Hi everyone, hope I'm posting in the right forums, first time here. So I have a pretty low end computer atm . My video card is a PCI-E Radeon X800 256 mb with only 2.0b pixel shaders. The cpu I believe is a AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+, 2.0 ghz i believe has the socket 939. 1gb of Ram. The Motherboard is a MSI MS-7191, I THINK this a link to the right motheboard http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/MSI/RS482M4-FD+%28MS-7191%29/ I'm aiming to do about 3 things. I want to upgrade my video card mostly to be able to play games that require Pixel Shader 3.0 and to be able to handle Crysis when it comes out on medium settings at least. Looking for a Dual Core Processor even though I'm not sure if I can even replace the one on my motherboard (not sure if its integrated). Aiming for not top end but same as above able to support Crysis and also for PS2 Emulation. Finally I'm not sure if I should upgrade the motheboard, I don't know if it'll help with getting a processor cheaper and boost my performace at the same time or not, also worried I would have to get a new power supply/fans/ and buy a cooling system which I believe are all out of my league currently. I'm just really looking for any advice, not huge top of the end recommendations that are expensive just because they're new but I do have a slightly fair budget on all of this. So if any one could recommend me things, New MB or not? Which CPU in my current or new MB, if a new MB what also would I need with it, which graphics card or whatever else you think I need upgraded? Sorry for the long post, but if any 1 wants any of my specs just ask I'll copy and paste from Sandra if you need it. Thanks for the help .
Here's a tip from me: Upgrading you motherboard first is recommenced because it affects what you can put in your computer, therefore, when upgrading the rest, you will have no probs. The only downside is some of you older stuff may not be compatible with you new motherboard, so you may have to buy it all @ once.
Well if thats the correct Mb you can go dual core on an amd platform. But you are limited with that board due to it's front side bus. If you have the means you can build a decent dual core system for around 500usd. Right now intel seems to be beating the pants off AMD in dual core arena. I'm not pumping one over the other as I have both mfg and the intel's seem to do better.
I'm a real noob when it comes to info about what a Bus does on a motherboard. Why exactly on my current mobo am I limited because of it and what does a Bus even do?
The Bus is effectively the speed at which the motherboard interacts with the other components. Your board should handle an Athlon64 X2 fine, but those CPUs for socket 939 are in short supply and aren't exactly cheap, and so that isn't really the best value option. The best thing you can do is buy a midrange socket 775 board that supports the Core 2 Series and buy a core 2 Duo CPU. You can keep the Graphics card, but you'll need new RAM.
