Reviving a Socket 939 from the dead?

partyatmygaff

So i've my former gaming pc lying around now pretty much in disuse since 2008.

Currently the specs are as follows
AMD 3200+ Venice core at 2GHz
Gigabyte K8NF motherboard
80GB + 60GB IDE HDDs (Oldest parts of the pc, the 80GB is from 2002 and the 60GB and is from 2001 so they're fairly old)
EVGA 7900GTX 512MB
2GB DDR



Now I know the CPU is well past its sell by date and i've already ordered a 3800+ Athlon x2 that I plan to overclock to 2.6/2.7GHz which seems to be the max that CPU can achieve. I also plan to overclock that 7900GTX a tiny bit to squeeze a bit of performance out of it.

Now I know this is no monster computer (It was back in 2005 ) but how do you think it will fare on something like bad company 2? Obviously on all low on dx9 but nevertheless will it be playable?

Anyone have any experience in overclocking a socket 939 system (I've overclocked before so I amn't completely clueless. :pac:

L31mr0d

Might be good as a HTPC with the right case. Don't know how well that 7900GTX would stand up to BC2. It's pretty weak at this stage, an old 8800GTS would be better than it.

partyatmygaff

L31mr0d wrote: »

Might be good as a HTPC with the right case. Don't know how well that 7900GTX would stand up to BC2. It's pretty weak at this stage, an old 8800GTS would be better than it.

HTPC? I shudder at the thought :pac:

It sounds like a jet engine, there are 2 x 120MM fans, 3 x 80MM fans, a 60mm CPU fan and another fan on the 7900GTX. There's also the PSU fan

Let's just say ventilation will never be a problem in that case


8800GTS? Which one? Would a 8800GTS 320MB/640MB be ok or would I have to get the 512MB version? It's just that I don't want to be bottlenecked by the CPU.

Dublin_Gunner

If you swap out the cpu, ram, mobo & gfx card, it should be able to handle BFBC2 no problem!

You'll be lucky to get anywhere near 2.6/2.7 on the 3800x2 with that board though. Most 3800x2's only really got to around 2.4/2.5 anyway. (remember, they're 1.8Ghz stock).

Can you not get a faster X2 for it cheap somewhere? Like an old opteron x2 or something?

noodletop

there was a 5600x2 on adverts about a week ago for around the 40 mark it runs at 2.91ghz stock which is pretty good for a dual core i had one for a while had it at 3.4ghz with a good cooler no probs.

Dublin_Gunner

noodletop wrote: »

there was a 5600x2 on adverts about a week ago for around the 40 mark it runs at 2.91ghz stock which is pretty good for a dual core i had one for a while had it at 3.4ghz with a good cooler no probs.

Pretty sure thats an AM2 CPU...

noodletop

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Pretty sure thats an AM2 CPU...

pretty sure that his board is socket 939 too:rolleyes:
specs say Compatible Processors Athlon 64
Processor Socket Socket 939

Dublin_Gunner

noodletop wrote: »

pretty sure that his board is socket 939 too:rolleyes:
specs say Compatible Processors Athlon 64
Processor Socket Socket 939

Yes, but the 5600 X2 is socket AM2. NOT 939. :rolleyes:

AM2 ≠ s939

partyatmygaff

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

If you swap out the cpu, ram, mobo & gfx card, it should be able to handle BFBC2 no problem!

You'll be lucky to get anywhere near 2.6/2.7 on the 3800x2 with that board though. Most 3800x2's only really got to around 2.4/2.5 anyway. (remember, they're 1.8Ghz stock).

Can you not get a faster X2 for it cheap somewhere? Like an old opteron x2 or something?

You got a point. :pac: The game stutters from time to time on my main gaming rig (It is at all high though) so I can only imagine how it will be like on old not-so-reliable

I always thought the 3800x2 was 2.0GHz stock, turns out it's not =/ I guess I can settle for something a bit more modest 2.2-2.4 GHz.

It's almost impossible to find any cheap dual core Socket 939 Processor. I looked for an opteron at first because I knew they were amazingly good overclockers but they are all overpriced. Here's an example
http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-OPTERON-180-2-4GHz-X2-DUAL-CORE-2MB-L2-939-RETAIL_W0QQitemZ110353320442QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motherboards_CPUs?hash=item19b19209fa
That's about 190 euro for a processor that's 5 years old running on a socket that's even older.

I bought this at about €48 shipped
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-Athlon-64-X2-3800-ADA3800DAA5BV-Socket-939-CPU_W0QQitemZ360238813151QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motherboards_CPUs?hash=item53dfe80fdf

Better than shelling out 190 for an ancient computer anyway

It's crazy how expensive they are, I can get an entry level pentium dual core for around €60 that would probably outperform the best socket 939 cpu.

I considered upgrading to socket 775 and getting myself an entry level pentium dual core or something but to do that I would have had to get a new motherboard, new ram and a new graphics card.

partyatmygaff

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Yes, but the 5600 X2 is socket AM2. NOT 939. :rolleyes:

AM2 ≠ s939

Here's an even more puzzling one.

AM2 and Socket 940 both have 940 pins.

AM2 ≠ Socket 940

Dublin_Gunner

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Here's an even more puzzling one.

AM2 and Socket 940 both have 940 pins.

AM2 ≠ Socket 940

Yeah, but the number of pins is the only thing the same! Its a completely different pin-out, for power and for DDR2 memory controller.

Socket AM3 has 938......

AM3 CPU's will work in an AM2+ motherboard, but an AM2 CPU will not fit in an AM3 socket

partyatmygaff

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Yeah, but the number of pins is the only thing the same! Its a completely different pin-out, for power and for DDR2 memory controller.

Socket AM3 has 938......

AM3 CPU's will work in an AM2+ motherboard, but an AM2 CPU will not fit in an AM3 socket

So it's forwards compatible but not backwards compatible

Dublin_Gunner

partyatmygaff wrote: »

So it's forwards compatible but not backwards compatible

Well, the AM3 CPU's are backwards compatible I suppose!

Motherboards are 'forwards' compatible lol

Strange strategy, but it meant you could upgrade your CPU, but keep your mobo and DDR2

Anti

What you could do is find a s939 opteron 160/170/180 and overclock the bejaysus out of it, and upgrade the graphics to the 8800gts 512mb (G92) Then add another 2 gigs of ram. You wont be playing it at the highest resolutions will all the fancy stuff turned on, but it will be somewhat playable.

molloyjazz

Anti wrote: »

What you could do is find a s939 opteron 160/170/180 and overclock the bejaysus out of it, and upgrade the graphics to the 8800gts 512mb (G92) Then add another 2 gigs of ram. You wont be playing it at the highest resolutions will all the fancy stuff turned on, but it will be somewhat playable.

yeah was what i was gonna say, an Opteron 175 is the best OC form that range, well maybe the 185 if u want a higher Multi, which u wont if u can get some DDR500.

partyatmygaff

So the athlon x2 3800 just arrived today. Dowloading bad company 2 and we'll see how the system fares.

Joeface

very interested to know how this goes.

Nephew uses my old machine

Similar spec's but stopped getting him games cause MW2 was ****e on it but if a little upgrade helps then maybe he can get a bit more life out of it

partyatmygaff

Absolutely crazy results. Nothing at all like what I expected.

On all high at 1280x1024 with 0xAA and 8xAF with bloom set to false I mangaged to get 35 FPS (!) and no I was not looking at the ground or sky . It's good but it stutters pretty badly every few seconds (To the point of being unplayable). I.e. I can be shooting an enemy and all is going fine (No major slowdown) but then it just stops for a few seconds and continues. If I could find out what it is causing that stutter it will be playable. I get something around 20 fps in combat which is a bit of a let down though.

The weird thing is that on all low at the same res I get 35 FPS aswell in non-combat but it only drops to about 30FPS during combat which is fairly good. But it stutters just like when it's on all high.

Managed to get the 3800X2 to run at 2.25Ghz aswell but I still haven't tested it out with BC2 to see if the FPS is improved. Hoping to reach at least 2.4GHz as I haven't upped the voltage or messed around with my memory speeds yet.

Pretty chuffed to say the least

Solitaire

You should be able to hit 2.5GHz with that chip (I was, and on a old Asus nForce6 mobo not particularly suited for it!) but keep an eye on the HyperTransport as it could try to cause you grief (read: stability issues!)

Dublin_Gunner

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Absolutely crazy results. Nothing at all like what I expected.

On all high at 1280x1024 with 0xAA and 8xAF with bloom set to false I mangaged to get 35 FPS (!) and no I was not looking at the ground or sky . It's good but it stutters pretty badly every few seconds (To the point of being unplayable). I.e. I can be shooting an enemy and all is going fine (No major slowdown) but then it just stops for a few seconds and continues. If I could find out what it is causing that stutter it will be playable. I get something around 20 fps in combat which is a bit of a let down though.

The weird thing is that on all low at the same res I get 35 FPS aswell in non-combat but it only drops to about 30FPS during combat which is fairly good. But it stutters just like when it's on all high.

Managed to get the 3800X2 to run at 2.25Ghz aswell but I still haven't tested it out with BC2 to see if the FPS is improved. Hoping to reach at least 2.4GHz as I haven't upped the voltage or messed around with my memory speeds yet.

Pretty chuffed to say the least

I used to run my at 2.4Ghz - you needed a good stepping to get much more.

But 2.4Ghz, with 2-4GB of decent ram and you really should be relying on the GPU for frames. SHould be plenty enough CPU power to run pretty much any game at medium anyway - depending on GPU of course.

Nice to see what these rigs can do with 4 year newer games - its not often you see someone running new games on an, er, 'old' rig...

BTW I assume the board is the K8NF9? If so, there are some BIOS' out there you should maybe upgrade to - I also managed to enable SATA 3.0 on mine (its disabled on the NF4 chipset on that board) by pencil tracing 2 points on the chipset..

I enabled SLI also (lol) even though it only has 1 PCI-E slot - BIOS recognised it an NForce 4 Ultra lol

Anti

The stutter sounds like a hdd issue to me, especially as it still happens when you drop the details. Make sure the drive is defragged, and run a error check on it.

partyatmygaff

Anti wrote: »

The stutter sounds like a hdd issue to me, especially as it still happens when you drop the details. Make sure the drive is defragged, and run a error check on it.

To be saying the truth I am running two ancient POS. One is an old 60GB HDD and the other is an 80GB HDD. The 80GB is from 2003 and the 60GB is from 2002. They are absolutely ancient. I could set it up as a RAID 0 and it might help data transfer rates somewhat but there's a huge chance of me losing all my data considering the drives are fairly old and will probably kick the bucket sooner or later. Defragging it would be a waste of time aswell as I only just recently formatted it (Well I deleted all the partitions and begin anew).

I do have a new 500GB external drive though. I would imagine that would be faster than those relic hard drives, yeah?

Anti

Well there is your problem

grab a cheap samsung f1/f3 500gb hdd and this should stop the stuttering. The data transfer speeds on your old drives are not the issue, its the seek and read/write speeds thats causing the issue. Even check out www.adverts.ie for a cheap hard drive.

DingDong

Sounds very similar to my old PC. I picked up an Opteron 175 and 2gig's of ram from adverts for 40 euro so keep an eye out. I pulled a hard drive out of a broken DVR I had, but I think its causing problems like yours. BF2142 & Bf2 play like crap. Graphic card is 7600gt If I remember correctly . One of the modules of ram turn out to be faulty. Would I be better to leave it running on 2GB or stick the extra 1GB in?(o/s windows 7 64bit). A guy on adverts is selling 250GB hards drive for 20euro on might be worth a look Link.