Was thinking of an AMD CPU upgrade now...

[ANova]

I don't see how these prices help AMD personally, they're still too expensive compared to what you get with a Conroe. The $200 E6400 is on par with a 5000+ at stock while consuming considerably less power. Not to mention they all seem to be good overclockers.

 

[KimB]

I don't see how these prices help AMD personally, they're still too expensive compared to what you get with a Conroe. The $200 E6400 is on par with a 5000+ at stock while consuming considerably less power. Not to mention they all seem to be good overclockers.

Sure, but those would require Alstrong to also purchase a new motherboard and new memory, and hence even the cheapest among them would be much more expensive.

 

[Skrying]

Sure, but those would require Alstrong to also purchase a new motherboard and new memory, and hence even the cheapest among them would be much more expensive.

There is actually a decent Core 2 motherboard from Asrock that supports DDR, DDR2, PCIe, and AGP all on one board for like $60.

Ahh, here's the Anandtech roundup including it: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797

 

[chavvdarrr]

There is actually a decent Core 2 motherboard from Asrock that supports DDR, DDR2, PCIe, and AGP all on one board for like $60.

Ahh, here's the Anandtech roundup including it: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797

decent? "as cheap as possible". Don't get me wrong I'm all pro-"decent" motherboards...but this is not MB for enthusiast/gamer

 

[Skrying]

decent? "as cheap as possible". Don't get me wrong I'm all pro-"decent" motherboards...but this is not MB for enthusiast/gamer

Odd you'd say that. In the Anandtech review it performs decently close to the other MUCH more expensive boards. Plus it actually does OC a little, and it has so much upgrade options its insane. For its price its a great value.

Asrock really has turned around there stuff since that 939Dual board for A64's.

 

[AlNom]

I suppose I could go the cheap way with Conroe, but at the moment, I'm not looking for large replacements (as you clarified, Chalnoth); I just want a quick CPU swap. And forgive me if I don't feel like doing a format just to make absolutely sure that the driver situation is completely clean.

I'm currently waiting on a pal with respect to pricing... He might be able to get me a slightly better deal. But right now, I guess I'd pick the 3800+. In games, I'd probably put myself in a graphics limited situation anyway.

Thanks for all the help guys, some neat info that I didn't know before.

 

[KimB]

Well, once you get it, bear in mind that you won't immediately get to make use of multithreading. You'll have to tell Windows to make use of SMP (it will do this automatically on a reinstall, but you have to change it manually yourself if you don't want to reinstall). I know I did it once, and the info on my experience is here on these forums, but you're probably better-off just googling for the Microsoft knowledge base article on it.