, but will I miss out if I neglect another letter? Also, I have an MSI video card now, should I be thinking about another brand?

Since you're currently running a three year old video card, it doesn't really matter what version of the 8800 you get, all of them will give you a performance boost. Just so you know the new 9000 series Nvidia cards are hitting the market so look into their pricing before you commit to an 8800. Not that there is anything wrong with 8800's. I have one and it's awesome.

As for manufacturers, MSI makes a good card, so does ASUS, EVGA and BFG. Read reviews before you purchase. Newegg is a great souce for technical specs and user reviews.

Since you're system is so old and you're basically trying to beef it up a bit until you can afford a new one, I wouldn't spend too much money on parts like memory. Chlngr1 recommended some Corsair value which is very good memory for the price you'll pay. OCZ tends to be a bit higher priced from what I remember, still very good memory. You can go even lower and look for Kinston ValurRAM. But as he said, since you still use DDR you'll be paying more for it than you would if it was DDR2.