Possible Upgrade - Opinions Wanted

[MattTheTech]

I currently have an Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) running on an A-Bit NF7-S (rev 2), with a pair of 512mb sticks of PC3500 (running dual channel).

I am considering moving up to an Athlon XP, and from a bit of looking around, and a friend's recommendation, the Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 754 Newcastle) and Epox EP-8KDA3J (Nf3-250Gb chipset) combo was looking fairly nice for the price. (around $230-240 together)

I wanted to see if I could get any opinions on whether or not this seems like a decent upgrade. There are always of course higher end boards and cpus, but I do not want to spend a huge amount. The price break seemed to be nice at this point. But is it worth it in your opinion?

I do not do that much gaming (my 9600Pro handles Unreal '04 as good as I need it to), but I do a lot of photoshop work, and some other big apps (usually using them all at once). So I am looking for overall performance.. not just for gaming.

Any opinions are appreciated!

--- Update ---

I decided to go with the A-Bit AV8 socket 939 board and the Athlon 64 3000+ 939... just bought them.. so we will see how they go!

 

[imported_Mitchell]

If I was using photoshop and applicatins like that i would look into three things.

1. CPU Speed. There is always a sweet spot on CPU's go to www.mwave.com and in their catalog that will list CPU's you will see pricing that goes kinda like Athlon XP 2400 $75, Athlon XP 2500 $85, Athlon XP 2600 $84 (yes $84) that processor would be at the sweet spot as I call it (best bang for your buck). hose are older CPU's but just using them as an example.
2. Would be Lots of memory (not necessarily super fast member but lots of it) as photoshop and programs like it will use as much as they can get.
3. Lastly a fast HD, so if you have to do swammping it doesn't take as long.

As fasr as the upgrade, any jump from an XP processor to a 64 bit one will be a large jump. It's just amazing how much faster they are all around.

Check out this page it lists processors and thier prices and you can see where the sweet spot it for Athlon 64's.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Pro...DNAME=Processors%2FCPU

 

[MattTheTech]

I eventually will add more RAM. Probably after a new board though. The main reason I had not upgraded it yet was because I (having only 2 slots in that A-Bit) would have to buy 2 new 1 gig sticks to keep it dual channel. But I can always worry about that after the new board.

I do have a SATA Raptor as my primary HD, which is where I do most of my large file work. It has been a decent drive.

I will look into the price breaks.. from what I had seen the 3000+ was around the break for the 64's but I will double check things. Thanks for the info.

 

[imported_Mitchell]

No prob, what I like about Mwave is they list MB bundles so you can get an idea of the price for a CPU and MB and memory of your choice, they have decient pricing too, though some stuff can be found cheaper no doubt elsewhere.

I am in the market to upgrade too but I am holding out for an Nforce4 SLI board, wish they would release them soon

 

[MattTheTech]

Well I went through and bought a combo.. not the first ones I mentioned though.. I updated my first post above. Any thoughts?

 

[imported_Mitchell]

Yea I was going to actually suggest getting the socket 939, that gives you expandability if you decied in the future to grab a faster processor (when they are lots cheaper) without going to a new MB.

Abit has always made nice MB's (well barring a few flops) but that's a good choice.