budget gamer -- 939 worth it?

[hamster_powered]

Once upon a time, I was kickin ass w/my Athlon XP. All was good until I had a system die and urgently had to replace my MB & CPU on very short notice. Unfortunately, this happened to occur during one of the 3 days that socket 754 was the new hotness, and I got suckered into the MB generation that never was (bought a 754 A64 3000+ intending to upgrade when something better came out... but you all know what happened to that upgrade path).

Anywho... here I sit with my AGP 6800GT (paid waay too much for it back when they first came out) & A64 3000+ 754 system, which is really starting to show its age gaming-wise (the 754/3000+ is, anyways). My money situation sucks, so I can't currently upgrade at all... but over the next few months I may be able to save up enough for a modest core upgrade. ($400~$500 incl. shipping & such, tops)

My question here... would a small pile of 939-generation parts be a worthwhile upgrade? i figured that would save me a bit on RAM... (could reuse my existing RAM). Maybe shoot for a 939 proc & MB... decent midrange PCI-E GPU.

Or do you folks think such an upgrade would be silly and I should just try to wait/save longer and jump up to the DDR2/C2D/AM2 level?

 

[choirbass]

it honestly would probably feel like a waste of money to go from s754 to s939 'unless' you were going to go for a dual core opteron or X2... and even then, games themselves dont currently show a significant benefit from a second core (improvement, yes, but not drastic)... you mentioned PCI-e, that in itself would be the only reason to upgrade i think (particularly if youre a gamer), as being on AGP really limits your upgrade choices

what i would suggest though instead, is save up for a more substantial upgrade, and just OC your 3000+ for the time being (unless youre opposed to overclocking)... there are supposed to be more price drops in the next couple months or so (quad core prices dropping i believe, R600, etc)

the other option of coarse, is to go for a s939 opteron/X2 and motherboard, new pcie gpu, and reuse all of your other parts... s939 (dual core) is a perfectly suitable gaming platform, TBH... and is also the cheapest noticable upgrade, aside from just OCing

 

[MasterLee]

Throw a water cooler on that bad boy with a chiller and crank it up LOL.
I want to upgrade but I haven't had good enough reason to since this goes over 2.7 GHz no problem, and everything I play plays great. I can't see doing it for something I won't play but I will eventually and I'll be putting my cooling system on it too.

 

[caamsa]

it honestly would probably feel like a waste of money to go from s754 to s939 'unless' you were going to go for a dual core opteron or X2... and even then, games themselves dont currently show a significant benefit from a second core (improvement, yes, but not drastic)... you mentioned PCI-e, that in itself would be the only reason to upgrade i think (particularly if youre a gamer), as being on AGP really limits your upgrade choices

what i would suggest though instead, is save up for a more substantial upgrade, and just OC your 3000+ for the time being (unless youre opposed to overclocking)... there are supposed to be more price drops in the next couple months or so (quad core prices dropping i believe, R600, etc)

the other option of coarse, is to go for a s939 opteron/X2 and motherboard, new pcie gpu, and reuse all of your other parts... s939 (dual core) is a perfectly suitable gaming platform, TBH... and is also the cheapest noticable upgrade, aside from just OCing

I agree stay with your current system until you can't stand it anymore then look into a new system build and set a budget.

 

[AdamBomb42]

Let me take a moment to preach about the Opteron 170.

:twisted: OPTERON 170 ROCKS BALLZ!!! :twisted:

This message brought to you by Vagicream. For that itch that just won't quit, their's Vagicream.

 

[joewho]

I just upgraded my sons CPU and Mobo. I to had DDR and AGP and did not want to spend to much. So, I just bought a E4300 with Cheapo ECS Mobo at Frys for $159.00 I did a pad mod and now it's runnuing at 2.4ghz at stock volts. When I run PCMark05 it gets a better score than my rig below. I like AMD but with C2D cheap and getting cheaper I don't know.

Just my 2, good luck.

 

[purdueguy]

If your PSU can handle it, I'd recommend the following:

Video Card: X1800GTO - $100 after MIR
CPU: The Opty 165 - $155 or the Opty 170 - $190
Mobo: Foxconn nForce 4 Ultra - $61 after MIR

Total with Opty 165: $316
Total with Opty 170: $351

 

[s4fun]

At $500, this roughly how you can make you money go...

Sell the 754 chip, board, + video card and raise another $100 to -$150. OR you can choose to sell it after the fact.

In any case get the following

Core 2 Duo roughly $200 (whatever you can get in this range, cheaper the better)
Socket 775 motherboard roughly $100
1 Gig of DDR 2 roughly $100

That's only $400 so far. With $100 to spare and another $100 or so from sold parts, you can get a video card of your choice.

 

[truthforwho]

I just went through the same ordeal. I have a Socket A xp 3000+ and am really feeling the age. I decided to change up to a c2d 4300 on a ASROCK 775-vsta mobo. for $230 shipped this will get me started on a decent path of future upgrades. The board will take my old DDR 400 as well as my AGP video card and let me upgrade to a PCIexpress graphics card and DDR2 as money allows. I only do modest overclocking and this board will supply all that I need for the limited games I play. Just a thought.