Upgrade Path

[Raptor45]

A while back I got a NF4 939 motherboard with a A64 3000+, and a 7800GT.

I was originally planning to upgrade at some point to one of the higher end 939 chips as they phased out and prices dropped off, but before they were all gone. I haven't really been having performance issues of any kind, but I'm looking at things now though and 939 chips seem to be fairly rare, but still expensive. The only reasonable deal seems to be the X2 4400+ at newegg, but I kinda wanted to get either the highest X2 or FX chip for the socket.

Now my question is...do I wait a while for prices to drop more? Should I just use what I have for a while, until I get a new motherboard? Should I jump on the 4400+ before they disappear?

 

[Captante]

I'd suggest snagging an Opteron 165 retail box for $104 with free shipping from Newegg & overclocking it ... most of these chips are easily capable of 2.5 to 2.8ghz with air cooling. The Opteron 170 retail box for $118 with free shipping is very attractive as well & will be a bit easier to overclock because of its 10-multiplier.


Edit: Don't waste your time on the 4400+ X2 OEM ... the Opterons are retail CPU's with 3 year warrantys & decent quality HS/fans included, they will work fine in your skt 939 motherboard & in most cases are better overclockers as well. If for some reason you don't want to overclock, spend $16 more & get the Opteron 175 retail box for $156 instead of the 4400+.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

I suggest only upgrading when an application you use doesn't perform the way you would like it to. That could be gaming, video encoding, or photoshop. Your sig mentions a "gaming rig", so if it is gaming that you're mainly interested in, you'll benefit more from a move to 2gb of ram and an upgrade to the video card. Your 7800gt was a great card, but I can see it struggling in newer games running at your native resolution (1680x1050).

Both the Opteron 165 for $104 and the x2 3800+ at $80 are great buys and offer a lot of value (for the s939 upgrader). But unless you are using applications that really shine from using a dual-core chip, you're better off upgrading something else instead. More games are becoming multi-threaded, but, at your resolution, you'll see less benefit from that in most games (there are exceptions).

I know you mentioned that you weren't having any performance issues, and because of that I say don't upgrade at all, but sometimes you get the upgrade bug and just can't shake it. So, that being said, how much is your budget and what applications would you want to upgrade for?

 

[Raptor45]

My main concern is NOT performance issues currently as I have yet to come across a game which doesn't run at least nearly max settings at native resolution. I've actually been extremely happy with this setup, considering how relatively little I payed and how long it has lasted. Instead, I just worried about 939 processors disappearing before I was able to upgrade. I hope to hold on to this motherboard for some time (probably until DDR3 and the next big socket if possible) as having PCI-e, SATA, etc already I don't see much reason to want to change.

I have no problem holding off on a CPU upgrade until later on as long as the chips will still be available in the future. Does anyone know what the "last" type of 939 Operton will be? How long will they continue to drop in price?

Looking into GPU and RAM upgrades then... how would, say, a 8600GT fare against my 7800GT? Would 2x1GB give a significant enough improvement over only one stick?

(FYI: I don't like picking hardware based on overclocking so I'd rather go by the stock numbers, and if in the future I decide to try, all the better. I think I might look into overclocking my 3000+ for now though.)

 

[Captante]

I'd say that the 939 dual-core Opterons are going to be gone fairly soon so if you want to get a dual-core CPu without doing a full system upgrade the time to do it is now when you can still get a retail model ... its possible they will come down a little bit in price short term, but long term I suspect that prices will rise as supply dries up.

An 8600GT isn't a worthwhile upgrade over your 7800GT & would only be slightly faster ... if you want to upgrade your video card the best bet would be a 256mb ATI X1950 Pro or maybe a 256mb Nvidia 7950GT.

Moving to 2gb's RAM will yield significant performance increases in some applications & should make for better overall system performance, plus RAM is very cheap right now.

I'd say that if you are satisfied with your current gaming performance, you should wait on your video card & upgrade the RAM and/or the CPU because both of those parts are likely to rise in price & become harder to get over time, while GPU prices will only drop.

 

[Syran]

I'd agree on the Opteron Series. I love my 170.
2GB of ram is also nice if you aren't there already. Agree to stick with your video card.

 

[Raptor45]

Okay, if 939 Opertons are going to be going away soon then thats my first priority to upgrade I think. Is the 185 going to be the last one? $240 is a fair bit more than I want to spend, but it might be worth it to max out this motherboard's processing if I won't be able to later.

 

[Syran]

I'd stick with a 165/170 and oc it. Can get a tuniq tower for like $65, which still leaves you under $200. My 170 does a sweet job on vista. Doesn't have any issues running anything so far.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: Raptor45
Okay, if 939 Opertons are going to be going away soon then thats my first priority to upgrade I think. Is the 185 going to be the last one? $240 is a fair bit more than I want to spend, but it might be worth it to max out this motherboard's processing if I won't be able to later.

I really wouldn't bother with anything more then the 165/170 because the small increase in clockspeed just isn't worth more then double the cost & they don't really overclock any higher.

Also before you bother spending an additional $60+ on an aftermarket cooling solution I would see how you do with the factory HS/fan which is included with the chip ... the same unit is bundled with the 165 that you get with the 185 so it should handle 2.6+ ghz with no trouble.

 

[gus6464]

With a tuniq 120 and an opty 165 you shouldnt have much trouble hitting 2.8-2.9 while keeping the chip cool.

 

[LightningRider]

I have a socket 939 board also and a few months ago I upgraded to the 3800 X2 from a 3500. Just a little something to hold me over until I do a full system upgrade. Maybe that's what you should do. I plan on upgrading when Penryn is released. But I just got something cheap to hold me over until then.

Also, I wouldn't get a 7950 to upgrade my video card. It doesn't even support DirectX10 and wouldn't be that much of an improvement over the 7800GT. More of a waste of money IMO. The smartest bang for buck card now I think is the 8800GTS. Good performance, and DirectX10 support with moderate price.

But if you don't have any performance issues, then maybe just get a dual core (the Opteron or an X2 will both be a nice upgrade from the 3000) and wait on the rest. That would be my suggestion, and that's what I'm doing for myself.

 

[Raptor45]

I'm not particularly interested in overclocking potential; for the most part I just view it as a secondary factor which is "nice" to have. I know that may mean losing out sometimes, but I'm not interested in buying one as a gamble, or risking breaking it. Only yesterday did I overclock my 3000+ to 2.35GHz, since its at the point I wouldn't mind replacing it anyway.

I think this leaves me with just a few questions:
-Is the Opteron 185 the top 939 chip that will be released?
-For about how long will these be available on newegg?
-Best guess, how far will the price continue to drop by reasonable amounts?

 

[Syran]

Originally posted by: Raptor45
I'm not particularly interested in overclocking potential; for the most part I just view it as a secondary factor which is "nice" to have. I know that may mean losing out sometimes, but I'm not interested in buying one as a gamble, or risking breaking it. Only yesterday did I overclock my 3000+ to 2.35GHz, since its at the point I wouldn't mind replacing it anyway.

I think this leaves me with just a few questions:
-Is the Opteron 185 the top 939 chip that will be released?
-For about how long will these be available on newegg?
-Best guess, how far will the price continue to drop by reasonable amounts?

Yes. Even if you don't overclock, I personally think you would be wasting your money by buying a 185. Stick with the 165 or 170.

Who knows, nor at what price they will be sitting at.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

I know you are concerned about long-term availability, but I still stand by the statement of not upgrading until you actually need something (if $100 is a significant amount of money for you). Yes, by the time you could actually get some use out of a dual-core chip, new s939 chips may not be available. But, by that time, you'll likely be looking at a completely new build anyway. Not only that, but there are MANY folks out there with these Opty 165s that have chosen not to move to C2D yet. When Barcelona and/or Penryn hit, those folks will likely move to that and put their 165s on the For Sale/For Trade forum for dirt cheap.

People have been saying this for quite a while-- that these s939 chips will completely disappear or that they'll be priced so high they won't be worth it. Well, they're still available at many online retailers, and the price keeps dropping. Just look at Newegg's sale on a 754 3200+ this week for $30 and that's a much older chip.

But, if you absolutely feel compelled to upgrade the CPU right now, I would go with the $80 X2 3800+ instead. The overall overclocking headroom doesn't seem to make much of a difference to you, and it will at least give you a dual platform to rest on for the rest of that system's life.

 

[Captante]

(1) Yes, the 185 is the fastest skt 939 CPU that will be made ... 939 is at the end of the line & there will be no more new chips released.

(2) Impossible to say for sure unless you know somone who works for AMD ... it is however a good bet that Opterons will outlast A64's because the demand for replacement chips for servers is higher priority the consumer models. I would guess that the retail-box cpu's will go first though & then OEMS's will be around quite a bit longer.

(3) Again its impossible to say ... if theres still substantial demand for Opterons then the price won't drop the way the A64's did.

One last time, $240 is just too much to spend on a 939 cpu & as for overclocking you need to keep in mind that the 2.6ghz which the 185 runs at is very close to a garanteed overclock for a 165/170 using the factory HS/fan with no real-world effect on the lifespan of the cpu.


Edit: The $83 3800+ X2 at Newegg seems like a decent deal, but it really isn't as attractive as the 165/170 ... first you only get a 30-day warranty, second you'll need to buy a HS/fan which will run at least $15-$20 more & third it only has half the cache which doesn't effect performance in all applications, but makes a substantial difference when it does.