My upgrade Dilemma.

[mujo]

Well, here we go again, its upgrade time. Now, I probably won't upgrade till after Christmas...but I wanted to start asking now. In light of the new system-hungry games on the shelves as of late, I'm inspired to upgrade. Here's my system as we speak:

Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 2 X 512 MB Corsair XMS
Hard Drive: 2 X 80 GB Seagate SATA 7200 RPM (RAID 0)
Video Card: RADEON X850 Series (Omega 3.8.252)
Monitor: Viewsonic 19" CRT
Sound Card: Realtek AC97 Audio
Speakers/Headphones: Altec Lansing headset, w/mic
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse (blue)
Mouse: Logitech G7 Wireless Lazer mouse
Mouse Surface: generic mouse pad
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)

Now thats all fine and dandy, for now. I'm having trouble deciding on what to upgrade next. RAM, or CPU. With drastic decrease in AMD FX processor prices...I'm literally learning towards them. However, my friend sticks to his argument that "those FX processors are a waste of money, just overclock". I have Overclocked, and have not noticed much performance improvement. I know for a fact that with an increase in RAM, I'll recieve a drastic improvement. So here we go, the RAM and CPU that I'm deciding between:

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145449

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103527

I am open to any criticims and opinions. Just let me know what you think. RAM or CPU?

[Hamese]

To upgrade the processor, wouldn't you also have to upgrade the motherboard? I am not an AMD, so I do not know the differences in the that and and Intel.

Memory is a lot cheaper, so I guess I would need to know the answer to my question.

[mujo]

Money will not be an issure, I have almost $200 saved up, so Ill have enough when the time comes. I will not have to upgrade the motherboard, as the chipset supports FX processors, and its socket 939. I know some people will ask: "why not go core2 duo?" And I have to say, well....I can't afford a whole new set up (RAM, CPU, Motherboard). Memory isn't all that much cheaper now. It's actually $20 more than what I paid for it a year ago.

[gator]

For multitasking purposes I'd lean towards memory. I don't play the latest games, so I don't know how CPU-bound they are in terms of performance.

This 18 month old Anandtech article showed IMO that games weren't very CPU bound, but things may have changed since then.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... i=2410&p=7

I think 1GB is the minimum I'd recommend for systems now, especially with Vista. If you do a lot of multitasking, then I'd definitely recommend increasing your memory to 2GB.

Edit: Another reason to go for the memory is what you mentioned about RAM prices... as most things are manufactured for DDR2 now, don't expect DDR prices to get any cheaper. I think CPU prices won't increase in the near future... has AMD even switched to 65nm yet? Until then, I don't imagine that CPU prices will increase.

[mujo]

See the thing is, I'm not a big multi-tasker, I do homework, surf the net, and Game on my PC, it is in a sense, a gaming rig. Gear'd towards gaming.

I'll have to do some more research and see whether these new games are CPU intensive or not.

I think you're right about the RAM prices...they keep going up. And as far as the AMD socket 939, I believe its still 90nm. Not sure what teh socket AM2 is. Maybe I'll just OC my CPU a bit more, and get the RAM .

edit: see...my brother has teh exact RAM as I, and HE's going to upgrade to Core2 duo...he said he can give me his RAM for cheap ( 2x512 XMS for $75). That'd be sweet

[l3eeron]

I think I would max out the RAM before doing anything, maybe a new vid card. Your current processor looks good to me. I wouldn't mess with that. I aint no expert but even if you do decide to upgrade your CPU/MOBO later you're new Ram and/or vid card will still work on the new MOBO so it wouldn't be a waste of money in the end if you upgraded your CPU later.

[mujo]

[quote="l3eeron";p="2013"]
I think I would max out the RAM before doing anything, maybe a new vid card. Your current processor looks good to me. I wouldn't mess with that. I aint no expert but even if you do decide to upgrade your CPU/MOBO later you're new Ram and/or vid card will still work on the new MOBO so it wouldn't be a waste of money in the end if you upgraded your CPU later.
[/quote]

WEll..not exactly true. My current RAM is incompatible with the new socket AM2, AM3 (for AMD) and the new Core2 duo sockets. So If I did upgrade my RAM, it would be useless when I upgraded my motherboard. My vid card should be fine as its PCI express 16x.

[John Doe]

Well sir, without knowing the brand of your motherboard I cant give you any solid advice.....


First off I feel 1 Gig is enough for most things these days. 2 Gig is nice but for most of what you do I dont believe you will see much of a difference in performance.

A CPU upgrade might be the best way to see a speed improvement, but again it all depends on what your board supports.

Another option already suggested is a video card upgrade, the X850 is ok, but its now several generations old in the Video card world....Depending on the games you play the vid card might be the best way to see a performance increase.

Now, depending on your motherboard it might not be worth putting much money into upgrading anything...the money might be better spent on a new mobo and cpu and ram, but thats a tough decision to make.

Let me know what brand and model your motherboard is and I will see where you can take it and share further thoughts from there.


Oh, there is one other thought for speed improvements. Do some serious windows tweaking to free up resources and gain some performance boosts.


JD

[mujo]

JD:

-My windows is already tweaked to the utmost.

-My mobo: EPOX 9NPA+Ultra PCI express 16x, Socket 939, PC3200 RAM, SATA, etc

-I know exactly what my board supports, either a new video card, cpu, or ram Therein lies my dilemma, upgrade cpu or ram lol.

-The 1 GB RAM ideology no longer exists. A game I play right now (Company of Heroes) recommends 1 GB or more. My friend has an almost similiar setup as mine, except he has 2 GB of the XMS RAM. His performance was outstanding.

-The real problem is..because my technology is "outdated"....whats worth upgrading? as you said the video card may be the better way, because I Can carry that over to a new system if i needed to. However, to really upgrade my video card, I'd have to spend over $300, and thats a bit out of my range. The x850xt can kick some serious bum in the gaming world, for now.

- I think I may just be better off to leave my system 'AS IS' and just wait a couple years and do a total upgrade. We dont make a lot of money, so its not like I can upgrade every year.

-It's a tough decision, i know, thats why I asked for helP And I do appreciate everyones advice thus far.

[BlackHawk]

I always say memony before processor. After all, you cna have the worlds fastest processor, but if you dont have enough memory it will have to wait until it refills the memory

[mujo]

[quote="DJ George";p="2097"]
I always say memony before processor. After all, you cna have the worlds fastest processor, but if you dont have enough memory it will have to wait until it refills the memory
[/quote]

I've been thinking along similar lines. I may be leaning a bit that way. We'll see when Christmas is over (Sales!) lol.

[Simple]

When I upgraded to 2gigs of memory I didn't notice much of a speed increase so to say, but I did notice my system is alot more stable. XP pro wants 256MB to run, Firewall and anti virus want 200+ MB to run and then say Steam wants 200+ plus so it leaves you short if anything else is rumming unless you want o shut everything down. I can have several things open now and there's no worries if I'm over taxing my system. Also seems to make my system run cooler as well as it's not working as hard. .

[DaKon]

I have to disagree with JD on the ram thingy. Newer games like FEAR, BF 2142, DODS, will run better with 2gb vs 1 gb. In a lot of cases people have see 10-20 fps boost. I will try to find the link where this was testing (thinking it was toms hardware).

That is what I would do if you plan on keeping this system for a bit. No point on a new cpu when it would be better at that point to migrate to the new sockets/chips.

[mujo]

Well, I think I'm just going to wait closer to Christmas, get in some good sales. I'm definetly going to get some RAM, I think you're right about the CPU Dakon. Thanks everyone for your input.

[merf]

[quote="mujo";p="2393"]Well, I think I'm just going to wait closer to Christmas, get in some good sales. I'm definetly going to get some RAM, I think you're right about the CPU Dakon. Thanks everyone for your input.[/quote]

I say your best cost/performance ratio would be to upgrade to 2gigs of memory and a new video card. Your proc/mobo are fine...in fact you can squeeze a bit more from your cpu if you OC. I would say you can get at least 2.55ghz and a lot more if you you're lucky and have a good core. Upgrading your memory will help boost performance of todays games....but if you want to play today's and tomorrow's games with the 4xAA and 16XAF look into ATI x1900 series or Nvidia 7900 series.