What to do with £300???

[mataus]

Hi

Looking for advice on spending my £300 on a new CPU and mobo. Looking for an A64 (good for flightsim mainly) that will last me for about 18mths-2yrs. Mobo must be AGP though, so not bothered about one that I can upgrade a CPU with as will buy PCI when I next upgrade.
Can anyone offer a good conbination, I would be very grateful.

Thanks, Mataus

 

[pat]

You want a fast system now for 2 years and upgrade the whole thing after???

Nforce3 motherboard with a socket 754 3400+. The 3400+ is a hell of a CPU for its price, with performance between a 939 3500+ and 3800+. You dont need expensive dual channel RAM, so a single stick will have you saving money.

In 2 years, newer CPUs, boards and video cards will be available, and you'll want to get them all, so you dont need future proof components.. anyway, there is nothing future proof...

<font color=red>Sig space for rent. make your offer.</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

Socket 754 is the way to go.
The Abit NF8 is a good example. So is asus's K8N-E Deluxe.
The chip would depend on your graphics card. No point bottlenecking. The 3200 is a good choice, generally. If you have a 6800 or better graphics card, go with the 3400.

 

[mataus]

Thanks guys. I have an ATI X800XT, so whats the best conbination for that? Is it worth going for the 3700+ or is there little differce between the 3200+ and 3500+.

Thanks again
Mataus

 

[pat]

The socket 754 3400+ run at 2.4 GHz.. that would be a good match for your video card. The 3800+ socket 939 run at 2.4GHz...The only difference is the 939 is dual channel, and dual channel benefit for only 4-6% over 754. The 754 3200+ run at 2.2 GHz, the same as the 3500+ socket 939. The socket 939 3200+ run at 2.0Ghz, same as the 754 3000+. The 754 as a MHz advantage over the 939.

The 3700+ combined with your video card could even push the upgrade time one year more... Take a good board, such as those Endyen suggest or, if it is available in your area, the Soltek k8an2e-gr, which I had good experience with in my computer and some others I did for friends and customers.

Another + for the 3700+ is that it is at this time, the fastest A64 socket 754 available. AMD is moving its Sempron line to socket 754 and Sempron lack a lots of feature of real Athlon. That means that the 3700+ will be something that peoples will be looking for in the future and should have a higher value for resale.

I once had the Soltek board with a 3000+ socket 754 and an ATI 9600XT AIW and sell it to my friend when his computer died to try PCIe and 939. Now I have a Gigabyte board with a 939 3000+ and an ATI x600xt. I'm not a big gamer, so the video card is sufficient. But I miss the 200 MHz in some apps I use the most. If timing would have been better, I would have get another 754 board with PCIe slot and a 3200+(or 3700+ if I had the money)..

<font color=red>Sig space for rent. make your offer.</font color=red>

 

[mataus]

Thanks Pat. That’s decided then, 3700+ and a Soltek k8an2e-gr, if I can get one. Looks like I’ll have to get my hands on a 3700+ before they all go then!

Thanks again, it’s very much appreciated.

Mataus