It's that time again

Ronald_Craft · #1 04-25-2007, 11:35 PM

Yes, it's time to upgrade my PC again. So, I just bought an Geforce 8800 GTS 640 mb..that's on the way now. I've currently got an epox motherboard an AMD 3700 with 2 gb of ram. I'm never really hardcore (no 30" screens, dual monitors or any of that mumbo jumbo) about my PC upgrades, but I do like it to be beefy enough to keep up with the current and incoming games.

Basically, I want something that will go for another year or two until I'm ready to build a brand new PC. My ram is DDR and my mobo is socket 939 so..no DDR2 ram or AM2 processors. So, with the new graphics card, that pretty much brings me down to the processor. I know I want to go dual core, but which processor should I go for? I'm looking at:

AMD 4200 x2, AMD 4400 x2, AMD 4600 x2
Opteron 140, Opteron 170, Opteron 175

So, which processor would you recommend and why? I've heard different things about both, but want some more opinions. I know the opteron is a server grade processor, but it's apparently got better stock cooling and overclocks like a champ. Overclocking is a factor as well.

Thanks for your time.

**Mike V** · #2 04-26-2007, 12:39 AM

Among those chips, the newer Opterons are great. Really impressed with the speed.

BTW, I'm reading that by the time DX10 games are out, NVidia's existing line of cards will be much cheaper and an even faster DX10 card will be on the market

Ronald_Craft · #3 04-26-2007, 01:01 AM

Oh, I understand completely. I've never been one of those people that always has to have the "best and fastest" every 4 months. I will probably build a new PC in a year or two from scratch, and then in 2 - 3 years upgrade again. The PC I'm breathing some new life into now is about 2 years old. That seems to be my average cycle for building a new PC.

Eventually, we'll just get to the point where the computers upgrade themselves and then I'll be all set!