What can I do to get better performance?

[frankienyc123]

Ok here is what my system is

AMD 4200x2 @ 2.65ghz (250x10.5)
Arctic Cooling freezer 64 pro
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-d
2gb OCZ Gold PC4000 @ 250mhz 3-4-3-8 1T
ATI AIW 800xl
Creative XFI Extreme Music
1 WD Raptor 74gig(system)
1 WD Caviar SE16 300gig(storage)
Samsung DVD/cdr-w
10in1 card reader
Silverstone STF65 psu(modded with quieter fan)
CoolerMaster Centurion5 case w 120mm exhuast and 80mm intake fan
Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse
Acer 19in lcd

Ok thats the complete system, and its mainly used for the basics web browsing, watching movies, music, downloading, pictures and also some more power hungry apps like Photoshop and video encoding which is really where an upgrade in performance would help most. Now the question I really have is, is there anything i can rerally upgrade on this system since its the older socket 939?? I mean I have my cpu overclocked to 2.65 so its running about as fast as the top Socket939 do, the only thing it lacks is the larger 1mb cache. So I guess what im wondering is if its worth upgrading to a 4400x2?? Would it give much of an increase in performance?? I mean I could sell my chip and the 4400 wouldnbt cost to much. What are my other options? More ram?? Would going to 3 or 4gigs make a differance?? Im not even sure my motherboard will let me run 4gigs in dual channel mode? Or am I just better of sticking with my current configuration for a little longer and save the extra money to go with a Core2duo or AM2 system? I have read all the reveiws about the Core2duo and how great they are , bit they always sseem to reveiw the top chip the 6800. Id really like to know how my 4200@ 2.65ghz would compete with the lower level C2D chips like a 6300/6400??? Wellif anyone has any ideas let me know thats.

 

[jaguarskx]

Going from the 4200+ to 4400+ will only give you an additional 1MB of L2 Cache. Not much of a performance increase really. Going from the 4200+ to the 4600+ will give you better performance since it is 200MHz faster, but with the same amount of cache. However, that does not guarantee you will be able to overclock more than youe 4200+. You should be able to, but like I said, not guaranteed.

I would peg your current system to be about the same speed as a stock Core 2 Duo E6400. Maybe slightly faster on some benchmarks. If you can overclock the X2 4600+ to 2.8GHz, then that would be a little slower than the E6600 at stock speed.

My suggestion is to start saving money for the Core 2 Duo CPU, a motherboard and DDR2 RAM. A boost of 200MHz in your current system is only an incremental improvement.

Windows XP will only recognize up to 3GB of RAM I believe. If you are working with really large files then maybe bumping up your RAM to 3GB is worth it by installing an additional 2 sticks of 512MB RAM. If you plan on installing Windows Vista, then stick in 2 sticks 1GB RAM. Just realize that Windows XP will only recognize a total of 3GB. You want an even number of RAM sticks because of dual channel.

 

[happy_fanboy]

The answer to getting more performance may also lie within the software, which operating system do you run? And although im sure this is already done make sure that you have both the AMD cool&quiet driver and the dual core optimizer patches installed.
Are you using an antivirus program? those will kill performance, you may want to experiment with some others if you are running antivirus.

 

[1Tanker]

Ok here is what my system is

AMD 4200x2 @ 2.65ghz (250x10.5)
Arctic Cooling freezer 64 pro
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-d
2gb OCZ Gold PC4000 @ 250mhz 3-4-3-8 1T
ATI AIW 800xl
Creative XFI Extreme Music
1 WD Raptor 74gig(system)
1 WD Caviar SE16 300gig(storage)
Samsung DVD/cdr-w
10in1 card reader
Silverstone STF65 psu(modded with quieter fan)
CoolerMaster Centurion5 case w 120mm exhuast and 80mm intake fan
Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse
Acer 19in lcd

Ok thats the complete system, and its mainly used for the basics web browsing, watching movies, music, downloading, pictures and also some more power hungry apps like Photoshop and video encoding which is really where an upgrade in performance would help most. Now the question I really have is, is there anything i can rerally upgrade on this system since its the older socket 939?? I mean I have my cpu overclocked to 2.65 so its running about as fast as the top Socket939 do, the only thing it lacks is the larger 1mb cache. So I guess what im wondering is if its worth upgrading to a 4400x2?? Would it give much of an increase in performance?? I mean I could sell my chip and the 4400 wouldnbt cost to much. What are my other options? More ram?? Would going to 3 or 4gigs make a differance?? Im not even sure my motherboard will let me run 4gigs in dual channel mode? Or am I just better of sticking with my current configuration for a little longer and save the extra money to go with a Core2duo or AM2 system? I have read all the reveiws about the Core2duo and how great they are , bit they always sseem to reveiw the top chip the 6800. Id really like to know how my 4200@ 2.65ghz would compete with the lower level C2D chips like a 6300/6400??? Wellif anyone has any ideas let me know thats.

I agree with jaguarskx...you're already fairly high up on the s939 ladder, so any s939 CPU upgrade won't be worth it. Saving for a C2D upgrade would be your best option, or maybe by then AMD will have something more powerful out. There are lots of reviews of E6300/E6400's on the net, and they are very impressive as well...they also overclock with a vengeance, providing outstanding performance/$. GL