Ordered New PC Parts

[meuge]

After a long hiatus, I've finally given up and decided to upgrade.

I ordered:

Athlon64 X2 (dual-core) 3800+

EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra Motherboard

Sapphire ATI X800GTO2 (which is supposed to be moddable to X850PE)

plus cooling:

NV Silencer 5.2 (for the vid card)

Thermalright SP90 (for the CPU)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236'>

[Shade]

Looks like you'll have a nice fast setup there.

With the new consoles coming out, it won't be too long before the bar

has to be raised for PC games. With that setup, you'll be set. My XP

2800+ and ATI 9600XT have done well the last couple of years, but I

doubt it'll get me by much longer.

Enjoy.

[meuge]

Looks like you'll have a nice fast setup there.

With the new consoles coming out, it won't be too long before the bar

has to be raised for PC games. With that setup, you'll be set. My XP

2800+ and ATI 9600XT have done well the last couple of years, but I

doubt it'll get me by much longer.

Enjoy.

I was amazed that my PC was no longer able to handle modern games at

medium settings with a P4 2.8 @ 3.1GHz and Radeon 9800Pro @ >9800XT

speeds.

But Call Of Duty 2 demo and FEAR demo brought my system to its knees. So I guess it's time to upgrade.

[TheEAR]

Good choice of parts.FEAR is a game that will strike fear into any non top of the line video card.

[meuge]

Ok, so I got the new computer. and man - it screams!

Now I know why people have raved about multiple processors all these years. It's just so... smooth.

Modding of the X800GTO2 went without a hitch, so at this point I have a

fully functional X850XT... and maybe even XTPE, but I'm waiting to get

my NV Silencer cooler from a friend before I try that.

The CPU is still at stock speeds (till tonight) but I fully expect to be running it at X2 4800 speeds by the end of the evening.

[damonrpayne]

Do you have any Athlon vs. P4 comments? I've always gone with Pentium after bad experiences with early athlons (1998-2000 era) but I've been reading that the Athlon 64 is excellent for gaming and compiling code, the two things I do most.

[meuge]

Do you have any Athlon vs. P4 comments?

I've always gone with Pentium after bad experiences with early athlons

(1998-2000 era) but I've been reading that the Athlon 64 is excellent

for gaming and compiling code, the two things I do most.

Since the original Athlons (I had a 1.4GHz one) and especially since

AthlonXP chips, AMD has killed Intel chips when it comes to

performance. With AMD64, AMD has extended its lead to the point where

large manufacturers are beginning to shake their committment to Wintel

systems.

If you need price/performance ratio, and do not require cutting-edge

performance (for 3D rendering, audio editing, or modern gaming) then go

with the AthlonXP chips - they are very cheap, and still hold their own

against the current P4s. If you crave pure performance, or extreme I/O

speeds for servers, AMD64/Opteron chips are the way to go. I cannot

think of a single reason to recommend an Intel system to anyone at this

point, and this is coming from someone who owned an Intel system in the

last incarnation of my desktop (first a P4 1.6A that I ran at a 50%

overclock at 2.4Ghz for 2 years, and my recent P4 2.8GHz which was a

dud).

P.S. Just my luck - my new motherboard happily died after 2 days of

usage (first motherboard to ever fail on me). Now I am left without a

desktop, as I await its replacement.

[meuge]

I also want to add something - systems based on AMD chips feel faster.

They are just snappier in day-to-day use. Programs open faster, the

system just feels more responsive. My 1.4GHz Athlon Thunderbird still

boots 2s faster than my 2.8GHz P4... and feels much better overall,

although it can't deliver the same frames per second, in games.

For the day and a half, that I used my new AMD64 (dual-core mind you,

so the benefit of dual CPUs is there too), there is only one phrase

that I can come up with to describe it -> BLAZING FAST.

You'd think that going from a P4 at 3GHz to an AMD64 at 2GHz wouldn't

be an upgrade, and you'd be dead wrong. At 33% less clockspeed, AMD

slaughters the P4.

[damonrpayne]

Do you have a link to info on this chip you bought? Exact model, etc.

[meuge]

Do you have a link to info on this chip you bought? Exact model, etc.

Here's a review that should have all the information you need:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/200508011/

The chip is an Athlon64 X2 3800+

At newegg.com which is my preferred dealer in hardware, the chip costs

about $350. It uses Socket 939 motherboards, and a good one will run

you about $105 (based on the Nforce 4 Ultra chipset). You'll also need

to get a PCI-Express video card if you want to use it, since these

boards no longer support AGP.

[damonrpayne]

Meuge, have you noticed anything funky with your dual-core proc? A friend of mine who builds PCs claims I should really wait for the next generation as there are some kinks to be worked out of the current line?

[wheelman]

Meuge congrats on your new powerhouse. I always want to upgrade ( it's fun). I have an AMD xp ( thoroughbred core) 2700+ at 2.16 hz. Works great! Solid and reliable as they come if you ask me. I'm no expert but this is my second AMD chip, and never had a problem with AMD.

[meuge]

Meuge, have you noticed anything funky with

your dual-core proc? A friend of mine who builds PCs claims I

should really wait for the next generation as there are some kinks to

be worked out of the current line?

No kinks. Running flawlessly at 2.4GHz (from stock 2.0), otherwise

known as X2 4600 speeds. Single-process applications run fine,

multiple-thread applications run amazingly well, and multitasking is a

breeze.

[wheelman]

Meuge do you think I would benefit a significant performance boost with going with a new processor such as the Amd Athlon 64 3200+ ( venice ) from a Amd xp 2700+ ( thoroughbred) 32bit? Would it be worth the extra 200 something for cpu and motherboard.? Or should I hold out for something better later on? I like the idea of having high numbers in the front side bus, and the upgradable graphics card ( pci express 16) down the road. Also would it still run on regular windows xp untill I could afford the 64 bit version? Thanks

[meuge]

Meuge do you think I would benefit a significant

performance boost with going with a new processor such as the Amd

Athlon 64 3200+ ( venice ) from a Amd xp 2700+ ( thoroughbred) 32bit?

Would it be worth the extra 200 something for cpu and motherboard.? Or

should I hold out for something better later on? I like the idea of

having high numbers in the front side bus, and the upgradable graphics

card ( pci express 16) down the road. Also would it still run

on regular windows xp untill I could afford the 64 bit version?

Thanks

WinXP x64 is a pretty crappy system right now, since there are very few

drivers out for it. I wouldn't use it until it becomes more mainstream

anyway.

As far as upgrading from XP2700 to AMD64, it's a worthwhile upgrade,

depending on what you want to do. Obviously for general computing it's

useless, but if you play games, it's a big jump. For example, (using

Tomshardware CPU charts) the differnce between Newcastle AMD64 3200 and

XP2700 is 141fps vs. 100fps... and that's using NForce3. With Venice

(and its SSE3 support) and Nforce 4, I expect the difference to be as

high as 50%. And that's assuming the same video card.

[damonrpayne]

XP 64 is not a crappy system, but the lack of driver is a problem yes.

Hypothetically you would see some increased performance from running all native 64 bit stuf, since on a 32bit OS the AMD is emulating a 32bit proc.

[meuge]

XP 64 is not a crappy system, but the lack of driver is a problem yes.

Hypothetically

you would see some increased performance from running all native 64 bit

stuf, since on a 32bit OS the AMD is emulating a 32bit proc.

Well, to be perfectly sincere, AMD64 is not a true 64-bit CPU... it's a

32-bit CPU with 64-bit registers and extensions (hence the x64 name).

But yes, the gains from a 64-bit operating system can be huge, but the

lack of driver support and regular updates makes it the poor brother of

WinXP-32... at least for now.

[Shade]

meuge, hows that video card working out for you? Get a chance to unlock it to the higer speeds yet?

I've tried a couple of games lately that my 9600XT can't handle, so

I've got the upgrade bug. Pretty much setlled on a Venice core 3200+,

but not sure about the video card yet. I've been considering either an

x850 pro or an x800 XL, but getting that Sapphire and unlocking it is

pretty tempting. Any problems with artifacts, etc.?

[wheelman]

Meuge do you think I would benefit a significant performance boost with going with a new processor such as the Amd Athlon 64 3200+ ( venice ) from a Amd xp 2700+ ( thoroughbred) 32bit? Would it be worth the extra 200 something for cpu and motherboard.? Or should I hold out for something better later on? I like the idea of having high numbers in the front side bus, and the upgradable graphics card ( pci express 16) down the road. Also would it still run on regular windows xp untill I could afford the 64 bit version? Thanks

WinXP x64 is a pretty crappy system right now, since there are very few drivers out for it. I wouldn't use it until it becomes more mainstream anyway.

As far as upgrading from XP2700 to AMD64, it's a worthwhile upgrade, depending on what you want to do. Obviously for general computing it's useless, but if you play games, it's a big jump. For example, (using Tomshardware CPU charts) the differnce between Newcastle AMD64 3200 and XP2700 is 141fps vs. 100fps... and that's using NForce3. With Venice (and its SSE3 support) and Nforce 4, I expect the difference to be as high as 50%. And that's assuming the same video card.

Meuge thanks, I dont' think I would be going with the nforce 4 chip even though I want to. It's I cannot find a mobo that will still take my agp 6600 gt vid card. I still like that card and it will save me some dough for now. I did find this one though.

http://www.asrockamerica.com/Products/939DSATA2.htm

I figured this and the venice core 3200+ is the best bang for the buck while still using my current vid card. I can upgrade to pci express down the road with this board and up my hardrive. I will never go SLI. I can barely afford one vid card as it is.

220.00 dollar upgrade shipped from, newegg

[meuge]

meuge, hows that video card working out for you? Get a chance to unlock it to the higer speeds yet?

I've tried a couple of games lately that my 9600XT can't handle, so

I've got the upgrade bug. Pretty much setlled on a Venice core 3200+,

but not sure about the video card yet. I've been considering either an

x850 pro or an x800 XL, but getting that Sapphire and unlocking it is

pretty tempting. Any problems with artifacts, etc.?

It unlocked to 16 pipes fine, and I have it at 520/1100(550DDR) right now, which is faster than a stock X800XT.

However, X800GTO2 is no longer available and will never be available

again... they new ones have the extra pipes laser cut and they are

called X800GTO2L.

Your best bet is to save up the $330 you need for an Nvidia 7800GT. ATI

is at a loss in pretty much every price bracket at this time (the GTO2

was an obvious exception).