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Upgrade Recommendations

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Hello,

I have a 2 yr old system I built using:

Antec NSK4480B case with 380W PSU
MSI "K9VGM-V" motherboard
AMD athlon X2 5200+ cpu, and
2 GB DDR2 PC800 memory
2 DVD+RW Drives
2 ATA HD

I decided to install blu ray buner, so just ordered
LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner, and
PowerColor Radeon HD 5550 512MB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card.

I have not installed them yet. Now I am wondering whether the AMD X2 5200+ CPU on MSI K9VGM-V with only 2 GB memory may be too slow for blu ray video editing playback etc on Radeon HD 550, and that I should go ahead and upgrade the motherboard and/or CPU and/or add memory. By the way, I have Windows XP SP3 Professional.

I am looking for advise on what to do? I am somewhat limited by antec case with only 380W PSU for possible upgrades. Of course one book end answer is: completely build a new system with new case with PSU, motherboard, CPU, memory, and new SATA drives ( I alredy have blu ray drive and GPU arriving on tuesday). Does it make sense to use the current system, but upgrade some of the components.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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You will have a problem with the videocard, your current board support Pci-E 16 v1.0, it will support Pci E 16 v1.0 and v2.0 but not Pci-E 16 v2.1. so you will need to change your motherboard if the videocard is already on the way for a motherboard that has at least Pci-E 16 v2.0 and supports current CPU and memory for those to be recuperated from current PC.

rattman169: Actually I bought the card after checking on AMD site, see below. It said only PCI x16 lane is required, does not say anything about version. Then I did google search, and found that all PCi Express x16 cards are backward compatible.

Does anyone have experience of using v2.1 card in v1.0 MB?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ATI Radeon™ HD 5570 and 5550 System Requirements

Suggested ATI Radeon™ HD 5570 and 5550 512MB DDR3 System Requirements
PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
400 Watt or greater power supply recommended
Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://support.amd.com/us/certified/power-supplies/Page... for a list of Certified products
Minimum 1GB of system memory
Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
DVD playback requires DVD drive

zipzoomflyhigh: If the v2.1 PCIE card does not work in v1.0 MB, I will have no choice but build a new system. Any suggestion for AMD or Intel based system for editing and streaming blu ray movies. I will have a blue ray burner, and plan to buy a Dune 3.0 base player for blu ray streaming.
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I am running the Phenom II 955BE instead of Intel this time, my Bro-in-law has an i7-920 and it works great but after we compared times for recording and all the little things, his is just slightly faster, and when he found out what I paid was upset, because just the CPU and Motherboard cost him $600, and it cost me $280. He said for the cost he would have gone with the AMD processor, but that is totally up to you, if a budget is set and you don't want to go crazy you can go with an AM2+ board that supports the older CPU plus the newer ones, or go all new architecture and change everything.... remember this, Intel is pricey... nothing against Intel mind you because my last was Intel (socket 775, dual core system), I just decided to go with a cheaper upgrade with the AMD system.

attman169: I like your recommendations. I see your system as

AMD Phenom II X 4 955BE,
2Gb DDR3-1333 Kingston,
Asus M4A77TD,
Asus EAH-5770 CuCore 1Gb DDR5,
WD 640Gb SATA2 Black 32Mb Cache,
LG 22X DVD-Rw SATA,
CoolerMaster Extreme Power Plus 600Watt, Antec 300 Gaming Case

I have a question.

I was thinking about getting ASUS M4A77D AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard. It looks similar to yours, but will allow me to use my current 2 GB DDR2 memory, and Athlon 64 X2 5200+ AM2 CPU, with the new 5550 Radeo HD GPU, and Blue Ray drive. I can then upgrade later (when I take a vacation in few months) to AMD Phenom II X 4 955BE CPU. Only downside is I will have DDR2 memory rather than DDR3 like yours.

What do you think? Am sacrificing too much just for AM2/AM3 flexibility? Also is 2GB memory enough or do I need more for blu ray editing and streaming?

batuchka: Just read the link you provided, very interesting. I am also interested in video encoding and hi def video streaming to other TVs. I am planning to buy Dune 3.0 Base player for the streaming/playback to TV. So I want to upgrade my current system.

I did get my video card and blu ray burner last night. Installed it in my old system with PCI E 1.0, 380 watts power. Everything looks good so far. System is stable. Played a blu ray movie with no hiccups.

Anyway, based on recommndation here, I will upgrade my system since I will be doing a lot of video encoding. I will get AMD Phenom II X 4 955BE CPU, ASUS M4A77D MB. For time being, will continue to use 2 GB DDR2 memory and 380 Watts Power supply in Antec 4480B case.

Thanks everyone for the assistance I have recived in this forum.
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