$100 Upgrade for an AMD 64 X2 System

Looking for an inexpensive upgrade to tide me over until the next generation Phenoms hit the market. I have an Asus M2N4-SLI motherboard with a Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2GHz, 128KBx2 L1, 512KBx2 L2), 2 gigs of Super Talent DDR2-800 dual channel memory, and a 74GB WD Raptor hard disk. My video card is an off brand 7600GS with 256MB.

The 64 X2 6000+ is available locally for $99, or $94 on Newegg. I wonder if this would be a worthy upgrade. The benchmarks here place it in the same league as the E6600. Of course the Conroe chips are obsolete now, but people are still buying budget systems built around them. I suppose that I could buy a socket 775 mobo and throw in a cheap Exxxx chip for even better performance than the 6000+ would give me, and then upgrade the chip again sometime next year, but then I'm looking at spending somewhere around 250 for a decent board and low end Core2.
I'd rather stick with my current platform and then upgrade to a Phenom board and chip in maybe six months.

The system is used mostly for running stuff like Office, Excel, Access and Photoshop under XP Professional. Gaming is limited to some WWII games and WoW.

Would another 2GB of memory make any real difference? Should I spring for the 6000+? I would consider a black edition 5600+, but this motherboard is a poor overclocker and then I'm back to the dilemma of buying a "new" motherboard for an obsolete platform.

TIA...

I believe your best upgrade, if any, is the GPU. If your wanting better gaming performance you'd be better off with a 3850 or better. I'm assuming that your PSU is decent, reliable, and has a 6 pin PCI-e power connector. I think your current 2 gb's of DDR2 is plenty for your needs. Upgrading the CPU will help some things, but not sure it'll make that much of a difference for what you stated you use it for.

I second that. I picked up my 6000+ over a year ago for $170.00 and it has been more than sufficient for me. I Just added a 4850 to my system and I figure I am good to go for probably another year.

By then I will pick up an Octo core for about 100 bucks

Yes you will need to upgrade that GPU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you can only do one I would just pick up a new GPU like a 9600GT.

Windows XP won't recognize anything over 2GB so getting more RAM without updating your OS wouldn't do you any good whatsoever. Have you checked the Asus website to make sure your board can run a 6000+ or Phenom CPU!!?? If you're going to upgrade something because you want to play games then upgrade your GPU to at least a Radeon 3850 with 512 of GDDR3. Upgrading your CPU won't make much of a difference in games with that 7600GS. Since you want to upgrade to a phenom latter anyway it seems a waste to spend $100 on a CPU you are going to upgrade in 3 or 4 months when the new phenoms come out. If it's your office productivity then you may want to invest in a bigger secondary hard drive since 74GB is a bit small and a Raptor will perform better when it's defragmented and not 98% full.

i would say get a new video card. you can find some radeon 3850's on ebay for $100.

Learn to read those of you telling him to upgrade GPU, he doesnt game (much)

I say get the RAM, may be worth springing for DDR-1066 which could be carried over to the Phenom build. XP-32 can address up to 4GB of RAM which includes the RAM on your video card and any motherboard resources that require a memory address. Therefore most people will see between 3.2 and 3.5GB when they have 4GB installed.

Get an Opteron 1210/1212:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819105220
68.00 USD (OEM)
74.00 USD (Retail w/heatsink)

These CPUs will easily overclock to 3.0Ghz, has the 2Mb cache, is server grade and saves you money!! Just read the review for the Retail 1212 / google on the models.

The 6000+ is overpriced when the C2D can wipe the floor with it...

Bob