Friend wants upgrade... What to get?

[RockNRoll]

My friend currently has an Athlon XP 2600+ at 2.08gHz and wants something faster because he is also a 3D modeler and does alot of renders.

Would this be a very good performance increase? http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-381&depa=1

[Someone Stupid]

No... your stuck on that platform. What motherboard. If it is a solid motherboard with overclocking features a mobile may get him some noticable boost, but not much unless you get lucky and can push it past 2.5 GHz without it wailing like a banshee to keep cool. For him to notice a real difference a new motherboard and CPU are in order, not an Athlon but either an Intel 2.8C or 3.2C (E's enhanced instructions aren't used yet for the most part, and it's slower and hotter per cycle) or an A64 on either platform, though I'd recommend 939 for future upgradability.

[dragflameson]

Originally posted by Someone Stupid
or an A64 on either platform, though I'd recommend 939 for future upgradability.

I would agree, socket A is going to fade out soon enough. I dont know how noticeable of a difference you (your friend) would see from a 2600 to a 3000 without upgrading other things. But anyways it might be a nice idea to suggest to him if he has the money (and if not then to save for a little) and get a 939 socket board (MSI Neo2 is nice) and the cheapest 939 pin CPU, which I believe would be the A64 3500. Then later on down the road he would be able to upgrade to a FX

[The Lodge]

How much ram does he have? If he's into 3dviz and the likes, he might benefit from 1gig of ram. It’s a cheap upgrade solution without revamping the whole rig.

[RockNRoll]

He's got 1gig already I believe.

Ok, so you say buy a pentium? Pentium 4? And new mobo? Ok. I'll tell him. Thanks.

I knew Intel was better... LOL!

[RockNRoll]

Ok how does this sound?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-172&depa=1

and

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...185-026&depa=0

Anyone know of a good case too? Nothing real fancy.

[zybch]

Originally posted by RockNRoll
He's got 1gig already I believe.

Ok, so you say buy a pentium? Pentium 4? And new mobo? Ok. I'll tell him. Thanks.

I knew Intel was better... LOL!

No, they aren't. As far as 3d rendering goes, the 64bit Athlons wipe the floor with the P4 CPUs, are cheaper, run cooler and the new breed of games appear to run far better on the Athlons than Intel's equivalent CPUs.
The Intel ones only grab the speed awards in stuff like video/mp3 encoding that can make use of the hideously long pipelines in the P4 which intel had to create Hyper Threading to keep full, in most other things, the long pipelines seem to act as a detrement to performance.

If your friend is doing a lot of 3D stuff, he might want to get himself a Radeon card and mod it to a Fire GL card instead. That would probably help a great deal with the actual construction part of 3D modeling.

[zybch]

This case looks pretty good and the reviews I've so far seen are all positive. I've just ordered one for myself.

http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod1591.htm

[Yoshi]

Get AMD64 if you can, if not the P4C class is the best to get.

[RockNRoll]

Aw darn... LOL.

Ok now I have to tell him different.

Actually, HE might want to get a 5900XT or 6800 or something. He's had NVidia in the past and just JUST bought a new one so he probably won't want to get another so soon.

And I am a 3D modeler too, and it's not that complex to where you'd need to mod a card and all. Stock setups for cards work fine. We're not doing REAL high poly animations and stuff so actually, even the 5200 he has now will suffice.

Thanks!

I'll look at that case.

[skytop]

CASE 4 U:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...PSELLER&DEPA=0

[RockNRoll]

Ok, this CPU:http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-483&depa=1

Should it be faster than his current one? His is also 2.2 ghz but being it's a 64 bit should it be much faster?

[skytop]

Ask Yoshi. He always advocates AMD and would love to see you purchase one.

IMO, as long as you find a board that meets your needs, the AMD 3200 for $218 should fly. Amazing that cpu performance is finally affordable.

[RockNRoll]

Ok, this mobo?http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...152-039&depa=1

It was the cheapest one... I know it's not 939, but it's cheap. LOL!

Ok, I'll ask yoshi... Unless someone else know's if this will be MUCH faster that an AMD XP 2600+ @ 2.08gHz.

[skytop]

Do a search for that value Chaintech board and see if it was the subject of any reviews, comparisons, or roundups. Also look into any Chaintech forum and look at user experiences with the board. You'll get a feeling for the board's pros and cons very quickly. It's called doing your due dilligence.
Here is one to start with:
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/revie...t800/index.htm