more ram or bigger cpu?

[amarok]

Hi guys,

I have a amd 64 sempron 3000 mhz cpu
and 2 gb pc2700 ddr ram and it´s running okay in vista home
premium 32 bit.
If I want more or better performance overall (in games, moving files
opening programs and such) what part is better to focus on...
adding 1 gb more ram or I could upgrade the cpu to amd x2 4200 mhz!

I would love to do both, but my stack of money isn´t high enough...
so what should I choose??

regards

mike

 

[Byron Hinson]

Seeing you already have 2GB ram - the best thing to do would be to go for a
Dual Core CPU - the Sempron is one of AMD's lower end CPU's after all.

 

[amarok]

okey I´ll try then...thanks!

Seeing you already have 2GB ram - the best thing to do would be to go for
a Dual Core CPU - the Sempron is one of AMD's lower end CPU's after all.

 

[pvdg42]

Hi guys,

I have a amd 64 sempron 3000 mhz cpu
and 2 gb pc2700 ddr ram and it´s running okay in vista home
premium 32 bit.
If I want more or better performance overall (in games, moving files
opening programs and such) what part is better to focus on...
adding 1 gb more ram or I could upgrade the cpu to amd x2 4200 mhz!

I would love to do both, but my stack of money isn´t high enough...
so what should I choose??

regards

mike

I agree with Byron. Going to a much better CPU is your current priority.
Next, as you mentioned gaming, you should probably take a look at your video
card. You didn't tell us what card you currently use, but that's probably
your next bottleneck.
With 2 gig memory, you should be fine for some time to come.

 

[amarok]

I just bought a new videocard a geforce 7300 LE pci express 16
with 256 mb and suppport for 512mb in hypermemory...I thought it was
enough but when I try to play something like need for speed carbon
it just sucks with high level detail on...
I´m gonna wait a while but I think my next card is geforce 8800 640 mb which
support directx 10.....
but it´s totally new here in Denmark and very expensive (need an
extra poweroutlet for 500 watt too)...so maybe a couple of months will lower
the price

mike

 

[BSchnur]

With 2G upgrading the processor seems the right first move.

But PC2700 -- sounds like you have a 939 motherboard. You will find it
difficult to track down the faster processors -- AMD moved over to the
AM2 processors and the only very readily available 939 dual cores are
Opteron's.

NewEgg does have the OEM (no heat sink/fan) version of the 4600X2 in
stock at the moment at $219 -- a tad pricey but something you could
consider as a long term move. If you are budget constrained here, you
might look to the single core 3700 CPU -- those can be had for under
$75 and would make for a significant performance boost over the sempron
CPU (faster chip, larger L1 and L2 cache).

You might also look to replacing the PC2700 memory with PC3200 memory
-- 2G would be fine though.

What video adapter do you have?

 

[BSchnur]

One alternative if you can afford it would be a total rebuild with the
AM2 motherboard and processors and DDR2 memory. The deal here is not
only much faster processors (5200x2 costs about $215 and there are even
faster CPU's around), and the DDR2 memory is quite a bit faster than
the PC3200 top end you typically have with 939 boards.