Upgrading Athlon 64 X2 4600.

[Kevinck]

I'm woefully out of date on all the latest hardware. So i'm having trouble trying to guage performance compared to older machines.

The wife wants a machine. I have harddrives, dvd, mice, keyboards, case, monitor and an extra video card. just don't have the cpu/mobo/ram. Lots of options for a cheap cpu/mobo/ram combo out there. in this forum there was a good htpc cpu/mobo combo from newegg i think. But i'm contemplating getting myself an upgrade instead and giving her my components.

Have an athlon 64 x2 4600 AM2, 4GB ram, Geforce GTX 260 1GB video. Mobo is pulled from an old HP machine. I've looked and there is no bios update to make it AM2+.

For game performance is there any sort of upgrade path that would be worth while? Or is the only real performance upgrade going to come from going for the $200 cpu range. Which will mean a $120 mobo. And $70 ram. and a $50 cooler. So at least $440 + tax. Which is too high right now.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[evanx]

It's good to upgrade, I think your cpu is bottlenecking your video card.

With the card you have, I suspect you game, so for your own build, go for:
1) Intel E7400 (about $150)
2) Asus/Gigabyte P43 board (about $100)
3) 4GB DDR2 ram (about $50)

You don't need a cooler unless you're overclocking quite high, or need a special quiet cooler.
So the total is about $300.

This way, there isn't any upgrade path at the cost you want. AMD is shifting to AM3 and Intel is shifting to i7/i5.

[mr_raider]

I suggest you keep the RAM, and get yourself a new CPU + board and 2x1gigs of RAM. Give the Old board, CPU and 2 gigs of RAM to the wife.

As for new, you can get a nice AMD setup for 350$. That'll get you a Phenom II 920 and motherboard.

[Mark099]

I suggest you keep the RAM, and get yourself a new CPU + board and 2x1gigs of RAM. Give the Old board, CPU and 2 gigs of RAM to the wife.

As for new, you can get a nice AMD setup for 350$. That'll get you a Phenom II 920 and motherboard.

You can also get a better Intel setup for that price (with ram) if you don't mind buying used.

[Kevinck]

I suggest you keep the RAM, and get yourself a new CPU + board and 2x1gigs of RAM. Give the Old board, CPU and 2 gigs of RAM to the wife.

As for new, you can get a nice AMD setup for 350$. That'll get you a Phenom II 920 and motherboard.

So doing some more reading i see that if i get a Phenom II and AM2+ motherboard, i should be able to upgrade the processor to a future AM3 processor and keep all the existing hardware in the future. Sure i won't get the benefit of DDR3 but at least it is a future upgrade path. If i went for a non-i7 intel setup i'd be stuck upgrading the motherboard again next time.

Is there a decent motherboard out ther that's known for being good bang for buck. And i guess from a manufacturer that's good about bios updates. In other words they'll have some good AM3 processor support in future.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Kuurgen]

Not to sound like a plug, but I just picked up a Phenom II quad core 9850 Black Edition for $130 from a member of this board who has a few other cpus for sale.

I just upgraded from a 4200, so for me this is quite the nice boost.

My only shortfall is my board Asus M2N-E doesn't overclock so well.

I also bought an alpine cooler from Canada Computers which looks like it will do decent decent air cooling. (16 bucks yes I'm cheap)

Do a search in the buy/sell for the Phenoms and I would recommend the DFI Lanparty Dk board which I've heard overclocks very well.

I'm trying to located toronto dealers for the DFI, and as yet have no clue on what this board runs for.

If you really want to go cheap, find a used M2n-e and update the bios to the latest.

Be prepared to factor in a power supply that will handle the new board and cpu.

[SinCron]

Not to sound like a plug, but I just picked up a Phenom II quad core 9850 Black Edition for $130 from a member of this board who has a few other cpus for sale.

I just upgraded from a 4200, so for me this is quite the nice boost.

My only shortfall is my board Asus M2N-E doesn't overclock so well.

I also bought an alpine cooler from Canada Computers which looks like it will do decent decent air cooling. (16 bucks yes I'm cheap)

Do a search in the buy/sell for the Phenoms and I would recommend the DFI Lanparty Dk board which I've heard overclocks very well.

I'm trying to located toronto dealers for the DFI, and as yet have no clue on what this board runs for.

If you really want to go cheap, find a used M2n-e and update the bios to the latest.

Be prepared to factor in a power supply that will handle the new board and cpu.

Um.....dude. That's not a Phenom II. That's one of the original Phenoms.

[Kevinck]

Thanks for all the replies. Think i'm going to go amd due to the lack of upgrade path with a cheap intel system. Only time will tell if that ends up being a good choice.

Phenom II 920. Something like a gigabyte ma770-ud3 mobo for $100 at canadacomputers. split my memory so that old computer has 2gb and new computer has 2gb.

Around $350.

Thanks again.

[mr_raider]

Phenom II 920. Something like a gigabyte ma770-ud3 mobo for $100 at canadacomputers.

Just ordered that from directcanada yesterday. 333$ shipped.

[Kuurgen]

Um.....dude. That's not a Phenom II. That's one of the original Phenoms.

Opps I misspoke, your correct, sorry been staring at a lot of technical crap for the past while. A slip of the tongue. :)

[SinCron]

Opps I misspoke, your correct, sorry been staring at a lot of technical crap for the past while. A slip of the tongue. :)

Ok good. I hope you didn't buy something and were expecting another thing.

[Kevinck]

Can anyone tell me, is the stock fan for a phenom II 920 pretty loud? Will i be wanting to get a different one or will i not notice? I guess compared to a stock fan for an athlon 64 x2 4600.

[SinCron]

It's usually best to upgrade the fan and heatsink if you want a quieter computer. The larger the fan, the less the noise. Tis the reason I'm looking at an AeroCool case that has a 400mm side fan.

[Kevinck]

I hate upgrades. This was supposed to be 'quick and cheap'.

But now i'm getting an Antec p182 case because i've wanted one ever since i saw a friends'. Theoretically this will handle all future upgrades.
http://www.antec.com/usa/productDetails.php?lan=us&id=81820

And a fancy new heatsink because reviews seem to say it's quiet and powerful. And it's available at directcanada where i'm buying most of this stuff.
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2248

Of course now the wife wants a better monitor than my old 17" LCD so i get to buy that too.

And since we're spending money on ' my computer stuff' she thinks we should also upgrade the art in the house. :-)

This is what i get for suggesting that she'd enjoy her own machine.

[evanx]

I hate upgrades. This was supposed to be 'quick and cheap'.

But now i'm getting an Antec p182 case because i've wanted one ever since i saw a friends'. Theoretically this will handle all future upgrades.
http://www.antec.com/usa/productDetails.php?lan=us&id=81820

And a fancy new heatsink because reviews seem to say it's quiet and powerful. And it's available at directcanada where i'm buying most of this stuff.
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2248

Of course now the wife wants a better monitor than my old 17" LCD so i get to buy that too.

And since we're spending money on ' my computer stuff' she thinks we should also upgrade the art in the house. :-)

This is what i get for suggesting that she'd enjoy her own machine.

The ThermoLab BARAM (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermolab-baram.html) is currently the king of air coolers, beating the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme.

[Kevinck]

The ThermoLab BARAM (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermolab-baram.html) is currently the king of air coolers, beating the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme.

Yes. at almost 20 decibels louder than the one i linked. i'm more conscerned with noise and price than with ultimate cooling right now.

the one i linked is 'good' cooling at very quiet levels.

The thermalright ultra-120 extreme is 'insane' cooling at loud levels. not extremely loud. but still.

edit: i know i could buy the best and quitest fan to replace the stock one, but then we're talking even more money considering the thermalright is already over double the price.

edit2: that baram looks great. but once again it requires an expensive fan to be quiet. and it's probably expensive itself. and i can't even find a canadian retailer that sells it.

[Kuurgen]

I hate upgrades. This was supposed to be 'quick and cheap'.
This is what i get for suggesting that she'd enjoy her own machine.

That's the way it always goes, after recently picking up my Phenom, I soon realized that my motherboard would also need to be upgraded.

So the conversation with my wife began with, so there's extra CPU and heatsink, and if I upgrade my motherboard you can have the old CPU and motherboard. Of course we all know that upgrades always require little things that we forget to take into account and that's what this is turning into for me as well.

I'm trying to space out my purchases, I've been drooling over the DFI Lan party motherboard, I'm just trying to find a decent price for it.

[evanx]

Yes. at almost 20 decibels louder than the one i linked. i'm more conscerned with noise and price than with ultimate cooling right now.

the one i linked is 'good' cooling at very quiet levels.

The thermalright ultra-120 extreme is 'insane' cooling at loud levels. not extremely loud. but still.

edit: i know i could buy the best and quitest fan to replace the stock one, but then we're talking even more money considering the thermalright is already over double the price.

edit2: that baram looks great. but once again it requires an expensive fan to be quiet. and it's probably expensive itself. and i can't even find a canadian retailer that sells it.

LOL, guess you figured out the noise level is dependent of the fan which isn't included with the BARAM.

The BARAM is designed to take advantage of low speed fans through turbulence in its fins. But you're right, I can't find a canadian retailer for it as well. It's supposed to be cheap, well at least cheaper than the Thermalright.