CPU or memory upgrade?

S

synbios

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 6, 2005
Messages
102
I wanted to find out whether I should upgrade my current CPU (to a dual core) or the memory or forget either?

My current specs are:

AMD 3700+ with AC freezer 64pro (stock)
2gb DDR400 ram (4*512mb stocks)
X1900 CF edition (basically X1900XT)
Asrock 939DualSata 2

I'll be using the rig for gaming mainly.

I had in mind:

CPU - AMD X2 4200 (S939)
RAM: Ballistix 2gb (2*1gb PC4000)

Or shall I save my money instead if they is little performance boost??

Many thanks
 
synbios said:
I wanted to find out whether I should upgrade my current CPU (to a dual core) or the memory or forget either?

My current specs are:

AMD 3700+ with AC freezer 64pro (stock)
2gb DDR400 ram (4*512mb stocks)
X1900 CF edition (basically X1900XT)
Asrock 939DualSata 2

I'll be using the rig for gaming mainly.

I had in mind:

CPU - AMD X2 4200 (S939)
RAM: Ballistix 2gb (2*1gb PC4000)

Or shall I save my money instead if they is little performance boost??

Many thanks
Click to expand...

I` dont think you will see much improvement over a few mhz of cpu speed or ddr2. 2gb's is excellent for gaming, but I think you would see a huge boost with a better video card.
If you upgrade the video you can always use it in a new system(amd or intel)
8800gts would really boost. You can always upgrade again to ddr2 after that, then to a new system using these componets.(core 2 duo? AM2?)


My 2 cents
 
Go with an 8800GTS. You may be bottlenecked by the Athlon 3700 but at least you have one part that you can bring over to a new PC and will give you great frame rates.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, I think I'll opt for M3_dust's option as I only bought the X1900 a couple of weeks ago so upgrading that is no-go (yes I did consider the 8800 series at the time but it costs over twice as much as the X1900- yup it was brand new too)

The RAM is DDR1 and not DDR2 and Im running 2T.

Thanks though
 
Danny Bui said:
Go with an 8800GTS. You may be bottlenecked by the Athlon 3700 but at least you have one part that you can bring over to a new PC and will give you great frame rates.
Click to expand...
definitely the best route to take. with a cpu or memory upgrade you're just buying into old technology. you already have 2gigs of ram and if you overclock your 3700+ you would still have a pretty decent single core processor.
 
Neither. Overclock your current processor. If I had to choose, go with the dual core, but you will need to overclock it or you will not gain much performance at all in most games.
 
Thanks guys. I took the last option and not upgrade, BUT today (ebuyer - UK) had a two hour happy hour and they had 1gb of Crucial ram for cheap and then Googlecheckout was offering £10 off orders so it was a no-brainer really.

Besides I figured I needed the other set or ram for another build rather than split the sets into two lots of 1gb.
 
save your money or go with a 8800gts. If you decide to go between a cpu/memory I pick a dual core processor...
 
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