PC upgrade or Convert

[Lex]

I was presented an opportunity for a used Apple G5 dual 2.7 mhz system with 400 gig drive, 4 gig of ram, blue tooth, etc... for 1800 used.

I was evaluating PC options. I've enough drive space for now, but I seem to be seriously lacking in processor power, and perhaps memory at 1 gig.

I loose ability to do normal functions with photoshop CSII, RAW files, etc... Graphics are hungry.

The PC upgrade I was considering?

Maybe an AMD 64 FX-60 2.6 ghz and Socket 939 for 400 at tigerdirect, mount on a Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX MOBO 449 when you buy both at Tigerdirect.com.









Memory, looking at maybe Ultra DDR2? What 140 -50 for 1 stick and 140 for second (after rebate) other suggestions? for 2 gig, or is there a further upgrade that makes sense? 2 gig sticks, is that an option? I hate only 2 memory sockets. 4 would be nice.

Video, if I do vid now, not sure, recommendations?

I wonder which system would be better, stick with my old workhorse with a re juvinated core, or jump to apple, even if the system is 1.5 years old.

[aud19]

I won't tell you whether or not to go Mac but if you stick with the PC I'd get the AM2 socket mobo/(dual core)processor not socket 939

You should be able to get 2-1GB sticks of Kingston DDR2 (or similar) 666Mhz RAM for under $200.

For video look at the Nvidia cards (7600...?) I like Asus's "silent" versions myself, they're quiet and no fans to burn out, clog up etc.

[whoaru99]

C2D on an Asus P5B-(x) series or Gigabyte GA-965P-(x) series...

I'm buying my time to more C2D price drop with the Gigabyte board running a Celeron D 3.33GHz. I've had the chip up to 4GHz stable with no voltage or memory tweaking. Just set the clock speed from 133 to 160 and away she went. Have not tried anything higher - yet...

[Hdale85]

Yeah photoshop has support for SMP (dual processor) so it can use both at the same time when your compiling images and what not. The FX series run pretty hot if I remember correctly and are mainly for gameing! The new Core2's are supposed to be a lot better then the AMD X2's but I have no hands on experience to confirm this just reviews I have read.

[Lex]

My next and perhaps easiest option would be to add turbo onto my existing board. A board I have no real trouble with except throughput at this point.

Hold onto your hats cowboys, it's a dual CPU board from Asus, been a FANTASTIC board. I currently have 1.8 AMD Socket A Thunderbirds in it, and tried to get 3 gig ram to run, but didn't do to good. What's the best upgrade available for CPUs and memory?

Shame I can't find a better image. This is how boards should look, 4 dimm slots, two CPUs, yeah baby.

http://www.amdboard.com/asusa7m266d.html

AMDboard recommends

buy, sale and trade

Check best prices for:
A7M266-D board here
760-MPX boards here
Computer products here
All products here

All mentioned trademarks are property of their respective owners - © AMDboard.com 2001-2005 - Contact - Banners - Publisher - Privacy Policy - Submit news

Your best source for AMD Athlon 64, barebones, DDR, Duron, motherboards, nForce2, nForce3, nForce4, notebooks, Opteron & Sempron information
See also
Pricing

Hot Links
Asus A7M266-D AMD 760MPX Motherboard Special
Red for new items
12

AMD Roadmap
DDR Special
OPN AMD CPU ID

Athlon XP < 1800+
Athlon XP 1800+
Athlon XP 1900+
Athlon XP 2000+
Athlon XP 2100+
Athlon XP 2200+
Athlon XP 2400+
Athlon XP 2600+
Athlon XP 2700+
Athlon XP 2800+
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Athlon XP 2800+ Barton
Athlon XP 3000+ Barton
Athlon XP 3200+ Barton Dual?

Duron 1.2GHz
Duron 1.3GHz

Athlon 64 Special
Opteron Special
Sempron Special

PR Rating Special

World Best Sellers
World Prices Finders


Processor Reviews
12/20/02 VTR-Hardware
09/13/02 au-ja!
08/07/02 Game PC
05/11/02 Computer Base
03/11/02 Lost Circuits
03/01/02 Planet 3DNow! (II)
02/16/02 Hardwareluxx
02/11/02 THG
02/01/02 Tec Central
01/18/02 Planet 3DNow! (I)
01/03/02 Game PC
11/26/01 Brainbox

System Review
- none yet -

Overclocking & Modding
- no article yet -

Short Specification
CPU
Dual Socket A for AMD Athlon MP
Chipset
South Bridge: AMD-768
North Bridge: AMD-762
FSB
266/200 MHz
Memory
4 x 184-pin DDR DIMM Sockets support max. 3.5GB registered or 2GB unbuffered PC2100 ECC/PC1600 ECC/non-ECC DDR DIMM
Support max. 4 registered or 2 unbuffered DDR DIMMs
Max. 2.1GB/s data transfer rate
Expansion Slots
1 x AGP Pro/AGP 4X
3 x PCI 33-MHz 32-bit Slots + 2 x PCI 66/33-MHz 64/32-bit Slots
IDE
2 x UltraDMA/100/66/33
Audio (Optional)
C-Media 8738 6-channel PCI Audio Controller

[Lex]

looks like Socket A is dead, unless I can find left over NOS.

Found one vendor that said they had socket A online, but turns out they are one of the counterfeit items from hell places, like the photography and AV stores. Immediately when I Saw their support page, I thought it looked like the same old scam outfits. Sure enough, a tour of resellerratings.com was very revealing. shentech.com no no no.

[Lex]

thanks for the tips Jason, as you can see, I am not up to date on what is current. I have not been playing PC for a while.

I will probably just use my existing vid card, unless I leave the dual PC up and running, which I might. I have a second case, actually with a mobo in it already, just need to put an HD in it and finish assembly. I may do that and see how it does. Course, it's old tech too...

I don't know, I actually have 3 cases I think, not sure where one of them is though.

[Lex]

darn, I missed an opportunity to buy two Barton MP chips for my old mobo yesterday. I blinked and they were gone. Fleabay. But I could not make an instantaneous decision if it's what I wanted to do for 450.00

[Kevin P]

Personally I would get a new mobo w/a dual core CPU, either AMD X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo. Socket A is dead, and if you can find anything for it, you're buying stuff that's already way obsolete.

With dual-core (and quad-core) you don't need two CPUs and two HSFs on your board, and they run cooler than two separate chips.

FX60 is obsolete, at that speed range they have the A64 X2 5200+ Windsor core now. FX is up to FX62 now (2.8 GHz, and 600-odd bucks). Probably overkill unless you're a hardcore gamer or big spender. An A64 X2 4600+ Windsor is cheaper and still very good performance, at less than half the cost of an FX chip.

[Lex]

What about just a RAM upgrade Kevin, you think it would make much difference to my resource intense applications like photoshop? Or would I just be throwing money down a pit that is going to hit bottom soon anyway?

Maybe I should just keep my dual system for a file server/backup system, and rebuild this other PC with new stuff.\

But for the record, I 100% disagree with what the PC industry does to us changing connectivity, and standards on a continual basis. It's planned obsolescence, hooking us into buying new systems when we don't necessarily need them. It wreaks of collusion and unfair business practice IMO.

[aud19]

Sorry, missed this Doug. Yes, upping your RAM another Gb or two would go a long way to helping with graphics work. Generally unless you're doing hardcore gaming or something very CPU intensive like video encoding, 3D animation etc most computers made in the last few years have more than enough horse power to do average folks stuff

That said, new, faster toys are always fun

[Kevin P]

More RAM and a newer, faster hard drive will make a bigger improvement in performance than a CPU upgrade, at least for mundane tasks (including booting up the old beast).

But if you're doing heavy duty CAD, gaming, video editing, or trying to set a SETI speed record, a faster CPU will help too.

[Lex]

well, my hard drive is less than 6 months old, is a 7200 RPM 16mb cache drive IDE. That's as good as it gets for now.

[JonMarsh]

I'm going to be a pervert and say switch but wait...


That's a nice Apple system at a good price... I have a dual Core 2.7 GHz G5, and a Quad Core G5; I keep the dual core at work, the Quad Core is my main PC at home.

The pervert part comes in becuase I'm posting from IE7 on Vista from my MacBook Pro....

Intel is going to be doing some hellacious processor upgrades in H2 this year, and there will be one or two rounds of updates to the MacPro series. My Quad Core runs VPC for a few apps adequate, and it smokes on good Mac apps, but if you want the best of both worlds (and you do, even if you don't know it now), a Mac Pro makes more sense and has a clearer upgrade path... called Penryn. (announced by Intel last Friday).

I only use the Windoze side for running MathCAD, LspCAD, and Altium Designer for schematics and PCB development. Everything else is done on the OSX side, including Concepts Unlimited 3D design, Modo 202, Maple 10, Easy Draw, MathType, Pages, Keynote, Photoshop, Lightroom, Raw Developmer, iTunes, Omniplan, SuperDuper, Deltagraph, Curio, DVDPedia, etc. Oh, and MS Office, too. I rarely work on the Mac, except to upgrade the storage, which I did in December, taking it up to a Terrabyte internal and additng a Firewire 800 1TB raid array external.

I'm running Boot Camp on the MB Pro, of course, but I've just picked up a copy of Paralels, and downloaded the beta RC. The new version almost released has a number of new features for running XP and Vista in virtualization, including support of Boot Camp Partitions, and Coherence mode for running Windows apps directly on the Mac desktop without seeing Windows. They've really been boogeying with their developoment process the last few months. Since stability is more important to me than glitz at the moment, I may wait until the final release, due in about a month I think.

Good luck sorting out your options and choices.

~Jon