Upgrade Advice

tbonepat11

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 2, 2001
Messages
412
My rig is in my signature. I am very tempted to jump on the new AMD price cuts but I realize it would be a huge upgrade (basically the whole system). Any advice as to whether it would be worth it to upgrade?

Consider that my budget is pretty tight at the moment and my computer use is usually World of Warcraft and movie watching..along with other general usage. Thanks in advance.
 
Well if you are having problems doing anything you usually do then upgrade but if you arent, you could wait for AMDs next line of AM2 CPUs. You could always upgrade to AM2 also if you decide to upgrade now (not sure if you were considering it though). But if you arent needing/wanting more performance right now (WoW is a fairly simple game to run) then you could just keep what you have now and wait and get a AM2 setup later.
 
As long as your rig does what you need it to do stick with it unless you are one of the people that always likes to play with the new stuff which doesn't sound like you.
 
I used to be one of those guys till funds got tight....and I am itchy to do it again! I think that is why I am debating it. If I did not have to upgrade my entire system I would do piece by piece upgrades. PCI-E, DDR2, AM2....blah! Thank you for the responses so far.
 
Well in that case see how much you can sell your current for plus money you have.

Asus 570SLI mobo $145
AM2 X2 3800+ $155
7600GT $135
2gb ddr2 $200
Total $635
 
Judging by your current spec I would upgrade. There is no doubt the AMD AM2 platform is very good value. Motherboards are cheap as are the processors. A X2 3800+ and a Abit KN9 or KN9S won't upset the bank manager and will offer a significant performance increase.
 
Hold up here guys, rather than a whole workover of the system, he could just pick up a PCI-E motherboard and a new vid card. Hell, even faster procs are getting ultra cheap for the 754 platform.
 
If you just want to ugrade the cpu, Tigerdirect has a 3300+ Sempron (256kb L2 cache) for $19 after rebate. The offer ends on the 31st. Or go to Starmicro for a skt 754 3400+ Venice for $95 or Newegg for the same proc and a free mobo for $99. No need to upgrade the video card or ram, just use what you have for the time being. Its a cheap upgrade and you'll get 2.7 out of the 3400+ Venice. (See my sig). Just make sure to flash your mobo to the latest bios.
 
To BBMacAttack: Ow, you run 1.66V on the max? 1.7V on a venice is like 2V on an AthlonXP...

To OP: I think you're probably better off just sticking to what you have unless you start to feel stuff getting slower. I just recently moved off AthlonXP to a Sempron system (mostly for the benefit of newer chipset and PCI-E). As a broke-ass student, upgrades aren't as frequent as I would like :( .
 
Zoogle said:
To BBMacAttack: Ow, you run 1.66V on the max? 1.7V on a venice is like 2V on an AthlonXP... ( .
Yeah, man. The Venices will take on heck of a lot of voltage. I can run 1.7-1.73v on air but it really doesn't benefit the 3400+ as much as it did the 3000+ and 3200+ Venices I had before this 3400+. 1.7v doesn't help any more than 1.66v does in keeping it stable at 2.8ghz. Perhaps if I had a water setup it would perform at 2.8 and beyond.
The 3200+ I had (just sold it) would take 1.7v with ease and hit 2.7-2.8ghz game stable but not Prime stable. The guy I sold it to is hitting 2.7 at 1.6v on a DFI mobo with an Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 64 (I think that's what its called) so he's doing fine.
 
BigMac tells no lies: These Venice core chips love to party!
Just remember to give 'em some juice. :cool:

ballsda2.png
 
If it does what you need it to do then there is no sense to upgrade. But on 754 you can never have X2. That's the only reason I made a jump.
 
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