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The Upgrade dilema

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So I am running an AMD 4600 Dual core Cpu. I have 2 gigs of OCZ DDR2 Ram in a relativly cheap MSI motherboard. I am also using a 4850 ATI video card and a Fatality creative sound card. Overall I try and stay about 2 generations back from the leading edge of hardware for cost reasons. Well naturally it's about time for me to kick up a few levels. Thankfully I recently replaced my badly ageing 1600 ATI video card so I am pretty happy with the 4850. I am looking at ram, I switched to vista 64 bit for DirectX 10...somewhat happy with that decision. I plan on switching to 4 gigs of ram. Well naturally the issue is, DDR2 or 3. This board only takes 2 so I would need a new board. I would like to switch to a new AMD CPU as well, a quad core, thinking the new Phenom BE. However some of these I can get running DDR3. Well I would need a new board.

Question comes down to, does it make sense to run cheap and just get some DDR2 ram and have 4 if not 8 gigs of ram for easily under a 100 bucks and get a newer CPU and be done. Or just spend the money and get a decent 100 dollar - 200 Dollar motherboard and new DDR3 ram and CPU? I can save the money for that switch and wait it out, just wondering if it would end up being really worth it persay. Would I really notice the speed difference in the end?

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Homebuilt system Expert

There was a recent article covering DDR3 RAM on Phenom II systems, might want to pull that one up. I think the guys who wrote it up were saying that there aren't any big gains for AMD systems that use DDR3 over DDR2 still. As of right now, I think you'd be better off spending extra on more RAM rather than upgrading your motherboard. If you do go over 4GB, I'd make sure your board can truly support it since an older board may not be able to handle it. If you find that you can't upgrade your CPU much more due to limitations of your board you really should upgrade the board to something newer, AM2+'s should be cheap, AM3+'s aren't even all that expensive since they try to compete with Intel's X58 and core i7's.

I believe I came across that article to and it looked like it made a lot more sense to spend less and get a decent motherboard (this one is only about 3 years old but it just doesn't have a lot of features is the thing). Get a decent 3-4 core CPU for easily 200 or less and a 4 gig set of ram same maker. Was wondering which board to look at. Gigabyte makes some great boards and I came across one for 109 with no onboard video (good) and 6 sata connections and a mess on the back plate. Looked like a good deal. Now to see if I have enough power plugs from this PSU for double 4 pin sets for it.

Thanks guys.
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Oh, ram follow up. Was poking around newegg last night. I have OZC ram right now, 2 1 gig sticks. Initially I had one stick die within a month of purchase and just swapped them at the store, been fine since. Was looking at muskin ram last night but I know corsair and kingston make good ram as well. Heard good things from G.skill. Same issue though, do I need to go past 800 in speed department, this board I think will only take 1333 as it is but if I am buying it might as well buy some good ones.
Homebuilt system Master

Well where i'm at lots of peeps going with AM3 mobos are reporting fine on Kingston DDR3 1333 value though not spectacular clockers they seem to play nice with just about any board hehe
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