Is it time to upgrade?

[mrwhipper]

First off,thank you for reading my post. OK, here is my situation. Due to health reasons I can not game on a PC anymore, so I use my PC strictly for converting DVD's to my PSP and my wifes ZUNE. My computer specs are:
AMD FX 55
Gigiabyte K8NXP-SLI MOBO
2 gigs Corsair Pro memory
2x 6800 GT in SLI
250 gig WD JB
550 Wt Ultra PS

The question is, is it worth spending $1000.00 to build a Core 2 duo unit that I want, or is it a waste of money?
Thank you for any ideas that you may have. Take care all.

 

[ZozZoz]

waste of money

 

[CmdPT]

If you cannot play games on a PC anymore then I would keep that PC for now. Until it becomes too old to run anything but If you really want to buy a new system then its completely up to you.

 

[pathan7]

waste of money because at the moment im using Athlon64 3200+ with 1gig memory it runs everything fine except games.i do a lot of downloading videos,converting songs to put onto my mp3 player and MS office 2007 works fine.so stick with your system unless u want a new system and have money to burn

 

[Noya]

If you're itching to build a new one, sell your rig on craigslist to some noob for $300+ / part it out, add some cash for something like this:

$61 - e2160 (OC to 3.0ghz)
$90 - P35 board
$35 - 2gb DDR2
$30 - DVD/RW
$50 - Antec or Corsair PSU (buy.com for corsair)
$30+ - basic vid card
$30+ - basic case with front and rear fan
$120 - 2 x 250gb HD (read from one write to the other for encoding/converting)

The system will be much more responsive converting DVDs (not to mention MUCH faster) thanks to dual HD and the dual core Core 2 chip.

 

[Sharikook]

Buy an AMD Phenom and support AMD! AMD needs our supports now to crush Intel once and for all.

 

[curnel_D]

Some people just like to spend money on the biggest and best. (I'm one of them). So if that's the case, why not?

 

[mrwhipper]

Some people just like to spend money on the biggest and best. (I'm one of them). So if that's the case, why not?

I use to be that way buy my son came along so I need to be a bit more reasonable with my $$$. That is why I posted. I didn't know if a Core 2 Duo wold e that much faster then my FX 55. Thanks.

 

[reconviperone1]

For what you do, thats fine, feel kinda bad though hope you'll be able to game again at some point.

 

[reconviperone1]

Or you can try to score a dual core socket 939 opteron, you'll pay a premium though

 

[cjp3]

To answer the first question: only you can answer the question whether a little bit of responsiveness is enough to justify $1000 for you.

The second question: the Core 2 Duo (even the "slow" ones like E6300) are faster than any CPU you could buy before. Especially if it's a FX-55 (from 2004?).

So, clearly, if you want to shell out money and buy stuff, then get a C2D. But whether you want to do that - your call.

You can also take the middle way and just get a backward compatible mainboard (ASROCK 4 Core or something like that) and an inexpensive C2D (said E6300). That should cost about 200 € (not sure about your prices), and give a noticeable benefit.

And take out one of those GF's, they're just burning our environment if you're not gaming anyway.

 

[zenmaster]

I use to be that way buy my son came along so I need to be a bit more reasonable with my $$$. That is why I posted. I didn't know if a Core 2 Duo wold e that much faster then my FX 55. Thanks.

I think the Quad may be the way to go.
You will find that Dell has great deals on/off for Quad Systems.
($500 Price Range)

 

[Wolfshadw]

In your situation, I'd probably try to sell on of your 6800GTs and use that to help offset the cost of a dual-core s939 Opteron. Unfortunately, not only are you limited by the scarce availability of s939 processors, but you motherboard will only support some of the Opteron processors (CPU Support List).

-Wolf sends

 

[yipsl]

I use to be that way buy my son came along so I need to be a bit more reasonable with my $$$. That is why I posted. I didn't know if a Core 2 Duo wold e that much faster then my FX 55. Thanks.

I'm sorry about your medical condition. Can you still game on consoles, or is it no gaming at all? My 7 year old's console games actually give me vertigo at times, where PC games do not! Yep, now I have to build 3 PC's every few years, not just two. Same budget, more PC's. Tougher choices.

Looking at the CPU charts, an FX-62 isn't that far ahead of a cheap X2 in DVD encoding:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=913&model2=914&chart=440

And the FX-62 is ahead of many C2D's. I'm not sure how much slower your FX-55 is than an FX-62, but it looks to be a good guide.

AMD's coming out with the 780G motherboard on March 5. It will have a DX10 IGP which works alongside a 3450 or 3470 graphics card for hybrid SLI.

780G out March 5, it should be around $85

3470 @ $69.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102728

Athlon X2 5200+ 65 watt Windsor @ $119
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103767

Kingston DDR2 800 2 gigs @ $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134012

Your FX-55 is good for now, but when you want to get a Bluray drive, then the 780G will be great for that, as the 690G we have already supports Bluray and new (ugh) DRM standards. Of course, your monitor will have to be compliant too.

 

[epsilon84]

FX-55 is single core, FX-62 is dual core, you can't really compare the performance of the two by 'extrapolating' from THG's CPU charts...

 

[aevm]

First off,thank you for reading my post. OK, here is my situation. Due to health reasons I can not game on a PC anymore, so I use my PC strictly for converting DVD's to my PSP and my wifes ZUNE. My computer specs are:
AMD FX 55
Gigiabyte K8NXP-SLI MOBO
2 gigs Corsair Pro memory
2x 6800 GT in SLI
250 gig WD JB
550 Wt Ultra PS

The question is, is it worth spending $1000.00 to build a Core 2 duo unit that I want, or is it a waste of money?
Thank you for any ideas that you may have. Take care all.

Most likely waste of money. Assuming you convert one movie a day, do you really care if it takes half an hour on the FX-55 or 10 minutes on a Q6600? It's not like you're doing this 50 times a day, is it? Anyway, if you do decide to upgrade get a Phenom 9500 or Q6600 or Q9450, whatever you can afford. You can reuse one of the 6800GT cards in the new computer and have both computers work in parallel too.

If you do go ahead with the new computer, here's a possible solution:
GA-P35-DS3L, Q6600, Antec Sonata (includes PSU), reuse a 6800GT, WD7500AAKS - about $700 total

 

[mrwhipper]

Thank all of you for your wonderful advice. Please continue if you would like. Yes, I can still console game. Thank you for your concern on that matter. If I were to build in the near future, this is what I was thinking:
E6850
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0
8800 GT
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 TWIN2X2048-8500C5