What would you do?

If you bought the Neo within the last 6-8 months you WON'T have to flash the BIOS or if you've flashed it since you bought it.

Any new chip will require a WHOLE NEW setup. 939 should be dropping daily so a 4400+ will be around $300 soon. Believe it wil be worth it even if you do need to flash your BIOS - MSI has a Live Monitor that will do it in WIndows.

Overclokc your 3000+ and wait until Vista. Once Vista is available there will be more 64bit multithreaded software. Than you can go with Conroe, paying the same as for sAM2 K8, but get more performance.

I bought it last October and the BIOS version I have doesn't support X2 chips, unfortunately.

Vista is due to debut with Rev G and the first K8L. I'd say stick with 939 and get a 4400+. Unless he is a psychotic power user a 4400+ will be like heaven....without replacing everything.

I bought it last October and the BIOS version I have doesn't support X2 chips, unfortunately.


Live Monitor will update your mobo in Windows. If you didn't install it, install it. You will be dual core without the trouble of boot floppies.

Allright, I ran Live Monitor (I've had it on my PC since I built it, but never actually used it.) and it came up saying that it wants to update me to BIOS Ver. 1.D0 from 1.60.

I just want to double-check that that's what I want to do.

I'd get an X2 processor if i was in your position, and i'd wait 9months at least for Vista before getting a new rig.... (i'm in a worse place, my computer is twice as slow as your computer i think.. lol, and i will upgrade as soon as i can get my hands on Conroe)

There will be many things boiling this summer, especially at the end. Prices rather than dropping are slipping down continually: Ibought my 3000+ retail one month ago for $107 and now see the 3500+ @ $108.
I know it's tempting to upgrade with this situation but will be better for your nerves to wait and see what happens.
Also try overclocking the 3000 by 10-15% (2.0-2.1G), won't hurt anything and you wil notice a good boost in performance

You dont' ahv to if you're not haiving problems but to upgrade let it run.

A cheap upgrade right now would be to upgrade to a 3500+, it's 400MHz faster than the 3000+ (IIRC). The 3700+ is just as fast as the the 3500+, but it has 1MB of cache. That extra cache will probably cost an additional $70. Get the 3500+ and overclock it a little if you want. Cache is nice but MHz is better. Also, unless you multi-task a lot, getting a single core CPU is still better for games right now. There are some multi-threaded games out right now and more are coming, but for a tight budget a fast single core CPU is still the way to go.

Unless you REALLY want Vista as soon as it hits the street there is really no point in buying it. If you are a die hard Halo 2 fan, the sure upgrade to Windows Vista 'cause that's the only way you'll be able to play it. There is not much 64-bit software that will be a must have, and games will still be 32-bit. With the exception of Halo 2, all games will run fine with either DirectX 9 or 10. If you got the cash to burn and you want to brag, then sure get Vista.

Conroe will offer better performance, but that is a major up since you will need a new mobo, and DDR2 RAM to go along with it. Depending on the speed of the CPU, features of the motherboard and DDR2 667 or DDR2 800 RAM, it will probably cost you anywhere from $600 to $1,600.

RIGHT, you can get the 3500+ for about $100 and it's worth all of them, the best buy of the moment, overclock it to 2.4GHz and you've got a 3800+. I'd buy it if I could now.