Athlon XP to AMD64 Upgrade - Worth It?

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pwrberry

Hi all

My current rig

Asus A7n8x-e deluxe mobo
Ahtlon XP 3200+ 2.20Ghz cpu
768Mb PC3200 RAM
Geforce 6800 NU
2x 120GB SATA HDD in RAID 0
1x 60GB IDE data drive
1x 80GB External Backup HDD
NEC 16x DVD Writer
Plextor 12x DVD Writer
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Aver PCI Freeview Card
350w PSU

Anyway im looking to swap the mobo and cpu for the following items :

Asus K8N-E deluxe Nforce 3 250Gb Mobo
AMD 64 3000+ Retail ( or maybe a 3200+ if i can stretch to it ).

Checked my memory and its on the QVR list on asus website.

Will i see much of a performance boost. I play mostly doom 3, ut2004
etc. The whole upgrade for the mobo and the 3000+ cpu will cost about
170.00.

Then im assuming that i can sell the mobo and cpu i have now on ebay
for at least 70 quid which will go a good way to the fund.

Cheers all.


paul
 
Hi all

My current rig

Asus A7n8x-e deluxe mobo
Ahtlon XP 3200+ 2.20Ghz cpu
768Mb PC3200 RAM
Geforce 6800 NU
2x 120GB SATA HDD in RAID 0
1x 60GB IDE data drive
1x 80GB External Backup HDD
NEC 16x DVD Writer
Plextor 12x DVD Writer
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Aver PCI Freeview Card
350w PSU

Anyway im looking to swap the mobo and cpu for the following items :

Asus K8N-E deluxe Nforce 3 250Gb Mobo
AMD 64 3000+ Retail ( or maybe a 3200+ if i can stretch to it ).

Checked my memory and its on the QVR list on asus website.

Will i see much of a performance boost. I play mostly doom 3, ut2004
etc. The whole upgrade for the mobo and the 3000+ cpu will cost about
170.00.

Then im assuming that i can sell the mobo and cpu i have now on ebay
for at least 70 quid which will go a good way to the fund.

Cheers all.


paul
Click to expand...


I upgraded my A7N8X/Barton to a NF3-250/A64 about 4 months ago.
Heres what I gained using the same hardware and BIOS settings on both.

PCMark 04: +8%
Gameing benchmarks: +6% to +12%
Rendering: +15% to +23% (CineBench 2003 v1.0)
CPUMark 99: +17%

Sandra:
Memory +6.6% , +14.3%
Arithmetic +21.2% , +31.5%
Multi-Media +4.7 , +10.5

If I was building today I'd get a 939 CPU/Mobo.

Ed
--
Chaintech VNF3-250 / BIOS 10-19-2004
Athlon 64 3200+ (newcastle) / 2x512 Ballistix PC4000
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB / Creative Labs Audigy 2
Seagate 160GB 8MB PATA100 / WD 120GB 8MB PATA100
NEC 8x DVD-RW 2500A / LiteOn 52x CDRW 5238S
Windows XP Pro SP2 / Antec SX-1040BII 400W
 
The AMD64 CPUs are very good for games in general. I have an AMD XP 2800 at
home and a AMD64 3200+ at work. But the graphics cards are also different
(9700 pro vs. a 6800GT at work) so it's hard for me know which part is
making the biggest difference for Doom 3 and UT2k. I do know that the
AMD64/6800 box is ***much*** faster for games compared to the other machine.

If it were me I'd hold off until the price point of the higher clocked 90nm
AMD64 CPUs drop into your price range. You've already got a pretty solid
gaming rig already, IMO.

Here is a link:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149&p=7
That appears to be about 9 fps faster for Doom 3.

Regards,
Jon
 
You should see an improvment but with your current system it may only be
around 10-20% faster.

If going for an AMD64 get a Socket 939 version as these are faster due to
the 128bit memory data path. Fast CAS-2 memory is also important to get the
best performance due to the lower latency.

A good point of reference is www.tomshardware.com for reviews etc.

I would recommend you save your money until you can upgrade to a PCI-Express
based system (motherboard/CPU/new graphics card)
 
Hi all

My current rig

Asus A7n8x-e deluxe mobo
Ahtlon XP 3200+ 2.20Ghz cpu
768Mb PC3200 RAM
Geforce 6800 NU
2x 120GB SATA HDD in RAID 0
1x 60GB IDE data drive
1x 80GB External Backup HDD
NEC 16x DVD Writer
Plextor 12x DVD Writer
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Aver PCI Freeview Card
350w PSU

Anyway im looking to swap the mobo and cpu for the following items :

Asus K8N-E deluxe Nforce 3 250Gb Mobo
AMD 64 3000+ Retail ( or maybe a 3200+ if i can stretch to it ).

Checked my memory and its on the QVR list on asus website.

Will i see much of a performance boost. I play mostly doom 3, ut2004
etc. The whole upgrade for the mobo and the 3000+ cpu will cost about
170.00.
Click to expand...

You may see a performance boost, but I don't think that it will be
significant, and I seriously doubt that it will be the 10-20% that some
people in this thread have claimed. The A64 architecture is much faster,
and the integrated memory controller helps a lot with that. But in normal
office apps you probably won't see a difference between an AXP 3200+ and an
A64 3000+. In games, you'll probably get a boost. But IMHO, not enough to
justify paying that much (sounds like around $250 USD).

If anyone is looking to build an A64 system, I would recommend that they
wait just a little bit longer if they can. In a couple months you will not
only get lower prices, but you'll be able to buy nForce4-based boards that
should be faster than what is available today, along with support PCI
Express. AGP is very nearly at the end of it's road, and AGP parts are now
costing more than comparable PCI-E parts. Regardless of whether you build
now or later, don't buy a Socket 754 CPU. The newer and faster A64 parts
will all be Socket 939, and there probably will be very few, if any, new
Socket 754 Athlon 64 chips. AMD has determined that 754 is going to be for
their value line (Sempron), and though the 754 Semprons are based on the A64
architecture they will not be 64-bit capable (and will be handicapped in
other ways). Also, the next round of 90nm A64 chips is supposed to support
SSE3, which can provide a performance improvement in applications that use
it.

The smart move when buying into A64 today is to go 939, as it ensures a
lower-cost upgrade path. Waiting a couple months gets you faster CPUs and
PCI-E. And since you've got a pretty hot system right now, there's really
no reason not to wait a little longer (unless you have money burning a hole
in your pocket, in which case you should send some my way).
 
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