Hi My computer is almost 3 years old (built it in dec/jan 2006/7) and I've made a few additions here and there (2 extra gb of RAM, graphics card, 2 PCI devices(tv tuner and soundcard)) However Im thinking of upgrading the core part of my computer; my motherboard and computer. Essentially it wont be the same computer however I'm thinking about doing this as I'm going to Uni next year and obviously with the various costs of living etc, it would be nice to have a good computer which lasts the full duration of uni or at least requires little or no upgrades. Also I have noticed that my post time has always kinda slow its normally between 10-20 seconds and it takes about 1minute to load up windows 7 and about 3:30 to get to my log in screen with 9 start up programs (most are quite light). I've also started to play games a lot more and sometimes i record programs/run an anti-virus while playing a game. Obviously this is quite taxing. It also gets quite loud because of the 3 80mm fans. I think one of the main reasons I was thinking about upgrading is due to the motherboard and cpu fan being half price for this weekend and my sister wants her own computer so i thought I'd build an additional rig with a couple spare parts and get her to buy a cheap graphics card for around £25 and a new HDD for around £30. Also my motherboard doesnt really support any processsors in the AM2+/AM3 range so if in a few years we move more towards quad core, my computer wont really be able to handle some of the quad core apps or at least it wont cope as well. If i get a socket 775 motherboard i think i will be compatible with more processors and by the time I upgrade to a quad core processor, they might have come down in price. My current computer is; AMD athlon x2 64 3800+ 2.0ghz Asus m2n-e Sli 4gb kinstoon 677hz RAM nvida 8 8800 2x DVD-/+RW Drives 300gb Westernn Digital HDD (had since it since I bought the computer) 500gb Hitachi HDD (bought this year) Leadtek DTV100 TV tuner TV tuner PCI Express x-fi Xtreme audio the componants I'm thinking about getting are; MSI Zilent Intel Pentium Dual core E6300 Coolmaster ELite 335 So do you think that this is a good idea? EDIT: also im going to upgrade the RAM so i was thinking about either this pair of corsair twinx 800mhz RAM or this pair of corsair twinX 1066mhz
ok fine i made a mistake in the first line but still please can you tell me what do you think i should do? I want my computer to last for quite a while and i dont want to end up buying a new computer when i leave uni. I'd prefer to just upgrade 1 or 2 parts if its necessary in uni although it'll probably depend on the state of my finances as I might not be able to afford any parts for quite a while.
Problem is, that computer isn't going to last long anyways. You're using an S939 rig and frankly, even if you did upgrade it wouldn't bring about any real performance changes. You can go the AM2 route and get a X3 720BE + 750a/790X chipset. Don't go the LGA775 route though, they're about to be extinct..
it is a AM2 but asus cant upgrade it to AM2+ due to the bios size apparently but are sure that there's no point in getting a 775 board, the intel ones seem much better but they seem to depreciate in value at a much slower rate. As i said, the board i linked to is reduced to £65 for this weekend only and it contains a pretty good fan. Do amd have a better range of quad core/6 core processors then the 775 quad core processors? Also will any AM2+ board support AM3 or is AM3 some chipset thats only for certain quad/6 core processors?
I'm saying that getting an either an AM2+ motherboard or an AM3 motherboard is cheaper and offers a bit more flexibility. Getting a LGA775 limits you now to basically C2Q and C2Ds.
hmm so would it be best to get a board which has brought out recently as AM3 or should i go with a board which was originally AM2+ but could be upgraded to AM3? Im guessing that a AM3 board will probably probably last longer. Also will it matter if it only supports 800/1066? Should i find a board which supports 1066 and higher?
ok I've been comparing a few other chipsets and I can see why your trying to get me to go with AMD as they do seem to offer newer processors with a higher cache speed etc for a lower price. Can you give me a link to a website which compares different chipsets so I can compare the features?
Man, If you keep your computer clean theres no reason why it wont last you years to come. If i was you, run the beast into the ground untill you can afford to get another one. If it does what you need it to do then why change? dust it out every couple of months with a hoover and a hair paint brust it'l last ages!
do you think its worth spending the money just before i go to uni so the prices are down etc or should i just spend the £400-£600 or so during uni for a decent computer in about 2-3 years? Im thinking if i just upgrade it just before i go to uni i can make small upgrades when i need to and I can use the old parts for a computer for my sister (Thats if she still doesnt get a laptop before then). This way it should cost me around £50-80 if i need to. I might just need to upgrade the RAM and I might just stop using it so much for gaming. It all depends really, I'll just get the parts according to my usage really.
im probably gonna be using it for games/as a dvr/music player etc.. Im going to get a inexpensive laptop purely for work so that I'm not distracted by the dvr/games/music etc on my computer. I might just use it mainly as a DVR/hi fi as I might not have time to properly play games.
What games are you playing? Are those games lagging? The most cost-effective upgrade for you would probably be to get a decent AM3 mobo and an Athlon II X2 250 or Phenom II X2 550. The graphics card is pretty good, wait until the midrange DX11 cards are out before you upgrade that.
sometimes fallout 3 lags but honestly I want to upgrade to future proof my system more than anything else. I have been considering the phenom II X2 550 or the triple core one that was mentioned in a previous post. Ive been considering these motherboards but im just wondering, is there a major difference between the 770 chipset and the 785G? Is it just the intergrated graphics that diffienciates them? Also is it worth getting the 790x chipset for a extra £20-40 because they seem to be pretty simular. here are the motherboards Im considering; 770/785G the Asus M4A785TD-M EVO ASUS M4A77TD PRO 790GX ASUS M4A78-E ebay link Asus M4A78T-E
Asus fanboy much? All 785G chipsets I've seen so far have been on mATX motherboards and the 770 chipset is a cutdown 790fx without multigpu support. The 770 or 785G motherboards are a safe buy anyway but I've not seen any reviews of the asus boards so can't comment on that really. There's no point in buying a 790GX board unless you're going to be using more than 1 graphics card and as for the processor I'd get a phenom II 545 over a Athlon II 250 because of the extra cache for not much more cash
