Upgrade or wait for dx10/Vista ready machine?

Onkl Bjorni

Onkl Bjorni

Newcomer
Hi all.

My current machine is a Shuttle SN95G5 (Nforce3 s939) with an Athlon64 3500, ATI X800XL, 1GB ram and 320 GB HDD..

Anyway, just updated the BIOS(on the shuttle) and found out it now supports Athlon64 X2 CPU's, and the ATI X1950Pro is comming in AGP flavour early 2007..

So here is my question.
Buy:
Athlon64 X2 4600 CPU (s939). 350$
Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO 512MB 340$

and wait a year/year and half befor buying a new pc.

or buy a complete new pc in the spring/summer for X amount of $
 
My gut reaction was go for an X2 3800 (or 4200 if they're still out there; something like that) and OC it, then wait until next Fall for the major upgrade, after the 65nm GPUs are out. That would be enough to give you a nice little boost now without breaking the bank so you could afford to upgrade a bit earlier. My X2 4200+ got a 20% OC without breaking a sweat.

But my first question would be why do you want to upgrade now? What is pushing you? Is it boredom, or some game you're dying to play today that is performing like crap? You are of course always better off waiting "just a little longer" from a price/performance pov --it really comes down to how eager you are to upgrade and why.
 
wait for late 2007? might as well wait for intel nehalem architecture at that point ;). And if you wait for that you might as well go for an Geforce 9800 (hah!) or X3800!

computer technology sucks. you cant ever get satisfied.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, he seems to be a two year kind of guy, which influenced me. People who churn more often that that is a bit different considerations.
 
geo said:
My gut reaction was go for an X2 3800 (or 4200 if they're still out there; something like that) and OC it, then wait until next Fall for the major upgrade, after the 65nm GPUs are out. That would be enough to give you a nice little boost now without breaking the bank so you could afford to upgrade a bit earlier. My X2 4200+ got a 20% OC without breaking a sweat..
Click to expand...

This was my thoughts too, but after looking around on the net, it looks like AMD is phasing out the Socket 939 version of the X2, so when I found a webshop where it was possible to order the S939 X2, I just orderd the 4600. Just hope they can deliver (and the price difference was not too big)

geo said:
But my first question would be why do you want to upgrade now? What is pushing you? Is it boredom, or some game you're dying to play today that is performing like crap? You are of course always better off waiting "just a little longer" from a price/performance pov --it really comes down to how eager you are to upgrade and why.
Click to expand...

Well I need two cores for multitasking! and having a LCD with the native res of 1920x1200, the X800lx is struggling to keep up in any game. And new hardware is always good ;-)

geo said:
Well, he seems to be a two year kind of guy, which influenced me. People who churn more often that that is a bit different considerations.
Click to expand...

Exactly! :)
 
Oh, 1920x1200 is going to be tough for the X800XL in recent games, no question. I had a 6800GT for awhile paired with a Dell 2405, and the 6800GT was nearly always in tears of pain.
 
Follow-up question.

Just a quick follow-up question.

How is the AMD Opteron compared to the Athlon64x2?
Are there any big differences between them? Considering buying a s939 Opteron model 170 Dual-Core 2000Mhz as there is a few webshops around here that has them in stock, and the s939 Athlon64x2 is nowhere to be found.


PS:My shuttle supports Opteron model 165 and 170. (but without power management support)
 
Performance wise its the exact same clock for clock. Opterons are stressed a little bit more during binning so its commonly expected that you can get a nice overclock out of them. About it.
 
SugarCoat said:
Performance wise its the exact same clock for clock. Opterons are stressed a little bit more during binning so its commonly expected that you can get a nice overclock out of them. About it.
Click to expand...

Think I'll order one of those then, won't bother waiting for the Athlon64x2 to get in stock (If it ever will!)
 
It seems too late but I would wait for Vista. Although I guess, you can always just re-install the os.

I dont know, I might do a complete rebuild on my A64 S754 3000+, 7600GT, 1GB RAM system when Vista comes out. Then again, I dont know that it wouldn't be a waste, because there's really no games coming out..

Crysis and UT2K7 is all I can think of on the horizon that look triple AAA.
 
Small Update!

Hi all.
Picked up my Opteron 170 today. Installed it and started overclocking straight away. Managed to push it to 2400Mhz. A not to shabby 400Mhz overclock.

The Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro AGP is arriving after the x-mas holiday. And I'll do a complete reinstall of winxp then. Going to be fun seeing how fare I can get this "old" machine.

PS: A merry christmas to all here at Beyond3d...
 
Rangers said:
It seems too late but I would wait for Vista. Although I guess, you can always just re-install the os.

I dont know, I might do a complete rebuild on my A64 S754 3000+, 7600GT, 1GB RAM system when Vista comes out. Then again, I dont know that it wouldn't be a waste, because there's really no games coming out..

Crysis and UT2K7 is all I can think of on the horizon that look triple AAA.
Click to expand...

Have you had any ideas on this rebuild, as I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 754 Socket, 6800GS GPU, 1.5 Gigabytes.

Best and Warm Regards "Zapata"
 
almighty said:
Ive already got my X1950PRO AGP :???: had for a while now aswel ;)
Click to expand...

I got mine in the mail a couple of days ago. Almost tripeld my framerates.

Got to say i'm impressed with the power this little Shuttle PSU (240Watt) delivers. It's driving a Opteron 170@2300Mhz, the X1950Pro, a dvd-burner, a gig of ram and a 320GB harddrive..

Well all is good, and gaming in 1920x1200 is a blast.

Oh... and happy New Year to everyone here!
 
Bfigved said:
I got mine in the mail a couple of days ago. Almost tripeld my framerates.

Got to say i'm impressed with the power this little Shuttle PSU (240Watt) delivers. It's driving a Opteron 170@2300Mhz, the X1950Pro, a dvd-burner, a gig of ram and a 320GB harddrive..

Well all is good, and gaming in 1920x1200 is a blast.

Oh... and happy New Year to everyone here!
Click to expand...

one day you'll turn it on and you'll hear a subtle "phooot" sound with a little puff of smoke coming out the back.
 
Bfigved said:
I got mine in the mail a couple of days ago. Almost tripeld my framerates.

Got to say i'm impressed with the power this little Shuttle PSU (240Watt) delivers. It's driving a Opteron 170@2300Mhz, the X1950Pro, a dvd-burner, a gig of ram and a 320GB harddrive..

Well all is good, and gaming in 1920x1200 is a blast.

Oh... and happy New Year to everyone here!
Click to expand...

After the performance trouble my 250w PSU created id recomened you get a better PSU.

My problem and its answear can be found here
 
Congrats on the upgrades. The 165 has served me very well for nearly a year now @ ~2.5Ghz.

It doesn't really have much of a performance impact but the S939 Opterons also have 2X the L2 cache of the equivalent X2's, as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top