What CPU should I go with (or, what mobo/cpu combo should I upgrade to?)

[ChristopherW]

Ok, here's the layout: I've got a rather ageing PC, Socket 754 mobo (GA-K8NE, don't laugh) with an old 2ghz Sempron in it, PCIe X1600XT graphics card, 2 gig DDR memory (honestly couldn't give you model number, the PC's on at the moment but it's Crucial RAM) and other bits and bobs.

... It's upgrade time... But I haven't the foggiest where to start on this one. As a stingy bastard student I'm looking for the best bang for buck here, but just looking at the Wikipedia table of the Athlon 64 CPUs is making my brain hurt. I've been out of the PC upgrade game for too long and things have fast passed me by. So, what processor should I go for to give me best bang for buck (or, alternatively seeming as there's loads of new socket types including AM2 and a proliferation of the newer Socket 954 A64s and FXes, would it be more cost effective to get a mobo+cpu bundle?)

I'm looking on Dabs because they currently have a nice hard drive deal going and I need to buy moar storage anyway, so if anyone can point me at some stuff on there that's cool (though I'm open to Scan / Aria / Ebuyer / other reputable sellers).

I need help spending my money! Help please

Cheers guys
Christopher

[wither2000]

Whats your budget?

[ChristopherW]

Could probably go to three digits for the CPU if it was worth it, probably 160/170 TOPS for a bundle (but I'd prefer lower). I'm happy to get good performance and save a few quid over blistering performance and a wallet-burning price to match, the games I'm out to play are source (at better fps), bf2 (similarly), and I'm planning ahead for Spore. Just a bit unhappy with my current fps and the time taken to load games, feel it's my CPU for the most part letting me down (the rest of the PC isn't soooooo bad).

[PenguinJim]

£60 for a very good (not great) 965 mobo, £50 for an E4300, £15 for an aftermarket cooler, and £40 for 2 gigs of PC6400 DDR2. You'll need a PCI-E (or PCI!) graphics card to go in there, though. But I saw a £68 512MB 8600GT at Scan for pre-order the other day. Clock the C2D E4300 up an FSB notch and you're sorted.

Edit: Sober PJ will give you links. I have enough trouble spell-checking!

[ChristopherW]

That's what I was afraid of... Is it REALLY going to be more worth my while ripping the guts of my PC out and fitting entirely new core components rather than just upgrading my CPU?

[PenguinJim]

I'd think so. You can get a reasonably future-proofed s775 system with which you can drop in a... I dunno... 3.5GHz (stock) 1333+ FSB Quaddie at some point down the road.

The Gigabyte 965P-S3 is about £50 now, from Scan and places - check out some reviews and see if it's the one that picked up a ton of budget awards earlier this year. The E4300 is £73 at Scan. Here's that great silent 512MB 8600GT that DPJ mentioned:
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Check out Hexus' own bargain forums for the latest DDR2 deals. Finally, for your storage, I just ordered myself one of these beauties:
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Now I must return to my hangover.

Edit: free Scan delivery for Hexites!

[ChristopherW]

Oooo....

Shame, I was considering Scan for another PC purchase I made in the early hours of this morning (ended up handing another £240 to Ebuyer, the buggers always seem to get my money even though they've treat me abysmally in the past, it's like an abusive relationship). Sadly Scan didn't have both PSUs I wanted (only had the 500w Enermax, the others were all preorder) and the HDDs I was after (half terabyte Seagates for a new RAID) were fraaactionally more expensive than on ebuyer, so meh.

I went to the Scan site first though, as I usually do - and I will in the future That silent 8600GT is out of stock and overdue on the Scan site, another shame cause I'm sorely tempted to buy these other upgrades now and justify it as a Christmas purchase!

Would the graphics card really be a necessary purchase d'ya think, or could i get away with the X1600XT for a while longer? It'd save me a good wodge of cash (and allow me to get a better mobo/CPU combo), and if you look at Hexus reviews from last year it did the best in them, obviously it's old tech as far as the industry's concerned but I quite happily ran a 9700 Pro for donkeys years until it gave up on me in a shower of multicoloured polygons during a css match

I game at 1440x900 whenever possible too (Sammy widescreen's native res), something I neglected to mention. I've gotten the distinct impression that the graphics card is really being held back by the processor, would there be THAT much of a difference jumping to an 8600? A raw clockspeed comparison shows that my card actually runs faster than the 8600 in both GPU and RAM stakes, though of COURSE it's not just apples and pears when you compare graphics cards, I've not used an nVidia card for a looong time though so don't really have much of a benchmark to compare it against my real world experience. It would feel like a bit of a downgrade though unless they really are that much better than my current card? (I do note that the 8600GT is a DX10 card and my x1600xt is only 9c, so obviously improvement there).


Any and all feedback appreciated, my knowledge of the lastest rake of hardware releases has gotten very rusty because I've not had enough money to even contemplate an upgrade for such a long time

[PenguinJim]

I'd say stick with the x1600XT until January at least. It's only 9 weeks away, gives you plenty of time to judge how much it really is holding you back. You may even be able to pick up a £120 8800GT at that point! The 8800GT looks amazing at this stage. But then, ask again in January.

Here's GSte's amazing 2GB DDR2 bargain works out about £40-41 delivered, and is the superior 4-4-4-12 stuff (I actually have the same RAM in my rig, picked up as a bargain for about £80 earlier this year ).

[chazt]

I say if you're not enjoying your gaming now, splash some cash!

I got the Bioshock demo and my 7800gt was holding me back a bit, so i went and splashed out £300 on an 8800gtx, which was probably slightly out of my budget. Suffice to say I was very happy with my purchase!

[ChristopherW]

I'd say stick with the x1600XT until January at least. It's only 9 weeks away, gives you plenty of time to judge how much it really is holding you back. You may even be able to pick up a £120 8800GT at that point! The 8800GT looks amazing at this stage. But then, ask again in January.

Here's GSte's amazing 2GB DDR2 bargain works out about £40-41 delivered, and is the superior 4-4-4-12 stuff (I actually have the same RAM in my rig, picked up as a bargain for about £80 earlier this year ).

Bloody hell Jim, that's a corker of a deal (I wouldn't have any problems with futureproofability would I? By my logic it should work right away in my current machine (GA-K8NE), and it should... provided I get the right mobo down the line... work fine in that too, right? or am I going barmy here?)

Trigger finger is itching over the buy button


Man I hate how much I've fallen out of touch with the PC market, I need to pay more attention. If it wasn't for Hexus I'd be totally lost sometimes

[PenguinJim]

Bloody hell Jim, that's a corker of a deal (I wouldn't have any problems with futureproofability would I? By my logic it should work right away in my current machine (GA-K8NE), and it should... provided I get the right mobo down the line... work fine in that too, right? or am I going barmy here?)

That's exactly what I'm anticipating. PC3200 all over again! The E4300 is 266FSB at stock, so just change the FSB to 333 for a nice boost, and you're still nowhere near the 400 stock of the RAM.

Edit: Whoops, misread your post and thought you were talking about that 775 Gigabyte mobo I mentioned earlier. Your GA-K8NE is DDR1, not DDR2, so this stuff won't work in there. I'm pretty sure your mobo is DDR1, anyway.

So upgrade already!

[ChristopherW]

Yeah, that's what I thought (I was thinking about this earlier and came on to ask the very same question you just answered )

I've been hovering over the buy button... The memory's gone down in price again! But, I'm going to hang back from upgrading until December time (just spent ~250 on parts for the server, don't have that much cash to spare as it is! ) D'ya still think it'd be a worthwhile idea to purchase this RAM anyway and just keep it for a few months until I get a supporting mobo?

(c'mon, I need coaxing into this purchase )

[Kord]

D'ya still think it'd be a worthwhile idea to purchase this RAM anyway and just keep it for a few months until I get a supporting mobo?

I've thought exactly the same thing about DDR2 memory for the last few months. I'm glad I haven't, because prices seem to be getting lower. You just have to watch out for the point where factories announce they're stopping DDR2 manufacturing, because after that point prices always start a relatively steep climb.

DDR3 is just starting to be used for system memory, but it's currently at crazy price levels. DDR2 will continue to be the best value memory for a while yet... it's just worth noting DDR3 is already here, so buying DDR2 to stash away for a motherboard you haven't bought yet, might not be a good move... that's what I keep telling myself, anyway

[PenguinJim]

Yeah... I dunno. It probably won't go down by much more... but then, maybe it might... I dunno! Flip a coin. If the result is an answer you don't want, then you'll know that you don't want to do that.