Hello all,
So here is my 3 year old ancient computer:
motherboard: DFI lanparty nforce4 ultra-D, socket 939
cpu: athlon 64 3200+ venice
ram: 1 gig OCZ
gpu: 7800 GTX
PSU: 520W
hard drive: 250gig seagate, 500gig external
monitor: doublesight 26" LCD 1920 x 1200 native resolution
case: Cooler Master (centurion I think)

I live on a college budget and after rent and bills I am left with basically no income and so money is definitely an issue. However the day for an upgrade is probably far overdue. I used to play games, but now I rarely do so. Occasionally I play Half life 2 or Supreme Commander, but this is rare and negligible as they run on my current computer adequately.

However I do like to watch HD movies and TV shows on my computer that supports 1920 x 1200 resolution. I've noticed recently that the video seems to lag from the audio on some HD movies. The task manager shows my CPU at 100% during these times and so I'm guessing that's the bottleneck. I use Media player classic with the recommended codecs. Tonight I'm going to send a video to my roommates new dual core and see if it lags at all.

It's hard to find a dual core because of my outdated socket 939 mobo and the ones I can find are at least $150. The cheapest I've found was an opteron 170 for $150. First, would this work with my current setup and, second, would it alleviate my problems with watching video?

The other option I have is to buy a new mobo/cpu/ram. I figure this to be at least 300-400 dollars for a budget system, assuming I don't need to upgrade my case/PSU. Basically what I'm asking is would the 400 dollar option be worth it performance/price than the 150 dollar option. Also would this need a new PSU? As much as I would love to spend money I don't have to have the state-of-the-art system, I have to be reasonable and buy only what is needed. Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
-Eric

P35-DS3L = $90
E2180 = $70 (OCed to 2.8-3Ghz)
Xigmatek HDT-S1283= $40
Total price: $200

You can also get a 9600GT 512MB for $150:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130334

This would come to a total of $350.
You can spend the rest of the $50 on a good PSU(Tire 2 or 3) from Antec,etc.

He'll need new memory though as it will be ddr 1 he's using.

Well assuming I bought the upgrades you listed for $200 plus 2 gigs of ram for around $90, would that be much better than just upgrading to a socket 939 dual core for 150-200 and would it be fine on 520W. I don't plan on upgrading my video card currently. It hasn't restricted me too much as I don't play too many games. It's hard for me to find benchmarks as different systems are used to test each.

I see the obvious benefit of changing mobos is that I can later upgrade the cpu, whereas socket939 is dead. I just am looking for a bang for the buck deal. What you're suggesting is spending about twice the price of just upgrading my cpu. I'd be glad to do that if it's going to reap twice the rewards.

^2GB should not be $90. You can ger 2*1GB kit for $33 after MIR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145034

It should be better option than upgrading a S939 for $200. You don't have to spend $400 uot right. Since you already have a 7800GTX you can continue using that until you need to upgrade GPU.

Hell the e2180 at stock isn't bad, so he could initially save the $40 for the Xigmatek CPU HSF and use that $ to buy the 2 gb's of DDR2 that you linked earlier. Than he'll be still under the $400 price and will be able to use all of his older parts, assuming he doesn't have 3 IDE devices that he needs to plug into the new mobo.

I do like the idea of being able to upgrade to a better cpu in the future. That was my original plan when I bought socket 939 back in 05 I think. I just never really needed to until now. Makes me wonder if I will again. Seems upgrading after 3 years requires replacing most of the parts. I am thinking that getting a new mobo/cpu/ram is a more solid plan if it is the right price. Any other suggestions for combinations of the three for under 300 dollars would be great.
-Eric

There is always upgrading to a AM2+ mobo and CPU, but the e2180 at $70 is tough to beat, especially since you can OC it to 2.8-3 gHz on the stock cooler. Personally I wouldn't spend $150 or so on your aging system. If you had the option to get a $50-80 x2 CPU I'd consider it, but like you said it's difficult to find one anymore. I have upgraded to a x2 4200 on my current rig this last Christmas. It was only ~$70 or so, but that was the last time I saw the CPU for that price. Unfortunately for me, I can't afford to upgrade my system yet, so I'm still running on 3 yr. old tech, but it works for what I need right now. Maybe next year I'll be able to upgrade my system, but time will tell.

That's the problem. If it were under 70 dollars to just get a 939 dual core I would do that, but since they are so overpriced it makes me want to just upgrade to a new intel mobo/cpu. I'm researching now on options, but would still love to hear suggestions. I am a little out of the loop on motherboard and cpu technology so it is taking a while.
-Eric

Another option is to get the AMD 5000+ Black Edition for about $85 or so, you'll need at least a good $25 CPU HSF to go with it, but it has a unlocked multiplier, so you can OC from 2.6 gHz to 3-3.2 gHz w/out any voltage changes or an HT changes to do. The other bonus with this setup is that the mobo's that you can use for this chip are pretty plentiful and are generally cheaper than the Intel based mobo's. There may/may not be better upgrade paths with the AMD build, but it's an option that will be about the same as the Intel build above. You can tweak it differently, but the options are somewhat limited when your on a tight budget, as you well know.

So to try and sum things up a bit:
AMD build:
CPU - $50-90 depending on which x2 you want/need.
Mobo - $55-100 also depending on your upgrade needs later.
Memory - DDR2 800 mHz CAS4 is the best and is pretty cheap right now.

Intel build:
CPU - $72 shipped at newegg, the e2180 looks good and can OC well on a budget!
Mobo - $90-110 just about any p35 based mobo will do, Gigabyte/Asus/Abit are good ones to consider.
Memory - Use the same memory as the AMD build.

As you can see the prices aren't off too much. The Intel build will OC much better so you can get a bit more performance (in general) out of the Intel build when OC'ing. If you don't OC than the AMD build would be cheaper and pretty equal to a Intel system competitively priced.

^Agreed.

You people that always tell someone to buy a lesser CPU and overclock need to stop doing that.

Why? he is on very tight budget. People told him two cpus from both amd and intel that are cheap and oc very easy

I think only a fool would build a system with a cpu such as the black edition x2 or a E2180 intel and not give them a simple mlld overclock on stock volts.

I dont think anybody asked this yet, did try to overclock your current cpu to see if it gives you the desired results. Thats a free upgrade right there if it hasnt been done.

Newegg also has the single core athlon 64 4000(2.4) oem for 43 bucks. could pick that up and good budget cooler and get it up to around 3ghz

AMD Build

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103255 AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5ghz 45w processor - $89.99 Runs cool and should be able to OC well if you want it to.
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103194 AMD Athlon X2 5000+ Black edition 65w 2.6Ghz, unlocked multiplier for easier ocing - $99.99

Motherboard:
Nvidia: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131281 ASUS M3N78-EMH HDMI AM2+/AM2 - $94.99

AMD/ATI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130172 MSI K9A2 CF-F V2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X - $94.99 before $10MIR.
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813154016 SAPPHIRE PI-AM2RS780G AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G - $79.99

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820148076 Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 x 1GB) - $60.99 before $30 MIR
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146673 mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) - $47.99 before $10MIR Plus it includes a full copy of 3dmark Vantage Advnaced.
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231122 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) - $84.99 I can personally vouch for this memory kit.

Total $217.97 - $279.97+S&H

So that leaves room for a possible additional upgrade or two. If you wanted you could go with an Agena/Tolimon processor instead. I'd really recommend upgrade to a Radeon 3850/3870 or equivalent Nvidia card. All the newer ATI card handle HD Video decoding on chip, so it takes a lot of the CPU load off. Which is the reason I suggested the 780g, or nforce 8200 boards. Plus they are both AM2+ boards, allowing for future CPU upgrade ability. The 780g board has hybrid Xfire, which allows you to throw a cheap radeon hd3450 and crossfire it with the IGP, giving playable FPS in quite a few modern games. the 8200 based board is the nvidia equivalent allowing for hybrid SLI with lower end Nvidia 8400/8500 boards. The 790X board is in case you may want to upgrade to an Xfire solution in the future. I wish the Nvidia 700 series boards cost less or I'd recommend one. Though if you want to spend about $50 on the motherboard you could get a k9a2 Platinum with the 790fx chipset and 4 pcie 2.0 slots. The 4850e is the newest of the Athlon X2 lines with low power usage, incase you're concerned about that, plus it wouldn't put a strain on your PSU. And as far as the RAM kits go, Crucial always has pleased me, use to use Crucial Ballistix memory on my old Athlon XP system. I'm currently using the bigger brother version (4gb(2x2gb) DDR2 1066) of the Mushkin memory, and have no issues. And that G.Skill kit I can personally vouch for, that the exact same kit I was using prior to upgrade to 1066 memory, rock solid stable, runs at low stock voltages, was very tolerant of the OCing of the 9600BE I was using, even while I was OCing the IMC. Or for that matter, you could us the extra money to get ahold of a good aftermarket CPU cooler for OCing.

Intel Build:

CPU-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819116052 Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz - $71.99 Easy to OC with good cooler.
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115052 Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 - $134.99 45nm Intel, runs cool, easy to OC.

Motherboard-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157123 ASRock 4Core1600Twins-P35 - $94.99, support for both DDR2 and DDR3.
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157120 ASRock Penryn1600SLI-110dB LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i - $99.99, 3x pcie x16 slots

Ram-
Same as the AMD builds.

Total=$214.97 - $319.97 + S&H

There were a few other Boards I could of recommended, but once you get into the nvidia 750i or higher end intel based boards you start shooting well over the 100-150 mark, which would mean cutting corners elsewhere. ASRock makes good boards, and has very good bios support, from my personal experience with their AMD boards. In fact if newegg had had it listed I would of suggested one of the Nvidia 780a or AMD 780g boards by them for the AMD build. Not to mention they are usually well priced for those on a budget, so definite ban