Legit Reviews

hi all

i got old AMD 3200 (socket 939) with ASUS A8n-SLI (deluxe) mobo (2gb DDR RAM, 160 SATA HDD, 1 Benq DVD RW, Geforce 7900GS) all run in stock speed.

im thinking of upgrading my rig to :

Phenom 9500 + AMD780g mobo (cheapest mobo) and 2gb DDR2 RAM

mostly i only play games like Hellgate London and WOW/LOTRO

will i see improvement if i upgrade ?

thanks

ps: no i wont go for Core2Duo system , AMD is sexier

You'll see an improvement, but unless your doing video encoding, or sound encoding you probably won't get much out of the 3rd and 4th core on the cpu. It's a hard decision going Quad for future proofing, or high end dual for gaming.

Which ever way you go you'll see a nice improvement over the 939.

You will see an improvement. The fact that you have more than one cpu core makes the system in general much more responsive.
You know you could upgrade cheap with a used X2 4200 (939) (its performance is on par with intel's E4300 and E1260). It would be a very good and cost effective upgrade. Even if you want to upgrade to a completely new system keep the old one, i don't see anything wrong with it. Make it an HTPC or something

You may think that amds are "sexier" but many dual core intels perform better than quadcore amds. put that in your pipe and smoke it but yes, if you must go with amd (which you shouldn't) than you will see an improve ment

few days ago i was testing a friend's core2 duo 4300 ddr2 1gb (1.8ghz) with 3650 radeon and playing hellgate on it. it suprised me that the weather effect is more pronounced compared to my rig (amd3200 2.0 ghz, 2gb ddr, nv7900gs)..

i was wondering if even lower clocked cpu is faster than my old AMD3200.. will those cheap phenom with less than 2ghz clock outperform my 2ghz singlecore amd64 ?

I just upgraded from the same socket you have with a dual core 3600 to what my sig says I have now and the improvement is substantial. You can find better chipsets than what I have in ATX config or the 780G if micro ATX is your thing ( I just jumped to micro ATX myself) I would not recommend the 740G that I have now at this time simply because there are some issues with the chiset drivers that you would not have with the 780G. Total cost under $600 you can upgrade to a very nice AMD 2.5 + Ghz system with really good graphics.

Or you could just upgrade to Intel and see a much more drastic performance increase...allow me to explain:

AMD setup:

Crosshair motherboard
5200+ windsor @ 2.6Ghz

Intel setup:

Gigabyte P35 DS3L
Intel E6750 @ 2.66Ghz

Both setups have exactly the same components otherwise, with no overclocking whatsoever.

Average increase in benchmark performance using Lightsmark & 3DMark06 = 40%. I was amazed considering the all but equal cpu speeds in the 2 systems.

The AMD system had a fresh install of XP Pro MCE. I ran Lightsmark & 3DMark06 and wrote down the results. Next I removed the Crosshair motherboard and 5200+ and replaced them with the P35 & E6750. I did a fresh install of XP Pro MCE, and once again ran the 2 benchmarks. Both systems had the latest bios installed with very similar bios options enabled. The difference is like night and day.

So are you saying that no one should stay with AMD no matter what? That Intel CPU is $79 more than the AMD I don't know what the "Crosshair" MOBO is but when I was looking into my upgrade Intel boards were $ 20-$60 more than AMD. I am not sure but I gather that Intel is a bit hotter so most of the time you end up having to go with aftermarket cooling that adds another $30-$40. My point being there are more factors than benchies at play and loyalty is one of them...a big one for me. I MAY find a better review on a given product on another site but I ALWAYS look here first and last..

Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.

I'm not saying anything, I'm just reporting the facts. I knew the Intel would be faster, but I expected maybe 5-10%, so when it was 40%, I figured it was noteworthy. Glean from it what you will.

The Intel CPU may in fact cost $79 more, but the P35 board I chose cost $150 less, making the Intel setup $70 cheaper.

BTW, both setups had nearly identical temps, so an aftermarket cooler wasn't necessary. That plus the fact that the Intel chip had monster overclocking headroom and the AMD chip had very little.

If you think you absolutely must buy an aftermarket cooler (which is nonsense if you don't overclock), then you can pick up an Arctic cooler freezer 7 pro for under $30, and they work extremely well.

Yes there are many other variables involved besides benchmarks, but they are important to enthusiasts everywhere and carry a lot of weight.

In conclusion, enjoy your loyalty, while I enjoy my performance boost.

if you had an am2 motherboard already then I see sticking with amd and getting the phenom. But, If you have to buy a mobo reguardless..I have no idea why you would not switch. e8400@ 4.0 easy vs phenom at 3.2 is the same price range. and your performance isn't even close. Trust me I like amd but, at this point in time there is no reason to stay. When they get back on top it is worth it. Buy intel is killing them