crxtuner

So i have raped my system non stop for 5 years and it is time to upgrade. I would upgrade current system but the 754 pin socket was discontinued. I would like advice on what Processor (preferably amd) and
motherboard combo is decent, as well as what video cards are good for long amounts of abuse. Mainly lots of counterstrike source but would like something that would also be able to handle some of the new graphical demanding games.

My current setup
Asus k8v se deluxe motherboard
Amd Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0ghz
2gb ddr ram
Nvidia GeForce 7600gs 256mb memory
80gb hd
koolance water case

I was looking at buying another bottom of the line asus motherboards and tossing on one of the new Amd Athlon 64 x2 5000+.
.02Cents appreciated.
************************************************** ************************************************** **
So Christmas day i forked out 300 on new egg and updated my Dinosaur

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core
ASUS M3A78 2600mhz hyper transports
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) dual channel kit
Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16

+Arctic silver Thermal compound so my ish will stay cool

All of this will be paired up with my existing water cooled case, hd/cd drives and existing psu. Should have pics up tomorrow.
************************************************** ************************************************** *****
Wow is all i can say in the performance increase in the dual core 3.2mhz processor compared to my original amd athlon 64 3400+ 2.0ghz is just ridiculous.
This new setup ***** all over the previous one, nuff said.
Only complaints is that the 4gb of pc8500 ram is only recognized as 3.25gb because im on 32bit xp.

BoostForLife

You would want AM2 Amd 5000+ or higher.
Upgrade to DDR2 ram 800+ speeds are reccomended
Get a sata2 mobo and sata2 hard drives
Get a high end 8800 series Nvidia.

All of the parts above are chea as hell now and are really fast when working together.
Never go for the brand new stuff because it's stupid exensive, buy high end hardware that came out like a year ago. They are cheap and are still crazy fast.

Newegg.com is where i buy all of my brand new parts when building a computer for someone. Very good site and they ship fast.

enikolayev

screw amd. they suck.

get something dual core. for a video card a 9600 gt should suffice, i got mine for 70 bucks on black friday.

TorganFM

Quad core Intel OC'ed to run 3ghz per core on air cooling is very doable
Then add an MSI brand Radeon HD4850, 700watt psu with good 12v rails, mobo, ram, etc. Doable with $800 starting from scratch. Add a water block and skip the air cooling on the quad core and you're golden.

enikolayev

quad core isn't necessary for gaming. he wont notice a performance difference. unless he's encoding video all the time.

BoostForLife

All Amd chips after 4000+ and FX57s are all at least dual core.
So a 5000+ would be a dual core.

TorganFM

GTA 4 takes advantage of multicore. Soon all games will. Multicore is the future. 3.3ghz dual core < 3ghz quad. You know what to do.

TorganFM

HD4850 and HD4870 are cheap ($170ish depending) and stomps everything else out there. Nvidia drivers suck for Vista and 64bit XP.

enikolayev

i guess it depends on the budget. but the 9600 gt is more bang for the buck.

enikolayev

btw vista sucks and 64 bit xp doesn't support many games