Athlon 64 3000+ replacement or new board?

The 4200+ X2's go for ~$60 so no real need to spend big money on the 4800+.

How much RAM do you currently have and what speed is it? I'm not experienced with Photoshop, but I've heard it needs oodles of memory.

good evening i was reading through the forums and found this sight and saw the thread the gentalman above is correct as i have cs2 at home and the box says minimum 1gb ram or better i would put the performance down the the core and how much ram do you have?? when making a ram choice remember a 1:1 ratio speed i.e if the core is 200mhz then the ram has to be 400mhz cause ram is double data i.e double the speed of the cores fsb so if you overclock? at to 204mhz then the ram needs to be changed to 408mhz etc... so 400mhz in speeds is 800mhz=pc2-6400=6.4gbs bandwidth.
as for the processor a dual core would be faster for the number crunching if you go for a new motherboard look at the chipsets on board, i.e an nforce 4 or nforce ultra very cheap these days..etc cause amd are going down the pan you can get some bargains out there at the mo...

http://computers.pricegrabber.com/motherboards/m/362909...

hope this link works but this was one of the best boards to buy at a quick upgrade.

Go with a budget AM2 board & cpu like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VTQ0Z4?ie=UTF8&tag...

2x1gb ddr2 is like $50 tops after rebate.

Memory: 320MB (384MB recommended)
Monitor resolution: 1,024x768, 16-bit or higher
Installation requirements: CD-ROM drive; Internet or phone connection required for product activation
Windows
Minimum Processor: Pentium III
Operating System: Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows XP SP1 or SP2
Hard drive space for installation: 650MB


heres the bear minimal specs for cs2...but if you do alot of editing then a dual core 4000+ would be better for calculation....but at least 1gb or better i.e 2gb.... coughs....would be the best way there graphics not a prob depends what you have but not an issue here mainly ram and cpu my machine has 2gb geil casl4 ram in it and an amd (am2)x2 6000+ flys through any editing i give it exspect the same with yours when done....p.s my ram from overclockers.co.uk only cost me for 2gb! £34.99 bargain!!

$50 AM2 CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If your board supports dual core, a socket 939 x2 would help a lot. A 4200, 4400, or 4600 X2 would make a difference. Photoshop will make good use of the 2 cores. There is no real benefit changing to an AM2 motherboard unless you are prepared to spend money on all new memory, and plan on getting a CPU that is faster than a 4600 X2. (That is about all you can find for Socket 939)

X2 is definitely the way to go. I upgraded a 3200+ to a 3800+ X2 a couple of months ago when Newegg was selling them for about $60. It's a great inexpensive upgrade and Photoshop will fly, as well as other CPU-intensive stuff. Just make sure you can find one!

In your post you do not say how much ram you have. That said, getting one of the dual core 939 x2's would help to speed things up for you. Bang for buck the X2 4200 is your best bet.

You might find that just the cpu upgrade will not be enough to satisfy
Right now you can build a really fast computer at good price.

Upgrade to a X2 4200 or better.

Sorry, let me list my equipment as I thought it came through.
ASUS A8N5X (SOCKET 939) MB with 3Gig DDR400 PC3200 RAM (2 are dual channel)
AMD 64x 3000+ (not overclocked)
ATI Radeon 700X video card
Vista 64 Ultimate (I hate it!)

I would like to have have to change out the MB if possible but the cost of a 4800+ socket939 might be a mute point if I only get a little improvement. I've even tried using my IPOD as virtual RAM to get Photoshop CS2 to go quicker. I'm told Photoshop CS3 is MUCH quicker. Is it??

3 gig of Ram and 2 are dual channel? Either ALL of your memory is running in dual channel, or it is not. You cannot have some running in dual channel mode, and some not. If you don't have idential sticks in each of the 2 banks, it is not running in dual channel mode.

As I said, Photoshop will make good use of a multicore CPU.
I would buy a 4200 X2, and memory that gives you the configuration so it will run in dual channel mode.

If you want more performance, you will have to do a significant upgrade and invest some $$$. (new motherboard, new memory, new processor like a Q6600) Photoshop or CS3 is not actually multithreaded, but it will use ALL available CPUs or cores to render images. And rendering is the time comsuming part. So...the more cores you throw at these programs, it will significantly speed things up.

Jitpublisher,
So you are saying that I am dampering my dual channel ram by have an additional 1gig of memory? Is a 4200x2 available in socket 939?