Upgrading soon, Wise advice for new hardware needed...thanks

[dougyfresh]

I love games but I cannot decide if I want the xbox 360 or stay with my computer.

Current system: 3200+ 939, a8n-sli, 2x512 xms 2.5, 7800GT, 2x160 SATA RAID 0, Audigy 2

I cannot determine if I want to have the 360 to play on or upgrade my computer even further. Now seems like an awkward time to upgrade my memory and processor however...because the dual cores are nice and all, but I'm not sure if it's worth paying for it today only to rather be replaced by something else when it's purpose can fully be used (All games today don't really benefit from the duals). I am not sure exactly what parts to upgrade if I don't get the xbox 360...but I think a model of the Creative X-Fi sound card, 2x1GB 2-2.5 memory, 2x10,000 RPM Sata 0, and possibly a better processor.

Should I upgrade to a more top of the line single core processor, dual core processor, or not even touch my cpu unless I want to upgrade it to like a 3500+ 939 1MB?



**another question**, will dual cores automatically process tasks like playing a demanding game, playing music, and while running AIM and a couple other low demanding things? Does windows even really know how to distribute the power of the second core correctly? thanks. -doug

 

[mpasternak]

with that computer you have nothing to do

no change you do will net any significant results. the CPU you have is pretty good and if you want to get more performance, don't waste money on a new CPU. just Overclock this one. the 3200+ has great OC'ing potential evne with stock cooler.

otherwise your system is awesome.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

I cannot determine if I want to have the 360 to play on or upgrade my computer even further.

Your current PC looks fine. I wouldn't bother upgrading it. You wouldn't get much significant out of it. You should already be able to play lots just fine. At most I'd just look at 2GB of RAM instead of 1.

**another question**, will dual cores automatically process tasks like playing a demanding game, playing music, and while running AIM and a couple other low demanding things? Does windows even really know how to distribute the power of the second core correctly? thanks. -doug

Windows XP and later knows how to distribute well. (Though I believe you have to reinstall because of some different kernel files.) But you certainly don't need dual cores to do that anyway. Low-demand things aren't going to really pose problems anyway. And if they do, you can just manually set their priority lower so that the demanding app gets as much of the CPU's power as possible.

 

[Rob423]

upgrading this is only gonna get you a loss of money. nothing to gain on an upgrade.

 

[dougyfresh]

upgrading this is only gonna get you a loss of money. nothing to gain on an upgrade.

Creative X-fi for outstounding sound

2x10,000 RPM Drives on RAID 0 is better than 2x7,200 RPM drives on RAID 0

I could sell my 3200 and then buy a 3500+ for like +150ish dollars




***about overclocking, with this board (a8n-sli [and yes, the chipset fan did break, duh]) I can't seem to OC well. I have 2x512 MB corsair xms 2.5 with the heat sinks --> when I was trying to OC, I didn't hardly have any luck at all with upping the CPU frequency or upping the whole bus......I cannot remember if it was labeled FSB...but I heard that was no longer technically in existance. I couldn't get this 2.0 to even run 2.1 stable and I have over 13 fans in my computer total.

 

[emogoch]

As everyone else here has said, you're upgrading options aren't very robust. Even if you max everything out from what you have now, I'd say you'd only get a %10 - %20 gain in your game playing. The only option you really have available to see a good game improvement would be to get a second 7800GT and SLI them.

Conversely, and XBox 360, from what I've seen so far (thought I haven't looked heavily into), it not only a great console gaming system, but also does a reasonable job as acting as a media PC for your living room.

Just a thought you should consider.