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Thread ID: 89073 2008-04-20 02:40:00 AM2 Upgrade Alexhughes79 (6949) Press F1
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660499 2008-04-20 02:40:00 Hi all, Some of you guys looked and my Socket 939 or am2 forum and im looking at the upgrade. IF you look at my signature thats my pc specs and the motherboard and cpu look crap for gaming and this is the upgrade im looking at.

ASUS M2N-SLI

www.playtech.co.nz

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+

www.playtech.co.nz

2GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 SDRAM

www.einfo.co.nz

Would this be a good gaming choice and last long.

Thank again 		Alexhughes79 (6949)
660500 2008-04-20 05:27:00 No, its what I use for Internet boxes.

Have a look at these:
www.playtech.co.nz

These 2 would be the only AMD ones I'd consider:

Assassin X640-HD CrossFire AMD Athlon X2 6400+ 3.2GHz/ 2GB DDR2-800

[Assassin P985-X2 AMD Phenom X4 9850 @ 3.0GHz OC with Water Cooling/4GB DDR2-1066

Intel would be better.
And you haven't mentioned the most important component of all in a gaming system - the GRAPHICS card! 		pctek (84)
660501 2008-04-20 09:34:00 These are what I would be looking at for gaming.
Prices are from www.pricespy.co.nz:thumbs:

AMD CPU:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+, dual core, AM2 3.2GHz for $226.76

AMD Phenom 9850 Quad core 2.5GHz for $377.75

Intel CPU:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, 3.00GHz for $308.25

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4GHz, LGA775, quad core for $336.45


Graphics Cards:Nvidia:

Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT, 512MB, PCI Express for $286.88

GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, (G92) PCI Express for $437.29

GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB PCI-Express for $478.13

Graphics Cards:ATI/AMD:

ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB, PCI Express for $299.00

ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB, PCI Express$650.64

Also if you are using a XP 32 bit or Vista 32 bit then I would either have:

2 x 1 gig sticks of ram = 2 gigs in dual channel or
2 x 1 gig + 2 x 512 sticks of ram = 3 gigs in dual channel.

If you are using XP 64 bit or Vista 64 bit then I would have:

4 x 1 gig sticks of ram = 4 gigs in dual channel or
4 x 2 gig sticks of ram = 8 gigs in dual channel.

What ever you decide from the stuff I have listed it will be a good upgrade for you.:):thumbs:

Personally I would get Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4GHz, LGA775, quad core,GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB PCI-Express,64 bit OS and 4 or 8 gigs of ram so it should last me ages till I have to upgrade again.:D 		memphis (2869)
660502 2008-04-20 21:55:00 Alexhughes79

If you plan to SLI later, a AMD 4600+ will bottleneck the GPU's (ie 2x8800GT,s) in some situations depending on the game and resolution.

If you are buying a new mobo, it is very hard to recommend AMD atm, as much as I would like to. I would be looking at a E8400 if your not overclocking.

If you don't mind OC then a cheap $90 E2160 will hit 3gig+ on the right $150 mobo and actually outperform any of those processors listed above for gaming (real world not synthetic).

The graphics card is the most important, grab a 9600GT or 8800GT. You are "better off" upgrading your video card and keeping what you have now opposed to the other way around, preferably new MOBO,CPU, ram and video card. 		Battleneter2 (9361)
660503 2008-04-21 23:50:00 Hay , I Upgraded Graphics card last year 28 August from the Ge force 6600 256mb and the two games that don't look like they will run well with the card is bioshock and crysis buy when i look at the cpu speeds etc there are very poor and not dual core.:badpc: Alexhughes79 (6949)
660504 2008-04-22 01:53:00 With respect a HD2600XT is not a overly flash card and pretty much has little chance in Crysis at any decent resolution or IQ.

From a gaming point of view, the best upgrade you can do right now, would be a 9600Gt or a 8800GT. Yes your current CPU will bottleneck these cards maybe 25-30% ish, however at the moment your current GPU (HD2600XT) is your bottleneck and a CPU upgrade will not do a lot for you. 		Battleneter2 (9361)
660505 2008-04-22 04:10:00 Hay , I Upgraded Graphics card last year 28 August from the Ge force 6600 256mb and the two games that don't look like they will run well with the card is bioshock and crysis buy when i look at the cpu speeds etc there are very poor and not dual core.:badpc:

Yeah I would say you changed from one low end card to another low end card not much of an upgrade really.

1. Get one of these graphics caards:
Nvidia 8800GT 512mb,9600GT 512mb,8800GTS 512mb,9800GTX 512mb,or a ATI 3870 512mb.
2. Get a dual core cpu or quad core cpu.
3. Check out www.pricespy.co.nz to save some :2cents:.:D:thumbs: 		memphis (2869)
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