Upgrading my 2500+ / advice please

H

Hedge

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 9, 2003
Messages
72
Ok so I have had my barton 2500 for a while now. It's oc'd to 2.4 with 1 gig corsair xms pc3200, and a 6800 gt oc'd @400/1100. I have some extra cash; around $500 or so for a pc upgrade and I need some advice on which direction to go.

You guys have been good to me in the advice department so here I am again. I'm looking for a new cpu/mobo as I think my main drawback is cpu power. Some of my games max the cpu out, with ram being used at 75% or higher.

I want to stick with my 6800 gt for now but maybe switch to pci express next year. Also I think I might get another gig of ram to total 2 gigs.

Any suggestions. Many thanks in advance
 
Well if u want to keep your AGP 6800GT and ddr1 ram you can go with a cheap 754/a64 combo spend $100 at a fryz and u can get this with a agp slot. buy your other gig of ram and u only spend 200 of your 500 avail save the rest for next upgrade.

U can get a 939 board with a agp slot /shrug

personally iam in a similar boat i have a a64 3200 754socket with a agp 6800gt

I plan to wait till 2007 and grab a quadcore in that time frame or i hope anyways.

ive notived my 6800gt is startin to show age aswell i think for u i would either hold tight and upgrade everything to a am2 or conroe system in august. thuis making all your old parts unusable which means u get to have a 2nd pc fully in tact for backup.

I dont think its worth it to buy a new mobo/cpu right nwo for u sinc eu wanna hold on to your ddr1ram and agp card.

if u want to do a full replacement this year with am2 or conroe then dont buy anything... if u plan to wait till 2007 then i would buy another gig of ram as that will give u the best help i think in new games since your agp slot is already at its price/performance max.

I would wait and just buy another gig of ram for 75 bucks or so.
 
If 500$ is max get an ASrock board (the one with agp and pci-e) and a 3200 or 3500 venice core. The 6800gt is still decent card but that 2500 is holdin you back a bit. Save the rest for a full system upgrade.
 
i went with an opteron 144 and asrock dual mb works great, able to hit 2.8ghz with ease. total cost opteron 144,asrock board, ac freezer pro 64, $221.34. able to retain my agp card and upgrade to pci-e later.
 
Hedge said:
Ok so I have had my barton 2500 for a while now. It's oc'd to 2.4 with 1 gig corsair xms pc3200, and a 6800 gt oc'd @400/1100. I have some extra cash; around $500 or so for a pc upgrade and I need some advice on which direction to go.

You guys have been good to me in the advice department so here I am again. I'm looking for a new cpu/mobo as I think my main drawback is cpu power. Some of my games max the cpu out, with ram being used at 75% or higher.

I want to stick with my 6800 gt for now but maybe switch to pci express next year. Also I think I might get another gig of ram to total 2 gigs.

Any suggestions. Many thanks in advance
Click to expand...

wow, as long as you can stick with 1GB ram, with $500 you can get a venice 3200+, socket 939 PCI-e mobo and a decent graphics card. I like the X1800XT, if the problems with the 7900GT are fixed thats a good card too.

The bargain of the moment is the 256MB or 512MB X1800XT. Either card makes a 6800GT look old. I upgraded to one from a 6800GT and its the best money I've spent in a while.
 
Hmmm interesting suggestions. I'm gonna research these a bit further.

I'm just wondering how much of a difference I will see going to let's say the 3200+ venice. I have read about the advantages of pci-e, and can see that pretty clearly, but figured that would really eat up my dollars, so I focused on the cpu as my main cost. Maybe I will rethink that theory and look at a pci-e card.

So a 3200+ venice will be a good jump in performance?
 
personally i think your current cpu while clearly inferior to a amd 64 3200 would not be the kind of huge GAMING only performance value for the price.. consdiering better options are avail now with am2 and in a month with possibly conroe if it all fleshes out. you got your xp cpu running at a good clock.


Still say hold off grab another gig of ram and ride this out till early 2007

i feel your pain in waiting based on your agp vid card.

really think getting the asrock board is gonna be price/performance error.

plus u will be left with parts unused from old system.

wait and go full am2 or conroe and u get to keep your entire old pc intact for lan or other purposes.

use that $500 ($425 after buying a gig of ddr1 ram) on a am2 or possinly conroe future setup.

/shrug just my opinion

If you must have a new upgrade now with $500 atleast do this

AM2 amd64 3200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103637 $105
Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138026 $83
1gig DDR2 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220142 $113
7900 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150144 $240 AR

or

7600GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017 $145 AR


so $540 for a whole new setup with 7900gt

or $455 with 7600GT

atleast this way your not gonna be held back by socket 939 limitation coming next year as its fazed out.

even with the 7600GT that system will see atleast as much improvment as any other suggestions proably much more imo especially if u drop the xtra 50 for the 7900gt.

ps i only used newegg as a reference if u look hard enough u may find better prices also. the 2 rebates mentioned were not huge either

edit some prices updated
 
The move from Athlon XP to Athlon 64 ranges from negligible performance difference to substantially faster depending on what you do.
With your current graphics card you will not notice much performance increase.

If you keep your cpu and get a newer graphics card like the 7800GS you wont get the full potential of the card.
An Athlon 64 will release the potential and overclocked they fly. Windows will be much snappier as well as games.
Not only that you can get a 7900GT or X1800XT and will have better future proofing.
If you would like to see higher performance in games you must upgrade the graphics card.

I wouldnt get first generation AM2 kit as first gen usually has issues and costs a lot.
You wont see any performance benefit from AM2 for quite some time.
 
Chernobyl1 said:
The move from Athlon XP to Athlon 64 ranges from negligible performance difference to substantially faster depending on what you do.
With your current graphics card you will not notice much performance increase.

If you keep your cpu and get a newer graphics card like the 7800GS you wont get the full potential of the card.
An Athlon 64 will release the potential and overclocked they fly. Windows will be much snappier as well as games.
Not only that you can get a 7900GT or X1800XT and will have better future proofing.
If you would like to see higher performance in games you must upgrade the graphics card.

I wouldnt get first generation AM2 kit as first gen usually has issues and costs a lot.
You wont see any performance benefit from AM2 for quite some time.
Click to expand...


but since am2 is basically on par with price on 939 if he chooses to go amd there is no reasont o go 939 over am2 that just wouldnt make sense since the prices are the same.

939 3200 is $10 less then am2 3200

but a am2 3800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103631 is only $165

939 3800 = $239
 
I just thought I would add my 2 cents:


I had the same CPU as you, a barton 2500+. I upgraded to a a64 939 3700+ and kept my agp card and ram.

I saw a huge difference in the games I was playing.

In my opinion you should drop all 500 on a am2 board, an am2 cpu, and a pci-e video card and ddr2 ram. Then, sell all your old stuff on either ebay or here on the forums to make back some cash.
 
Decisions decisions....

I figured that staying put would be the best thing for now, but I "feel" the upgrade urge as my 2500+ ; although good for it's day, has become long in the tooth. Same with my 6800 GT, but I thought a new cpu and ram might extend that life till next year.

Maybe i'll wait a bit longer and see how all this plays out. I thought I might get by with a bump up in specs, but now i'm leaning towards ddr2, pci-e, and a new cpu/mobo.

I'm gonna look over these ideas in the next few days and see what feels best. Thanks for the links dajet24.

Thanks for the replies guys! As always the [H]ard forum is where I turn to for advice, and I knew I would get some good answers.
 
dont forget you can always sell your curent stuff too so that might get you another 300 in the end

but yea at this point sit on a another few months and see then
 
While AM2 doesn't show much of a performance increase at the moment, the stuff coming down the line later definitely will. If you position yourself with an economical AM2 setup now you sgould be able to transition to the newer 65nm cpu's later and still keep the rest of the system intact, unless I'm mistaken. Socket 939 will be phased out in 2007 according to reports from AMD so for the long term it probably would be better going to AM2. The only problem with that solution is the budget. So, with the budgetary constraints in mind, socket 939 begins to look more appealing.
As for the question about the difference in performance, there is no question that the A64 3200+ or Opteron 144/146 would crush your present setup. Don't be fooled by anyone telling you that you won't see much difference. You certainly will, especially if you decide to oc the new setup. As for the AGP vs PCI-e, I have 2 ATI X800Pro cards; 1 AGP and 1 PCI-e and they perform pretty much the same. The real advantage in the PCI-e card is in initial cost (cheaper than AGP by far) and the power of the newest cards. The newer generation of video cards make my X800Pro's look very weak in comparison. The ATI X1600 and up and the nVidia 7600 and up are fine cards, with some real bargains to be had on Newegg at times. You'll be amazed at how much card you can get for the price.
If you must upgrade now go with the socket 939 3200+ or Opteron 144/146 setup with PCI-e graphics and some good ram. The Crucial Ballistix DDR400 ram I run is highly recommended and quite the bargain at Newegg. Then go to Newegg and peruse through the video card offerings and find the best card for your budget. Trust me, you'll get more card for your money than you think. Don't forget a decent hsf setup and then set it all up and have some fun.

PS I just found this elsewhere in [H] forums:
http://dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800
Very interesting...
 
Well after some consideration, I think i'm gonna sit on this till next month when the price drop happens and do some more research. If I do anything now, I might just get another gig of ram and add that to my aging system and see how far that gets me. Corsair XMS pc3200 is going for 90 bucks at fry's. Gonna go look today. Maybe they will have bf2 loaded on a pc with a newer cpu/gpu and I can see the difference.
 
Hedge said:
Well after some consideration, I think i'm gonna sit on this till next month when the price drop happens and do some more research. If I do anything now, I might just get another gig of ram and add that to my aging system and see how far that gets me. Corsair XMS pc3200 is going for 90 bucks at fry's. Gonna go look today. Maybe they will have bf2 loaded on a pc with a newer cpu/gpu and I can see the difference.
Click to expand...

good choice.

july will show us much then aug will be time to buy if u dont want to wait till 07 revisions.
 
dajet24 said:
If you must have a new upgrade now with $500 atleast do this

AM2 amd64 3200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103637 $115
Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138026 $83
1gig DDR2 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220142 $113
7900 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150144 $240 AR

or

7600GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017 $160 AR


so $550 for a whole new setup with 7900gt

or $470 with 7600GT
Click to expand...

I like this set-up, except I would wait a month for the anticipated price drops and you MIGHT be able to pick up a x2 3800+ for about $169 (according to dailytech.com). That would give you a dual core set up w/ 7600gt at $524. Sweet and cheap. :D
 
If you want to utilise your old AGP graphics card then go for a ASrock Dual Sata2 motherboard. Search in Google for reviews and specification. This mobo is compatible with AGP and PCI-E graphics cards. It also supports all Socket 939 CPUs as standard and AM2 CPUs with a daughterboard. Otherwise hang in there for a Conroe!!
 
spicey said:
If you want to utilise your old AGP graphics card then go for a ASrock Dual Sata2 motherboard. Search in Google for reviews and specification. This mobo is compatible with AGP and PCI-E graphics cards. It also supports all Socket 939 CPUs as standard and AM2 CPUs with a daughterboard. Otherwise hang in there for a Conroe!!
Click to expand...


but if your going amd its silly to go witha 939 board when am2 is same price and newer.

also his 6800gt while a good card ( i use one) is getting long in the tooth. especialy when the $140 7600gt beats it in alot of tests. he is smart to grab the gig of ram keep the old system in intact and then full upgrade later that way he gets to keep a good gaming 2nd lan pc.
 
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