AMD CPU upgrade help

The prices have dropped and I'm considering a CPU upgrade for the 939 system. Currently it has a 1.8 Athlon 64 3000+ CPU.

Choices are:
A 3800+ 2.4 GHz $100
An X2 4800+ 2.4 1 MB $250.

While I'm not looking to spend that much, he relayed it will be an overall faster system even if my applications are single core oriented. Dropping that much for a dual core, has me wondering if the $$ are better saved for an AM2 based system for winter '07. My sweet spot is $150 and he thought if I waited till then, I may find find the (939) X2 processor in short supply. (At least his shop would not have any of the retail boxed versions)

I dunno which way to go...thoughts?

Since the days of XT systems (about 4 Mhz) 286 CPU's (12-16 Mhz) 386's, 486's and so on I have done upgrades on CPU's for my own and others. The one thing I noticed is this - even a 50% increase in CPU speed ususally does not make that much of a noticeable difference - not nearly as much speed increase as you would notice with a faster hard drive. Also upgrading RAM depending on how much you currently have is also usually a better way to see speed increases. So if you have a hard drive that is not as fast as the current crop of HD's that or RAM is usually a better way to see a noticeable speed increase. Also note that most new computer system speed increases are not due just to a faster CPU but faster bus speeds and other speed enhancements. The CPU is only a small part of the increase.

I can't offer computer tech advice, it's not my area.
I can say it sounds like you're getting a sales pitch to buy NOW.

Do what's right for you and don't let anyone pressure you into anything.


DK

I have to agree that the central processing unit is not the main bottleneck in computing speed these days.
Plenty of good quality memory and speedy hard drives make a big difference right from the get-go.

My current system is a socket am2 with an athlon64 "3200", a gigabyte of Corsair pc6400 memory and 4 300 gig Seagate hard drives running sata raid "0".
Very speedy and responsive, even when running "bloatware" type applications.

Downloads and updates are never a long, drawn out chore with this setup either.

dual core all the way!

compared to single core processors, they are much faster.

and it won't be obsolete so soon.

buy the X2 4800+

Thanks guys. As fate had it, the 4800+ CPU was not in stock. The guys in the shop relayed given my current set-up, I may see some improvement but it wouldn't be earthshaking. Their opinion was to wait till the AM2 CPU's get more refinement...but they would be happy to sell me the CPU I wanted.

I opted for the 3800+/2.4GHz CPU.
The current set-up:

MSI K8N SLI-F mobo
3 GB memory
570 GB of SATA drives
MSI NVidia 7300GS video card

The current system does what I ask of it. I figure as AMD develops the AM2 and beyond, I'll wait for a significant jump. I tend to buy at 2X core increases usually. This time when I built the system, I bought the lowest end CPU to have it running at an initial budget price. Since the new CPU is 2.4 GHz, I won't consider a move till they are at 4-5 GHz speeds. (No plans for Vista till SP2 at least...by then who knows... )

Intel stole the show with their new Dual Core chips, kicking AMD's butt.

AMD is WAY behind the power curve now. (I'm writing this on a socket 939 4800+ dual core AMD based system, so I'm definitely NOT an AMD basher).

If I was buying again right now, it would be an Intel processor.

That said, he's not lying about socket 939 processors, they are already scarce and getting worse. There are pockets of processors that show up now and again, but AM2 has taken over, essentially.

Good luck!

Bill

It appears you're just talking about upgrading the CPU. In general a simple cpu upgrade won't make that much of a performance difference unless you are doing high power number crunching, such as video encoding. As stated before me, most systems presently are not cpu limited.
In addition very little mainstream/consumer applications, especially on windows, even use a second CPU core. The software is lagging way behind the hardware. So unless you plan on encoding video while you play a PC game, I wouldn't sweat buying a dual core just yet.

If however my cpu were to die tomorrow and I needed to replace a 939 part, I would probibly buy an Athlon 4000 San Diego Core. (That way you get the 1mb L2 cache for about $85 on newegg OEM.)

I am an Intel heckler, but at the moment they do have a better part on the market. AMD won't have anything new out until Q3 2007 according to the latest information that I've seen. So for now, I'm just laying low and hoping that things get better for AMD in 2008.

If I had a 939 AGP system I'd run to Fry's today and get a $149.99 E4300 and board combo. Takes AGP, plus DDR or DDR2 and while the cheapo board has no voltage adjustments (what do you want for less than free? The chip alone is $179 at Newegg) it does go to 300MHz. The 2MB Core 2 Duo should have no problem doing 2.7GHz at stock voltage, which would provide similar performance to a $520 2.66GHz E6700 or $599 3.0GHz X2 6000+.

It's such a complicated mess nowadays. I decided to go AMD the last time, M2N32SLI mobo with the AM2 chipset. The latest Intel processors are basically going to make my next upgrade cheaper. :laughing: I have to wait though since I want to OC my X2 4200+ first.

Anyway, unless you need the upgrade now for something, I'd wait. I'm glad I did... but mostly I was waiting for PCI-e and the current performance ram speeds/low latency. (I was an RDRAM fan. HA!)

I popped in the 3800+ today and it was a nice bump from the 3000+. No real benchmarks, I used the photo stitcher to do a series of photos and timed it. Old CPU did it in 30 some seconds, the new one completed the same in 24 and some odd. Not a whopping jump but still observable. Hard to say how the other photo programs will be yet I'm happy for the modest invested here.

On Sat I called a few local shops for the 4800+ and they all said they might be able to order one. I'd have to wait until Monday to see what may still be in inventory. Price Watch on Friday night didn't show any vendors with a 4800+. Newegg was out of stock. Saw the ad for Fry's...on a weekend, shudder.