Hopefully this is the right forum. If not point me in the right direction.

I built this system last year but am thinking about upgrading and just wondering if 1. you think I'm crazy, 2. you could give me some advice on an intelligent upgrade path. Was this all a great learning experience (my first build) or can I actually save some money by reusing some of these components? Obviously case, hard drives, dvd are all reuseable, but what about the rest and what if I wanted to switch to core2duo, etc. Any and all recommendations appreciated.

Antec TruePower 2.0 TP-II 550 550W Power Supply

Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI Athlon 64(FX)/Sempron/Athlon 64 X2 Skt939 DDR Motherboard w/Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA BenQ DW1655 16X

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Processor Socket

Zalman CNPS7000B-CU LED CPU Cooler

(2) Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO 2GB Kit DDR433 XMS3500 ProSeries Memory

(2) Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer and Serial ATA Signal Cable Bundle

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3400832AS 400GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer

BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out, Dual-DVI & VIVO

Sony FD MPF9201121-1/MPF920-Z (Z/121) 6082 1.44MB 3.5in Floppy Disk Drive (Black)

Dual Layer DVD±RW Bare Drive (Black)

U.S. Robotics USR5699B 56K V.92 Internal Faxmodem PCI OEM

Thermaltake A2095 SATA-UV Series Serial ATA 18in Cable (Red) Retail


John

What are you looking for better performance in? It appears you have a great system already.

If you need better gaming performance, a graphics upgrade is all you really need right now.

I will try to help further once you respond.

This system was built for Photoshop and architectureal cad with 3d rendering (no high end modeling tho'). I guess I keep hearing from others on my cad forum about how much faster the new intel chips are and am getting cpu envy. I've got the cash to do it, but don't want to waste it just for minimal gains, so I am willing to hear " great system, wait a year to upgrade" if that's your advice.

Honestly, your system looks great as is, unless you honestly feel like it's slow.

1. you think I'm crazy - Can't really judge you as this is your first post

2. you could give me some advice on an intelligent upgrade path - S939 is about a dead stick now

For a Core 2 Duo, you'll need, of course, a LGA 775 socket that is Core 2 Duo compatable (in other words, look at the chipsets: some Intel 945 (base), all Intel 965 (mainstream - enthusiast), selected 975X (enthusiast), nVidia 600 series (mainstream - enthusiast), DFI ATI 600 (not sure what to really classify that one, but DFI is the only ones that make it). You'll also need DDR2 RAM.

Video cards... wait for more DX10 cards to come out to help settle prices

Basically, if you feel your system works great for you, don't upgrade. Screw what others say. You're the one using the computer, not them. The computer meets your needs and you're happy, then no worries

Hope this helps.

Yes, the Core2Duo is a great CPU for CAD and any rendering.

Yes it will be faster than your current X2 4200. I don't see enough justification to upgrade as of now though, unless your current system isn't keeping up with your needs I would stick with the X2.

Maybe in a year upgrade to an Intel Core2Quad when prices are decent.

In a less then a year amd will have there true quad-cores out.
also there will hybrid-HDD out by then as well A long with pci-e 2.0 boards and cards so you are better off waiting.

Thats a nice system you have, if the upgrade bug has bitten you, you may consider since you have an SLI capable M/B trying to find a second BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out, Dual-DVI & VIVO, and go SLI.

Thanks to all. I think I will wait for at least the next 6 mos or so. Now I have to look for a laptop that will handle my cad on the road.

Thats a wise decision, your machine can basically run any software presently available, and at the present time an upgrade to Vista would actually be a performance downgrade from WinXP[According to THGs Vista vs XPs test shootout].

So waiting is the best idea.

The only thing i see is maybe an sli'd video card and maybe a larger psu(to get above 600w).
i dont even think a 4800+ cpu is justified.
if you did that then you might as well go for the c2d cpu set-up

You can always overclock for a substantial rendering performance increase

In a laptop you should definitely look for a Core 2 Duo (not Core Duo) with a 7 series mobile GPU.

Actually, you might want to wait at least till summer before purchasing a laptop. If my eyes serve me correct, then I would say that DX10 video cards for laptops should be out by this summer.

Your CAD and rendering software may see a decent boost with a good OpenGL card.

Did someone 'jack my avatar?....hmmmm

Dude, If you want to get a higher res cropping, let me know. I can crop the original, flip it, and load it temporarily for you to copy that one.