AMD upgrading question
 

Hi all,

Currently looking into upgrading my P4 to an AMD, unfortunatly, I dont have much familiarlity with AMD so I had a few questions that someone might be able to answer for me:

My current setup is a Dell build with:

P4 3.4Ghz processor
2GB DDR 533Mhz RAM
250/80 GB WD hard drives
Nvidia 7900GTX (recently put in)

First off, I wanted to know just some basic information of what is "good" in the AMD market for a gaming rig, for my own knowledge. I have a basic understanding of the hardware (chipsets, x86 archetecture, etc.) but my concern is centered around the motherboard and if it would recognize an AMD processor instead of an Intel one. I dont have any specifics on the motherboard (gg Dell) but I can try and provide as much info as possible.

Thanks in advance for whoever responds to this.

... ¬_¬' Upgrading from a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 is just a waste of money.

Anyways...if you still want to "upgrade", you must know first that Intel motherboards are incompatible with AMD processors, so if you're moving to AMD, you also need a new motherboard.

Yeah, you physically won't be able to insert the AMD processor into your current motherboard.

As x86 stated, the cost of replacing the Pentium 4 and your motherboard really isn't worth it for the marginal speed increase you'd receive.

Unless your shooting for a dual core 3800+ or 4000+ AMD CPU (or anything beyond that) and are looking to overclock it, there is no point in upgrading your P4 at the moment, I'd just wait a while as both Intel and AMD have new ranges coming soon.

When you do decide to get an AMD processor, the make sure you get the right socket count. Semprons and cheaper Athlon 64s use the Socket 754 interface. All recent Athlon FXs and Athlons X2s (plus several of the vanilla Athlon 64s) use the Socket 939 connection. By the way the Athlon FX 51 and 53 (one version at least) used the old Socket 940 interface, not to be confused with the socket type I'm about to describe.
The newer Opterons (server CPUs, most consumers don't need them) and upcoming Athlons (this summer) will use the brand new AM2 interface, it uses 940 Pins like the older Athlon FX CPUs did, but is much improved (also incompatible with those old FXs) and supports DDR2. Hopefully this gets you an idea of what to buy.

Socket A (Very Old): Athlon XPs- all 32bit
Socket 754: Semprons, Athlon 64s up to the 3700+
Socket 939: Athlon 64s, Athlon FX 53 and newer, Athlon 64 X2
Socket 940 (Old): Athlon FX-51 & 53
Socket 940 (AM2 New): Athlon X2, Athlon 64 (?), Athlon FX (?), Opteron

Well, thanks for the insight. Is there any truth to the whole "AMD is better for gaming. Period." that I seem to be seeing everywhere, since that was what put the bug in my head.

Well, I mean, AMD machines tend to do better on the benchmarks... but it's not like you have a BAD computer for gaming, at all. Yeah, an AMD box of better specs might get better frame-rates by a bit, but you shouldn't upgrade unless you're DISSATISFIED by your current experience. And judging by your specs, I can't imagine why you would be.

Yes there is. At the same price point the AMD64/FX/X2 machines are faster in games. Sometimes there is a huge difference, sometimes not very much.

As everyone else has told you, it's only worth taking into consideration if you are upgrading your system, or buying a new one.

Also, as you seem to have DDR2 in your machine, that won't fit in current AMD systems (Socket AM2 will support it soon) you'd need to replace your *2 Gigabytes* of RAM, as well as the motherboard. Your machine is plenty fast, so spending hundreds on a CPU, a couple hundred on RAM, and ~ a hundred on a motherboard isn't going to be an economically sound upgrade.

Basically if you're in the market for dual core processing, then consider the AMD processors. The slightly higher framerate is only a bonus. You'd only see a noticable performace increase if you stepped up to a Athlon X2 4800+ or higher dual core or a Athlon FX-57 single core. So don't just buy a Athlon for game performace, or you'll be at least a little disappointed.
Otherwise the only way to give your games a kick in the ass is to add another 7900 GTX.

If you decide to buy a current Athlon X2 (or FX-60), get a Socket 939 board. If you want slightly better performance (or a lower price on the former metioned socket 939 CPU), wait for the AMD AM2 socket to come out, which would be May or June.
The best sub-$300 buy you could make is a Athlon X2 3800 or 4200 (depending on where you search, you could bag a 4200 for less than $300). It'll give you dual core for a reasonable price.

Thank you for the advice guys. It has helped me alot.

really, your easiest upgrade would be to get a pentium D and just drop it in there, if you use anything that can benefit from dual core processing.

Yes but he has a definite interest in AMD. Pentium D is the poor man's entry into dual core. In fact all but the newest dual core Pentiums couldn't even hold a candle to the Athlon X2 4800+. Seeing that he has a GeForce GTX 7900, his budget for a new CPU should be $300 or above.