looking to upgrade, what would be the best route?

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:16 am

ok, i'm selling off my p4 2.4 ghz setup to by nephew since that is what he is looking to buy... doing this will give me a chance to throw a few more bux in and get something alittle better. SO which setup will be the best....

athlon xp 3000 with nforce2 moboard
athlon 64 with sis 755
p4 3ghz with intel chipset??

JMEaT · Post by **JMEaT** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:02 am

Dude go nforce 3 and AXP64 and a lot of RAM.

Arch · Post by **Arch** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:42 am

Avoid the SiS chipsets. They are no where near as good as VIA. As JMEat suggested, I would stick with the Nforce3 chipset if you want to go that route.

At this point getting an AthlonXP is going to be a dead end upgrade. There isn't going to be any new ones. The same goes for current P4s, a new form factor is due out some time this year to go along with the new Prescott CPUs.

An Athlon64 may be your best bet, but going with a Athlon64 instead of the FX-51 (which is mucho $$$) you are going to loose dual channel memory.

My vote is still Athlon64 though.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 11:42 am

The 3200+ Athlon 64 is $270 right now, and was more or less on par with the FX 51(same clock speed, but with a single channel memory controller). I'd suggest one of those with the Via KT800 chipset. The Nforce 3 didn't perform very well in most benchmarks.

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:15 pm

myself i wouldn't get any A64's right now. but in six months when things have settled down, i'd go for it.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:29 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Mr. Perfect:
The 3200+ Athlon 64 is $270 right now, and was more or less on par with the FX 51(same clock speed, but with a single channel memory controller). I'd suggest one of those with the Via KT800 chipset. The Nforce 3 didn't perform very well in most benchmarks.</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wrong Mr Perfect, the A64 3200+ is 2 GHz, you mean the 3400+ which is 2.2 GHz like the FX 51. And if M$ ever gets off their butts and gets Windows XP 64bit edition out that will make the Athlon 64 chips even faster! Also, I tend to aggree that the NF3-150 isnt performing up to par on some benchmarks, but I believe that the NF3-250 will probably resolve all those problems when it hits the streets.

-Krom

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 3:59 pm

Thats what ive been planing for awhile once the nf3 250 comes out im gettin an A64 3200+

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 6:21 pm

does the nf3 come with good onboard sound??? nost of the boards i've looked at seem to have cheap intergrated sound!!!

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 10:56 pm

If you spend the moola and get a high-end board, probably.

At this point, I'd wouldn't get a x86-64 chip. Not until intel gets their a64 clones out, and the price war gets going.

be interesting to see what Intel will do to get past AMD.

Warlock · Post by **Warlock** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:39 am

good NF3 MBs

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Pr ... K8NNXP.htm
i have the little brother of this one the 7NNXP and its a damn good mb hasent given me aney probs at all

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Pr ... XP-940.htm
this one is for the FX Cpus

Ferno · Post by **Ferno** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 11:52 am

Flip, also, this is new tech, a la the first P4's. AMD has a socket change planned, so I'd hold off til their new socket comes out in six months or so.

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 2:17 pm

I'm not worried about a socket change, when i buy a cpu, a motherboard usually follows....I jsut want to get one with a good motherboard. The n-force 3 boards i hear are the slowest of the bunch!!! but i'd still be interested if i find one that has really good on board sound! that gigabyte board looks good but the sound is still one of those 6 channel sound chips that take like 15% of the cpu away. I know with the nforce 2 boards, there was sound integrated into the nforce chipset that was really good for games.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:32 pm

Yeah, the 3400+. Good catch.

The Nforce 2 sound was called Sound Storm.

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:03 pm

did Nvidia dump the sound storm after the nforce 2?From the reviews i've seen on this, it was the best onboard audio you could buy!!! But i dont see it on any of the newer boards at all????
I'm looking to dump my audigy card with this upgrade since creatives stupid sound mixer is so retarded and won't work with 3rd party software.

Arch · Post by **Arch** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 8:21 pm

Sound Storm is actually a certification for sound. Not all motherboards using Nforce2 chipsets have SoundStorm sound. In order to be certified they need to include a variety of different connectors, I think a digital out is one of the requirements.

I can't comment on the sound on the Nforce3 boards but I'm inclined to say that if you already have an audigy card I would just stick with that. I just recently purchased an Audigy2 ZS and I found it to be vastly superior to the onboard sound on my motherboard (abit AI7).

I also think Creative has better game support, despite the fact that their drivers are like ATi drivers of days long past. I'm not sure if they have improved support for 3d party programs because I don't use any sound editing programs or anything like that.

If you are going the A64 route, I would wait until the platform matures a little bit. Right now there's a skant few selection of motherboards and I wouldn't touch a VIA chipset with a 10 foot pole. VIA's drivers are even worse than Creative's.

Arch · Post by **Arch** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 8:40 pm

I forgot to mention this. If you are on a limited budget, word on the street says the current batch of the AthlonXP mobile CPUs are hitting stellar overclocks. I just read an article about a Mobile 2500+ hitting upwards of 2500mhz. Unlike Intel's mobile parts, Athlon mobiles are identicle to their desktop brother's with the exception of a lower operation voltage. In essence they are just sorted parts that are certified to run at the lower voltages and therefore have a lot more headroom than typical desktop chips.

You could get a Mobile 2500+ for under $100 and a Nforce2 board also for under $100 and you could have a pretty sweet rig that would last a year or two.