Idiot with a socket 939 motherboard wants to upgrade CPU.

[Tahir2]

Does his mobo use DDR1 or DDR2? If DDR2, it's a HELLA lot cheaper to just upgrade the mobo/CPU, and he'll get a much better rig for it.

I am 99.8% sure that Socket 939 CPU's only supported DDR memory but I am happy to be proven wrong.

 

[DeadlyNinja]

It's not about cash. My friend's not a tech expert and a souped up CPU upgrade isn't worth it when he barely knows how to work HTML.

I did some digging and notice upgrading now is a pretty bad idea, at least if he's just going to do it for his CPU. They're insanely expensive and outdated. A very bad combination.

Might as well buy a brand new PC.

ALTERNATIVELY, perhaps a visit to Intel could be fun ?

As far as I can tell, aren't most Intel CPUs only about 5% better than AMD but costing 50+ dollars more?

While we're at it, which CPU is the best bang for a buck today. Something that has low power draw, and cool. It doesn't have to be the fastest thing alive, just economic and efficient.

 

[Tahir2]

My vote goes for:

Athlon II X2 250

Dual Core... based on the Phenom II architecture without any L3 cache and 1MB L2 on each core... 3.0GHz... very overclockable, 45nm.... AM3 supports DDR2 or DDR3.

$87 at Newegg.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I vote for the P2 X3 720. At $119 shipped it costs a bit more, but you get a LOT more chip for your buck.

 

[mrcorbo]

It's not about cash. My friend's not a tech expert and a souped up CPU upgrade isn't worth it when he barely knows how to work HTML.

I did some digging and notice upgrading now is a pretty bad idea, at least if he's just going to do it for his CPU. They're insanely expensive and outdated. A very bad combination.

Might as well buy a brand new PC.



As far as I can tell, aren't most Intel CPUs only about 5% better than AMD but costing 50+ dollars more?

While we're at it, which CPU is the best bang for a buck today. Something that has low power draw, and cool. It doesn't have to be the fastest thing alive, just economic and efficient.

Here's a good place to start.

 

[Mize]

The Athlon 64 x2 5050e Brisbane is a 45W, 2.6 GHz (AM2) chip that runs great for about $60. If you want low power and cool it will do. I have one in my HTPC.