I am currently running a 2005 rig, MSI - K8T Neo FIS2R motherboard with a 3400+ clawhammer core ( 1mb of L2 can't live with any less). I would like to creep into the now by getting a pci-e board which would be the Epox EP-9NPA+SLI, as ive read that just about every other pci-e socket 754 board is crap. I found 1 on the internet used for 50 bucks total on ebay. I'm pretty sure my buddy will give me one of his pci-e cards as he just upgraded. Should i get the motherboard or just save my money and go dual or quad eventually. Before i hang up the socket 754 to dry, i wanna see a gpu on it where the processor is the bottleneck, maybe even see a game play in 1080p fluidly. So any suggestions are appreciated...or if someone has this Epox EP-9NPA+SLI laying around and they want to get rid of it i'd be happy to pay to take it off your hands, i just dont know if i wanted to pay 50 bucks for a used mobo that will work for who knows how long. Thanks
I wouldn't put any more money into your system. Sell off the parts in one of the online classifieds. Anandtech's is the best. Black friday is only a few weeks away if you live in the states; frys has some good closeouts right now, but it's in the stores only.
If I sold it i would be giving up my 360 modding machine (via 8237). How much could I even get for it anyway..its worth nothing to anybody who knows how to build a computer, im sure. Besides im ultra broke like it doesnt matter what color friday it is, no money. I also know that it wouldnt really cost me too much right now to just build a decent computer. Besides, this is sadly the best working machine in the house (running windows 7 x64, win xp, and ubuntu x64 great). i dont think ill sell it but maybe i will just buy another setup sometime later.
yeah wouldnt bother doing anything with that machine - too old, its DDR1 - seriously
btw 1mb L2 cache is kinda meaningless, for future reference an extra ~150mhz is usually all it takes to beat a chip with more cache is most cases, THG did an article showing just how meaningless the extra cache in a Phenom II is compared to a Athlon X4 most of the time (same chip with less cache).
I would simply turn a machine like that into a mini-server. its a lot easier then posting WTS ads all over. Also, its amazing how often 2 (or more) computers comes in handy
You will also get a lot more performance if you buy semi-new equipment, rather than buying either cutting-edge or 3 year old stuff
Your not going to get anything for it selling it. Give it to your kids to run kiddy games?
Socket 754 was before 939, which was before AM2, which was before AM2+, which was before AM3......are you getting it? Its a dinasour, any money put into that thing would be a total wasted, especially a new motherboard and GPU.
ill keep it for flashing 360's and so my niece has something nice to play spore on. i know that socket 754 was dead long ago and that any money into it is futile. but this was my first cpu that i built from the ground up back when i was upgrading from piss pour celerons w/ 128 kb of l2 cache. so yea it still holds a special place in my heart but that is not enough for me to even throw 50 bucks down the drain. i was thinking of going phenom quad 945 or so and i guess gigabyte seems to be the mobo best suited. probably end up costing me about as much as i paid to build this four years ago. besides i still laugh at my friends 939 w/ 512 l2 cache (aion runs at like 22 fps bottlenecked by his processor...lol) thanks for the replies to help me settle on one choice. BTW dinosaur in my mind is a 486 - 66 mghz which is what i had to endure for way too long as a child, and im only 22. if you hadn't noticed i don't spend very much on my pc needs as next-gen consoles have been feeding my gaming addiction for the past couple years. it just didn't make much since to me to upgrade anything on my pc for the past 3 years but now that i can get decent graphics without breaking the bank ill go ahead and build a new pc this fall.
so true about the 2 or more computers coming in handy...or just to observe and see how slow life used to be on the last pc cutting edge is for the rich...not me