Rethinking a Rebuild, CPU and other questions

In late 2006 I built the following:

CPU: Athlon54 X2 4600+ Windsor @ 2.4 Ghz
Motherboard: Asus M2N SLI-Deluxe
RAM: Corsair XMS2 2x1GB PC2 6400 Dual Channel Kit
Power Supply: Seasonic S12-500W
Video Card: EVGA GeForce 7900GT 256MB, 256-Bit GDDR3 PCI-Express (Added a Zalman cooler to it)
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Xi-Fi
Hard Drive: 320 GB Seagate 7200 RPM
Case: Antec P180

The OS is XP pro and I also have a Lite-on 16X burner in it as well as a video capture card.

In October of 2009 I purchased an Athlon X2 6000 with the intention of putting it in my existing motherboard, which hasn't happened yet. I have since bought an Asus M4A77D so I wouldn't have to upgrade my RAM and intended to put the 6000 in that. Now I see the AMD Athlon II X4 635 sells for around $100 now and I'm rethinking my rebuild.

I don't game very much, I think my latest game was Portal. Since I have a kid now I do a lot of photo and video transfer/burning/editing. So with all that, I'd like to ask the following:

1. Which chip would be better in the M4A77D, the 6000 or the X4 635? I will be using the existing PC2 6400 and running Windows 7 Ultimate.
2. My brother has offered me his 8800GT, is it worth using or is there a newer card I could get inexpensively? If it supports Diablo 3 thats a plus.
3. Would using a 75GB Raptor 10,000 RPM drive give me any performance boost whatsoever?

Thanks in advance.

1. The X4 635 Quad would be more ideal for what you will be doing
2. If your brother is offering the 8800GT then take it. Its faster than your current video card.
3. Yes it would. The 10,000 rpm spindle speed will be faster than your 7200 rpm Seagate drive. Use the 320GB as storage. BTW, you must be referring to the Western Digital Raptor 74GB Raptor drive.

HG pretty much hit the mark on everything. But had to add one little thing:

3. Unless you're getting that 74GB Raptor for $20 or for free, don't buy it at all considering that many new 7200RPM drives will provide the same or greater peformance at a low cost of only $55.

Thank you for the responses so far.

BTW, you must be referring to the Western Digital Raptor 74GB Raptor drive.

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Yes, I believe that is what it is. The 36 GB my brother had broke and when he sent it in they sent him back a 74 GB.

3. Unless you're getting that 74GB Raptor for $20 or for free

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I am. Don't really need to buy a new drive, I have 2 of those Seagates, I just wanted something to run the OS and applications from.

Also, if those 320GB Seagates are more than a year or two old, then I would reserve them for strictly storage use. This is because those early 320GB drives use 107MB or 160MB platters, which results in a maximum sequential transfer rate of no more than half of those of the newest 7200 rpm hard drives.

And I did have a 74GB Raptor. At just over 70 MB/s its maximum sequential transfer speed cannot match that of even my three-334GB-platter 1TB WD Black, let alone the latest 500-gb-platter HDDs.

E4g1e said:

And I did have a 74GB Raptor. At just over 70 MB/s its maximum sequential transfer speed cannot match that of even my three-334GB-platter 1TB WD Black, let alone the latest 500-gb-platter HDDs.

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Never did get this exactly confirmed but does the better seek times of the 74GB Raptor provide enough of advantage to put the 74GB Raptor on par with or a little under the newer drives?

Danny Bui said:

Never did get this exactly confirmed but does the better seek times of the 74GB Raptor provide enough of advantage to put the 74GB Raptor on par with or a little under the newer drives?

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At best, at about the same level as a 7200 rpm HDD with 200 to 250 GB platters. The seek times are nearly twice as fast at many of the 7200 rpm drives - but the maximum sequential transfer speed of that 74GB Raptor is only about as high as a 7200 rpm drive with 166GB platters (and the average sequential transfer speed is comparable to a 7200 rpm HDD with 200GB platters).

ok I am confused why you bought a new motherboard.. The m2n-SLI is probably a better board & Supports AM2+ & AM3 with a bios update (bios 5001).. This being said I would sell that ASUS M4A77D and use the cash to fund other upgrades in the system.

But unless the m2n-sli is having problems there is no real gain in upgrading until you upgrade to a ddr3 system..

Regarding the CPUs, I was looking at the 635 again. Both have 2 MB of L2 cache, the 6000+ has 2x1MB and the 635 has 4x512kb, I'm guessing one per core. I would think the larger the L2 cache the better correct? Or are more cores with smaller cache better?

The 6000+ is an older design - and cannot be migrated at all to a new AM3 motherboard should you need to upgrade to DDR3. And that's not to mention that it was manufactured on an older, less efficient die process. As a result, you cannot compare the 6000+ and the x4 635 directly.

E4g1e said:

At best, at about the same level as a 7200 rpm HDD with 200 to 250 GB platters. The seek times are nearly twice as fast at many of the 7200 rpm drives - but the maximum sequential transfer speed of that 74GB Raptor is only about as high as a 7200 rpm drive with 166GB platters (and the average sequential transfer speed is comparable to a 7200 rpm HDD with 200GB platters).

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Gotcha.

netbrad said:

Regarding the CPUs, I was looking at the 635 again. Both have 2 MB of L2 cache, the 6000+ has 2x1MB and the 635 has 4x512kb, I'm guessing one per core. I would think the larger the L2 cache the better correct? Or are more cores with smaller cache better?

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Not that simple. It deoends on the app as well. In addition, as E4g1e pointed out, the X2 6000+ is a very old design whereas the X4 635 is a newer design. As such, despite having less cache and clocked a bit lower, the X4 635 is faster than the X2 6000+ clock for clock.

Oh you might want to answer bastage's questions as well.

ok I am confused why you bought a new motherboard.

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Basically I though for $80 it was a cheap way to get better performance bus-wise (the 570 chipset is a little tired) and it had all the necessary expansion slots I needed. With the 8800 running in it I would see better video performance as well based on what I've read. It would also allow me to upgrade to AM3 processors and DDR3 later on if I wanted, although now it looks like I'll be at AM3 with DDR2 for the time being.

netbrad said:

Basically I though for $80 it was a cheap way to get better performance bus-wise (the 570 chipset is a little tired) and it had all the necessary expansion slots I needed. With the 8800 running in it I would see better video performance as well based on what I've read. It would also allow me to upgrade to AM3 processors and DDR3 later on if I wanted, although now it looks like I'll be at AM3 with DDR2 for the time being.

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THe 570 is dated yes, But the rest of that is wrong. The 8800 is going to be an 8800 in either board & both only support ddr2 & both support am3.. The newer board is actually a lower model & does not support SLI which the older does. There is no real advantage in the new board over the old one. Just a waste in money.

Expansion slot wise they both end up having 3x pci & 3x pcie so there is no difference there other then that the old one has 1 more sata port & the rest of the specs are pretty similar.. Seriously if you can sell the newer board & use the money elsewhere like on new ram or a better hard drive. Since it offers nothing that you diddnt already have for now or in the future its a pointless upgrade.

Edit: infact if you really want the 8800 to run better then sell the new board & find another 8800 & then SLI them in the old board. That will get you a noticable performance increase that way..

I looked at the BIOS update for the M2N-SLI Deluxe and the AM3 support is "beta" and has a few other caveats. If I wanted to run the 6000+ I'd keep it but it looks like I"ll get more bang for my buck with the 635 and its an upgrade that won't break the bank.

With regards the video card, I'm not running SLI, I just wanted a faster card than what I have and you can't beat free. By the end of the summer I should have xtra cash to upgrade the memory and video card.

So I'm guessing the Raptor isn't going to do me much good, I'd be better off with a newer 7200 RPM drive like a WD Black or comparable Seagate?

I am not argueing against the 635.. I am argueing against the new board. The 635 will work fine in the old board. But if you want to see a difference there will be NO NOTICABLE PERFORMANCE GAIN going to the newer but lower end chipset.. You keep saying it like its a requirement for the Athalon II x4.. But its not.. If you really want to see a difference then sell it for 50 & use the extra 50 to get a Phenom II x4 945 that will vastly outperform the 635 & in the end still of spent the same..

You doing that upgrade is like saying well I have a 2003 Mustang GT & Since they don't make it anymore the new Ford Focus must be a better performing car.. Its just asinine to imply that because its older means its not as good.