Upgrade Advice 754 to 939

Status
Not open for further replies.

IBN

Posts: 469   +2
Hi there

I am going to make a upgrade to my socket 754 system

Currently my system specs are:

AMD Athlon 2400+
3 x 512MB PC2700 RAM
300GB HDD
nVidia 6600 256mb AGP 8x
Antec Earthwatts 430W

I am planning to reuse my RAM, Graphics Card, Case and PSU.

So I should end up with
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Dual-Core
3 x 512MB PC2700 RAM
nVidia 6600 256mb AGP 8x
Antec Earthwatts 430W
New Motherboard.

THIS is the motherboard I am planning to upgrade to and THIS is the processor I am planning to buy also.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this. Many thanks in advance.
 
Don't buy that mobo.

1) ECS is a terribly low quality manufacturer
2) That motherboard has AGP which has been replaced by PCI-E.

THIS is one of the best motherboards ever made for socket 939. It has a hell load of features, dual PCI-E, support for SLI, and is good for overclocking.
 
Thanks for replying.

The thing is that I want to stick with AGP and my 184 pin RAM.
 
Well you'll need a fourth memory module as the CPU cannot work with uneven numbers of memory modules with taking a drastic hit on performance (on top of the loss of performance due to slower PC2700 versus PC3200 ram).
 
I dont plan on turning the machine into a heavy gaming rig. I just want to to spend some money to give it a more processor power.

On the RAM side, I am thinking that I could re-use my two sticks giving me 1GB of RAM.

What about my PC 2700 RAM? Is it going to slow down the performance of the system to the speed of my current rig?

EDIT: How about if I switched from the dual core for an AMD 64 3500+ and bought Crucial 2 x 512MB PC 3200 RAM?
 
The single core + faster ram would make sense for games (albeit upcoming games can use the extra processing power a dual core offers) but if you're into multi tasking a lot, it won't be as practical. Keep your current PC2700 ram & feel the system out a bit. If things seem to slow for you, you can upgrade to PC3200 later down the road.

An AGP slot is not much of a handicap, there are fast AGP cards (not 8800GTX fast but still plenty fast).
 
(Thanks for helping people)

I think I am going to take your advice. Any thoughts on the motherboard though?
 
THIS is the board I was origionally thinking of going for. I want to go as cheap as possible. But I dont want any problems too having said that!
 
I came across that, just had a negligible concern with it being micro.

The dual core is OEM so I will need a HSF too. Any recommendations on fans from HERE?
 
Thanks for going out of your way to help me out here, really appreciate it. I am gonna reuse RAM, PSU,IDE HDD and Graphics Card.

I will keep you guys informed on the outcome. Watch this space!

Thanks again!
 
Update!

The motherboard doesnt support AGP Cards!!!!

I realised this when the motherboard arrived. Anyway it does have onboard graphics, besides I had a PCI Express 6200TC lying around so I plugged that in.

The system is pretty fast an I am satisfied. On the graphics side I will just just wait for the midrange DX10 cards to come out and then upgrade.

I havent really noticed the RAM slowing the system down, but how could I test that? The most noticable bottleneck seems to be the HDD.

The CPU HSF is absolutely HUGE! It does a great job of cooling though.

Overall I am happy with it. Intend on getting faster RAM and a better Graphics card, all in good time.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back