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Do I need upgrade?

E

exe163

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
1,366
I don't know if I'm posting in the right forum or not, but here it goes.

I just got my 4870 and vista x32, the card is truely amazing comparing the 7800GT SLi I use to have. But this also cause some other problem. My specs are in my signature, it's a 2-3 year old rig, nothing besides the video card have changed for a long time. Now with 4870, I can run games at highest setting and crack up AA and AF, this also leads to the first problem, not enough ram. Just FYI A8N32 mobo is a s939 mobo it uses DDR1 RAM, the RAMs are not only expansive but also unreusable in the future. My CPU 4400+ x2 also one of the last of s393, it feels somewhat outdated when running vista, a lot more slow downs comparing to xp; in order for me to upgrade my cpu, I have to change mobo and ram along with it, which become quite costy in total.

There are 2 upgrade path I have in mind:

1. Pay something like $70 for 2 more gigs of DDR ram and solve the current problem or

2. Upgrade CPU, Mobo, and get 4gigs of DDR2 ram with the set-up.

Which upgrade path is better? Ofc I would like to get the best out of my bucks, is 4400 running at 2.5 holding the video card back by a lot?

PS either way I will get vista x64 disk for something like 10 dollars or just download it since I have the serial already.

Thanks in advance:p
 
Yes.. whatever you do.. don't waste money on DDR ram when DDR2 is insanely cheap right now. 2 gig kits of DDR2 can be found for like $40 easily, which leaves you extra headroom for CPU/mobo.
 
i would go with a upgrade. if you are on a tight budget look at the forsale/trade forums and see if you can snag some used lga775 mobo/cpu ive seen some gigabyte ds3r/ds3l for like 50-60shipped and a e2xxx for $50ish wouldnt be too bad with a 2gb or 4gb ram kit
 
Okay, so I had this same problem. I as well owned the A8N32-SLI Deluxe. Though I had an AMD 3000 in it, oc'd to 3ghz on air. Though the ram I had was the ram made for the board. The Corsair XMS 3500LL Pro. Which was like DDR433. So in all; sold it and spent the extra bones and picked up my current set-up. A solution for you I as well saw it a painful thing to buy DDR when DDR2 was like 80$ for 2 gb. So I would recommend a new overhaul. As in another post about a person who wanted an AGP card. I told him it would be a waste of his money to buy an older AGP card instead of a relatively newer AGP card, because to get parts that are older that are discontinued; you pretty much throw your money at trash and expect it to dance for you. Just buy another ASUS, I can't stress how much people waste their money on parts that don't last. OR don't do what they're meant to do.

Though that is a sweet set-up I must admit! I loved that board. It would be worth it to buy more ram, but only for short term. I actually might know someone who might sell those sticks off DDR433. I sold it to a co-worker. Let me know if slightly interested.
 
I don't think that you need to upgrade soon. If you could overclock your CPU then it would be better but a 2.5GHz X2 is not a bad CPU. What you should do is save up and wait for Nahalem to upgrade. S775 will be EOL soon and there is nothing significant to upgrade to on AMD side.
 
alg7_munif said:
I don't think that you need to upgrade soon. If you could overclock your CPU then it would be better but a 2.5GHz X2 is not a bad CPU. What you should do is save up and wait for Nahalem to upgrade. S775 will be EOL soon and there is nothing significant to upgrade to on AMD side.
Click to expand...

The problem with that is Nehalem isn't coming out until the end of this year, and even then it will only be the ultra high end Extreme processors. I may be wrong but I highly doubt he is willing to spend $1000+ on his next processor considering his current setup. Most of Nehalem mainstream won't be out until mid 09 and it will probably be considerably more expensive as lots of 45nm Core 2's will be continuing as mainstream to that time and further. I would probably find a good deal on a solid 4 series chipset and then look at the E7200.
 
CamaroZ28 said:
The problem with that is Nehalem isn't coming out until the end of this year, and even then it will only be the ultra high end Extreme processors. I may be wrong but I highly doubt he is willing to spend $1000+ on his next processor considering his current setup. Most of Nehalem mainstream won't be out until mid 09 and it will probably be considerably more expensive as lots of 45nm Core 2's will be continuing as mainstream to that time and further. I would probably find a good deal on a solid 4 series chipset and then look at the E7200.
Click to expand...

amen :D
 
Nehalam is at least 10 months away to become mainstream and not everybody has this kind of patience!
I agree with the DDR2 upgrade path(so cheap!). DDR3 is too expensive for now.
 
AKeZtArGeT said:
I have ddr3 :)
Click to expand...

Careful with that e-peen, you might poke someones eye out! j/k :D

OP, I would suggest the second option too. There are some great deals on hardware at the moment and upgrading your mobo, cpu and mem shouldn't hurt your pocket too badly.
 
You can get a good mobo, CPU, and RAM combo for under $300 these days, so definitely go with option 2.
 
like said above... even a cheapo overclocked intel dual-core can give you great gaming performance these days... i bet for 250 bux you could get a nice little P35 board setup with some ddr2 ram and a CPU.
 
Thanks for all the very useful feedbacks, before I finished reading all the replies I was definitely going for C2D or C2Q s775, but hearing s775 will "die" soon really worries me. Thinking that s775 mobo I will buy if I go with a new CPU will not be reusable after a single CPU really turns me off, it will place me in this same situation all over again.

Can anyone at least confirm that Nehalem will not use DDR3? I still cannot make up my mine yet, not a big fan of buying something that will not last :(.
 
The reason why DDR2 is so cheap is that it will be EOL soon too and DDR3 is becoming cheaper now. Imo this is not the time to upgrade to a cheap S775 system anymore. If you still want to upgrade then I would suggest you to get a quad core and OC it past 3.0GHz with 8GB of RAM. It won't be much more expensive than a Pentium dual core with 2GB RAM and this will hold you much longer than a cheap Pentium dual core.

If you go with a cheap dual core S775 system with a small amount of RAM now, by the time you want to upgrade your CPU or RAM, Nahalem will be mainstream and DDR3 will also be cheaper. S775 CPUs and DDR2 RAM will be like S939 CPU and DDR RAM now. You will definitely be in the same situation like you are in now.
 
If you can afford it, go with #2 most certainly and get Vista x64 on there asap to make good use of your new 4Gb of RAM

skt 775 is so much faster, try and get a fast dual core or a quad core if you can stretch to that, Q6600 is popular and not too expensive, and Q9450 is a truly outstanding piece of hardware if you can stretch to that.
 
I would do the CPU upgrade. I had a X2 4400+ also clocked at around 2.5GHz and I only noticed a very slight improvment in my games when I went from my x1900xtx to my 8800GT. Then I switched to my current Q6600 and it was a huge difference, and that's with just a 8800GT which isn't anywhere near as powerful as your 4870, so the difference you'd see would be even greater.
 
I would definately upgrade, my e2180 bottlenecks my 8800GT heavily when it's at 2ghz, it runs and 3.4ghz and might still be bottlenecking a little bit. E8400's or Q6600 are really cheap right now and both overclock insanely well ;)
 
Look - ask yourself this question - what do you want your computer to do for you now? There is no reason you could not play most games at highest settings right now with some more ram. So $70 will buy you the ability to play what you want at it's best right now, and continue to give reasonable performance for at least another year.

$70.

Not $350+ to upgrade the remaining components.

Just buy the ram unless you've got money to burn. Your CPU bottlenecking may become an issue eventually, but worry about that then. In a year you will be able to turn around and sell that ram for $50+ anyway, so it will cost you almost nothing in the long run right now.
 
Cheffy said:
Look - ask yourself this question - what do you want your computer to do for you now? There is no reason you could not play most games at highest settings right now with some more ram. So $70 will buy you the ability to play what you want at it's best right now, and continue to give reasonable performance for at least another year.

$70.

Not $350+ to upgrade the remaining components.

Just buy the ram unless you've got money to burn. Your CPU bottlenecking may become an issue eventually, but worry about that then. In a year you will be able to turn around and sell that ram for $50+ anyway, so it will cost you almost nothing in the long run right now.
Click to expand...

i doubt he'd be able to get 50+ in a year as its pretty much dead. he doesnt have to spend 350+ for a upgrade a frys. e7200 cpu/mobo combo is like 119 + 70 for 4gb of ddr2 ram as oppose to the 70 on 2gb of ddr.
 
onedestinazn2 said:
i doubt he'd be able to get 50+ in a year as its pretty much dead. he doesnt have to spend 350+ for a upgrade a frys. e7200 cpu/mobo combo is like 119 + 70 for 4gb of ddr2 ram as oppose to the 70 on 2gb of ddr.
Click to expand...

Not much of a deal when the board is using a very out dated Intel chipset, or worse yet, VIA or SIS which is almost always the case with the Fry's deals. Not to mention that the boards have very little to zero OCing options, which is yet antoher deal breaker, especially when paired up with a very overclockable chip like the e7200.
 
A 4400+ at only 2.5Ghz? I would think you could get at least 2.7Ghz out of it.

In any case, I would definitely go with a S775 setup for now.

DDR2 is crazy cheap and if you pair it with a good P35 board, a Q6600, and a good heatsink, you can have a system that will be plety fast for robably a couple years at least.

See sig for my specs. I only run a 19" screen at 1280x1024, so I don't need a better vid card at the moment.

It is a screaming system..... crazy fast compared to my Opty 170 at 2.75Ghz.

I can only imagine what kind of crazy frame rates i would get in games if I upgraded to a 4870.
 
cyclone3d said:
A 4400+ at only 2.5Ghz? I would think you could get at least 2.7Ghz out of it.
Click to expand...

My 4400+ toledo had a hard time hitting 2.6GHz. Come to think of it, forcing mine to run at 2.6GHz is probably the reason it now needs 1.4v instead of the default 1.35 to run stable at it's default speed. (2.2GHz)
 
exe163 said:
Thanks for all the very useful feedbacks, before I finished reading all the replies I was definitely going for C2D or C2Q s775, but hearing s775 will "die" soon really worries me. Thinking that s775 mobo I will buy if I go with a new CPU will not be reusable after a single CPU really turns me off, it will place me in this same situation all over again.

Can anyone at least confirm that Nehalem will not use DDR3? I still cannot make up my mine yet, not a big fan of buying something that will not last :(.
Click to expand...

So I know what you mean about the socket dieing... badump tsh! Get it? Socket DIEing.... okay get outta here! lol. But really. I would just buy a socket 775 set up. The X48's just released. So you really think it will die soon? They say the Malicaih Machaleme, whatever it's called will release soon, but I doubt that. I have a pimpin Socket 775 board and I'm going to quad core that biznatch out. With crossfire and all that good stuff. There's so much you could do to a system that is out today. I mean the jump from one socket from the other is normally a hefty jump in technology, but not worth it for most. Be it the reason you're still on a Socket 939 or AM2. I mean my board has PCX 2.0 and this and that. Why should I upgrade when I can put a quad core in my socket and a wocket in my pocket and still make out with mad performance. I mean do we really need Quad SLi? *applause* thanks, you guys are great!

Oh, but upgrading your ram isn't a bad decision either. They both are great paths, just one you will get more joy out of...
 
I tried multiple times pushing that 0.1 Ghz more out of it and failed (orthos). Thanks for all the informative replies, I think I am going with RAM upgrade. After looking at ~100 P35 mobos, they are no better than the A8N32 in features. DDR3 is around the corner, buying DDR2 now will put me in the situation I am in right now in the future. I prefer to game at 1920x1200, from what I heard the higher the resolution goes the lesser the importance of CPU for most games. While in vista 4400+ can still perform everyday task at a reasonable speed, I will keep it for 1 more year for Nehalem and get a nice mobo with it (Assuming it will last long just like 775 did).

Thanks again for all the advices :)
 
dont worry about socket 775 dying as it will be at least a year before nehalam becomes mainstream and longer than that before you have any real gains from it. also i know the ecs mobo is not a great overclocker but since the Combo is cheaper than a e7200 alone and even at stock it will be a huge upgrade. since the mobo is free it will hold him until he gets enough to get a better mobo
 
exe163 said:
I tried multiple times pushing that 0.1 Ghz more out of it and failed (orthos). Thanks for all the informative replies, I think I am going with RAM upgrade. After looking at ~100 P35 mobos, they are no better than the A8N32 in features. DDR3 is around the corner, buying DDR2 now will put me in the situation I am in right now in the future. I prefer to game at 1920x1200, from what I heard the higher the resolution goes the lesser the importance of CPU for most games. While in vista 4400+ can still perform everyday task at a reasonable speed, I will keep it for 1 more year for Nehalem and get a nice mobo with it (Assuming it will last long just like 775 did).

Thanks again for all the advices :)
Click to expand...

Damn I forgot you have the A8n32... Dude I loved that board. I was sad when I sold it, instead of keep it for friends to play on. It had sooooo many features. I mean a lil less then my current board, but it came with the HEATSINK FAN DUDE!!! Good choice. so would you like me to look about that DDR433? It was also an expensive ass board!
 
onedestinazn2 said:
i doubt he'd be able to get 50+ in a year as its pretty much dead. he doesnt have to spend 350+ for a upgrade a frys. e7200 cpu/mobo combo is like 119 + 70 for 4gb of ddr2 ram as oppose to the 70 on 2gb of ddr.
Click to expand...

Which is why he might be able to sell it for even more than he bought it for - as production continues to decline people who desperately want to upgrade their DDR ram will be looking for it, and be willing to pay.
 
I just upgraded my GF's computer, went to fry's and picked up a e2200, motherboard, and 2gb ddr2 for around $135 otd then picked up an 8800gt for $150 so for $285 she went from an old amd agp rig to an intel/nvidia setup that's really speedy, she loves it. Upgrade and put your old parts on ebay, you'll be shocked at how much you will get.
 
Need is relative. If the games you play are lagging or are not where you want them performance-wise, consider upgrading. Of course, also consider where you are financially if it is a possibility :)

I would personally get a new intel multi-core rig. This is the first intel chip I've used in maybe 10 years (for gaming), and I'm pretty impressed. This is all dependent on your budget, but a socket 775 mb with an intel core duo/ddr2 is pretty cheap these days.

Nehalem - It could be great, but it will also be expensive. It will be at least 3-6 months after launch before prices really start to normalize. First-generation technology is usually never a good cost for performance ratio. Also, as they always say on this forum: You can always wait for better cheaper technology. If you "need" a new computer, get it. If you don't, then wait.
 
you all smoke crack. Get out of town, his compy is fine for another year or two. Just run some more voltage to that bastage!
 
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