Where to upgrade?

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frankhuzzah

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
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I've got about $600 to spend on some system upgrades, but I'm not sure where to spend them exactly. My current rig looks like this

Athlon 64 3200+
1gb Mushkin Ram
ASUS A8N-E
Antec Truepower 550w PSU
Benq DVD-Burner
Several PATA HDs
ATI x1800GTO

I was first thinking of upgrading my CPU and adding memory, but then I noticed that I could upgrade to a C2D system for the cost of a motherboard. As prices have just dropped, it seemed like a good idea. Then I was thinking that my system was OK for now and that upgrading my monitors would be a better idea. I've got a mismatched pair of 17" crts and I thought I could pick up a 24" LCD. But that made me think, I doubt that the few PC games I play (World of Warcraft, Oblivion, The Sims 2, a few others as I get the urge) wouldn't play very well with my system.

So, my question, what would you do with $600 and my system?
 
If it was me, I'd go for a new system. $600 is a more than enough for a new Core 2 Duo system if you reuse your power supply and video card:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - $235
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express - $123
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ 2 x 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 800 RAM - $110
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s - $57
----
$525 plus Tax and shipping.

If you think that your system is fine for now, then go for the monitor. Although I do recommend upgrading the RAM as well.
 
you GPU is fine...


upgrade CPU to at least a 3800 X2 which is like $80 newegg price

upgrade to 2GB of RAM I would get a 2x1gb kit

sell current CPU $35
sell Current RAM

with the rest i would get a 22" samsung or viewsonic nice monitor your GPU will place nice with a 22"

that is what I would do... if you have more $$ get a better X2 CPU
 
For $600, this is what I would do:

Sell the 3200+/A8N-E/1GB of ram. That should get you at least another $100. Then, I'd pick these up...
$290 - Viewsonic Optiquest Series Q22wb Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD ($50MIR)
$105 - Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$115 - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache
$85 - Wintec AMPO 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-667 3AMD2667-2G2K-R
$57 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3160815AS 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache SATA300
$10 - Rosewill RC-200 PCI IDE Silicon Image RAID (0/1/0+1) Host Controller Card (since you have alot of IDE devices)
============
$662 + tax and shipping - $50MIR

Then I'd OC that E4300 to 9 * 333 = 3Ghz, DDR2-667 on stock cooling. If you have more money (if you get more for your old parts), get the E6320 (should be $165) or E6420 (should be $185) instead. If you don't want the extra IDE controller but want more onboard IDE capacity, the MSI P6N SLI-Fi would be good (damn, they raised the price $10!).

If you just want better gaming performance and a better monitor, you could do something else... I'll edit this post later, me sleepy.
 
unbelievable! 2 gb ddr2 667 for $85. memory manufacturers must be losing money by now.
 
How far into the product cycle are the C2Ds? Ideally, in about 12-18 months I'd like to get the 'fastest' LGA 775 chip and ram. That is what I tried to do with my last upgrade but AMD screwed me up when the abandoned the s939 socket (to early in my opinion). Do you guys feel the boards that you recommended will support that kind of plan?
 
Well Core 2 Duo CPUs were released on July 27, 2006. So they're about 9 months into their cycle. I believe Penryn will still be LGA 775 if I'm not mistaken.
 
Well, although I'm not firm on this decision, here is what I'm looking at

$234 - Intel C2D E6600
$110 - GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 1.3)
$114 - OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
$80 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

That's about $540 with shipping. That is almost to good of a price for that system to pass up. I still really need a new monitor, but that'll probably have to wait for another paycheck...
 
frankhuzzah said:
That's about $540 with shipping. That is almost to good of a price for that system to pass up. I still really need a new monitor, but that'll probably have to wait for another paycheck...
Click to expand...

Do you plan on overclocking? If so, you'll need a better HSF to reach 3.6Ghz. Look at the Tuniq Tower, Scythe Ninja/Infinity, Thermalright Ultra 120, or Zalman 9X00.

I'm assuming you want to hit 3.6Ghz because you chose DDR2-800 ram, and 9*400=3.6Ghz. Otherwise, you don't need DDR2-800 RAM (9*333=3Ghz, DDR2-667). Also, don't bother with those OCZ sticks. They're overpriced and have a rebate to compensate for that price. Instead of waiting for the rebate, go for some sticks without a rebate. Directron.com should be getting some Buffalo Firestix (Micron ICs) in stock soon, DDR2-800 for $120. Theres also some G.Skill 2GBNQ sticks for $110. Tighter timings than 5-5-5-15 at DDR2-800 won't be yield very noticable performance increases, so don't bother.
 
Yeah, I do plan on overclocking, but that is where my trouble really begins. I did some light overclocking back with my Athlon XP a hundred zillion years ago, but nothing since, and nothing on the Intel platform. Specifically, I'm not sure what to look for in RAM. I simply saw that those were 'on sale' and seemed to be good.

As far as what I'd like to reach with an OC; I'd love to hit 3.6, but as much as I'd like that performance, I need to be able to sit right next to my PC. I'd like to find that zone where the volume versus performance meets. I'm not sure what or where that is, however.

Well, I guess I'll head over into the Overclocking forum and start binging on information.
 
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