Upgrade Opinions

[Philip Nicholls]

I like to tinker. I enjoy swapping out motherboads and video cards. I
get a bit of a thrill each time I power on a system with new inards
and watch it post.

Ok, maybe I need to get a life.

I have a socket A system (Abit NF7 Mb and AthlonXP 2800+).

I'm thinking of upgrading to a socket 754 or socket 939 system. I
don't mind the fact that in a year I may replace the motherboard and
CPU again. As a matter of fact, I plan on it. I take the old parts
and upgrade the systems used by my wife and daughter or build a system
and give it to a teenager.

I know 754 is a dead end but remember that in a year I'll be upgrading
again.

My hangup is that right now I don't want to invest in a new PCI E
video card. Here are two options I've considered:

(1) ASRock K8Upgrade-NF3 Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 AMD Athlon 64
3000+ Venice 800MHz HT

(2) AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz HT Socket 939 Processor andASRock
939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard

I've really only got about $200 to spend right now.

How much better is (2) over (1) in terms of performance.

I spend a lot of time converting an extensive LP collection to
digital audio and some time converting VHS tapes to DVD (which means
leave the computer and do something else for about an hour while my
current system encodes the video). I play some games, but not heavy
FPS stuff.

How much of a performance boost do I get over my current system?

Next year I should have more to spend on an upgrade. By then socket
M2 will be out, I can afford to buy a new video card and replace my
memory with DDR2 which, hopefully, by then will be worth it.

Thanks for the opinions.

----------------------------
Phil Nicholls

"As will be all too evident when we examine the creationist position in detail, their arguements are devoid of any real intellectual content."
[sentence following the bit Laurie likes to post from The Monkey Business, by Niles Eldredge.
-----------------------------

 

[Dave]

My hangup is that right now I don't want to invest in a new PCI E
video card. Here are two options I've considered:

(1) ASRock K8Upgrade-NF3 Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 AMD Athlon 64
3000+ Venice 800MHz HT

(2) AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz HT Socket 939 Processor andASRock
939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard

I've really only got about $200 to spend right now.

How much better is (2) over (1) in terms of performance.

I spend a lot of time converting an extensive LP collection to
digital audio and some time converting VHS tapes to DVD (which means
leave the computer and do something else for about an hour while my
current system encodes the video). I play some games, but not heavy
FPS stuff.

How much of a performance boost do I get over my current system?

There is no difference between the two upgrade paths you've posted, and
neither one is an upgrade from what you currently have. Your next upgrade
should be to something dual-core, and clocked a lot higher than the 3000+,
which I believe is only clocked around 2GHz.

If you want to build a new system just to build a new system, then go for
option 1, as it has a better chipset. But don't expect a performance
improvement over what you already have.

IMHO, you'd be better off skipping the upgrade now and saving the money to
apply to next year's upgrade, when you can get hardware to run Vista. -Dave

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

I like to tinker. I enjoy swapping out motherboads and video cards. I
get a bit of a thrill each time I power on a system with new inards
and watch it post.

Ok, maybe I need to get a life.

I have a socket A system (Abit NF7 Mb and AthlonXP 2800+).

I'm thinking of upgrading to a socket 754 or socket 939 system. I
don't mind the fact that in a year I may replace the motherboard and
CPU again. As a matter of fact, I plan on it. I take the old parts
and upgrade the systems used by my wife and daughter or build a system
and give it to a teenager.

I know 754 is a dead end but remember that in a year I'll be upgrading
again.

My hangup is that right now I don't want to invest in a new PCI E
video card. Here are two options I've considered:

(1) ASRock K8Upgrade-NF3 Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 AMD Athlon 64
3000+ Venice 800MHz HT

(2) AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz HT Socket 939 Processor andASRock
939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard

I've really only got about $200 to spend right now.

How much better is (2) over (1) in terms of performance.

I spend a lot of time converting an extensive LP collection to
digital audio and some time converting VHS tapes to DVD (which means
leave the computer and do something else for about an hour while my
current system encodes the video). I play some games, but not heavy
FPS stuff.

How much of a performance boost do I get over my current system?

I think it would be a sideways move. I've got a system similar to (1)
above. It takes a little over an hour to render 1 hour of video in
MPEG 2, about 45 minutes in MPEG 1. I'd say, try overclocking if you
like to tinker, and save your cash for a big upgrade down the road.

Charlie

Next year I should have more to spend on an upgrade. By then socket
M2 will be out, I can afford to buy a new video card and replace my
memory with DDR2 which, hopefully, by then will be worth it.

Thanks for the opinions.

----------------------------
Phil Nicholls

"As will be all too evident when we examine the creationist position in detail, their arguements are devoid of any real intellectual content."
[sentence following the bit Laurie likes to post from The Monkey Business, by Niles Eldredge.
-----------------------------