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Best Budget CPU/Mobo Combo

B

Blinkme323

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
1,666
Hi guys, I am looking to upgrade from an Athlon 1800. I have 2x256 pc3200 and a Radeon 9700 pro, I am a pretty big gamer, play HL2+mods mostly. My max budget is $150, I would like to keep it less. I was thinking deciding between these setups:

New ECS 755-A2 Socket 754 AthlonTM 64 DDR MB With Athlon64 2800+ CPU & Fan
$147 shipped

Used Athlon Mobile 2500 and Abit NF7-S ver. 2.0 and thermaltake fan
$80 shipped

New Abit KV7-V Via Socket A ATX Motherboard and AMD Athlon XP 2900+ Processor
$100 shipped After $40 rebate

New Soyo KT600 Dragon v2.0 Socket A Motherboard and AMD Sempron 2800+ Processor
$100 shipped after $30 rebate


Which one of these is the best deal. My main choices are the Mobile and A64 What do you think, are there any other better deals out there.
 
Save your money so you can afford the next gen in hardware......Then the current gen will be cheaper. $150 cannot get you that far, so save......
 
If you HAVE to upgrade, then the A64 would be by far the best choice out of those 4. But, like he said, you'll want to save a little longer, then you can go further up the upgrade tree, and new hardware will be out, so a 3200+ or 3500+ will be cheaper, and you can pick up a good mobo in the FS/FT section on here, or grab one from newegg.
 
If youre after budget get a celeron D 320 and a good overclocking board, people arte taking them up to 3+ghz with good air, easily enough to make your graphics card the bottleneck, you cant beat them for price/performance ratio.
 
You are trying to tell me a celeron is better than an A64. The only real debate is between the ones I mentioned above.
 
[Tripod]MajorPayne said:
If you HAVE to upgrade, then the A64 would be by far the best choice out of those 4. But, like he said, you'll want to save a little longer, then you can go further up the upgrade tree, and new hardware will be out, so a 3200+ or 3500+ will be cheaper, and you can pick up a good mobo in the FS/FT section on here, or grab one from newegg.
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Then you'll be telling him not to buy the 3200+ or 3500+, and save for the next generation. :p
OP, the A64 is obviously the best deal. 754 isn't really that much slower than 939. You won't be able to upgrade as easily, but for $150, who cares? You'll have a machine that's close to twice as fast as your old one.
My only reservation is about the board. Probably won't be the best for overclocking.
 
Yup, no PCI lock, 10% overclock maybe. Will it be faster than an Athlon Mobile @ 11X215. I am seriously leaning towards that right now. What about a Sempron 3100?
 
An AMD64 at 2.0 GHz (2800+ with 10% overclock) will be faster than a XP at 2.4 GHz in many things. Can you swing a refurb board? Newegg has the K8N's for $53.
 
Yeah, but it will be twice as much and I will be bottle-necked by my 9700 pro anyway right. What is the best performance per dollar setup under $125.
 
Blinkme323 said:
Yeah, but it will be twice as much and I will be bottle-necked by my 9700 pro anyway right. What is the best performance per dollar setup under $125.
Click to expand...

Now you're saying you can't swing the $147 for the AMD64 and mobo? Where are you getting the mobile XP and NF7-S so cheap?
 
You should save up some more cash, as Socket 754 has been publically stated by AMD to be for Semprons only in the near future-- you won't be able to upgrade much at all. You also won't be able to grab a dual-core Athlon 64 and drop it in your system later with just a BIOS upgrade, which you CAN do with a Socket 939 board. The 754 platform also does not support dual-channel memory mode, so you will get worse RAM performance, and most 754 boards do not support PCI-Express.

Seriously, save up a bit more and get a Socket 939 3000+ A64, and a DFI NF4 Ultra-D or similar nForce 4 board from a quality company like Gigabyte or Chaintech (like the VNF4/Ultra.) It should only run you $250-$300, not very expensive and well worth it fo the speed and expandability.

Just DON'T try to cram your next upgrade into <$150, you will regret it when you have absolutely no way to upgrade anything later ...
 
Epicenter said:
You should save up some more cash, as Socket 754 has been publically stated by AMD to be for Semprons only in the near future-- you won't be able to upgrade much at all. You also won't be able to grab a dual-core Athlon 64 and drop it in your system later with just a BIOS upgrade, which you CAN do with a Socket 939 board. The 754 platform also does not support dual-channel memory mode, so you will get worse RAM performance, and most 754 boards do not support PCI-Express.

Seriously, save up a bit more and get a Socket 939 3000+ A64, and a DFI NF4 Ultra-D or similar nForce 4 board from a quality company like Gigabyte or Chaintech (like the VNF4/Ultra.) It should only run you $250-$300, not very expensive and well worth it fo the speed and expandability.

Just DON'T try to cram your next upgrade into <$150, you will regret it when you have absolutely no way to upgrade anything later ...
Click to expand...

Sometimes looking for future upgrading is important, sometimes it's not. If he gets a NF4 board he'll need a new video card, because he has an AGP one. On the motherboard, you're telling him to spend a $100 (or more) now to save a $100 later. When he wants to go to dual channel and dual core, he can buy a new motherboard. A motherboard is really one of the cheapest components in your PC. He obviously doesn't have much money, and he's hurting for an upgrade now. There's nothing wrong with 754 to tide him over until he wants to replace his video card, motherboard, RAM, and CPU all at once.
 
Actually, a s754 platform might last him longer than he thinks. A low wattage Turion might turn that MB into a nice, quiet HTPC one day.
 
Jonsey said:
Sometimes looking for future upgrading is important, sometimes it's not. If he gets a NF4 board he'll need a new video card, because he has an AGP one. On the motherboard, you're telling him to spend a $100 (or more) now to save a $100 later. When he wants to go to dual channel and dual core, he can buy a new motherboard. A motherboard is really one of the cheapest components in your PC. He obviously doesn't have much money, and he's hurting for an upgrade now. There's nothing wrong with 754 to tide him over until he wants to replace his video card, motherboard, RAM, and CPU all at once.
Click to expand...

What he said.

 
I could swing the money for the A64, but I had nothing but problems with a cheap SIS chipset in the past. It also has limited overclocking options. The Athlon Mobile setup is from a member on here. It has been proven stable and performs good. It is only $80 and gives great performance. If that A64 combo had a better mobo, I would probably buy it. If I want a dual core setup, I will buy a more expensive motherboard in the future. Also, from what I have seen, the A64 doesn't bench THAT good. Also, by the time the new Windows comes out, drivers are good, and games are optimized for it, I will be upgrading again anyway so 64 bits isn't necessary.
 
You know, if you're looking for the platform upgrade, but want to save on proc and still have some reliability, you could look into this nForce3 250gb based board with a cheaper s754 Sempron processor. That way you get a much better chipset, and still hit your price mark. I agree with the above posts that the 754s are going to be around longer than most people think, so it shouldn't be a bad upgrade path for a better CPU on down the road.

...my 2¢.

::edit:: BTW, those both have free shipping right now at the Egg. $144.99 total shipped.

 
What kind of overclocks could I get with that and pc3200 ram. How would it perform in relation to the Athlon Mobile. If I could find an A64 chip for under $100 I would do that.
 
On the A64 platform you do not need to overclock your RAM to overclock your CPU. You can adjust the RAM divisor to keep RAM at around 400 MHz even as you raise the CPU host clock. So, you don't need anything fancy and that DDR400/PC3200 should work fine.
 
Sorry, should have been more clear. What kind of overclocks could I get with the Sempron S754 and how would that perform compared to the Athlon Mobile @215X11
 
Blinkme323 said:
I could swing the money for the A64, but I had nothing but problems with a cheap SIS chipset in the past. It also has limited overclocking options .... Also, from what I have seen, the A64 doesn't bench THAT good. Also, by the time the new Windows comes out, drivers are good, and games are optimized for it, I will be upgrading again anyway so 64 bits isn't necessary.
Click to expand...

Um, what? You aren't limited to godawful SiS chipsets, you have the choice of some stable and flexible ones like nForce 3 and 4 that aren't crashprone at all and are BLISS For overclocking. You can even lock down your RAM divisor so you don't need fancy gimmick RAM to overclock the CPU. You will get a wide range of selectable voltages for every component, even RAM, on most boards.

And I don't know where you've been getting your benchmarks, but A64s benchmark fantastically. They outperform P4s clocked over 1,000 MHz higher than them, even ones with more cache. They are the undisputed king CPUs for gaming right now because they execute 32-bit code faster than any other CPU on the market-- and will get faster when XP 64-bit edition comes out later this month-- there are ALREADY games with 64-bit versions that will be even faster (like they weren't already!) e.g. Far Cry and UT2004.

Blinkme323 said:
Sorry, should have been more clear. What kind of overclocks could I get with the Sempron S754 and how would that perform compared to the Athlon Mobile @215X11
Click to expand...

Semprons perform comparatively with Athlon XP desktop processors, as they basically ARE Athlon XP Desktop processors. I assume you meant an Athlon Mobile @ 215 x11 multiplier? You should be able to overclock about the same, but I am unsure if you can change multipliers with one. I'd really just save for a proper Socket 939 setup, you are closing yourself into a corner with 754.
 
Wow, that almost makes me want ot buy a Sempron. I think what I am going to do is buy the Athlon Mobile for $80 and upgrade to a dual core 939 or whatever is around in 2 years.
 
Blinkme323 said:
Wow, that almost makes me want ot buy a Sempron. I think what I am going to do is buy the Athlon Mobile for $80 and upgrade to a dual core 939 or whatever is around in 2 years.
Click to expand...

Hrm, your call, but I was facing the same dilemma a while back and went A64, and am glad I did. I was about to get a CPU that wouldn't even run well compared to a real AXP until I overclocked it, ran on a 266 Mhz FSB by default and HAD to be overclocked to run well, and I was about to spend more on cooling it than a new A64 system would run me. :p

Your call, but in most cases buying anything Socket A right now is a mistake. The platform is quite dead.
 
Why would buying an Athlon Mobile setup for $80 be a mistake. It performs maybe 10% worse than the new chips and is bottlenecked by my 9700 anyway. I can save the money and put it towards more ram or a future upgrade.
 
Blinkme323 said:
Why would buying an Athlon Mobile setup for $80 be a mistake. It performs maybe 10% worse than the new chips and is bottlenecked by my 9700 anyway. I can save the money and put it towards more ram or a future upgrade.
Click to expand...

$80 would be a good deal, but I've never, ever seen them that cheap. The cheapest mobile Athlon XP I can find is a 2400+ for $79. Add to that a Socket A motherboard that is compatible, about another $60, it'd most likely need to be an nForce 2 Ultra 400 to get all the overclocking flexibility you'd desire. So, about $140 total. Now, you can snag a good nForce 4 board and an Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester for ~$80 and ~$150 respectively, the machine will be faster than the Mobile AXP *without* overclocking, so when you pull off your near-guaranteed 300-400 MHz overclock right out of the box with stock cooling, your machine will have a VERY sizable advantage over the Mobile AXP setup for just $90 more.

And the machine will be expandable for the next 2-3 years with all the latest technology-- you'll be spending the extra $90 anyway on a new motherboard down the line with the AXP setup, so it's not even truly a valid point that you'd be saving money. :( I know the allure, buy an overclocking dream chip and have a blast with it; but it's just not economical and the performance does not really stack up.
 
In 3 years, wouldn't you want to upgrade the motherboard anyway. Also, I can get it from a seller on here for $80 shipped. It is an Athlon 2500/Abit NF7-S/Thermaltake and is proven to do 215X11.
 
I don't know how you got that good a deal. I'd naturally think something was wrong with it ...
anyway. If a 9700 and Mobile XP is enough to last you 3 years, more power to you. I couldn't last that long. ;)
 
I wasnt saying that at all, i was saying a Celeron D would be good enough to make your graphics card the bottleneck, if youre after a cheap upgrade the a64 will make no difference, youre paying a premium for little benefit and no possibility of upgrading.
 
Dont forget, computers can always be sold for a bit more than you pay for them. An $800 gaming system with a $20 nice color goodwill monitor and keyboard can easily sell for $1000 if you find the right buyer.

I got $100 out of my 500Mhz K7. Could have gotten more, but I wanted a laptop...

If you feel like you need to upgrade, and cant wait for more cash, i say "Go 'fer it". The Athlon 64 2800+ can handle quite a bit of gaming and video work. Im sure you could easily get your money out of an A64 system that has $150 + old PSU, Case, and videocard invested.
 
Herulach said:
I wasnt saying that at all, i was saying a Celeron D would be good enough to make your graphics card the bottleneck, if youre after a cheap upgrade the a64 will make no difference, youre paying a premium for little benefit and no possibility of upgrading.
Click to expand...
I have a 3000+ S754, as well as a S939 with a 6600GT. Its darn well more than enough to make my radeon 9800 the bottle neck, in farcry and doom 3.

I have yet to use a modern celeron, but If they are anything like the celeron coppermine, it will suck at gaming. $$$ per $$$, A64 still is a better budget CPU buy.
 
I can get a pretty decent Nforce3 motherboard+A64 2800 for $160 shipped. Or I can get a great Abit NF7-s +Athlon Mobile 2500 combo for $80 shipped. Those are my two choices, what do you think. If I get the Mobile, I will probably upgrade my ram to a gig of Corsair pc3200. Should cost me $30 tops after I sell my old ram.
 
Go with the A64-754 setup if you are so dead set against getting a proper expandable 939 system. It'll overclock well in most cases.
 
In 2 years when I want to upgrade, I will be getting a newer, better motherboard anyway. Maybe, I'll even go Intel. It is kind of like paying overpriced insurance to get the 939. In fact I am getting the Athlon Mobile probably. Half the price, performs almost as good, video card is the bottle neck, good stable motherboard, overclocks really well.
 
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