DFI Lanparty NF4 and graphics card upgrade - help!

[ERU]

Hey folks. I've not been about here in an age as i've basically not been spending any time near a computer. I'm looking for some help to get a newer GPU for my DFI Lanparty and was loath to ask over in another forum ... spit. I'm well out of the loop now and have no idea what or where to look.

My rig is an ageing DFI NF4 Lanparty Ultra-D Motherboard (Socket 939 & PCI-E),
AMD Opteron 146 (Venus) @ 2ghz, <<< can overclock if needed and I remember how!
ATI X800 ViVo Graphics 256mb DDR3 (ID 4439 / Core R423),
Western Digital 74GB "Raptor" 10,000RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache,
2gb Corsair DDR,
Hiper HPU-3S525 525W 12v Low Noise PSU
~all being cooled on a XSPC X2O Water-Cooling Ki with roof mounted Passive Radiator and ThermalTake AquaBay M2


I'm looking to upgrade the GPU to something modern in the hope it will give it a final lease of life and play games, i.e. Napoleon: Total War near full settings. What GPU can I get to run on it? Is everyone still using PCI-E? Should I be looking at other bottle necks too? Is the WD Raptor still a great drive? Would I be better just getting a new rig? I really have no idea ... even after googling about ...

[Hicks12]

It is an old system .

raptors arent that bad but they perform about the same as newer 7200rpm drives so the performance they used to offer isnt as good as before.

Is that pci-e 16x? All gpu's use pci-e still so your sorted in that respect, im not sure if youd need a complete overhaul but you could try a new gpu and see how it goes simply because if it doesnt improve then you can use that card in a later built.

Whats your budget?.

[ERU]

I'm not totally sure of the PCI-E speed in all honesty. Guess the budget is £100 max. I think after that i'm looking towards a new rig ... or at least porting the new GPU if it doesn't give a good boost.

[scaryjim]

I was looking at some AGP graphics cards reviews a while ago (considering one final AGP upgrade!) and this Tom's Hardware review of the HD4650 AGP showed that it was severely bottlenecked by a 2GHz Athlon X2 - essentially a dual core version of your Opteron. The bottleneck reduced significantly when overclocking to 2.6GHz - but again, that was a dual core rather than a single.

Now, a lot of older games won't make best use of 2 cores, but most newer games will, so you'll find that the newer the game you play the worse your CPU bottleneck will be, I'm afraid.

That said, something like a HD4670 / HD5570 / 9600GT would be a decent upgrade over your X800 without spending too much, and you could overclock your CPU or look to pick up a higher end S939 dual core (although they aren't cheap at the minute) which would give you a bit more life. But I certainly wouldn't spend any more than £50 - £60 on a GPU, as you simply won't get the benefit from the extra expense...

[Domestic_Ginger]

Quick linky for N:TW settings.

Still looks like it may be dual core limited. The later patchs for E:TW is supposed to have made it multicore supported; can't say as I have not played it in a while!

My Athlon 3200+ with a x1950pro was pants playing empire on low settings. I think it is what swayed me into upgrading.

[ajones]

I think I had a similar setup (DFI NF4 SLI DR) until the chipset had an accident. I hadn't noticed that the fans rotation had been blocked by a graphics card installation, so it cooked one summer.

If memory serves, it's PCI-Ex v1, 16x, so will be fine with any PCI-Ex card.

It is probably due an upgrade by now though; 4GB RAM and try to upgrade to an X2? Some of use still have old 939 X2s lying around!

[shaithis]

It is probably due an upgrade by now though; 4GB RAM and try to upgrade to an X2? Some of use still have old 939 X2s lying around!

The problem is that most people selling x2s are asking silly money for them.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Agree; a AthlonII x2 or x3 new is probably the same as a second hand s939 x2.

[kalniel]

Agree; a AthlonII x2 or x3 new is probably the same as a second hand s939 x2.

Agreed, but thanks to AMD's industry response they don't run on the 939 sockets that many of us still use.

[jim]

You've picked about the worst game possible there

TW is massively CPU limited because of all the AI calculations that are going on. You can turn down the graphics, but you can't really turn down the intelligence. I might be being pessimistic, but I don't think you're going to have much luck here.

[ajones]

The problem is that most people selling x2s are asking silly money for them.

Well having just checked, the only X2 I've got gathering dust is an AM2 3800 X2. I do have a 939 4600 X2 that I'll be shedding this year, but I need to get a new job first!

[Pob255]

Agree; a AthlonII x2 or x3 new is probably the same as a second hand s939 x2.

That's because they are the top end 939 cpu's so anyone in the same situation as ERU, ie looking to upgrade a 939 system without a near complete over haul is looking at the same cpu's
That and there's a big jump in performance between a single and dual core, esp with with the majority of games&software now being able to untilise multiple cores.

Check your cpu load when the game is running if it's running flat out 90-100% then yes you're probably cpu bound.
There are some advantages here, you could get a new graphics card and if it's not fixing your issues then you can carry it over to a new system.

For a relatively cheap system upgrade, I'd look for a 2nd hand AM2+ motherboard and some 2nd hand dd2 (look for 1gb sticks will be cheaper 2nd hand than 2gb sticks)
For cpu you can ether buy a new(ie not 2nd hand) AthlonII with this you can later upgrade the motherboard to am3 and ram to ddr3 and keep the cpu
Or get the cheapest 2nd hand Athlon x2 you can find, not very powerful but more so than what you currently have.

[ERU]

I did have a look around for an X2 but as mentioned sbove they sre very expensive. Seems i'm looking st s new mobo/cpu then

[TAKTAK]

Time to upgrade i think , i don't think there is any point in ploughing money into a 939 system though, mainly because as already stated your CPU will bottle-neck anything semi-recent.

So with that in mind:

DFI JR 790GX-M2RS - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFI-J...A-II-Micro-ATX - £60

OR

Sapphire 52023-00-40R - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sapph...-RAID-uATX-VGA - £50

---------------------------------------------

Proccy:

Athlon 240 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...che-65W-Retail - £45

OR

Athlon 250 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-65W-Retail - £50

---------------------------------------------

PSU:

Corsair CX400 - http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=26958 - £40

---------------------------------------------

HDD (i'm a sucker for WD):

WD 320AAJs - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...8MB-Cache-9-ms - £33

OR

Samsung F1 320GB - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...MB-Cache-89-ms - £33

---------------------------------------------

RAM:

2GB Corsair 800MHz - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-%...d-CAS-4-4-4-12 - £45

---------------------------------------------

ODD:

Samsung SH-S223C - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Samsu...SATA-Black-OEM - £16

---------------------------------------------

Case:

RC-360 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...r-Case-w-o-PSU - £27

OR

RC-330 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...Scan-Exclusive - £26

OR

Akasa Midas - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akasa...io-eSata-Ports - £28

OR

RC-331 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...r-Case-w-o-PSU - £30

OR

RC-335 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...r-Case-w-o-PSU - £30

OR

Xiggy Asgard - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xigma...0mm-Fan-No-PSU - £30


---------------------------------------------


If you pick all of the cheapest then it comes to £251 (without taking today only into account )

If you pick all of the dearer ones then it comes to £276 (again not taking TO into account)

That isn't including a GFX card obviously, so that would need to be taken into account, leaving you around ~£375 ish outlay


Obviously, killing duplicate parts off saves some money, so re-use case, PSU, ODD, RAM and HDD.

Leaves you with, mobo, RAM and proccy plus whatever GFX card you want :

DFI JR 790GX-M2RS - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFI-J...A-II-Micro-ATX - £60

OR

Sapphire 52023-00-40R - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sapph...-RAID-uATX-VGA - £50

---------------------------------------------

Proccy:

Athlon 240 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...che-65W-Retail - £45

OR

Athlon 250 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-65W-Retail - £50

---------------------------------------------

RAM:

2GB Corsair 800MHz - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-%...d-CAS-4-4-4-12 - £45

---------------------------------------------

So around £150 outlay for the Mobo, RAM and Proccy

Which if you include your top end outlay which you've said is ~£100 leaves you £250 ish to get a rejuvenation and leave SKT939 behind.

Plus you can sell the 939 parts off to recoup some of the funds


Those parts are merely a base of what you can get for what price etc (lifted the post from one of my previous in another thread ) So shopping around + taking advantage of offers will save you a bit more moolah


Out of interest, what sort of prices have people seen SKT 939 X2 parts go for, more specifically 4200 and 3800 (i ask because i've got 2 part systems waiting to be spliced to create a Frankenstein's monster for my sister, but if money for 939 stuff is stupid then i might as well sell up and be quids in for a newer system...)

edit: HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, are people seriously paying £90 for 939 3800s?, Jeeez

[Pob255]

You can knock a bit off that cost, 2nd hand ram, 2x1gb of ddr2 pc2-6400 is going for around £20 (basic stuff) which should be fine if you don't overclock it.

Looking at fleabay, some pillocks are paying £40+ for the older athlon x2 however some are going for around £20
However a new 240 or 250 look good for the cash
You should be able to use you're current water cooling & case (although you may need a new block or a mounting kit)

PSU may need replacing as it's an older +5v heavy model

[Domestic_Ginger]

The DFI JR 790GX-M2RS is always on today only for about £51. I would splash teh little extra for a tricore.