Ok, so I think I have decided to upgrade my processor.
Current: AMD 3000+ Athlon 64 (stock with my computer) Runs right around 2.0 GHZ Motherboard: stock
I have 2gigs of Ram and a PCI Express Video card.
I have never had any problems with the processor or motherboard. But the motherboard is locked and you can't adjust much on it. That's why my RAM runs at half speed.
I am out of the loop on the new processors so I thought I would see what y'all had to say. I don't have a problem with either Intel or AMD. They have both been very stable for me. Anyway, I'm at work right now and just wanted to get this thrown out there and see what suggestions anybody had. I really would like to have one with hyperthreading if it makes a difference. And if I'm gonna upgrade the processor I might as well get a nice mobo too!
Wow, Paladin is going to have a field day here. Whatever he recommends will be good. We have been dweebing and building systems like this for years.
I'm partial to P4's with HT and Gigabyte moto's. Best bet, egghead.com.. search moto, processor, and ram and go with a midrange to highend priced one. Be sure to check for DDR ram (that is if your old ram is DDR).... say about $160 giga moto, and a P4 about 250, and ram about 160 a gig..
pricewatch.com is a great resource to lookup prices too, but egghead has been pretty good the last couple of years.
Are you going to swap out the parts yourself, or send it out?
I have used pricewatch before, but never egghead. I will check it out. Most of the parts that I have added have come from newegg.
My RAM is DDR 400, but only runs at 200 right now, very very annoying. That's what originally got me to thinking about this. I was just going to buy a new matched set of RAM. But I decided why not just buy a better motherboard and processor. That way with the better mobo I can adjust the RAM timings and they should run fine.
I want to switch out my case too, I have one that has purple LED's in it and looks really cool, but I have stayed with my stock one because it has all those plugs for different kinds of media. And yeah, this will be a home project... hope nothing gets fried!!
Just a suggestion then. If your going to go that far, why not go for broke and start a new system from scratch? Either keep your old system and network it for its resources, or sell it to a family member.
New boards come with 8-10 usb ports and drop in a 3 1/2" flashcard drive for memory cards. The prettier the case the better, cold neon purple lites would suit you great, and brings out those cool tattoo's late at nite 😉
Just make sure the case has a good power supply 450-500w to handle the load.
I would go with a whole new system, but I'm happy with everything else. The processor, mobo and Hard drive are the only things in there that are still orginal.
Other parts:
ATI 800 XL video card new sound card Antec True Power 450W PS OCZ Ram (which is fine, it's just the board)
And I just realized that if I do switch cases I'm gonna have to buy a new DVD drive. I'm not using the ugly one out of the case I have now... 😒
So that's more $$$... Maybe I should just get a new tattoo, it would be chaper. 😄
Lexx, did you mean to say egghead.com? When I go there, it's just a redirect to Amazon.com.
I am partial to Newegg myself. I've been using them for about 5 years.
Also, Lexx, P4's are so last years technology.... 😛
Today's Intel chips are called DuoCore. Just don't ask me anything past that as I haven't been paying attention.
I like GigaByte mobo's as well.
Also, Sindy, I just set up Newegg as an Affiliate for Gamers Radio. I am still trying to figure out how to work it in, but 1-2% of your purchase would come back to here to support the site. Would you be interested in using it? I'm cool either way.
Atomm wrote: Lexx, did you mean to say egghead.com? When I go there, it's just a redirect to Amazon.com.
I am partial to Newegg myself. I've been using them for about 5 years.
Also, Lexx, P4's are so last years technology.... 😛
Today's Intel chips are called DuoCore. Just don't ask me anything past that as I haven't been paying attention.
I like GigaByte mobo's as well.
Also, Sindy, I just set up Newegg as an Affiliate for Gamers Radio. I am still trying to figure out how to work it in, but 1-2% of your purchase would come back to here to support the site. Would you be interested in using it? I'm cool either way.
Egghead I used to use a long time ago, but I thought they got bought out too. Atomm, glad to hear about the Newegg affliliate, Between work and side jobs I spend a couple thousand there a year I bet
The Anantech 'Hot deals' forum. If you're not in a hurry, you can watch there, and someone my post a good deal on something you want (maybe from Newegg, maybe not). I got my last video card from a deal listed there.
Yah, yah, sorry egghead.com was bought out, newegg is right. Also I never go for the latest greatest. I always wait for that opting for better prices on what was current. Paladin is usually up on this stuff, and I usually double check with him (and that hugh IT ego) before I buy 😉
Also last two DVD writers I bought 16x for $39. Your ATI video will be fine for a long while to come. Flashcard internal reader, about $19. Yah it adds up, but its nice to upgrade everything at one time. Don't even bother with a 3.5 floppy. They have USB ones now for that once in a year need.
New case is $50-100 depending on the bells and whistles. For a motherboard upgrade, its damn nice to have a clean slate to start in. Once tossed together, drop in harddrives and CD's, whatnot. Just be aware, you should probably start with a fresh formatted harddrive anyways, cause usually you'll get a blue screen of death trying to 'repair' the different chipset from your windows install.
In any case, its alot of work and installing ahead of you. Keeping your old system may keep you in the game in case something in the new setup get fudgley with ya. Just drop an old video card in it.
ok, so I have been shopping. Does anybody know what Virtualization Technology Support: is?
The Intels that had this feature did not have Hyperthreading. The AMD's had both...
Plus Newegg has a bunch of just plain P4's and not very many of the Duo Core stuff. Also the AMD's are running way more than the Intels for not as much of a speed difference. Very, very eeeeenteresting.
First decision is Intel or AMD. I really like AMD so do not get me wrong when I say I still prefer Intel. AMD are just fine. They do have some small heat issues but it is not as bad as it once was. I think Intel chips and MB's get good performance and I like some of the Intel chip features and performance.
When I built my gaming rig I had a choice in what CPU I wanted. I got a socket 775 Intel 3.6 GHz CPU as I wanted pure speed for games. It is a 64 bit processor so when Vista comes out I will gain even more speed. I hope 😉
I could have got a duel core but they maxed out at 3.2GHz at the time and did not have a few chip features I wanted. There are new quad core chips coming out soon. If the clock speeds are high enough I may upgrade to it later on once the price drops. The Intel 775 socket is not going away for now so it is just a chip replacement. Atomm the Duel and Quad chips are still P4âs, they just have more than one core.
Next you have to figure out if you want to get a MB that will have two PCI Express slots to support SLI (Nvidia) or Crossfire (ATI) tech. This allows you to run two video cards together that doubles the performance. Double is misleading but it is an increase.
You already have an ATI card but it won't run under crossfire mode I do not think, but it will work just fine in a Crossfire or SLI board running as normal. You just cannot buy another one to use them together is all. But for future video cards you may want to go this way and get an SLI or Crossfire MB to get two newer NVidia or ATI cards later on. Or just get a SLI/Crossfire MB anyway and never use that second slot, not a huge deal. Just make sure whatever one you get has enough normal PCI slots. Some MB's do not have enough PCI slots and this is a shame. You want at least 4.
I got an Intel board with SLI on it. It is very nice. If you want my MB model, let me know.
I think I have decided on a processor. I looked up that Virtualization stuff and it is for being able to run multiple Operating systems. I don't need anything like that. So I think I'm just gonna go with a plain P4. I still need to decide on a board though. Now that I have picked a chip though, it should be easier.
Thanks for all your suggestions, I appreciate them. 😀
Sindy, I would really consider a Duo 2 Core from Intel. It is the first chip to give Intel the edge over AMD in processing power and energy effiency. P4's are last years technology. Duo 2 Core is brand new and it works very well. If you can swing it, I would go the Duo 2 Core route.
Paladin, this may clear up your understanding about the new chips as they are not P4's, but a completely new architecture. I believe you are confusing Duel Core P4's with the new architecture Duo Core. Page 2 of that article may clear that up a bit.
As for speed, I use to be just like you, but clockspeed is not the determining factor any more. Both Intel and AMD realized that with increased clockspeed came increased heat loss and power consumption. While the clock speed may be slower, the Duo 2 Core chips are actually better at running Instructions, which is all the CPU has to do really.
I know it's confusing, but you seem to be really good at reading this stuff and understanding it.
Geez, that was a bunch of information to assimilate. So, basically what it's saying is that even though the clock speeds are not as high on the Duo Cores they are much more efficient. And they do the job faster. At least that's what I got out of it. I will shop around some more... 😄
I really like Duo cores so do not get me wrong. Just remember though that a duel core will NOT make your games run faster than a single one! It will run one process on one core and say TS in another. The main reason I did not go Duo Core was they were 3.2 Ghz. They also have half the L2 cache with 1 MB. I wanted the 3.6 as I wanted pure speed for games.
Get the fastest one for your needs. Duo cores will only really help when you run more than one program, read process, at a time. Also remember they do not hyper-threading at all.
If you will mainly play games the due core will run fine but not as efficient as a faster standard one. Duo won't help here. If you will run multiple "MAIN" programs like photoshop and illustrator at the same time, then a duel core will be nicer. Programming can also benefit from duo core.