Need upgrade Help

[GT98]

Ok my old man wants to upgrade his old 1Ghz AMD PC. I'm kinda torn about what to get him right now, either a high end Althon 64 or a slightly lower end Althon 64 chip. I want to lean towards the A64 since it would give him future upgrade flexablity vs the AXP chip. Far as I know the A64 hasn't moved to its new cpu pin out (939 I think? ) so I might tell him to hold off a couple more months till that happens.

He justs needs a new CPU, Motherboard and Memory and I'll prob recommend a new PS to go along with it.

So whats your suggestion...go the Althon XP route or go A64 route? I want to keep the upgrade to around $400-500 bucks for everything if possible.

[Wombat]

Cheap XP for now. CPU and motherboard can be had for under $100 combined, then in a few months it will be easy to upgrade.

[skinrock]

I assume you mean high end 64, "lower end XP"? With that said, there's a couple of things I could say about this. One, right off the bat: you say you want to keep it between $400-$500, getting a new 64 bit Athlon, motherboard that supports 64 bit processing, memory, AND a ps (if you do) is going to be tough with these constraints. Secondly, right now a 64 bit cpu, to me, doesn't serve much purpose, as a lot of software hasn't been made to utilize 64 bit processing. I'm sure it does speed up things, but for the money, I think you're better with an XP chip.

[GNEP]

Socket 939 is due to start this month, but with ? limited availability... see Dave's thread here:

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12050&highlight=

George

[omegaRED]

I`d suggest sticking to Athlon XP for the time being. As Wombat said, MB + CPU can be had for a relatively low price, mem price is the same... If you want more bang for the buck, you could get a mobile XP which hit 3200+, 3400+ and more with very low voltage, thus eliminating the need for a really expensive HSF. My combo (Soltek 75FRN2-L and a mobile Barton XP 2600+) cost me around 190$, and the prices are MUCH higher here. In the US, i`m guessing the same combo can be had for ~140-150$. You cant really beat it`s price/performance ratio...

[Novdid]

I say if you can get him an A64 on the new socket, that's the way to go!

[Kurt]

Re: Need upgrade Help

Originally posted by GT98
Ok my old man wants to upgrade his old 1Ghz AMD PC. I'm kinda torn about what to get him right now, either a high end Althon 64 or a slightly lower end Althon 64 chip. I want to lean towards the A64 since it would give him future upgrade flexablity vs the AXP chip. Far as I know the A64 hasn't moved to its new cpu pin out (939 I think? ) so I might tell him to hold off a couple more months till that happens.

He justs needs a new CPU, Motherboard and Memory and I'll prob recommend a new PS to go along with it.

So whats your suggestion...go the Althon XP route or go A64 route? I want to keep the upgrade to around $400-500 bucks for everything if possible.

Get him a really fast hard drive and wait for november...

[UtwigMU]

Based on his upgrade cycle I wouldn't bother myself with upgradability.

For instance his 1GHz Athlon is Socket A, but you can't just slap in a Barton. The case will be similar with whatever he gets now.

Even if he gets S939, he won't be able to get 2-3 times faster CPU due to chipset, RAM and voltage/power support.

64-bit CPU is pointless ATM, but in 2-3 years, software and OS's will be mainstream. Although most common tasks will still work on 32-bit CPUs (such as Office, browser, e-mail client).

PCI Express - PCI will still be arround, you can latter get him an X800 or 6800 when they come down in price and with current CPUs, better cards would be limited, so no need to wait.

What's the main reason he wants to upgrade, which apps are too slow? Is he having hardware problems?

Personally I think that there should not be a huge noticable difference between GHz and 2.2 GHz CPU in average desktop and business tasks, provided, both have sufficient (512-1GB) RAM and fast hard drive. I mean 2k was pretty snappy even on PII 350@467 with 512MB of PC133 CAS2, Parhelia and WD1200JB.

If it's mainly slowdowns due to memory and HDD, check out his usage pattern and get him 512-1GB of RAM.

If it's hardware problems, or he runs apps that are CPU limited? In that case currently AthlonXP has far better price/performance, although if he won't upgrade for 3 years, getting A64 might be better.

If it's just need to upgrade itch, I'd consider just upping RAM, perhaps getting faster HDD and upgrading to big LCD, 21" CRT, cordless optical mouse, better speakers, digital camera, DVD burner, better chair (from a lot of pics I see posted by people on line - they spend about 2000$ on the rig and about 100$ on desk and chair)...