AMD 64 Processor Advice

[DanKD]

Hello all, I am looking to upgrade my desktop into a gaming system as I now do most of my work from a laptop. I have a relatively low budget for the system. Anyway, what I want to know is your opinions on which would be better fir ne between the Athlon 64 3500, 3700 and 3800, with price taken into account?

The main game I am playing right now is World of Warcraft, but I play other MMORPG's, RTS's, turn based RPG's/Strategy games and text sims. I play first person shooters a little, but that is a minority of my gaming.

My overall budget for upgrading a CPU, Motherboard, Graphics card, RAM and power supply is right around $1200.

Any advice someone could provide is appreciated. And if you need any more information from me let me know, thanks.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

3200 / 3500 if you want to dabble in the black arts of overclocking. You could get those chips up to 2.6 Ghz easily.

Money saved could then be spent on a Nvidia 7800GTX!

______________
<font color=blue>Boshdy as owt</font color=blue>

 

[jmwpom3]

From what I've seen, I see the 3500+ and maybe 3800+ as being the best values. Anything in that range will work well, but this is how I usually figure the value point. Find where the largest cost increase is for one incremental jump, and buy the one right below that.
ex. if it were to go... 3000+ $150, 3200+ $250, 3500+ $400, 3800+ $575 and 4000+ $$950, you'd go for the 3800. Make sense?
When you see it jump 100 to 150 per increase then all of a sudden one jumps by 400 or 500, that's where the biggest price gouge is. 'Cause that's where you get the least improvement for the most cost.

Anyway, be sure you at least get a Venice or San Diego right now over the Winchester and socket 939 not 754. And, since you're not playing the heaviest processor draining games, the 3000+ or 3200+ will probably do you fine. ( if you're looking to save a little cash, you can spend it on more or better RAM)

<font color=blue> Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with Windows. </font color=blue>

 

[DanKD]

I was thinking more towards a 6800 GT or Ultra. Is the 7800GTX that much better? Im not sure I could fit it in my budget.

 

[dmroeder]

Listen to Ned, buy the 3200 or 3500 Venice and spend the extra cash on a good video card. For gaming, the extra spent on a video card will be worth it.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

In some cases the 7800GTX is as fast as 6800 Ultras in SLI mode.

______________
<font color=blue>Boshdy as owt</font color=blue>

 

[z2895]

anthing over an amd 3000 and 6800 will play any of those games fine at pretty much the highest settings and resolutions. based on what you said i would go with an amd 3000-3200 and 6800 or better, then get some memory up to 1-2gb, anything over that is a waste for gaming, then with money left over look at upgrading your display device, then speaker system as those will make the biggest difference in your gameplay experience (depending upon what you have now of course).

 

[jaguar77054]

Here's what I've come up with from for ~ $1200

AMD 64 3700 Retail - $326
Asus A8N-SLI - $144
OCZ 1GB PC3200 Cas 2 - $128
WD SE WD2500JS 250GB SATAII - $147 (if needed)
Antec TX1050B 500watt case - $125
BFG 6800GT OC PCI Express - $379

All prices are from Newegg. I added the HD in to maximize performance with the new CPU, RAM, and MB. A WD 10K Raptor would be a good choice too if storage space wasn't critical for about the same cost of the WD 250GB HD.

This system gives you the best price/performance ratio CPU right now, SLI motherboard for adding another 6800GT later when prices come down, the fastest Serial ATA II HD out right now (http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2454), a top quality case with 500watt PSU to handle future SLI configurations, and BFG OC 6800GT.

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

okiee....
1) ditch 3700... get 3200 venice
2) cruddy mobo, dfi instead
3) i have no clue on these ram... i would say some kind of value ram.. or patriot xblk
4) 120-160 is good enough... WD caviar is a good choice
5) looks like a cruddy psu, buy seperate case and psu
6) 7800gtx!!!! lol (you can get x850xt if you want to)

the thing w/ 7800gtx is that its gonna be out done in about 2-3 months... so stick w/ x850xt cuz it gives you very good performance for a less devastating blow to ur wallet

<font color=red>gforce mx100/200 @ 230/440 =]</font color=red>

 

[danizaken]

Get a seagate 7200.8 hard drive. Screw WD!!!

 

[DanKD]

I've been doing some research and this is what I have come up with for my new system as of now (I can still change my mind). A note is that I have expanded my budget by a fair ammount to add in a few other parts, so that I can keep my current desktop the way it is and give it to a family member.

Motherboard- DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 $135
Graphics- GeForce 7800GTX $600
Processor- Athlon 64 3200+ Venice $190
RAM- 2 GB OCZ PC3200 Gold $256
Hard Drive- 200GB Seagate Barracuda $120
Case- Lian Li PC-61 $89
Power Supply- Fortron AX-500 Blue Series $91
CD/DVD Writer- Undecided

What do you think?

I have a spare sound card, so I don't need one of those right now. Is there anything I'm missing for this new system?

 

[dunklegend]

Great mobo.
Great video card.
Great case, but a Lian Li for $89?
Great PSU.
DVD writer I would recommend <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047" target="_new"> this</A> or <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101642" target="_new">this</A>

I have both DVD burners and I will recommend them.

<font color=green>If you work on a thing long enough to improve it, It will break</font color=green>

 

[Starfishy]

Yep, all good choices. You might have a little overkill on the RAM I would usually suggest 1Gb of RAM for this system as being more than sufficient, but if you want 2Gb and you seem to be getting a pretty good deal for it then so be it. What are the timings for this RAM, and is it 4x512Mb or 2x1Gb?

 

[z2895]

>> Get a seagate 7200.8 hard drive. Screw WD!!!

I second that

 

[BePe86]

I agree. WD is the new death-star.

 

[Zoron]

MMORPGs are more RAM-dependent than most other games. EverQuest II <b>requires</b> 1GB of RAM to enable all the eye candy... so his decision to go with 2GB is a good one. Granted, WoW's requirements aren't as steep... but more RAM does seem to help these type of games.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[dlapine]

Newegg has the Venice version of the 3200 for ~$200, and the
the 3500 comes in around $270 and the 3800 at $370.

Looks like the 3500 would be possible, but I'd spend the cash on better video card or better ram.

I'm building a test box right now to see if the 64bit version of windows is any better (faster) than the 32 bit versions. Sticking with AGP for now.

I have a:

3200 Athlon
Antec 3000 case with Fortron 350 PS
Epox 9NDA3+ MB
Geil Ultra PC4000 1GB
GIGABYTE GV-N68128DH Geforce 6800 Video (fanless)
Maxter Diamond Max 10 200 GB SATA
Creative Audigy2 OEM sound card

This was ~$900, and a copy of Windows XP pro is about $140
or $155 for the 64 bit version.
(Everybody ignores the cost of Winbloze.)

Add in a couple of fans, DVD burner, some speakers and you're right at $1200.

 

[Starfishy]

Many of us work for companies which have corporate copies of windows, and also use our home computers for work, which means that we can charge windows OS to the office, and they only have to pay for another licence. Many others pirate windows so you can see why we don't talk alot about it.

 

[Rob423]

im still running xp2800+ with a 128MB leadtek gf4 ti4200 and i run UT2k4 CS Source... HALF LIFE 2 very well.... i don't see why the need for a 600$ gfx card is needed... the second thing is these THG tests they run on these cards, the results are like a second faster on some tests.. i doubt you will see the difference or maybe it's just me... i run everything on the highest settings off my Hitachi CML174 and it runs excellent, no ghosting, hanging, glitches, freezes... idn why it's neccessary to buy a 800$cpu and a 500$ gfx card to run up to date games.

All im saying is, yes if you have the money get the latest stuff... but people in these forums or atleast half of them i think are full of crap when they say they need for example the latest CPU soon as it comes out.... you aint gonna see no difference in AIM and Mozilla..lol but yes there obviously are some people here who do ACTUALLY do video rendering and HEAVY cpu tasks, but im gonna say that's probley 20% of this community.

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
80gb Maxtor
200gb WD 8mb cache..
Lian-Li PC-60
LiteOn 52X/LiteOn 811s DVD-RW
AMD XP2800+
LeadTek GF4Ti4200 128mb
Hitachi CML174
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200

 

[Starfishy]

I don't know if you meant to direct that post to me, but I was just suggesting that he get more RAM. I happened to notice that you too have 1Gb of RAM, and I assume that you are glad that you do have that much RAM. I think that many games today run better on 1Gb then they do on 512Mb.

 

[DanKD]

Thanks for the replies all. Indeed the reason I felt going with 2 GB of Ram was worthwhile was because I play MMORPG and while I dont play Everquest yet, I may end up moving over to that or another MMO before long.

I didn't mention Windows XP because I can get a copy from my college for relative pennies.

 

[The_MaguS]

Antec's PSU that come with their cases work just fine. I've got one ticking flawlessly for 5+ years. No need to buy a seperate psu just because some super 1337 h4x0r n3rd thinks so.

<font color=blue> There's no such thing as hell, but you can make it if you try.</font color=blue><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by The_MaguS on 06/27/05 08:37 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[DanKD]

I have an Antec case and power supply now. The PSU has worked fine, but the case I have not been happy with. Lian Li's are supposed to be great, so Id rather spend a little extra and get the better case.

 

[Zoron]

I play WoW as well... I'm on Malygos.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[Rob423]

hey Starfishy, was that to me? if it was Nope i wasn't directing a post towards anyone, i was just saying, that alot of people argue on here what's the best and blah blah... when there's infact NO NEED to blow 600$ on a graphics card, when maybe.. 1GB memory + 100-180$ gfx card does an excellent job for todays games.

Alot of people look at the "video card Roundup's" that toms reviews and want to get the best card they seen when mainly the numbers are just beating there opponents by fractions of seconds which i don't think the naked eye can tell the difference when your playing UT, CS and crap like that.

I was just saying that my 128 mb leadtek for some reason is doing an excellent job and i don't see the "FPS" problems and difficulties others are seeing that's all.

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
80gb Maxtor
200gb WD 8mb cache..
Lian-Li PC-60
LiteOn 52X/LiteOn 811s DVD-RW
AMD XP2800+
LeadTek GF4Ti4200 128mb
Hitachi CML174
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200