Socket 939, upgrade or go for a newer chip?

[Sigadigah]

Hello everyone,

My current computer consists of the following:
Case: Cooler Master Cavalier 3
Power Supply: Thermaltake 430w
Mother Board: ASUS A8N5X (socket 939, nforce4 board, pci-e)
Processor: AMD 64 3200+ (@2.2ghz OC)
Memory: 1 Gb Corsair XMS ddr3200 (2x512)
Video Card: EVGA Geforce 6800GS
Hard Drive: Seagate 7200.8 SATA 150 250Gb
Monitor: Dell 2407wfp (24" @ 1920x1080)

I have been contemplating lately a number of options in regards to upgrading my admittedly old system.
1) to get a AMD 64 x2 4200+, another gig of ddr 3200 ram, and a new video card (8800gt or new ATI chips out in a week and see if that lasts me until Intels new processor Nehalem.
2) Get a modest Core 2 Duo Motherboard, processor, and the same video cards as above
3) Just get the new video card and wait and see how Phenom and Penryn do.

With so many new games launching, and with a bunch of hardware releases upcoming, I have to admit I am not quite sure what to do. I like to play a range of games from Civ 4, to UT3. For the purposes of this build, I would say my main goal is to be able to play UT3 or COD4 at 1680 or 1920 res, with decent settings, and good frame rates.


So does anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[nightscope]

I would say upgrade your whole system. Upgrading a dead socket isn't the best investment...

 

[taylort232]

You can upgrade to the Dual-core E2160, and it OC's to around 3ghz apparently. For the cost of getting a new stick of decent ram ($70ish) and a new 939 CPU (unless you go for the opteron 165, which overclocks, can be comparable to an FX-60, wwwaaayyy faster than an x2 4200+, ~$100) you can get a gigabyte board (a P35 series) and 2gb of DDR2 for around $250. Put your old crap on ebay (939 seems to be holding its value pretty well, and you can get ~$40 for 1gb of DDR400) and you might make out cheaper than you thought. But you still will need a new GPU pretty soon.

 

[Sigadigah]

The video card is getting upgraded as soon as the new ATI cards launch, I will then either grab one of them, or get a 8800gt, that is if I can find one.

The processor, ram, motherboard I am leaning more towards just getting a new rig. It seems that for an extra ~ $100 - $150 I can get a good processor that is based on a socket that still has an upgrade path available to it later on.

Also, paying $70 for 1 gig of ddr 400 ram pains me when I see daily deals of 2 gigs of ddr2 800 ram for about $40. Whew. Almost get 4 gigs for the same price of 1.

 

[sailer]

If you were tight on money, I'd say you should go for the 4200+ cpu. But if you have enough to buy a new cpu, motherboard, and ram, than wait another week for the Phenom to come out, read the benches, and then do an total upgrade to whatever flavor seems best, Intel or AMD.

 

[cbxbiker61]

Video card first! Since you can put the video card in any newer board it's a no brainer.

 

[boner]

upgrade everything to Intel man not even joking here

 

[Sigadigah]

upgrade everything to Intel man not even joking here

I agree, AMD is in a rough spot and Intel seems to offer the best deal right now. Ofcourse Phenom is out in a week, but from what has been seen so far it does not look very promising.

Thank you to everyone who has replied so far, I am definitely still torn, but I might just have to wait for Phenom before making my move.

 

[caamsa]

Depends on how much you want to spend.......if you decide to go to an intell system forget those low end core2 cpu's and go right for the quad core. The cheapest core2 is $74.99....or the quad for just $279.99 an extra 200 bucks over the cheapest core2.

If you stick with AMD you can get the 4200+ for 66 bucks and then upgrade to 2 gigs ram and get your 8800GT and you should be good to go for a while. If your mother board supports 4 sticks of memory you are in luck as you will only need to purchase 1 gig.

 

[cruiseoveride]

go all the way with the 939 if you ask me. get a 4800+ or a FX cpu. since the 939 is End Of Life, you will find many cheap cpus for this guy.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

cruise, wrong!!! Ebay, 4800+ last time I saw was just under 200 bucks. Plus, memory is more expensive, the PC3200 memory seems to perhaps a little more rare than ddr2 pc6400.

 

[bobbknight]

If you need to upgrade:

A CPU with DDR2 is currently the way to go.

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

Buy a new system and gimme all ye ole' hardware .....I currently have Venice 3000+ OCed to 2.2GHz...your gfx would be a nice replacement for my x550 PCIe.....

Seriously though, I suggest you to listen to Sailer's suggestion

 

[Dahak]

I concur with the others.It makes more sense to build a new system than to try and upgrade your processor.Socket 939 is no longer fabricated,although you can still find them relatively easy.However,the more powerful 939 CPUs are getting harder to come by.But if you can't afford a new system,then I suggest buying an OPTERON 175 or 185.Either of these CPUs overclock fairly well,hence allowing you to get the most of your system.Goodluck.

Dahak

M2N32-SLI DELUXE WE
X2 5600+ STOCK (2.8GHZ)
2X1GIG DDR2 800 IN DC MODE
TOUGHPOWER 850WATT PSU
EVGA 7950 GX2 550/1400
SMILIDON RAIDMAX GAMING CASE
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G5 GAMING MOUSE
LOGITECH Z-5500 5.1 SURROUND SYSTEM
500WATS CONTINUOUS,1000 PEAK
WIN XP MCE SP2
3DMARK 05 13,685

 

[the411]

nahelam is only about a year from now, an upgrade should last you till then. x2 4200 can easily oc to 2.5-2.8ghz and that should be good enough. 1gb ddr400s are only about $40-50 at newegg.
if you're gaming then you should focus more on the gpu. nvidia will soon be releasing 65nm 8800gts(128sp vs 8800gt 112sp). you should save your money for those cards instead of building a new system.

 

[Sigadigah]

DDR 400 (3200) memory is about $70 shipped for (2x512) sticks of Corsair xms ram which would match what i currently have bringing me up to 4x512 sticks. The best relatively inexpensive processor for 939 is the 4200+ for 65, the opterons begin to cost so much it would make more sense to get a whole new motherboard etc.

No matter what I decide to do on the Processor / Memory front, A ~$250 Video card is in my future, it is only a matter of waiting for 8800gt cards to be in stock, the 38xx series to launch, or the 8800gts cards to be refreshed.

So many tough choices, upgrading to a Core 2 Duo 6650 is awfully tempting, but the quad core is a little more than I would want to spend right now (~ $250).

Thank you for all of the replies, there is a lot of good ideas. It seems that the 4200 could probably hold me over, but ofcourse a whole new socket is good as well.

 

[KyleSTL]

6550 (2.33ghz) or 6750 (2.66ghz)? There is no 6650 (no multiplier would give you 2.4ghz).

And upgrade definitely. $70 to buy 1GB of DDR or $50 to buy 2GB, that alone makes the whole rebuild a good idea.

 

[Sigadigah]

6550 (2.33ghz) or 6750 (2.66ghz)? There is no 6650 (no multiplier would give you 2.4ghz).

And upgrade definitely. $70 to buy 1GB of DDR or $50 to buy 2GB, that alone makes the whole rebuild a good idea.

6550, sorry. My finger decided it didnt want to hit the right key.

 

[choirbass]

the most expensive part of this upgrade, whether you go amd or intel, is going to be the gpu

if youre only concerned with gaming, s939 will work fine still, since you dont need a massive oc (or an oc at all) to have a good gaming experience... spend ~$100 to completely rejuvinate your system for another couple years or even a few years more, plus the cost of the gpu, which is another few hundred (go this route though if youre also shorter on money too)

if youre concerned with OCing your cpu by much, and doing more cpu intensive things, then intel is currently the way to go... the other option is just waiting a few days for phenom reviews, and the current price of both intel and amd components will probably drop more, especially if it does do well.

 

[funnyman06]

The 8800 will be make a far greater improvement then the CPU ever will, i ran my brothers 8800GT and got a better score in 3dMark then he did with his C2D.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Uhm, this thread is from November guys.

 

[smalltime0]

Necro!
its just funnyman06

 

[mehrdad99]

I havent read that much except first post.

Get a whole new system build... Build it for around 1200 and you can get decent and even great things.

But i highly suggest a new build, because buying another chip on that mobo and whole setup would suck majorly... trust me.. and trust others...

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

If the op is still in this position, I actually tried to do something like that. Tried to go to socket 939 as it was dying in order to save money on ram as I already had some ddr in my previous system. Bad move. Best to go to the newest socket if you can.