A problem of XP3000+ cpu and future gpu

Dead Jack

I am planning to upgrade my PC in the next two weeks, and have encountered a problem.

If I'm to continue upgrading my current machine in the future, I will likely need to move from AGP to PCI-E.
My Graphics card is what needs upgrading immediately, followed by my processor in a few months time.

Unfortunately my processor is an AMDAthlonXP3000+ series, (Built as 2GHz, Bought as 2.16GHz and Benchmarking as 2.3GHz) and so I am told uses "Socket A" on the motherboard.
As I can't afford to upgrade this processor to something in the range of 3GHz for another few months, I need a backwards compatible motherboard, that will take the old processor, or some kind of bridge to make the processor compatible with a new motherboard.

Also I am told that new motherboard/ graphics card combinations often need new power supplies, and that my RAM, including a recently bought gigabyte stick, would also have to be compatible?

I have been thinking and another solution might be to purchase the best 7800 series AGP graphics card to be had, probably the XFX X, as this would likely last me the next 2 or 3 years.
But I would need to know that there was a way to get a new processor to fit the A socket in my current motherboard, and that this would cost less than a new motherboard and possibly new memory.

Can you help me?

uberpixie

Dead Jack wrote:

I am planning to upgrade my PC in the next two weeks, and have encountered a problem.

If I'm to continue upgrading my current machine in the future, I will likely need to move from AGP to PCI-E.
My Graphics card is what needs upgrading immediately, followed by my processor in a few months time.

Unfortunately my processor is an AMDAthlonXP3000+ series, (Built as 2GHz, Bought as 2.16GHz and Benchmarking as 2.3GHz) and so I am told uses "Socket A" on the motherboard.
As I can't afford to upgrade this processor to something in the range of 3GHz for another few months, I need a backwards compatible motherboard, that will take the old processor, or some kind of bridge to make the processor compatible with a new motherboard.

Also I am told that new motherboard/ graphics card combinations often need new power supplies, and that my RAM, including a recently bought gigabyte stick, would also have to be compatible?

I have been thinking and another solution might be to purchase the best 7800 series AGP graphics card to be had, probably the XFX X, as this would likely last me the next 2 or 3 years.
But I would need to know that there was a way to get a new processor to fit the A socket in my current motherboard, and that this would cost less than a new motherboard and possibly new memory.

Can you help me?

You are socket A: only thing your mobo might take cpu wise is a sempron.
(if your mobo will take one - look for a bios update).

In all honesty build new from scratch.

Wait a little while and see what intel brings out and how the new amd socket M2 stuff performs.

Forget about upgrading your old box it is a dead end.

Save your money up for a new rig.

Any money you spend on your present box is dead money: new motherboards use DDR2 ram and PCI-E gfx.

The only parts worth buying would be stuff you can re use in a new rig:
Harddrives, optical drives, case , power supply

secret_squirrel

The last post is a bit misleading.

The bare minimum you could do is this - bear in mind you are sacrificing some future compatability for backward compatability with your current rig. :

1 New 7000 series AGP Card. Buy now.
1 New Socket 939 Mobo with AGP (these will still be around for the next 6 months or so, but are getting rarer)
1 Athlon 64 or an X2 if you can stretch.


Your existing memory should work if its PC3200 - however it may knock off a few percentage points of performance off newer lower latency stuff.


To be honest your best bet is to hold off the GFX purchase until you can afford to do the Mobo and CPU and goto PCIe gfx at the same time.

uberpixie

secret_squirrel wrote:

The last post is a bit misleading.

The bare minimum you could do is this - bear in mind you are sacrificing some future compatability for backward compatability with your current rig. :

1 New 7000 series AGP Card. Buy now.
1 New Socket 939 Mobo with AGP (these will still be around for the next 6 months or so, but are getting rarer)
1 Athlon 64 or an X2 if you can stretch.


Your existing memory should work if its PC3200 - however it may knock off a few percentage points of performance off newer lower latency stuff.


To be honest your best bet is to hold off the GFX purchase until you can afford to do the Mobo and CPU and goto PCIe gfx at the same time.

To be fair secret whats the point of spending money on gear that has no upgrade path left?

It is one option: but in all honesty why not spend 200 quid more and get a rig that actually has some sort of upgrade path?

He may as well stay put on his current rig , bide his time, and buy into the next gen.

It gives him more options than going to socket 939 now and getting an agp card: when he wants to upgrade the gfx he has to buy a new mobo.

He could always go socket 939 on a cheap pci-e mobo, re use his ram.

But for the sake of what? 100 quid for 1gig of ddr2?

Cutting your upgrade path over the sake of 100 quid to buy new ram in my mind is madness: but thats just me :-)

In all honesty he may as well wait for the new stuff: at the very least the old stuff will get a little cheaper.

secret_squirrel

I tend to agree with you hence the last line in my post. But we've all been in the place where we need a gfx upgrade now

Dead Jack

Cheers, so I wait 6 months,
and get;

Motherboard; £60
GPU; £350
CPU; £380
Sound Card; £60
Memory; £125
PSU; £80

+ my current case, hard drives, dvd drives, network card and usbs (god I hope so)

£1050

I assume I can get at the very least £350 for my current system, so I'll look at £1500-£1800 systems, and compare

secret_squirrel

A lot of people would disagree but I havent seriously considered a sound card for years, on board sound more than does the trick. Especially with the new HD sound that a lot of mobo's are coming with.

conzy

The Asrock Dual Sata 2 is the best motherboard for people that are upgrading and need backwards compatability and an upgrade path.

It supports AGP and PCI-Express, and it also supports AMD's upcoming AM2 socket, with a riser card that will be cheap, it supports DDR, and DDR2 with AM2.

Whats your budget??

And dont throw any more money at you old Tech.

If you are not in a big hurry, wait till after the summer, AM2 and Intels new processers will be released, you can then see what has the best price/ performance (probably AMD) and make your decision then.

If you cant wait, build a Socket 939 system now, these would be good specs:

Asus A8n-E or (Sli deluxe for SLI), around €100- €150
Athlon 64 3700 or stretch to X2 3800 around €225- €320
6600gt 256mb, around €200
Hitachi Deskstar 200gb SATA HDD, around €100
DVD-rw, around €40
Tagan PSU around 500watt. around €100
1 gig of Crucial Ballistix, around €140

So for €800 you have a very nice future proofish system, that would overclock nicely and cost around €800