Upgrade tips needed.

[Sparta]

Hello everyone. My 6800 GT is about to conk it, and since its 1 year warranty with the place i bought it from is expired i'm most likely gonna have to buy a new graphics card. My motherboard and processor are also fairly old now as well, about 4 or so years old, and i'm figuring its time i just updated the whole thing and I have some questions to ask you guys about what shit to buy.

I've got an AGP motherboard at the moment so i'm gonna upgrade to one thats PCI-Express, and i wanna upgrade my 2.4 processor to something bigger and better. Since my motherboard and processor have lasted about 4 years and have done really well, i was hoping to get a motherboard and processor that would last the equal amount of time and still be able to happily run games in the future as well.

Now my 6800 GT is dying (Its idling at 75c and now it crashes and shows artifacts in most games) and i want to get a card thats gonna be noticably better because thats how i've always spent my money on this pc stuff. I dont wanna go from like a 6600 to a 6800 or anything like that. I just wanna go the whole hog and buy something noticably better thats not gonna kill my bank account.

So i'm looking to upgrade my graphics card, mobo and processor for something less than $800 US.

 

[Asus]

And what CPU/Mobo/Ram do you have now?

Off the bat I would probably say go with something like:
AMD 64 4000+ or X2 4200+
S939 board Asus/DFI/MSI with nForce4
7900GT


Scale something down if you need 2GB of memory (2x 1GB of course).

 

[Codcommando]

sounds good to me^. But I would go with atleast a 4800+ ;-)

 

[Sparta]

Why an AMD 64 processor over a Pentium 4 though?

Also, i have a Northwood P4 2.4Ghz processor...MSI MS6533 Motherboard. As for RAM, i've got a Kingston 512mb PC2700 DDR SDRAM and a Corsair 256mb PC2700 DDR SDRAM.

And whats the difference between a P4 2.4ghz processor and an AMD 64 processor that runs at 2.4 Ghz? or a dual core AMD 64 processor?

 

[hneaz]

AMD pwns intel in gaming, tts all. a 2.4 ghz intel cpu does not equal to a 2.4 ghz AMD cpu. AMD cpu is more efficient than intel cpu. and AMD has a greater front side bus than intel, almost twice.

but, in a few months time, intel will release its new Conroe cpu that will dominate an overclocked AMD fx 60.

 

[FieryGoose]

Basically an amd athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.2ghz has the gaming capability of about a 3.5ghz p4, and conroe core will probably be very expensive so unless you want to lay down the big bucks i wouldn't suggest it. So yea, the 4000+ is a good option, it will blow a 3.5ghz p4 out of the water in gaming preformace. I'm not sure you will be able to get that processor, a nice asus skt939 mobo and a 7900gt for that price though, it might be like 80 bucks over or somthing, but you will deff. have a nice, capable system. If your looking for rendering or somthing like that i would get a p4 though.

 

[Sparta]

Oh ok. Thanks for that, that explains quite a bit.

I'm a bit of 3d animator but i plan to get my own computer soon for that, so for this computer i'm looking for something geared more towards gaming. I did some research though, and i heard AMD released their last chip for the Socket 939 motherboards, so wouldn't that make the motherboard kind of not future proof?

 

[Barney Fife]

Didn’t those 6800 GT come with manufacturer lifetime warranties? But I guess you’re looking for an excuse to leave AGPs behind, and SLI/PCIe yourself. Well good for you.
I used to wait around and buy new stuff when the rest of the human population already got their own, and prices come down, but I figured that as soon as I buy something, which (That something) becomes obsolete, and people already have moved on with new stuff. Damn It, I hate that.

Personally I like AMD, I always did, matter of fact I never owned a single Pentium processed PC.
I used to buy AMD chips before because, AMD was the underdog, and now I buy AMD because AMD is the gamers’ and OC-ers’ choice. AMD is the hardcore CPU for single processing, and that, everyone who ever played a PC game will tell you. AMD 2.2GHz at 90-120nm will out perform and stay cooler, quite and demand less power than a 3GHz Pentium 4 in single processing task, in this case a gaming task.
As far as being the underdog AMD is longer is, but Intel, AMD chips cost more than Intel, which makes me kind of glance back at Intel.
In either case if your AGP lasted for 4 years, I think it’s time for you to make major upgrades, and move onto PCIe platforms, specially SLI MOBO, because technology tells me that’s where we’re headed, and the future will be based on dual cards, as these games look better and cuter.
You don’t have to buy two cards at the moment but setting yourself up for it isn’t a bad idea now, is it?
The 7900 GTX cards from XFX are one of the best cards out there at the moment for the price given (Around $600.00) and at the core rate of almost 700MHz you can never go wrong, but again that’s big bucks we’re talking about. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321060
The best MOBO (In my opinion) is the Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe with Nvidia Nforce4
And dual PCIe slots and they cost around $200.00. This MOBO supports the following memory chips Dual Channel Supported DDR266 (PC2100) DDR333 (PC2700) and DDR400 (PC3200) Later on you can upgrade the memory to PC3200 if you wish but believe me you won’t see the difference. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247022 .
If you like to upgrade MOBO better to buy “socket 939” opposed to socket 754, which AMD is on the clearing stage of those chips.
They won’t be around and you will end up shopping for new MOBO in the near future.
For CPU the newer more stable (In OC situations) are the socket 939 FX and X2 AMD. I heard that 2.6 FX chips can be OC-ed at 3GHz with stock cooling since they generate almost no heat at 2.6GHz rate. Correct me if I’m wrong there but I think you got the point.
Here is the X2 http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80728-R

Ann here is the newer more expensive FX http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80730

P.S. Stay away from the Clawhammer chips (Bad to OC). Find the Sledgehammer chips (Best to OC).

I think I have said enough, let me know if I left anything.

Good Luck.

 

[Asus]

I did some research though, and i heard AMD released their last chip for the Socket 939 motherboards, so wouldn't that make the motherboard kind of not future proof?

Nothing is totally future proof. Buy an AMD and you can go up to 4000+ single or X2 (dual core) up to 4800+ or FX60 on Socket 939. Buy an Intel now and you won't be going higher than 3.8ghz. Both have new sockets coming out. AMD has theirs coming in June and Intel has theirs coming in Oct.

And there is always a product cycle, you just have to jump in. See when the new stuff comes in. If you buy right away, you are basicly a beta tester. You will have to live with any issues since you are dealing with new CPU socket and chipsets. If you wait til it matures and have higher speeds out then there will be something new again around the corner. I'd rather buy after the platform matures and prices go down.