time to upgrade

[dizarky]

I'm looking to upgrade my motherboard and cpu so i can ring in the new year with something a little more modern. My amd athlon 3200+ just ain't cutting it anymore, it's bottlenecking my gpu. What i need is something that still uses agp. i'm not making the jump to pci-e anytime soon. I also need it to have good overclocking abilities, can support newer amd64 cpus, and is affordable. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[evongugg]

I would advise you to go with Intel Core 2 Duo instead of AMD 64. You will get better performance. This is what I suggest for you:

http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-VSTA.htm

 

[mkaibear]

The only way you'll end up with a system that still uses AGP is to take the inevitable tradeoff. The chipsets which allow you to use AGP are slower than the equivalent ones which force you to use PCIe.

If you *must* have a modern processor with an AGP slot on the motherboard, then either go for the Asrock DUAL-VSTA or the AMD equivalent - I'd recommend going for the Core 2 Duo instead of AMD, but it's your money!

I'd like to know why you think the 3200+ is bottlenecking your GPU - what resolutions are you running at?

My suggestion would be "save the money you'd spend on an upgrade until you can afford to buy both a new graphics card and a CPU at the same time".

 

[dizarky]

typically i'd agree with that, but i just upgraded to this gpu, and it was pricey enough. as far as why i think my cpu bottle necks my card, when i overclock my cpu, and leave my gpu stock, the fps increases a lot. so i figure getting a more powerful processor and then overclocking both the cpu and gpu would give me the most bang for my pennies.

As far as motherboards go, i found this one, an ASUS A8V DELUXE Socket 939 VIA K8T800 Pro ATX, that seems like it would fit what i need exactly. now what kind of proccessor should i get to go with it? i'm thinking an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Manchester. The fx chips are still way too pricey for my taste.

Oh, and i don't care much for intel, so i can live without the core2duo and not loose sleep over it.

 

[mkaibear]

>don't care much for Intel

Meh. I'm an AMD fan, I've used their processors for the last 8 years, but my next machine will be a Core 2 Duo machine. It's just a much better combination of price and performance.

For the cost of the Asus motherboard and the 4600+ I suspect you can get an Asrock DUAL-VSTA motherboard and a Core 2 Duo 6300. This will be a *massive* improvement on your current system, plus it has an upgrade path.

Socket 939 is dead. If you *have* to buy AMD, buy a socket AM2 motherboard.

 

[yas]

Well actually you can get some good mobo+cpu combo deals for both athlon64 and AM2 that are really cheap so I agree that that way atleast you could keep everthing else like ram and gpu etc. If you live in US then have a look at newegg which has some good combo deals.