Need upgrade help!

[snail19]

Ok well i've had my pc for around 4 years and have upgraded the motherboard around 2 years ago and the grahics card around 1 year ago. Today my grahics card has packed up (kinda expected it to do because it only cost £30).

I'm looking to upgrade to 2gb RAM, 8800gts nvidia graphics card and upgrade to a better processor. The RAM and graphics card is the easy bit its the processor thats causing me the problems. I cant figure out if my motherboard can take duel core or anything so if you could give me a link/information on what processor i can take it would be great!

here are screenshots i think you need

I've been looking for tutorials online but havnt come across any uptodate (they all seem to be from 2004-2005)

- Thanks if you can help!

 

[BillParrish]

Merry Christmas !

Disclaimer, I am not an AMD expert, so perhaps someone who is may know of some trick I do not. Going by the published specs etc. from the manuf, you cannot use an X2 type processor and based on what is listed for sale over here, the socket 754 chips you can use are getting rare.

Here is the product info.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=K8NF4G-VSTA

Here is the cpu compatibility list from the board manuf. and I also pasted the contents below.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=K8NF4G-VSTA&s=


Socket -Family -Model -Core Frequency -FSB -Cache -Rev. -Processor Info Since BIOS
754 Athlon 64 3700+ 2400 800MHz 1MB CG All
754 Athlon 64 3400+ 2400 800MHz 512KB CG All
754 Athlon 64 3400+ 2200 800MHz 1MB C0 All
754 Athlon 64 3400+ 2200 800MHz 1MB CG All
754 Athlon 64 3200+ 2200 800MHz 512KB E All
754 Athlon 64 3200+ 2200 800MHz 1MB CG All
754 Athlon 64 3200+ 2000 800MHz 512KB CG All
754 Athlon 64 3000+ 2000 800MHz 512KB E All
754 Athlon 64 3000+ 2000 800MHz 512KB CG All
754 Athlon 64 2800+ 1800 800MHz 512KB CG All
754 Athlon 64 2800+ 1800 800MHz 512KB C0 All
754 Sempron-64bit 3400+ 2000 800MHz 256KB E All
754 Sempron-64bit 3300+ 2000 800MHz 128KB E All
754 Sempron-64bit 3100+ 1800 800MHz 256KB E All
754 Sempron-64bit 3000+ 1800 800MHz 128KB E All
754 Sempron-64bit 2800+ 1600 800MHz 256KB E All
754 Sempron-64bit 2600+ 1600 800MHz 128KB E All
754 Sempron-64bit 2500+ 1400 800MHz 256KB E All
754 Sempron-32bit 3300+ 2000 800MHz 128KB D All
754 Sempron-32bit 3100+ 1800 800MHz 256KB D All
754 Sempron-32bit 3000+ 1800 800MHz 128KB D All
754 Sempron-32bit 2800+ 1600 800MHz 256KB D All
754 Sempron-32bit 2600+ 1600 800MHz 128KB D All

It appears from the bios notes (or lack of) and the above that a dual core is not possible. It seems this is the best/fastest cpu you can run:
754 Athlon 64 3700+ 2400 800MHz 1MB CG All

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K8/AMD-Athlon 64 3700+ - ADA3700AEP5AR (ADA3700BOX).html

These are getting hard to find, the biggest on-line retailer of parts over here (newegg) only lists one socket 754 cpu. So if you decide to continue to use this board I would get the fastest thing you can as they are disappearing fast. Ebay might be a solution. That video card will work wonders for games and the increased memory will make it act like a new machine but that board is getting long in the tooth. It might have a couple more years in it, just depends on what you use it for.

I am concerned that the cpu might be so expensive/rare it may be a option to look at a newer board with a less expensive but newer technology CPU that would run rings around the old top of the line single core cpu. However as I stated I am not up to date on latest AMD stuff but it is cheap as dirt. Get a second opinion.

One stragety might be to drop down (not much if at all depending on screen resolution) to an 8800GT video card to free up some quid for the new motherboard.

Another thought is that with a new board, DDR2 type memory is at all time low pricing, however the older DDR memory like you use is still fairly expensive as people do not want to sell it at a loss, no clue how the market is over there, just something else to take a look at.

 

[snail19]

Thanks bill. So your saying the best i can get for my motherboard is 754 Athlon 64 3700+ 2400 800MHz 1MB CG All. This is hard to find so my best bet is to get a new motherboard and get a older grahics card.

Ok well i've looked at my local dealer (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/) and they only have 2-3 processors that will fit my motherboard. On the top card you suggested is the speed 3700 or 2400? slightly confused there. If its only 2400 then it really isnt worth the upgrade from my 2200.

 

[BillParrish]

The 512MB 8800 GTis not an older card, only a couple of months old at best. It is/was until the just released 512MB "newer" 8800GTS the best/faster bang for buck card on the planet. There has been a tremendous movement in Nvidia video cards in the last 2 months. Please make sure you know what you are buying, it is confusing as there is an older 8800GTS and a just released updated 8800GTS with 512MB of memory. I recommend the 512MB 8800GT because over here, it offers as good or better performance than anything available before for hundreds of dollars less and it is significantly less than the "new" 8800GTS while offering comparable performance and unless you were on a wide screen monitor running 1600 x 1200 resolution I think you would never know the difference and the extra cash could go to a motherboard update. The new ATI cards are worth a look too, even cheaper with excellent performance. The key to Nvidia ATM is you want something with the G92 core. They basically have taken the core of the top of the line ultras etc. and done a die shrink and introduced an new line of cards with about the same part numbers (just to drive us nutters I think ! ) but much lower in price. Its a good time to buy a card, just have to be careful you don't go for one of the older ones that are now being dumped because the newer ones are better for less money.

I think you think I said 8600GT nope, you don't want that, decent card but not in the class you were looking at. 8800GT 512MB G92 core runs $270-$300 over here and is almost as good as the $600+ cards Nvidia was selling 4 months ago.

Here is one review.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxMCwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

another
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140

and an ATI one
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxOSwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

Basically what has happened in the last two months is both Nvidia and ATI have released less expensive cards that beat the crap out of what was the top of the line expensive cards.

Blast. I intended to say "Happy Christmas".
----------------------------------------------------------------

OK well I've looked at my local dealer (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/) and they only have 2-3 processors that will fit my motherboard. On the top card you suggested is the speed 3700 or 2400? slightly confused there. If its only 2400 then it really isn't worth the upgrade from my 2200.

I agree, frankly I was mainly looking at your board and what would go in it and forgot to really factor in what you currently have. So I agree it would not be much.

That first number is a "rating of what AMD compared it to a Intel P4", saying that the CPU was as fast as a P4 running at 3.7 GHz, but you are exactly correct the 2400 is the actual buss speed and would not be much of a bump at all. Sorry, I missed that bit.

 

[BillParrish]

Something like this, (not a specific recommendation but this is the class of card I am speaking of, wow decent price and in stock, they are constantly sold out over here).

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-88GT5

Above card is about 2 months old at most.

This is the current new top performer (only by a little) just released a couple of weeks ago.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-GTS5


Notes to others, I am giving general advice, yes I know the older $700 Ultra will beat out the above (barely) but it is not a rational consideration in a cost/benefits analysis nor a good upgrade path.

 

[snail19]

lol i dont care about spelling i'm just as bad myself

I've been doing a little research and by the look of it i will buy a whole new motherboard and go for that card you suggested ( Novatech NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB PCI Express Graphics Card
). I'm not looking for somthing to play at amazingly high res/widescreen just so its big enought to look good on my screen and not lag when i blow up 5 cars and fly across the smoke cloud in my jet fighter

I've looked up motherboard bundles that they sell. These have been tested and should work with few problems. Being the total n00b i am the technical side of computers i feel this will be the best option. Now all i have to do is add up the prices and see if i can afford all of it

-- btw merry x-mas to you to