Which Chip

[leetay2]

Hi all

I currently have a Asus K8 board with a 3000 64 bit chip, i'm upgrading to a MSI K8N-SLI, i dodn't do any gaming, however i dod do a lot of multi tasking, the question is which chip?
My initial thoughts were a FX55, are these specifically designed for gaming?

I have recently being looking at the dual core chips, would one of these be a better option??

Also any recommenations on a decent mid range graphics card PCI Express??

Any advise welcomed

Cheers

Lee

 

[Me__2001]

the FX-55 or 57 are great CPU's, if you get one you'll notice a huge difference in performance even in multitasking, they werent specifically designed for gaming as far as i know but they are the best CPU's for it, if you run several really CPU intensive tasks then the X2 4400 is what you want, the 4800 isn't worth the extra money for 200Mhz boost and the 4600 only has 512Kb cache.

also you'll want atleast 1GB of RAM preferably 2, what sort of things do you do at the same time ?

 

[leetay2]

Thanks for that, Yes i was looking at the 4400.
I do a lot of work stuff from home, very large spredsheets etc etc, as well as my own stuff, could link the laptop up but always seem to use the one PC

Any ideas on the Graphics Card

I have 2G of Ram at the moment, its branded, but not top branded, i intend to start with 2G of say Kingston or Geil, then upgarde as and when to upto 4G which is what the board supports.

Lee

 

[Me__2001]

its easier to keep it all on the one PC IMO, if your not a heavy gamer then a 6600GT should be fine if you want a bit more kick you can get the 6800GT or there is the X850XT, top of the range were talking 2 7800GTX's or a single X1800XT

either of those RAM makes should be fine, you may want to look at some corsair aswell

 

[floppybootstomp]

An interesting test on memory here. The Geil didn't fare too well but just about all other branded memory seems Ok. Perhapes consider Mushkin, OCZ or Crucial.

Me__2001 right on the money with his CPU recommendation.

As for graphics card, if you're not gaming then you really don't have to spend a lot of money, in my opinion, a 6600GT or similar should do you fine.

If your main use is spreadsheets, Photoshop and the like, it may even be worth considering a Matrox card, the Parhelia sells for around £235.00 at the moment and delivers a very sharp image.

EDIT: Forget the Matrox card, they still only do AGP flavour

 

[CITech]

the FX-55 or 57 are great CPU's, if you get one you'll notice a huge difference in performance even in multitasking, they werent specifically designed for gaming as far as i know but they are the best CPU's for it, if you run several really CPU intensive tasks then the X2 4400 is what you want, the 4800 isn't worth the extra money for 200Mhz boost and the 4600 only has 512Kb cache.

also you'll want atleast 1GB of RAM preferably 2, what sort of things do you do at the same time ?

I agree with Me_2001, the X2 series of chips do handle multi-tasking roles very well, you can just forget about things. They run perfectly well under XP32 and you have got the option of going XP64 when more software and drivers have been certified compatible.

The 4800+ probably isn't worth the extra pennies, unless you can get it as part of a deal. This may not be appropriate if you are only looking at upping the chips.

I'm delighted with my config, and just like you, I don;'t do gaming, but big databases zap everything in sight and this setup easily copes with whatever I have thrown at it.

Hope this is of some use to you.

 

[Me__2001]

good point CITech

dont bother with XP64 unless you want to be messing about trying to get drivers working, just get the normal version of XP Pro

 

[leetay2]

Thanks for the advice chaps, the dual core it is then!