college student pc upgrade question

T

ThirtySixBelow

Gawd
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
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I don't really NEED new stuff for my computer, but my stuff is so old and I saw an OEM AMD X2 on newegg for 65 dollars and it got me thinking. I priced out all the parts I would need for around 320 dollars. It's really showing my computers age when I can probably out do it's performance for 320 dollars. Do you guys think this computer would perform well compared to what I have and would be worth 320 dollars even if it wasn't 100% necessary? I don't game much and it would mostly be used for linux with beryl. I'm just wondering how noticable the performance would be.

X2 3600+ Brisbane
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103036

Abit Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127010

1GB Gskill
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231099

7600GT 256MB PCI-e
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150185
 
I think for the most part you won't feel much difference other than if you do a lot of multitasking, then the dual core will help. I think 7600gt and 6800 are around the same in performance. I'm not sure what stuff you are doing with linux, but if you are doing some sort of development the dual core is probably worth it at least for compiles.
You should at least wait for quad core to come out and drive the prices down even further.
 
it seems like people are getting good results from the biostar tforce 550 mobo which is only $80.
 
paffinity said:
I think for the most part you won't feel much difference other than if you do a lot of multitasking, then the dual core will help. I think 7600gt and 6800 are around the same in performance. I'm not sure what stuff you are doing with linux, but if you are doing some sort of development the dual core is probably worth it at least for compiles.
You should at least wait for quad core to come out and drive the prices down even further.
Click to expand...

Ok, well the 7600gt is just because i would need a pci express card, but if it's not really any better then that won't show. I do a good amount of programming, but a lot of it is remote, so that won't matter. I know the dual core would help with supreme commander, but if it's not going to make any difference in my regular usage then i might hold off a little longer. My processor is just so far behind that there arn't any benchmarks comparing the two so it's hard to judge a performance increase. I'll look into the biostar if i decide i'm going to buy this stuff. I just don't want to invest 320 dollars into something if i'm only going to notice a difference in a game that I play maybe a few hours a week.
 
Last summer I made the jump from an Athlon XP 2000+ to my current Opteron 165 based machine (in my sig) and that alone was a tremendous difference. Everything from games to Photoshop to web browsing with multiple windows and tabs (not to mention even more background tasks running) ran very smoothly with the new setup. Switching between different programs is now so seamless and effortless that it was pretty unbelievable at first. Overclocking my machine made the results that much more worth it. So I would say the move to dual core would be worth the time and money (though I would suggest throwing in an additional 1GB of RAM). :cool:

As for the video card, others have mentioned that the 7600GT should perform around the same as the 6800 that you have now. As an alternative that may offer a little bit more, check out the X1950GT if you don't mind ATI:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102034

All in all, the upgrade is worth it if you're ready for the change - especially with the way AMD and Intel have been trading blows in this price war. :D The amount of money needed to have a dual core machine is just ridiculously low unlike how it was just a year ago.

Best of luck with everything! :)
 
Please dont listen to them.....if that 6800 is a vanilla card, that 7600GT will be alot faster. Pull the trigger on the setup, however I would get the Tforce 550 AM2 board for 78 bucks on newegg.
 
Pull the trigger. I noticed a difference between my A64 3200+ and my Opty 170 and they are running at the same clock speed. Dual core is so much nicer than single core.
 
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