the $200 Upgrade question

[MrWicked1968]

I'm planning a mild upgrade to the AM2 system in my sig.

right now, in my newegg wishlist, I have an X2 4850E 2.5ghz 45w cpu and a Sapphire 4830.

other processors I've considered are the X2 5400 Black Edtion and the X2 6000 3.1ghz.

other video cards I've considered, 9800GT's of various pedigrees, 1gb 3870, HD4850, and a refurbed EVGA 9800GTX that's $129.99

now, my current X2 4000 does not like to be overclocked in any way, the system just will not boot when anything is changed in the BIOS. I do know the proper procedure for overclocking, so don't think I'm just setting the FSB to 300 and hitting restart. Granted, that was with the Antec EA380 PSU, I have not tried to OC with the CWT.

If you think a cpu upgrade isn't necessary, I'll will skip it and just get a 4850 or possibly a 4870.

thanks

[Bobsama]

HD4830 + 4850E or 5000? You're at what? 2.1?

[mp666]

Getting 4850e will be an automatic overclock for you (it's 400-500 MHz faster at the default clocks than your current CPU). Plus it is energy efficient. It's a win-win situation.

$100 is a great price for a 4830 and I don't think the price difference between a 4850 and 4830 is justified by the performance increase. And most people overclock easily their 4830 cards so the performance gap can be even less if you choose to overclock.

Over X2 4000 + HD 3850 you are getting a big jump in performance ,IMO and that's just for $150.

[MrWicked1968]

I'm considering switching to some Kingston HyperX, tax and shipping come to just under $210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104041

[mp666]

Originally Posted by MrWicked1968

I'm considering switching to some Kingston HyperX, tax and shipping come to just under $210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104041

Why ? And you know they won't run at 800 MHz without being overclocked ?

[Bobsama]

You already own Muskin. Anyways--perhaps you should look at a different motherboard, instead of a different processor? Or try a pin-mod, if there are such available for an X2 4000.

[MrWicked1968]

Originally Posted by Bobsama

You already own Muskin. Anyways--perhaps you should look at a different motherboard, instead of a different processor? Or try a pin-mod, if there are such available for an X2 4000.

new motherboard involves new OS installation and all the associated crap.

so, along that same line of thinking, I may just hold off on a cpu upgrade until I make the move to Phenom and DDR2 1066.

I won't bother with the memory either.

I'll start looking at the various 4850's and sub-$200 4870's.

[Bobsama]

Originally Posted by MrWicked1968

new motherboard involves new OS installation and all the associated crap.

so, along that same line of thinking, I may just hold off on a cpu upgrade until I make the move to Phenom and DDR2 1066.

I won't bother with the memory either.

I'll start looking at the various 4850's and sub-$200 4870's.

95% of the time, M$ grants an activation even on second or third boards, &c. If they ask for an explanation, "my old board died." Other than that, try to figure out if it's the CPU or motherboard not overclocking.

[MrWicked1968]

I've danced the activation dance more than once, but the purpose of the thread was a $200 upgrade to an existing system.

[Proximon]

You need an upgrade, but all the AMD dual core CPUs are kinda sad. I say don't throw away money on any of them. Phenom II is the only AMD CPU I actually recommend.

If you were wondering about speed though, the 6000 and 6400 win the gaming benchmarks, at least at stock speeds. 7000 series looks good on paper but fails IRL.