Upgrading from a 939 socket motherboard

[ragsters]

My friend wants me to rebuild his computer. Currently he has a 939 socket Asus A8n32-sli deluxe motherboard, an AMD 4400+ CPU and pc 3200 ram. Everything else is worth keeping. He is not a gamer and mostly uses the computer for internet browsing, word, excel and AutoCad/ LDD. He is giving me a $200-$300 budget to purchase a mobo ram and cpu. It would be great if he could get a quad core but with the budget it doesn't seem plausible. If he were a gamer I would get an intel set up but he not so i'm not sure if a phenom set up might be worth it for the cheaper multi-cpu performance. Please help me with some suggestions.

 

[WR2]

A faster dual core CPU would work better for your friend than a slower quad core.
Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.1GHz $89
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-US2H 780G motherboard $80
G.SKILL PI Black 4GB DDR2 800 klt $50

 

[WR2]

Everything else is worth keeping.

It's probably a good idea to list all the other parts being used so people can be on the lookout for incompatibilities.

You could think about one of the new triple core CPUs: Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz $119
And the quad core prices arent atrocious: Phenom 9650 2.3GHz $126

 

[aford10]

This comes to $285, and is a much better build than the AMD IMO.

e7400 - 120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115206&Tpk=e7400
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P - 115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358
g.skill pi black - 50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209

 

[badge]

I built this system a couple of weeks ago. I used some G. Skill DDR2 PC26400 I already had. I like using this processor as much as my C2Q 9450. A night and day upgrade from socket 939.

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

 

[aford10]

^ It's a nice cpu, but the board is a bit dated. It doesn't allow for much future upgrades.

You are better off with DDR2 800 RAM than the 1066. It is more stable and the timings are better. The intel builds are better overall quality than the AMD builds right now.

 

[badge]

Intels currently running. Q9450, Q6600, E8400, E6600. The PII 940 is better than the last three and almost equal to the Q9450. The ASUS 780G is as stable as it gets get for $80. Sure, if OP wants Intel, no problem, but for around $300 for CPU, MB and RAM it is almost as good as sex. 8)

 

[aford10]

It's not a bad board. But it will handicap any future upgrades. No options for a second card. The e7400 can be oc'd ~3.3Ghz rivaling the e8400/e8500 on stock.

 

[badge]

PII 940 @ 3.6GHz is equal to Q9450 @ 3.0GHz. Close. The PII 940 is a hell of a processor for $229. OP would do well building with one.

 

[badge]

I had the e7400 in my hand at Microcenter and put it back on the shelf. I'm glad I bought the PII 940 instead.

 

[badge]

So the Gigadud P45 is a good board? I'll keep my 780G.

 

[aford10]

No question the PII is better, but also $110 more.

 

[aford10]

aww c'mon, you can't knock the gigabyte boards....they are top notch.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

ragsters - It appears as if your friend is a mainstream user. With one exception, the software your friend is using does not require a lot of computing power. You mentioned your friend uses AutoCad/LDD. What does your friend do with AutoCad? Which operating system is your friend using? That is probably the main factor for making a recommendation.

 

[jitpublisher]

ragsters - It appears as if your friend is a mainstream user. With one exception, the software your friend is using does not require a lot of computing power. You mentioned your friend uses AutoCad/LDD. What does your friend do with AutoCad? Which operating system is your friend using? That is probably the main factor for making a recommendation.

It's about time. This should have been the first response. For what the OP is doing , his present rig should have no problems and he won't see any difference at all with the maybe the exception of CAD, exactly what do you use it for? That is the only thing I see that could show improvement by doing an upgrade.

 

[badge]

I have three socket 939's in use every day. AMD 4800 X2, FX 55, AMD 4000+. I let a sixteen year old student have my fourth running AMD 3800 939 system for $50. PII 940/ASUS 780G/4GB PC2 as an eventual $340 replacement for one of my current systems worked great for me. If any of my three 939 MB''s or processors went down, I would not replace them even if I could. Discontinued years ago. Finding new 939 boards and CPUs is rare. I tried Sleezebay and got a dead A8N32-SLI. Sure replacing an old, discontinued system is a good idea. Was for me. I'm still in that process.

It would be great if he could get a quad core but with the budget it doesn't seem plausible.

 

[ragsters]

Thanks everyone for all the replies. He Is running Windows XP Pro but he wants to run Windows 7 when it comes out. His main concern was to have the ability to upgrade to a good amount of ram with a new board.

 

[badge]

Welcome. I'm using 8Gigs with Vista 64 on my 780G. I had the PII 940 at 3.6GHz by simply raising the multi to 18x, but I am using an old socket 939 FX55 92mm HSF and it's not Prime stable with it. It is almost equal to my Q9450 at 3Ghz. There are a lot of great deals out there. 8)

 

[ragsters]

ragsters - It appears as if your friend is a mainstream user. With one exception, the software your friend is using does not require a lot of computing power. You mentioned your friend uses AutoCad/LDD. What does your friend do with AutoCad? Which operating system is your friend using? That is probably the main factor for making a recommendation.

My friend and I are both civil engineers with LDD being our main tool for designing. When building a surface there is a lot of computer power needed for it to run smoothly and for the computer not to crash. At least 4 GB of ram is needed but I'm not sure if Autcad is optimized for multiple cpu's.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I had a hunch engineers would be involved. We've got design engineers at the technology complex where I work. They definitely use the same software as you and your friend. I'll check with them and confirm; however, I am fairly positive they swear by quad core and lots of memory. I can't remember which operating system. I'll post again when I find out.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

ragsters - It was such a beautiful day in Phoenix, Arizona. The sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm. The engineers left work early. I will have a response in the morning.

 

[ragsters]

Thanks. I'll be hearing from you tomorrow.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I had the opportunity to speak with the design engineers this morning. They are using several different versions of Intel quad core cpu's, 16GB of memory, Windows Vista 64 bit operating system, and AutoCad 2008 which works well with a 64 bit operating system. There are different versions of AutoCad. The older versions do not work well in a 64 bit environment. The newer versions improve rendering and other features. They could not comment about AMD Phenom II simply because it is brand new and was not available when they did their upgrade last year.

There appears to another issue - video cards. The engineers felt priority should be assigned to the cpu and lots of memory at the expense of a video card. Their line of thinking was that intensive 3D video games are gpu intensive while the work they do is cpu and memory intensive.

 

[ragsters]

Thanks JohnnyLucky that is exactly what I needed to hear. I'll try to get him to cough up more money and get a quad core with this Gigabyte board.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

 

[bmuell]

Thanks JohnnyLucky that is exactly what I needed to hear. I'll try to get him to cough up more money and get a quad core with this Gigabyte board.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

With a $300 budget going for quad core, I would do this:

Q8200 + GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R + OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB)

~$304 after rebates