What to spend it on....

[Enverex]

My Processor is getting old (1800+ @ 2200+) and my motherboard is being crappy (doesn't like overclocking much) and as Christmas is coming up, I thought I may invest in a new one of both (RAM wont be a problem as this in here now is BT-5 PC3200).

What processor and what motherboard do I want to upgrade to? I have looked into the Athlon 64, but it seems to be about £300 here, which is just WAY out of my price range. So that leaves me with the original Athlon XPs (and Bartons). The best motherboard by public oppinion seems to be the NF7 Rev2 which I can get for about £55 (don't need the S as I am going to get an Audigy 2 ZS at some point).

So, what do I want to be buying?

Cheers,
EX

[TheLostSwede]

The Athlon 64 3000 will be available at Komplett.co.uk within a few days for almost half that price which IMO will be a perfect chip. Couple that with the Asus K8V Deluxe and you have a winner i'm sure.

[Enverex]

So how much is one of the new Athlon64's and motherboard likely to set me back? As I didn't want to go too far over £200 in total...

[TheLostSwede]

I'd say £250-£300 tops.

[Enverex]

Mackanz had this to say
I'd say £250-£300 tops.

Doesn't sound like its worth it to be honest, as the performance of the 64 3200+ isn't that much better than the normal 3200+ which is a lot less, and doesn't require a stupidly expensive motherboard either.

[TheLostSwede]

Believe me Enverex, the performance of the 64 is A LOT better.

[Enverex]

Mackanz had this to say
Believe me Enverex, the performance of the 64 is A LOT better.

Have you got any good comparisons, as all the ones I have seen don't seem to make it look very appealing...

[Enverex]

Mackanz had this to say
The Athlon 64 3000 will be available at Komplett.co.uk within a few days for almost half that price which IMO will be a perfect chip. Couple that with the Asus K8V Deluxe and you have a winner i'm sure.

Are you sure it is going to be available? As they have the 3200+ listed and it isn't available yet, so the fact they haven't actually listed it leads me to believe that they are not going to have it for months. Where did you get your information?

[Bud]

be careful if you buy a amd 64 the 3000+ and 3200+ uses socket 754 while amd 64 fx-51 uses socket 940. there are alot of rumors going around about socket 754 being phassed out for the 940. The opteron uses socket 940 too. I was thinking if you bought a socket 940 board and put a opteron on it till the fx-51 come down but a thought. If i was you i would just upgrade the mobo, and leave cpu overclocked. whats your current video card and ram size? from money saved buying new cpu use towards video card or ram, but thats just my thoughts. I dunno guys what do you thinking about running a opteron for dektop use?

[Enverex]

I have a Radeon 9700 Pro GFX card, so I am not going to upgrade that. Plus I have 512MB of Twinmoss Winbond PC3200, so I dont really want to upgrade that either, as I don't reallly need 1GB, and the RAM isn't slow enough to warrent getting new stuff.

The cheapest Opteron here is the "AMD Opteron 142, 1.6GHz" and that is £198, which seems stupidly expensive for mediocre performance.

[Bud]

theres a 1.4 GHz opteron @ $175 off of newegg.com so there not cheap by anymeans. I would just buy the abit nf7-s and buy another 512mb stick (same as you have) of ram and call it a day.

[Bud]

also sorry forgot to mention do you know if your 1800+ is a thorton core? cause you could do a pin mod and make it have same cache as a barton.

[Enverex]

A New motherboard isn't going to get me anywhere, and I don't need any new RAM, so that would be completely pointless and a waste of money...

Just a quick translation, the 142 Opteron over here costs $340.

EDIT: Dollar has fallen again, so it is actually $345. And if it is only $165 that means its only £96 if I ordered one from the USA. Sorry, where the hell is this pricing coming from?

[Bud]

oh sorry didnt know translation over there. actually the ram boost would still help. ive done it personally to my machine and it was faster more miner details but you will notice it on graphics intense games.

[Enverex]

Bud had this to say
also sorry forgot to mention do you know if your 1800+ is a thorton core? cause you could do a pin mod and make it have same cache as a barton.

No. It's an original A type 1800+ Throughbred.

[Bud]

yeah heres the thread (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=7444) talking about it. K, id still keep same cpu and just overclock it. but its your money man.

[Enverex]

Seems I can get an Opteron 142 for £127 which compared to UK prices is over 100% cheaper (from NewEgg).

No-wonder the UK doesn't want to change to the Euro, as then everyone in the country would see how much we were being ass-raped over prices :mad:

[Enverex]

Well, the Opteron 142 + the Gigabyte nForce3 150 comes to a total of just under £260 excuding shipping, which isn't that bad considering.

Opteron - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-404&depa=1
Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-210&catalog=22&depa=1&section=2

Any oppinions on this?

[Bud]

This is my judgement but i dont like gigabyte. Ive had asus and rock hear alot of good things about abit too.
asus board:mobo (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-465&catalog=22&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1)

msi is suppost to be a good board also and its single/dual just in case you ever want to do a daul setup.msi mobo (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-436&catalog=22&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1)

Im not an expert on the new 64 bit cpus though, id verify it with thrax.

[Enverex]

I don't like Gigabyte either after the ATX connector got welded to the motherboard, but that is the only Socket 940 motherboard on there that supports DDR400...
(and that dual mobo is missing a PCI slot) Though the MSI board does look quite tempting.

Need to draw more attention to this thread, this is supposed to be my Christmas Present!....

[Bud]

the msi supports ddr400 but you have to use registered ram

[Thrax]

If you buy an Opteron, you'll need registered memory.

My choice would be the new Athlon64 3000+, which is still great (Better than) the p4, and you can keep your ram, AND buy a cheaper mobo.

[Bud]

doesnt that use socket 754 while 940 is suppost to stay around and the 754 socket is gonna be gone

[Thrax]

No, the opposite. Socket 940 is supposed to turn into socket 939, and socket 754 is supposed to stay as the budget entry.

[Enverex]

Hmm.... almost ended up buying the wrong thing....

Right, but the problem is, actually GETTING a 3000+. They dont even sell them over here....

But, I am tempted to buy from the US and get it shipped over if anyone wouldn't mind....

So, what is the best Athlon64 Mobo to go for then? NewEgg don't seem to have any by abit, and only 1 by asus...

[Bud]

sorry about that confusion in socket enverex

[shwaip]

newegg has this abit board:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-165&catalog=22&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1


here's a 5 mobo roundup:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1389338,00.asp

[keto]

Suggested reading on Athlon64, both articles from Overclockers.com
This one (http://www.overclockers.com/articles902/) talks about AMD's upcoming roadmap, with a sprinkling of performance expectations.

And here (http://www.overclockers.com/tips00499/) is some user experience with Opteron (c/w dual channel memory, though registered memory) at the same speed as an A64 (single channel memory) and overclocking results using a somewhat unknown motherboard.

Unless you are dying to upgrade now (yes, I know what this feels like and have personally made some less than mensa level purchasing decisions, so it's not a critisism), hold off till Feb/Mar for a) further clarification from AMD b) possible new chip releases c) the inevitible post holiday season price reductions

[Enverex]

Well, If I spend it on something, then I will actually get more out of it. If I dont, then I will only get money, and I will get less, and seen as I am unemplyed atm, less is not good...