Need Advice on AMD DC

[nitto1320i]

Hi
i was wondering if anyone can help me out which to get. im planning on upgrading my cpu to amd's x2 3800+ or x2 4200+.. im kinda confuse which one to get.. for 13 years ive been using intels. and just a few months i bought an amd64 3200+ and i was impressed with its performance and capabilities.. so that makes me a noob on amd's.. im currently running on

Amd64 3200+ (939)
K8N SLI Platinum
2 MSI 6600GT (128)
4 1GB DDR400
2 200GB SATA
2 80GB SATA
Cooler Master Water cooling

i play games a lot.. but when i tried F.E.A.R my system starts to get jerky.. what i mean is that i would like to get a better gaming machine.. will the new x2 3800+ or x2 4800+ help? sorry. im just frustrated seeing/playing a game with hangs.

 

[liquidpaper007]

the 3800+ will give you the same performance as the 3200+ in a lot of games.

games are better with single core for now.

 

[pickxx]

ALright....first off this belongs in the "home built" catagory in the hardware.....just for your future needs. I rarely come in here to help and if you want help i am in the hardware sectiona ll the time.

Bascially you FEAR gaming is slow because you have two shitty video cards....Honestly if you bought a card that costs as much as that cpu you wanted.....FEAR would run at amazing speeds and fluidness for you.

Get the 7800GT....you can get a BFG one from BestBuy for 329, which is a great price....if you dont mind a $50 rebate.



With your system as is...with a 7800GT and not those two 6600GT's(Why SLI, that makes baby jesus cry....the cost of two6600GT's you could have had a great graphics card like a 7800GTX) you will have a great gaming system that will let you play any game on the market smoothly.

 

[Halberd388]

I 110% agree with Pickxx with 3 other suggestions:

1. A system is only as good as it's bottleneck, so make sure you shut-down un-needed background apps/services before you play a game. Also, if your using a pageing file (which most people do for some reason) make sure you toss it onto your secondary drive and make it a fixed ratio size (Initial and Max the same ammount), this can increase performance as well since the drive doesn't have to pull the game data and game resources from the same drive.

2. Make sure your ENTIRE system is properly cooled and ventilted, not just the CPU. A good case with good fans can make a slight to signifigant impact on performance (Upwards of 25% in some cases)

3. DON'T BUY CHEAP RAM! You have a great MB and CPU already, but if you buy "value ram" your just hurting yourself. Not to say there is anything wrong with value ram (for an internet system) but when it comes to gaming don't cause a bottle neck to save 20-30 bucks per module. DDR 400 is great, but unless your using a perfromance grade (Corsair XMS I suggest or the GEL performance line) you're wasting your money for a gaming rig.

 

[pickxx]

I 110% agree with Pickxx with 3 other suggestions:

2. Make sure your ENTIRE system is properly cooled and ventilted, not just the CPU. A good case with good fans can make a slight to signifigant impact on performance (Upwards of 25% in some cases)

you are high....seriously give me a situation that you can get 25% improvment in gaming from case fans. Even when you are talking about OCing you would have to be going from NO case fans to the perfect setup to get a 25% increase....and i think itssafe to say that the guy has atleast one case fan....so thats not it.

3. DON'T BUY CHEAP RAM! You have a great MB and CPU already, but if you buy "value ram" your just hurting yourself. Not to say there is anything wrong with value ram (for an internet system) but when it comes to gaming don't cause a bottle neck to save 20-30 bucks per module. DDR 400 is great, but unless your using a perfromance grade (Corsair XMS I suggest or the GEL performance line) you're wasting your money for a gaming rig.

buy all the cheap ram you want, if you are OCing you will have to use a RAM divider, and if you dont you're fine. Value RAM at 3-3-3-8 timings and Corsair XMS RAM at 3-3-38 timings will bascially perform the same. maybe a 1% peroformacne swing either way.....but cheap RAM is alright for OCing and is preferedif you are running stock.

 

[RichPLS]

[quote="pickxx.....but cheap RAM is alright for OCing and is preferedif you are running stock.[/quote]

Good post, but I would not prefer cheap ram even if not overclocking. I would not necessarily say I needed the 2-2-2-5 timings so could see buying RAM with relaxed timings, but cheap ram can be the cause of system instability and if sporadically occurring can take sometimes a while to pinpoint.
Point being made is make sure it is quality ram, just with relaxed timings, one way is to make sure it is a quality brand memory manufacture instead of generic.