Ageing gaming system, few Questions

[Blind898]

Iv been slowly keeping my system old system goin and iv been able to play some games like Crysis on med fine and Fallout 3 on high easy. I just got my hands on a AMD 3800 x2 2.0ghz. My system now is

CPU: AMD 3800 x2 2.0ghz 939
GPU: AGP 3850 512 dd3
Mobo: Gigabyte Ga-K8NSC-939
Mem: 2gig DDR 184 PC3200 OZC Dual Chan OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K
PSU: 700watt ThermalTake

I read some new games coming out like Need for Speed Shift / Section 8 / Aion.. ex. I read system Reqs and im sure i can play it by looking at the Recommend but will the fact that my cards an AGP and im still running DDR ram hold me back? My cpu is rated at the Recommend states for all the games but how well will it be able to hold up?

 

[lebaneseguy]

try canyourunit.com

 

[Blind898]

Yea iv been to that site and its says i can run most of them games they have up there that i want but iv read some reviews about the site not being 100% accurate.

 

[hunter315]

The 3850 is rather strong actually, though you can get quite a boost out of it by OCing your processor a bit, they actually used an identical processor in this review
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/agp-radeon-overclocking,2395.html

DDR ram wont hold you back too much, its lower latencies counter the higher transfer rates of DDR3 so there isnt a ton of performance difference.

 

[Blind898]

Yea i saw that Article, its pretty good but idk too much on how to OC threw the bios and i tryed the gigabytes Auto overclock program easy tuner 5 but when i put it up even 1% my comp freezes. Not sure if my mobo supports Easy tuner or not.

 

[rambo117]

id say that your CPU would be the largest holdback. if you overclock it to at least 2.6ghz, you'd be eliminating lots of bottleneck as seen in the review hunter315 posted.

 

[obsidian86]

try yougamer.com

 

[lunyone]

Looks like your just about maxed out for a s939 system. The only thing that you can do, which has already been mentioned, is to OC your CPU or if you lucky enough to find a faster CPU to install. I don't remember the fastest stock s939 CPU that you can get, but that is about all that you can upgrade to get a better gaming experience. The other option is to upgrade most of the system (CPU, Mobo, RAM, GPU). The upgrade could cost you around $300-500, depending on how much of an upgrade that you can afford.

 

[Blind898]

Yea i think this comps hit its end on upgrades. Looking into OC and cooling now. Im just trying to stretch the life of the PC so i can save abit longer then have more to toss at a fully new system. Thanxs for the comments and help every.

 

[lunyone]

Did you have a budget for what you want to do? I saw a x2 250 CPU w/785g mobo for about $140. Just add some DDR2 and cheap GPU and all of your other stuff.

$137 shipped!
AMD Athlon x2 250 w/Gigabyte 785g mobo combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.254102

$58 shippeed! One of the better RAM packs for DDR2. This'll hold you for awhile.
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

$70 - $10 MIRc = $60!! Hard to beat this GPU at this price!
GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125277

Total $264 - $10 MIRc = $254!!! Now you could get this setup and sell your old one and have a decent upgrade for not too much $. Not sure that this situation works for you or not, but at least you can see what options are out there.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

How many socket 939 mobos were AGP? My friend uses my old one as his main computer, and it's definately PCI-E. Just got a 3800+ X2 for him off of ebay, and he's running a x1950 pro.

 

[lunyone]

90% of s939 mobo's were AGP. I know this because when I built my current rig, there wasn't any PCI-e mobo's out at the time.

 

[Blind898]

wow thanxs lunyone. That is pretty good. Most of teh stuff like psu case and stuff can be moved over np. 240$ for an upgrade isnt too bad at all.

For OC the cpu i was reading into it and its seems abit of time and work to get it just right with AMD 64 cpu. im looking at being able to get a fully new system by march / April next year. This pretty much just trying to keep this holding out till then rly. then it becomes a "community computer" at my home.

 

[lunyone]

Well if you want an easier OC, which I don't know why you would need it on a budget "get me by" PC, but none the less, you could get this:
$102 shipped, might look at different combo's, but because it's the Black Edition you will have an UNLOCKED multiplier!! No voltage changes needed for a good basic OC. If you want more out of it, than you'll need a better CPU HSF and you'll have to adjust the CPU voltages (which I wouldn't recommend doing for your needs).
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

$162 shipped combo!! Only $22 more than the previous suggestion!!
Current 785g mobo listed above w/the PhII x2 550 BE CPU

 

[Blind898]

Well if you want an easier OC, which I don't know why you would need it on a budget "get me by" PC, but none the less, you could get this:
$102 shipped, might look at different combo's, but because it's the Black Edition you will have an UNLOCKED multiplier!! No voltage changes needed for a good basic OC. If you want more out of it, than you'll need a better CPU HSF and you'll have to adjust the CPU voltages (which I wouldn't recommend doing for your needs).
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

$162 shipped combo!! Only $22 more than the previous suggestion!!
Current 785g mobo listed above w/the PhII x2 550 BE CPU

sry i ment for OC my PC in using atm not the one you link. That one i wouldnt see the need to OC other then for fun. lol

 

[lunyone]

ahh I see what your saying, just thought you were talking about the ugrades