CPU Upgrade....

[DB]

I ws planning to upgrade the CPU from my old trusty XP1600 to something a
bit more powerful. My budget isnt unlimited but I thought it woulld be a
simple case of new CPU and maybes a new Mobo.

I currently has an Asus MB bit a friend has told me that I will need a new
one and also that if I go for one of the new 64 bit chips then my graphics
card will need to be replaced too ( it's a radeon 9600 256 meg AGP x 8 Pro)
but my trusty friend reckons that it would be the slowest part in my PC if i
didnt upgrade it, hence the system would only run at about the same speed as
it does now.

I'm not really a gamer as such but I do the odd DVD and would appreciate an
increase in speed in this corner.

What started out relatively inexpensive is turning out to be rather
expensive if I have to replace everything.

The hard drive is an old 5200 and does seem to be sluggish from time to
time, but then again that could be the PC being sluggish.


All help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated as it is a minefield
out there.

DB

 

[Ed Light]

Your graphics card is good for any modern motherboard with AGP graphics.
You'd only have to replace it if getting a board with PCI-E graphics.

Since you're not into gaming, a board for 64 bit with AGP graphics would be
just fine.

If you don't do something that demands alot from the hard disk, you can live
with programs loading slower.

If you're on a budget, waiting for the 64-bit Semprons would be a great
idea. They should come out soon.
--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[DB]

When I say i'm not into gaming, i mean that I do play the occasional stuff -
I have FarCry on at the mo and it seems to play pretty fast on my machine
with the current set up ( when I first installed it the quality of the gfx
blew me away - will i notice a major speed improvement if i upgrade to the
64 bit board and still use this gfx card?

I currently "only" have 256 meg memory and would take it upto 512meg or 1
gig depending on what i would gain from either.

I really would like my stuff to load quicker so the HD upgrade is pretty
much a must.

Thanks again...

DB

 

[Ed Light]

I have FarCry on at the mo and it seems to play pretty fast on my machine
with the current set up ( when I first installed it the quality of the gfx
blew me away - will i notice a major speed improvement if i upgrade to the
64 bit board and still use this gfx card?

I don't know that game.


--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[DB]

It's a blockbuster of a game here in the UK - try Google for Far Cry and you
will get loads of info on it.

When are these new Semprons expected - have you any idea ?

Dave

 

[Ed Light]

http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html

The cpu comparator. It includes Far Cry. But I don't see what graphics card
they were using. Probably a state of the art one. The A64 3000+ does twice
as well as the old 1600+ K7.

But of course with your card it could be gpu limited.

You could research a bit on xbitlabs.com, anandtech.com, tomshardware.com --
they run alot of comparisons.
--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Ed Light]

When are these new Semprons expected - have you any idea ?

Not sure, but I think I recall reading that some OEM's in the Orient already
have them. Not sure ...

But before too long.

--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[DB]

Thanks for the info Ed........why is upgrading such a bl**dy difficult task?
,lol

er..... can you explain what GPU limited is..... i'm not as technical as i'd
like to be.....and all my manuals are packed into the mother in laws loft
due to building work in my house.

Cheers again

Dave

 

[Ed Light]

gpu is the graphics processing unit on a graphics card, just like the cpu is
the central processing unit on a motherboard. (c must stand for central, I'm
pretty sure.)


--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Ed Light]

So gpu limited would mean that past a certain grade of cpu there's no
improvement because the video card can't keep up. cpu limited would be, the
graphics card could handle more but the cpu is maxed out.

BTW -- didn't bl**dy well know that bl**dy is a swear word?
--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[DB]

Ed..i understand about the GPU thing now......

i've tried everywhere looking for the 64bit semprons....i think i'm a little
early here ...
as no one sems to have them yet.....

Dave

 

[Bob Knowlden]

A 9600 is a respectable card. It'll limit you to an AGP mainboard; the newer
boards use PCI-Express graphics.

Newegg does not (as far as I know) do business in the UK, but their product
finder can be very helpful in showing choices. Athlon 64 CPUs come in Socket
754 and Socket 939 varieties. The S. 939 ones may be a bit more
future-proof, but your total outlay may be a bit more. S. 939 supports
dual-channel memory mode, so you'd prefer to buy paired DDR memory with it.

A Socket 939 mainboard that supports AGP 8X will normally use the Via K8T800
Pro or nVidia nForce 3 Ultra chipset. (I have been well served by an Asus
A8V Deluxe board, which uses the Via chipset. Asus eve has a BIOS to support
the new dual core CPUs. I'd have one, if the levy was a bit lower: the
lowest end chip currently for sale goes for over $500.) For a CPU, I suggest
the "Venice" 3000+. (It's the latest 90 nm chip, and is supposed to have
fairly low power dissipation. It shouldn't cost more than the older
"Winchester" or "Newcastle" versions.)

I'm not sure what you mean by the "odd DVD" - viewing? Transcoding? If it's
the latter, the better the CPU, well, the better.

(I have a nearly one year old "Newcastle" 3500+. I miss Intel's
hyperthreading a little, but the AMD - my first - has been a sweet system.
Runs quite steadily with a 10% overclock.)

HTH.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Ed Light]

Ed..i understand about the GPU thing now......

i've tried everywhere looking for the 64bit semprons....i think i'm a
little early here ...
as no one sems to have them yet.....

Yes, just keep checking every week.


--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[DB]

Bob/Ed thanks again for your valuable help.

My mate reckons that if i change the mobo and cpu but didnt change the
graphics card then i would be wasting my time upgrading...
I do realise that if i bought a new card then i would get better
performance, but i have only had the card for about 6 months and it wasnt
particularly cheap, an option im thinking about,sell my old card on ebay
(they still go for about £45) put that towards a new one to get much better
performance.
I was running a flight sim last night and it still seems to race along so
would a pci e card really get me more?

i know what i'm doing this weekend.............googling for cpu's,graphics
cards etc etc etc.


Many thanks again..

Feel free to add more comments

Dave

 

[Ed Light]

I was running a flight sim last night and it still seems to race along so
would a pci e card really get me more?

If it's already ok then the card is enough.

Except, you might experiment with turning up the anistropic filtering,
antialiasing, and, if it has it, sharpness. Those can make quite an
impression on the image in some games/sims, but if the card isn't fast
enough then they can slow things down.

--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.