- Sep 12, 2008
- 4
- 0
- 18,510
Alright guys, here's what I'm lookin at. I would like to upgrade the system I built a few years ago and would more than welcome the thoughts and advice of people much more experienced than myself. Here's my old rig:
Athlon 64 3000+
Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe (s939)
2x512mb mushkin PC3200
XFX 7600gt ----> bought a 9800gt to replace
Antec Neopower 500 watt PSU
Samsung 226BW 22" (1680x1050)
1x 120gb sata HD
1x 80gb IDE HD
DVDR-W, 3.5" floppy, etc.....
Windows XP sp2
So I couldn't resist the $109 XFX 9800gt with Call of Duty 4 deal, and that is now pushin the pixels in my box. I noticed a good improvement, but I think the 1gb of ram is killin me, and the proc isn't really helping. Here's what I was thinking of buying to finish out the upgrade:
ASUS P5Q Pro Motherboard- $139
2x2gb OCZ Reaper 1066 - $98 AR
C2D E8400 - $135 - ($170 - $35 off for combo deal with ASUS P5Q Pro MB)
Total $372 after the $30 rebate on the ram. ~$400 or less is about my target budget here. Less would always be better if it won't sacrifice performance or increase chances for stability/compatibility issues.
I don't plan to crossfire, but it's only $10 more for the pro version of the motherboard, so I figured why not. Maybe I'll want to use that option down the road.
I thought the 9800GT was a good deal, especially with the free game, so I went for it. I have a bit of an aversion to ATI hardware after encountering some persistent heat and driver issues in the past, but am open if anyone adamantly believes that I should return the 9800GT and pay the extra $50 for an HD4850. I don't think the PSU would handle crossfiring 2 of them, but I could always upgrade that later.
Should I get the reaper DDR2-800 kit because it's rated for 1.8v instead of 2.1v? The timings are better but
I'm not sure that the real world effect would be positive. Might be better for overclocking, which I like the option of despite not being a big overclocker. If the 1066 is just going to be overall faster though, I'll stick with it. I know that 32-bit XP won't use all 4 gigs, but this way I'll be ready to upgrade to 64-bit in the next year or so.
I figure I might snag a SATA DVD burner as well, since the MB only has one IDE port. A larger HDD might be good too...
My goal is to have a good mid- level rig, used of course for mainstream pc work but also for some graphics intensive games (looking forward to Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, and trying to get Clear Sky running as smoothly as bugs allow). I like to use my computer more than fiddle with troublesome things to get them to work, but am willing to put in the extra effort if it yields more performance or saves money. I'd like to have something that would have a good upgrade path a few years down the road, at least better than dumping a bunch of money into a socket that is abandoned within a year of coming out. I know that Nehalem is coming out at the end of the year, but I figure that support for socket 775 will continue long enough and processors will be much more available than socket 939 turned out to be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this long-winded post and put in your two cents!
Athlon 64 3000+
Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe (s939)
2x512mb mushkin PC3200
XFX 7600gt ----> bought a 9800gt to replace
Antec Neopower 500 watt PSU
Samsung 226BW 22" (1680x1050)
1x 120gb sata HD
1x 80gb IDE HD
DVDR-W, 3.5" floppy, etc.....
Windows XP sp2
So I couldn't resist the $109 XFX 9800gt with Call of Duty 4 deal, and that is now pushin the pixels in my box. I noticed a good improvement, but I think the 1gb of ram is killin me, and the proc isn't really helping. Here's what I was thinking of buying to finish out the upgrade:
ASUS P5Q Pro Motherboard- $139
2x2gb OCZ Reaper 1066 - $98 AR
C2D E8400 - $135 - ($170 - $35 off for combo deal with ASUS P5Q Pro MB)
Total $372 after the $30 rebate on the ram. ~$400 or less is about my target budget here. Less would always be better if it won't sacrifice performance or increase chances for stability/compatibility issues.
I don't plan to crossfire, but it's only $10 more for the pro version of the motherboard, so I figured why not. Maybe I'll want to use that option down the road.
I thought the 9800GT was a good deal, especially with the free game, so I went for it. I have a bit of an aversion to ATI hardware after encountering some persistent heat and driver issues in the past, but am open if anyone adamantly believes that I should return the 9800GT and pay the extra $50 for an HD4850. I don't think the PSU would handle crossfiring 2 of them, but I could always upgrade that later.
Should I get the reaper DDR2-800 kit because it's rated for 1.8v instead of 2.1v? The timings are better but
I'm not sure that the real world effect would be positive. Might be better for overclocking, which I like the option of despite not being a big overclocker. If the 1066 is just going to be overall faster though, I'll stick with it. I know that 32-bit XP won't use all 4 gigs, but this way I'll be ready to upgrade to 64-bit in the next year or so.
I figure I might snag a SATA DVD burner as well, since the MB only has one IDE port. A larger HDD might be good too...
My goal is to have a good mid- level rig, used of course for mainstream pc work but also for some graphics intensive games (looking forward to Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, and trying to get Clear Sky running as smoothly as bugs allow). I like to use my computer more than fiddle with troublesome things to get them to work, but am willing to put in the extra effort if it yields more performance or saves money. I'd like to have something that would have a good upgrade path a few years down the road, at least better than dumping a bunch of money into a socket that is abandoned within a year of coming out. I know that Nehalem is coming out at the end of the year, but I figure that support for socket 775 will continue long enough and processors will be much more available than socket 939 turned out to be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this long-winded post and put in your two cents!
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