jump to s939 or pci-express ?

[chaotic_russ]

what would be the best option ? , jump to socket 939 or jump to pci-express . i cannot afford both

[nvening]

What do you have now?

[NightshadowUK]

And what's the main use of your PC?

[chaotic_russ]

sorry i forgot to add that lol , specs =

cpu :> athlon64 3200 s754
mobo:> asus k8n (nforce3 250)
mem :> 2 gig ddr400 (kingston value ram)
o/s:> win xp pro sp2
gfx:> aopen 6800gt (starting to fail i think)
h/d's :> 2x 80gig (maxtor + hitachi)
psu:> hyper type r 580w (630 peak power)

And what's the main use of your PC?

gaming and modeling (3ds max)

[NightshadowUK]

Hmmm you could go S939 and keep your 6800GT until it packs in, then upgrade to a PCI-E card though getting...

- AMD Athlon 64 3500+
- ASRock Dual SATA

All for £114, not bad ay.

[chaotic_russ]

good price that , would i have to upgrade my os as it is oem ?

[xbo]

I'm not convinced that the upgrade from a 3200+ to a 3500+ is worth it.

IMO you'd be better off saving up and then going all out on a Conroe or AM2 based system.

[FatalSaviour]

I'm inclined to agree with xbo.

May be worth saving for a while...see if your graphics card quits...if it does, fine, by a PCIe card and mobo, but if not, and you scrabble enough pennies together for a bigger upgrade, then I'd do that .

You would have to buy new mem, which would be a bit of a pain, but other than that, that's what I'd probably go for.

[NightshadowUK]

If you were gonna go for a huge upgrade, Core 2 Duo (Conroe) is where it's at but you're talking big money...

You could get an Opteron 146 and overclock it... or wait for the X2 3800+ prices to drop some more which is likely to be within the next few months.

[nvening]

If you upgrade your motherboard then you would need a new copy of XP if it is OEM. However it is worth noting that the OEM copy WILL work with the new motherboard but be in breach of the licence

[chaotic_russ]

thx for the info all , i think i will save for a major upgrade and replace my video card (it's nearly dead)