Computer Upgrade

Hi, i was thinking of buying a 3500+ AMD-64 for about £155 on overclockers.co.uk.
However, there is a 3700+ for £194 and a 3800+ for £231, they are all socket 939, what i was thinking of doing is buying a socket 939 motherboard with AGP, thats if you can get socket 939 motherboards with AGP, i know thats sound stupid, but all i have to do when i want to upgrade graphics card is buy a new motherboard, i am happy with the x800xt pe at the moment, i just feel that this PENTIUM 4 3.0GHZ PRESSY is really just a big weight over my shoulders, i just feel the 3.0ghz pressy is a waste of space, thats how :swear: off i am about it.

so what do you think, what processor should i go for? 3500+, 3700+, 3800+?
the 3800+ is a venice
the 3700+ is a san diego
the 3500+ is a venice

and for the motherboard, i was thinking of getting a
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=64800

Yes, i know, its on ebuyer, but its the only place i can find a good motherboard for that price, i am willing to put the past behind me with ebuyer, so i give em one last chance

actually, is that motherboard good, for overclocking and other things? i have jus tnotived its a VIA.

The processor deffo will be coming from overclockers.co.uk

 

I'd say get the 3700+ San Diego, its got a bigger L2 Cache and i've heard very good things about it,
for your upgrade i'd also look into a new cooler because you like your freezer 4 so look for an AMD one so you can still be l33t heh. Anywho...
that motherboard looks quite good, its got all that you'd need.

 

What about something like this

 

Nice one Matt555!
That MSI board will do more than is required, VIA chipsets are very good and compete very closely to the nForce chipsets!
Before nForce2 came out VIA was the dominent leader in AMD supported chipets!
I would also have to agree with the 3700+.
I've also heard very good things about the ABIT AV8-3rd EYE mobo!

 

yea i like that bourd matt sugested.

 

when i save up £250 i will buy the processor.

 

my MSI motherboard has served me well and if it has the core cell chip on it you'll be good to go for overclocking,
mine came with a utlity that allows me to adjust the FSB of my CPU while in windows, it raises it for a short period of time then lowers it back down (i dont know when it works out that it needs to lower it but hey..it worked for me)
well you'll have some good components there and a good computer
(next you'll have to think about some new RAM...heh)

 

also i just looked and it looks like the MSI board has Core cell on it, should be good for overclocking.

 

whats so good about the core cell chip?

 

it allows some MSI software that you get with the motherboard (called CoreCenter) to tweak your system, it gives you accurate information about your computer and allows you to adjust the FSB of you CPU while windows is running, that way it only adjusts it for a short period and then you can set it back to stock when you want it to/when the programs thinks it should. Its a good thing that MSI have..well i like it anyway

 

CoreCell can dynamically overclock your system to suit temperature and stability while in windows.

 

yeah its an awesome utility

 

How much do you want to overclock? The reason I ask is because the Via chipsets aren't known for stellar OC's, so you'd want to look at an nForce 3 250Gb as there are a few Socket 939 nF3's out there. Otherwise that MSI board is a good choice.

I'm not really sold on the overclocking part of Core Cell (or Abit's uGuru setup) mainly because I'm the old school OC'er. I'm sure the software is fine, but in the past, the OC software was pretty basic and if you OC'd too high with it, there were really any fail-safes if you couldn't get into Windows. The other issue would be if you ran Linux. I don't think MSI has Core Cell for Linux. I know you probably won't, but just a random thought.

 

i used to overclock for short periods of time with CoreCenter but the software just didnt do anything useful really, so i overclocked in the BIOS, much better but CoreCell/Corecenter is a useful thing if you want to bump performance up for that short gaming period or something.

 

i would want to overclock the processor to at least 2.8ghz. or whatever suits, maybe 2.6ghz, i cant find a nf3 250gb chipset for a cheap price.

 

I'd go with the 3500+, at stock it's neck and neck with the 3700. Clock for clock there's almost no difference. The 3700 will overclock higher but I don't think you'll be hitting their max potential anyway so just save a bit of money. The L2 cache size means little on AMD platforms so long as you have 512k.
I'm not a big MSI fanboy but it looks fine to me. It will probably give you a better oc than the Abit. Though both are nice boards.

 

so, i should get a 3500+ venice, what abouy the 3800+?

 

The only difference is clockspeed, don't bother. You could easily oc it 200Mhz. The Venice cores can only be pushed so far obviously so a 3500 and a 3800 may reach their limit at around the same clockspeed.

 

so, if i get a 3500+ venice or san diego, would it be possible to oc it into a 4000+, but how long would the cpu last?

 

not too sure, presonallyi would buy the san diego, it has a bigger L2 cache and i've hear extremely good things about it, i'm sure the others are good bu i'd prefer a bigger cache (before anyone comments i know my CPU's cach is a crappy 128KB...its old)