What to spend it on....

EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
edited December 2003 in Hardware
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

Comments

  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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...
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I'd say £250-£300 tops.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Believe me Enverex, the performance of the 64 is A LOT better.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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...
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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?
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    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?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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?
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    yeah heres the thread talking about it. K, id still keep same cpu and just overclock it. but its your money man.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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:
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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?
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    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

    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

    Im not an expert on the new 64 bit cpus though, id verify it with thrax.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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!....
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    the msi supports ddr400 but you have to use registered ram
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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.
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    doesnt that use socket 754 while 940 is suppost to stay around and the 754 socket is gonna be gone
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    No, the opposite. Socket 940 is supposed to turn into socket 939, and socket 754 is supposed to stay as the budget entry.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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...
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited December 2003
    sorry about that confusion in socket enverex
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Suggested reading on Athlon64, both articles from Overclockers.com
    This one talks about AMD's upcoming roadmap, with a sprinkling of performance expectations.

    And here 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
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    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...
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