Another upgrade advice topic

well... can't suggest you about AMD chips... but apart from amd chips
go for Intel Pentium D 930, Intel D955 Chipset mobo, 1 Gig DDR2-667 RAM... and of course a good graphics card! dual core for sure will out have more power than a single core cpu.

Hi fellow CPU hunter

Little note (punn)
Zarooch, I will be looking at new Computer around christmas(good advice).
For now I am installing second MotherBoard and 2GHz CPU ($250) & purchased 19inch Monitor for ($90).
Cool ah(told by local Tecs I have got a pretty good deal)

Catch ya round

Gary

Hello "Little", u might find good deal around christmas, also uptil then all the new cpus will be out ... great deal you got... enjoy using your new pc!

An A64 X2 3800+ will probably take great advantage of your 6800GT.

The problem with your video card is AGP, and most s939 boards are PCI-e.

A good choice for mobo, that will accept AGP, and PCI-e is the ASRock

939DUAL-SATA2 ATX mobo. As far as memory, you should try and get some

low latency stuff(harder to find in 1GB modules). Although expensive i

would suggest this RAM.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1682...

As far as the new A64 CPU being faster than the older XP's, the biggest

difference is the onboard memory controller. It's on the CPU itself,

instead of in the chipset(northbridge). This helps the CPU communicate

much quicker with the RAM, as being on-die reduces alot of the latency

(waiting time). So the CPU doesn't have to "wait" as long for data from

memory. This also brings up the issue about which RAM to use. Because

there is much less latency with the On-die memory controller, RAM with

high latency has more of a negative affect, in comparison to say, a P4.

Thus, if you really want the A64 to spread it's wings, try and get RAM

with tight timings. GL :wink:

What games do you play, where your current chip is holding you bacK?
At this point, most games dont get a lot from dual core, so, no, spending that kind of money, for a few frames is not worth it.
This becomes all the more true, with the new tech that will be out this year.

Well really most of the games I have have run pretty much fine, I did notice some problems once I switched to 1280x1024 resolution for my 19" lcd but it's mostly been ok. FEAR ran ok with some stuttering here and there, Rome total war sometimes slows a lil, and sometime in call of duty 2. Battlefield 2 runs mostly alright and half life and doom were ok too. I mean it's not that bad, but I just want things to run flawlessly while lookin their best. Actually a good example was that ghost recon advanced warfighter. I tried the demo and wow I could barely play it. I figured if thats the sign of things to come, maybe after 2 years now it's time to upgrade.

Another thing is like tanker said, I'm gonna stick to my AGP card so I need to go with that diff board. I guess ultimately I want a cpu that will improve upon what I have now like getting the most out of my video card without changing everything of my pc. The only reason I'm considering a dual core is because it seems to be the future so thought maybe it'd be a waste to buy a single core. Plus I was hoping an upgrade like this would let me take it easy for another 2 years.

I would have to say that it seems like a waste to get a S939 board with AGP.

The reasoning is that AMD have stopped making S939 processors and everyone has already stopped making AGP vid cards in the higher models. If you get that S939 and AMD X2 3800, the next time you upgrade you will have to get both a new MB and new processor and a new vid card all at once. Getting a MB with both AGP and PCI-e alleviates this somewhat but does not solve the S939 and MB problem.

If you get a S775 MB and intel processor you can reuse that MB with the new core duo conroe processors. At this point getting a MB with both AGP and PCI-e is fine because you can upgrade either or both of the CPU or vid card at any time without worrying about your MB.

Please no fanboy bullshit either as this just makes sense and I have an AMD right now myself.