Best bang for buck?

T

TopGun

Gawd
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
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Was looking to spend around $200-$300 to upgrade my system, keeping my 8600gt.
Would like dual core and 2gb+ ram. What do you guys think parts wise to upgrade?

Thanks
-TopGun
 
Since you have a Sempron 3100+, I'm guessing thats a socket754 CPU. Unfortunately, I don't think AMD made any dual core s754 CPUs. Anyhow, it would be in your best interest to go for an AM2 CPU/Mobo unless you have a Fry's near you.

I'm also guessing that your 8600GT is PCI-E and NOT AGP, right? If its AGP, you'd need to go with an Intel build and an AsRock board. If its PCI-E, any AM2 board should do. I'd go for an AMD 690G or nForce 520 board.

What features do you need in a motherboard?
Do you plan on OC'ing?
What do you use the system for?
What parts do you need for that $200-300 budget?
What current parts do you plan on re-using aside from the 8600GT?
Please be as specific as you can. (brand, model, interface, etc)

To get you started...
$70 - AM2 board
$60 - AX2 4000+
$45 - 2GB DDR2-800

Here's a good review: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3112
 
Do you think i could fit in a case, psu and hd with that? If not I have a
case and 430w psu + hd. My 8600gt is pci-e btw, Sorry i forgot to mention.
I'd probably being doing gaming, virtualization, etc...
The setup posted above sounds good but what motherboard and ram do you
guys recommend?

Thanks
-TopGun
 
All priced at newegg...
$80 - GA-MA69GM-S2H
$60 - AX2 4000+
$45 - 2GB DDR2-800 G.Skill or A-Data
$60 - NSK4480B w/ EA380 (Free shipping)
$50 - 160GB HDD SATA300
=========
$305 + tax and shipping

Please answer my other questions above. Get the case while it has free shipping. The 380W PSU in there is very high quality and probably better than the 430W PSU you currently have, unless your current one is built by Seasonic and isn't too old.
 
What you listed looks good.
I do plan on overclocking it eventually, I would like to
probably get a single stick of 2gb unless you think that
2x1gb is smarter. I will be upgrading to 4gb in the near future most likely.
Do you think there will be a pretty noticeable difference in games going from
my semproin w/1gb ram to this setup? I really want to be able to play battlefield 2
but with my current setup there was a lot of swapping, making it unbearable.

Thanks again
-TopGun
 
BF2 really benefits from 2GB+ of RAM. The only good thing about running 2x1GB sticks is dual channel memory config, but that only adds around 5-10% performance increase over single channel, IIRC. If you get 4GB, to utilize it all to its full potential, you'll need Vista 64-bit, IMO. 32bit XP can only address a total of 4GB, minus whatever component RAM and other things it needs, which translates to around 3.2-3.5GB available for use.

BTW, there's a deal at Fry's right now on a 4GB OCZ kit of DDR2-800 for $85 - $30MIR, FS.

What size monitor do you have?
 
I have a 19" crt, max res of 1600x1200.
How's the driver and software compatibility for Vista x64?
 
TopGun said:
I have a 19" crt, max res of 1600x1200.
How's the driver and software compatibility for Vista x64?
Click to expand...

Since you have a CRT, you can lower your res to get better performance out of your 8600.

The driver and sw compatibility is great if you don't have any old hardware/software to run, lol. If you have anything old, stick with XP 32bit.
 
Really am curious as to how much my s754 setup and only 1gb is bottlenecking my card.
If i'm not going to see a large improvement then why bother upgrading.
 
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