My system is a few years old and when I bought my CPU I didn't get the top of the line for the time, I'd like to get a little bit more use out of the system before having to do a major upgrade. The problem is I'm not finding any CPUs on the sites that I know about. Do you guys have any suggestions for an upgrade? ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor What I'd like to do is spend under a 100.00 (they will probably be much less than that if I can find one) on the best AM2 cpu that was offered for sale before discontinuation. A 200GB + SSD. And probably a GTX 560Ti. For clarifications sake, I'm wanting to pass this computer (after it's upgraded to it's fullest potential), case and all, down the line to my kids and purchase a whole new system within the year.
I really dont think you will find any better CPU for an AM2 socket anywhere, it is a very old socket that was phased out years ago and a high end CPU for that socket. The AM2 socket became obsolete in late 2007. I really think you are just SOL in the processor area. A SSD wont perform great either because the SATA chipset isnt capable of full performance, and a 560ti would probably be bottlenecked by the CPU. I think you would be better off with a 550ti. Sorry to be such a downer. In my opinion, these parts would be your best bet: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181019 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185060 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226237 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125409 That is probably the fastest GPU you can have without being bottlenecked by lack of PCI-E 2.0 and a higher end CPU, and then a good SSD for cheap and meets your capacity requirements, and a high end cooler for your CPU so that you can overclock the CPU to get better performance. You could maybe hit 3.5GHz somewhat easily with that CPU and cooler EDIT: upon looking at the listing of compatible CPU's and their bios for your motherboard, it appears that if you update to the beta bios v5001, you could probably get a Phenom II X4 945 working in your motherboard: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2/M2NSLI_Deluxe/#CPUS The only CPU of that model I can find available is this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Phenom-...95W-/140749746752?pt=CPUs&hash=item20c556b240 Which might be worth it since you get an extra two cores and better IPC with it, but I have never personally seen anyone use a somewhat modern Phenom II in such an old socket AM2 board.
Well last AM2 CPU was AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Processor ADX6400CZBOX - 3.20GHz, 2 x 1MB Cache, 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) FSB, Windsor, Dual-Core, Retail, Socket AM2, You'll be very lucky if you find it somewhere in stock. There is one on amazon for 290$ =] IMHO your best bet is to ditch SSD completely for now and upgrade to AM3 socket with CPU, should be around 180$. Just what youd pay for SSD.
Very true Doxy. Another way to go though would be with these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138332 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116399 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144496 Its still low end now days, but it is still a jump over what your current parts are right now Dullard. or these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157292 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996 (closer to dual core with hyper threading than true quad core) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144496 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
Thanks for the feedback guys. I haven't decided which group yet, but it looks like I'll be upgrading my mobo and cpu soon.
Alright, thanks for helping me out so far, I've had another change of plans. I'm going to upgrade my current PC for my use, and then use the scraps (plus whatever I need to buy later on) to build another PC for my kids. I currently can budget $200.00 on upgrades for my system, with more upgrades in the next two months. Would you guys still recommend the suggestions from earlier? Since this is my only real gaming system I need to be able to keep using it so any upgrades now, would need to be compatible with my current specs. I realize that components are expensive and $200 aint much for upgrades, but in your opinions, would the jump forward from what I currently have be worth it to get a smaller upgrade (like what was suggested earlier) or should I save my money and wait another month or two? What I currently have. Case: COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Power supply: XION 500W ATX Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Video Card: EVGA 512-P3-N863-TR GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 Harddrive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA I have other drives in my system as well, so storage isn't currently an issue. Thank you once again for any help and suggestions.
Playable but not great. I think that the outcome of about 50% of my fights are decided by framerate alone at this point. The way I've described my performance so far is that, if I had to pay a subscription for PS2 I would be willing to, but low fps is a hindrance. I get 30fps when there is not a lot going on, but once combat starts happening with vehicles, smoke, tracers etc. it starts getting pretty bad. For those with lower end systems though, there is hope!
Yeah, then put those 200$ to good use. CPU+DDR3+mobo cpu - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996 mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157323 ddr3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231424
Dullard, can you play Planetside 2 and alt+tab into your task manager for me? Check to see how much CPU the game is using. If the game is bouncing between 45-50 then PS2 only uses a single thread. If you are getting a lot above 50 then the game is multi-threaded. If you are around 60-75 in CPU then you are greatly GPU bound, but if you are right around 99-100 the whole time it is your CPU that is holding you back a lot. Knowing how much CPU the game is using will help in picking out which processor you should get. Or better yet, you can give me a planetside 2 key and I can do all these very complex calculations for you. After all, we wouldnt want mistakes happening in this big decision. I think it is best to let me play the game just to be sure.
Enigma, Dullard saying he is using high 80s of his cpu during battles. But thats only with a few hundred people in the game. When its gonna be thousands, im pretty sure his cpu will stutter greatly. So imho, he needs everything =] cpu,gpu,mobo, atleast 4gb ram
Oops, I have a total of 4gb of ram, sorry, forgot I had added 2gb more a little bit later. Another piece of info, which might help make better sense, is that my computer seems to run PS2 the same on low or high settings. I don't know if that points to a bottleneck of some sort or not. and a second with PS2 selected.
ok so since the game is multi-threaded, then most likely it would benefit from additional cores. Meaning quad-core would be better than a dual. And if it plays the same on low of high then it could be that your CPU is the thing holding you back or some other inefficiency elsewhere in the game code, like the networking section. So this would probably be the best processor for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727 And motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157292 and RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231424 That comes out to a little under $200 if you buy before 7/30 and use that promo code. Then next month or whatever when you have another $200 get this GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196 Later if you can pick up a Killer 2100 network card Im sure that would help with 1000+ player battles in Planetside. Most people dont like these NIC's and they dont help in all situations, but I was playing on a CS: Source server on my PC with a top end Cisco wireless adapter (AE2500) and had 15 ping. My friend on my laptop with a Killer-N 1102 had only 7 ping. So it does help in some situation, and I am thinking a 400MHz processor and 128MB of RAM dedicated to network processing would probably help with large scale Planetside 2 situations. Its just a guess from me right now on that, but the card excels most in places like MMOs with lots of players in a city or raid. So logic says it would help in Planetside. But it is kind of an expensive piece for such a small task. Also for the last upgrade you could pick up a CoolerMaster Hyper-212 EVO for $30 and overclock that processor to 3.8GHz core speed really easily and push the northbridge core to 2.5GHz to get more performance for a cheap upgrade. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
thanks for those screens, dullard. Im sure there are a few of us who learned a thing or two about PS2 and what type of upgrades will take us furthest.
Oops, forgot to update this thread. I ordered the parts that were last recommended,and I'm really happy with the performance increase. I can play [REDACTED] on medium settings now with no noticeable frame rate problems. I hope to get a new video card within the month to give myself another big bump.
Did you get the killer 2100 NIC? With large battles in PS2 and GW2 WvW sounds like it may be worth grabbing to smooth out the experience.
I did not get the network card, and to be honest I probably won't unless I see some sort of obvious benefit.