2.6 Ghz: any reason to upgrade ?

[doc_bean]

So..my PC recently celebrated its third birthday and I am considering a major upgrade, I've already got the 1Gb RAM, I'm probably going to get a new videocard within the next few months. I'm pretty sure a new harddrive will finds it way into an empty slot in the next few months. But I'm wondering, does my PC need a heart transplant ? Or is the old ticker still good enough to go up against today's youth ?

I noticed all AMD's still run at a lower clock speed, and Intel doesn't seem to have gone up in clock speed to much either. Do new processors offer any real benefits over my old one ? Or should I just stick with what I've got for a while longer ?

Note: I'm not looking for the latest and greatest, I find 1024x768 a pretty good resolution to play games at and am not interest in paying for 'novelty'. I do want decent new components that are affordable and can last a few years, so don't suggest the new AMD 4800+, I really won't waste that kind of money...

[Reenk Roink]

You're essentially in the same situation as I am. My rig is 2.5 years old, with a Intel Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz HT, 1 GB RAM but with only a 80 GB Hard Drive and an ancient ATI Radeon x300 SE...

I myself am going to hold off buying a new beast for 1.5-2 years until Dual Core and Longhorn and hopefully 64 bit become more mainstream. For the upcoming Neverwinter Nights 2 and of course M:TW II, I'm gonna snag a Nvidia 7800 GT.

You should keep your processor as is, my guess is that the extra RAM and New GFX card will do much more than a itty bitty hike in processor power for your gaming needs.

[Mikeus Caesar]

You know, a lot of people seem to be in this situation. A half and half computer, with one half rocking the socks that rock the party, while the other half belongs in a scrapheap. I for one have a great computer, but am rapidly running out of Hard Drive space. I have two 80GB Hard Drives, and the primary one only has about 10GB left, while the secondary one is half full.

It sucks. And typically, by time you get around to upgrading, something else on your computer is utterly outdated/broken.

[Geezer57]

So..my PC recently celebrated its third birthday and I am considering a major upgrade, I've already got the 1Gb RAM, I'm probably going to get a new videocard within the next few months. I'm pretty sure a new harddrive will finds it way into an empty slot in the next few months. But I'm wondering, does my PC need a heart transplant ? Or is the old ticker still good enough to go up against today's youth ?

I noticed all AMD's still run at a lower clock speed, and Intel doesn't seem to have gone up in clock speed to much either. Do new processors offer any real benefits over my old one ? Or should I just stick with what I've got for a while longer ?

Note: I'm not looking for the latest and greatest, I find 1024x768 a pretty good resolution to play games at and am not interest in paying for 'novelty'. I do want decent new components that are affordable and can last a few years, so don't suggest the new AMD 4800+, I really won't waste that kind of money...

Your processor power is still fine for most current gaming, but you'll find your graphics card upgrade path will be very limited due to your current motherboard's AGP slot. None of the new, most powerful cards (Radeon x1800 & x1900, GeForce 7800GT/GTX & 7900) are built with AGP interfaces, preferring instead to go with PCIe. The best you could choose would be a Radeon x850 series or GeForce 7800GS (somewhat crippled 7800 series) chipset. Your processor is also probably riding in a socket 478, which also limits possible motherboard upgrades. I haven't found any "enthusiast" boards with both socket 478 and PCIe x 16 built into them.

Probably best to keep your machine intact, or do a minor graphics upgrade, and save your money for a larger upgrade to a new machine at a later date.

[Lemur]

Save your money. Incremental upgrades are going to give you minor improvements, at best. When you're ready, you should consider a proc/mobo/memory/videocard upgrade, since as another poster pointed out, the nicest and most cost-effective videocards aren't going to play with an AGP board.

Your board is going to give you very little room to improve your proc, and a new proc will likely require new RAM as well as a new mobo.

I'm sitting tight. Not gonna spend a dime on my PC until I can't stand it anymore, and then I'm going to replace the whole shebang. My home-brew PC is over 3 years old, so I'm gritting my teeth and sweating a lot. No more upgrades! None! Not so much as a new fan bay! Nada, nothing! I will endure the torments of low frame rates and the fires of degrading system performance, and I will not weep.

[doc_bean]

Save your money. Incremental upgrades are going to give you minor improvements, at best. When you're ready, you should consider a proc/mobo/memory/videocard upgrade,

That was the original plan, get the HD now, go for a proc/motherboard/videocard upgrade somewhere late this year, reuse the memory if possible (it had to be replaced, that's why I've got 1Gb now). However, since my proc doesn't seem to need upgrading, I was considering getting the new gfx card earlier and keep the rest for another few years.

since as another poster pointed out, the nicest and most cost-effective videocards aren't going to play with an AGP board.

Yeah, they seem really overpriced, and not that much better than my 9700pro.

Your board is going to give you very little room to improve your proc, and a new proc will likely require new RAM as well as a new mobo.

But they're relatively cheap in comparison. When I think of upgrading a proc I automatically assume upgrading the motherboard. In the old days you would usually upgrade your board to accomodate your proc, now it seems to have reversed

I'm sitting tight. Not gonna spend a dime on my PC until I can't stand it anymore, and then I'm going to replace the whole shebang. My home-brew PC is over 3 years old, so I'm gritting my teeth and sweating a lot. No more upgrades! None! Not so much as a new fan bay! Nada, nothing! I will endure the torments of low frame rates and the fires of degrading system performance, and I will not weep.

But...Oblivion...MTW2...THEY'RE COMMING !!!

Ahem, it seems like I should prepare for the long wait for Vista, I hope that manages to drop the prices enough.

[Xiahou]

It could depend on alot of things. I recently "upgraded" from a 2.4Ghz P4 to a Athlon64 3200+ that only runs at 2Ghz, but my performance gains for gaming were huge. Why? My P4 ran at a far slower bus speed and to make matters worse, it didnt support dual channel memory. By only changing the mobo and proc and keeping all the other peripherals I saw substantial framerate gains.

As to just upgrading the processor on the old mobo- I doubt it'd make that much a difference. If you could find some benchmarks for you current/perspective processor you could probably get a good idea that way.

[Phatose]

Ghz to Ghz comparisons between AMD and Intel, or even between P4s and Pentium-Ms are completely useless. The amount of work an A64 or PM can do in a cycle is larger then what a P4 can do in the same cycle.