To upgrade or not?

Fanny Cradock

Hello all,

Your advice on the matter would be appreciated. I'm looking to upgrade my current computer:

AMD 3000+ (754)
6600GT 128MB graphics card
1 gig RAM (2*512MB twinmoss)
160 sata hdd 7200rpm
ASUS X series mobo
350W PSU

I built this in the cheap about 1.5 years ago as an inexpensive but playable gaming rig. As I’ve never had the luxury of money to burn on 1st generation technologies, it still does me as I'm used to being on the butt-end of technology. However, i think the time has come to juice it up a wee bit.

I'm in almost exactly the same boat as this chap: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054999709
with the only difference being that his processor is 939 series (mine is 754) and his card is pci-express (mine AGP). I like the suggestions of getting this processor and card combo:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318798

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=308955

but i would have to factor in a mobo as well (I’m assuming my RAM would be compatible and my PSU, a dirt cheap 350W job, could handle the extra power requirements).

Would it be worth while forking out about €350 for the lot?

8T8

You'll need a new motherboard for the CPU no side stepping that and it does seem a reasonable budget upgrade.

You could get an SLI motherboard as some time later you could pick up another 7600GT on the cheap and pair them up in SLI to enhance performance further. The motherboard uses DDR400 so you can re-use your current RAM.

Your existing PSU should be sufficient though if you ever go for SLI down the road a 400W may be more appropriate.

Fanny Cradock

Thanks for the advice 8T8! I have a few other questions though.

I'll have to look into it more myself, but I always thought that SLI was a relatively big expense for a comparatively small gain. Would this be a fair assumption? Also, would the motherboard function perfectly assuming I didn’t go down the SLI route? By this i mean iI wont be losing preformance or anything? Finally, I’m pretty sure that my RAM is DDR2 PC3200 - would this be compatible?

8T8

DDR2 was never used with the S754 platform so it's simply not possible, it has to be regular DDR-3200 = DDR-400 RAM.

As for the SLI question the motherboard will operate perfectly fine, all SLI functionality does is add a second PCI-e x16 slot to the board with a splitter so that the two x16 slots can be electrically re-routed into two x8 slots (default is x16 & x1 for the second slot).

In terms of value of SLI the initial cost if on a budget isn't worth it but it becomes more viable down the road as the cost of the type of graphics required to pair it with decreases and offers a relatively easy upgrade path (better to have the option then to not).

Fanny Cradock

Thanks for the clarification, 8T8.

It may mean a few weeks without boozin', but I think I'll go for it.