Want to upgrade my 939 system, need some guidance..

[zachquiel]

Hello fellow members.

I have a one time opportunity this year to upgrade my system, since it's my annual visit to the U.S.A. So i can only wait about 2 weeks :P.

Anyway, my dilemma is this: I currently own a very nice athlon x2 3800+ 939 DDR OC'ed to 2.4ghz, with 2gb of ram and a Radeon x1800xt 512mb. Originally, I only wanted to upgrade the audio and video subsystems, but now I don't know wherether to finally make the jump to ddr2, which would need a complete overhaul (mobo, processor, memory...)

What do you guys think? I feel my system slowish sometimes, but would the new videocard (a 8800 GTS 640) be bottlenecked by the Athlon? Or should I just buy an extra pair of 1gb DDR sticks with the graphics card and sound card?

In case you say yes to the overhaul, I'm looking at a core budget of 800-900 USD for the ram,mobo, processor and video card.
Some of the options i have already checked are the Core 2 Duo E6600, 4gb of OCZ DDR2800 ram in 2x2gb sticks and the aforementioned video card. Could you guys bring some light to this issue?

Thanks in advance

[tiro_uspsss]

i cant believe u feel ur system is slowish! what on earth r u doing with it? :D if ur pc usage is genuinely held back by a dual-core & 2gb ram, then theres not much point going to another system that has a dual-core ;) ...

[OpTioN]

What's your budget? I could work something out for you but need a budget..

[zachquiel]

i cant believe u feel ur system is slowish! what on earth r u doing with it? :D if ur pc usage is genuinely held back by a dual-core & 2gb ram, then theres not much point going to another system that has a dual-core ;) ...

I was looking at a quad core, but it is price prohibitive... What I do is what everyone else does, manage several programs open at a time, windowed wow or other games, dvd burning, browsing, downloading, video playing and Im'ing (of course not all at the same time always, but I leave the processes open so I don't forget)

OpTioN: Thanks for the offer! As I mentioned, the budget I currently have for ram/video card/processor and mobo is about 800-900 USD. If you know a good online store outside california I'm all for it (Too bad since I love newegg, but hate the taxes :()

Thanks again for your answers!

[OpTioN]

Video card - EVGA 8800GTS 640
CPU - Intel E6600
RAM - 2gb G.skill HZ
Motherboard - Asus P5B Deluxe


That should fit in the budget... try a site like ZipZoomFly.com

[tiro_uspsss]

i do all that - i dont feel slow down... whats ur hdd subsystem consist of?

[SaFrOuT]

updating ur cpu and mobo won't make u feel any faster imho

[tiro_uspsss]

updating ur cpu and mobo won't make u feel any faster imho

QFT

as for replacing ur gpu - i reckon wait till DX10 games actually r out - that way u can get something newer/better &/or cheaper... if u do all those aforementioned tasks AT THE ONE TIME (which i have done myself), i can honestly say that u should go a raid0 array - ppl will say its pointless etc etc blahblahblah, but i've been there & done that - & it makes a diff in my experience.. RAM? well.. being DDR1 it could b considered expensive.. having said that, i recently obtained 4GB of RAM - though unfortuneately i have not got that system up & running yet, so i cant say on what diff that makes...

so upgrading ur hdd subsystem is something to consider - its cheap, u can take it to ur next system (unlike the RAM), & thus u can hold of doing a expensive complete overhaul...

[SaFrOuT]

QFT

as for replacing ur gpu - i reckon wait till DX10 games actually r out - that way u can get something newer/better &/or cheaper... if u do all those aforementioned tasks AT THE ONE TIME (which i have done myself), i can honestly say that u should go a raid0 array - ppl will say its pointless etc etc blahblahblah, but i've been there & done that - & it makes a diff in my experience.. RAM? well.. being DDR1 it could b considered expensive.. having said that, i recently obtained 4GB of RAM - though unfortuneately i have not got that system up & running yet, so i cant say on what diff that makes...

so upgrading ur hdd subsystem is something to consider - its cheap, u can take it to ur next system (unlike the RAM), & thus u can hold of doing a expensive complete overhaul...

QFT ;)

updting to DX10 now is not a smart idea specially for persons like us who don't have the ability to replace the vga every month

so wait till the DX10 games are out and the DX10 vga cards are more mature before buying one

getting a raptor hdd or getting a raid card and setup a raid0 array maybe a nice upgrade for ur system's speed

[zachquiel]

The thing is, this is a one time chance for me to upgrade, or else I have to wait till next summer (08) to buy new parts, since I'm in the U.S.A for vacation, and they are not cheap where I live (relatively speaking).

I agree with you tiro_uspsss and SaFrOuT, my hdd subsystem is crap (2 200gb drives 7200rpm, one SATA and one IDE), however I believe waiting a full year for a GPU upgrade would be losing some of the great games coming this way.
Anyway, I'm an alien when it comes to raid arrays and true HD drive performers, so could you guys please point me the way?

Thanks for the system recommendation OpTioN, sadly zipzoomfly also charges taxes in California, so I guess I'll stick to newegg.

[perkam]

Keep the vid card for now and upgrade everything else.

That'll keep the cost of upgrade low as you'll only have to change the mobo, cpu, ram, hdd and psu, that should run you ~$700.

The X1800XT 512MB is still considered a good gamer's card, and will play crysis well as we're hearing it'll quite heavily optimized.

If you really want to upgrade the GPU, sell all the stuff including the X1800 and from the funds that you get, buy an 8800GTS 640MB or an HD 2900XL this september.

As long as you get the money any way you want by Sept, you won't miss anything.

Perkam

[tiro_uspsss]

Keep the vid card for now and upgrade everything else.

That'll keep the cost of upgrade low as you'll only have to change the mobo, cpu, ram, hdd and psu, that should run you ~$700.

The X1800XT 512MB is still considered a good gamer's card, and will play crysis well as we're hearing it'll quite heavily optimized.

If you really want to upgrade the GPU, sell all the stuff including the X1800 and from the funds that you get, buy an 8800GTS 640MB or an HD 2900XL this september.

As long as you get the money any way you want by Sept, you won't miss anything.

Perkam

??? Ok admittedly i havent been keeping up to date anything crysis related - but isnt crysis DX10?! ...

zachquiel: ok well, in that case, since u sound a lil desperate, do as perkam says, sell ur cpu, mobo, ram & gpu & go nuts - get 4GB RAM, mobo of ur choice, cpu - i wouldnt bother with 6600 - go 6420. As for ur gpu, u probably aint gonna been on ur vacation long enuff to wait r u? If not, mmm, tough call on what u should get... depends on budget as well... maybe a GTS640 or 2900XT... Now, hdds - without a doubt get 1 or 2 74GB Raptors, if u get two, go RAID0. Only put ur OS & programs on there & use ur other 200GB hdds for file storage - & dont worry, doing RAID is easy, if u get stuck COME BACK HERE! WE'LL HELP :) :up: ;) :D :welcome: :yepp:

[perkam]

??? Ok admittedly i havent been keeping up to date anything crysis related - but isnt crysis DX10?!It is DX10 and DX9.

Perkam

[tiro_uspsss]

yeah.. farcry is dx9 & dx8.1 - but u dont get all the eye candy running it on a dx8.1 card - so is that the same if u run crysis on a dx9 card - less eye candy?

[zachquiel]

Yep, exactly the same I believe, less eye candy.

Anyhow I'm currently selling my system, but I doubt the money will reach me on time.

However, the 2x74gb raptors sound very tempting, maybe an extra 500gb for storage by selling my current hd's. Just one question tho, I believe I need a raid card of sorts, if so, could you guys recommend me one?

Thanks again!

[Anavel0]

Yep, exactly the same I believe, less eye candy.

Anyhow I'm currently selling my system, but I doubt the money will reach me on time.

However, the 2x74gb raptors sound very tempting, maybe an extra 500gb for storage by selling my current hd's. Just one question tho, I believe I need a raid card of sorts, if so, could you guys recommend me one?

Thanks again!

Buying my Western Digital Raptor was the biggest and most notable performance booster I ever did, not including graphics that is. My load times are next to nothing now. When I try to work on older systems using IDE hard drives I about die. Also you don't need a raid card unless you want to do striping or mirroring. If you just want the two drives you just hook them up to your motherboard like anything else.

[tbone8ty]

check out the opteron 170 or 175 they are goin for cheap now, they have a 2 x 1mb L2 cache, and they overclock better than the X2's. and then go for a new video card.

check newegg

[Heretic]

If you game at 1600x1200 or better (or even 1280x1024 for some games) I say go for the upgrade to the GTS. At those resolutions and with the eye candy on, you'll only be CPU bound on a couple of games (I believe Oblivion is notorious for being both CPU and GPU bound).

That said, right now is a pretty good time to overhaul. DDR2 prices are basically at rock bottom and both AM2 and C2D provide a pretty good bang/buck. AMD's Brisbanes seem to OC really well and C2D is a beast of an architecture. I'm not sure if 4gb is necessary, and you won't be able to address all 4gb if you're running 32-bit XP, but it will certainly keep you future proof if you won't be changing platforms for the next year+.

[tiro_uspsss]

seeing as ur a single desktop user & ur only RAIDing 2 hdds, just use the onboard RAID function provided with ur mobo - thats what i use - i LOVE it!

[nn_step]

well you can get 3600+ 2GB of DDR2 and a new AM2+ board for under $200
(but you'll have to wait just a tiny bit for the AM2+ board)
That leaves $700 for graphics and PSU upgrades if you so desire

[perkam]

yeah.. farcry is dx9 & dx8.1 - but u dont get all the eye candy running it on a dx8.1 card - so is that the same if u run crysis on a dx9 card - less eye candy?I'm going to come over there and kick you...

THe difference between dx9 and dx10 moment isn't even 10% of the difference between DX9 and DX8.1.

This is DX10...not even 10.1...and DX9 is at 9.0c atm, heavily improved...how can you even think about comparing dx9 to dx10 the same way dx8.1 compares to dx9 ????

Perkam

[tiro_uspsss]

I'm going to come over there and kick you...

THe difference between dx9 and dx10 moment isn't even 10% of the difference between DX9 and DX8.1.

This is DX10...not even 10.1...and DX9 is at 9.0c atm, heavily improved...how can you even think about comparing dx9 to dx10 the same way dx8.1 compares to dx9 ????

Perkam

did ya want my left cheek or right cheek? :p: :p: :p: But seriously, i'm confused. I could have swore Crysis is made on DX10, just like FC was made on DX9... I actually *attempted* to run FC on a ATI 9250 - a DX8.1 gpu - FPS issues aside, because the gpu was DX8.1 & FC is DX9, even if i did turn on eye candy, ie in FC, set the water quality to Ultra High, the card would not display it due to it not knowing whatever DX9 programing language that makes the water look so nice in FC... <- does this even make sense? or i am wrong here? So if i am right, then assuming Crysis is DX10, running it on a DX9 card is like the situation I described above - yay / nay?
Also, what u mean difference is not even 10%? 10% FPS? Or...?