If you do decide to upgrade I would spend most of the money on the motherboard and as little as possible on a new dual core CPU. High end socket 939 CPUs isnt reasonable priced and an overclocked 3800X2 (even using only stock voltage) will keep up with the 4800X2 just fine.

When it come to motherboards things are a bit different, the top boards (DFI boards and Asus A8N32-SLI) use solid caps in their VRM circuits so they should be more durable and last longer. The Asus A8N32-SLI is a really nice motherboard so if you feel you need a new board that would be my recommendation even if the prices are outrageous.

In my book the Geforce GTX 285 is the top choice for XP but its also a large card and only worth it if you play at 1920*1200 with AA and stuff. A single GTX 250 should be enough for 99.9% of the games you can/want to play using a K8 system.

Skyscraper wrote:

If you do decide to upgrade I would spend most of the money on the motherboard and as little as possible on a new dual core CPU. High end socket 939 CPUs isnt reasonable priced and an overclocked 3800X2 (even using only stock voltage) will keep up with the 4800X2 just fine.

When it come to motherboards things are a bit different, the top boards (DFI boards and Asus A8N32-SLI) use solid caps in their VRM circuits so they should be more durable and last longer. The Asus A8N32-SLI is a really nice motherboard so if you feel you need a new board that would be my recommendation even if the prices are outrageous.

In my book the Geforce GTX 285 is the top choice for XP but its also a large card and only worth it if you play at 1920*1200 with AA and stuff. A single GTX 250 should be enough for 99.9% of the games you can/want to play using a K8 system.

I'm thinking about an upgrade just because I found an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (new, boxed, tested, all the accessories and stuff are still in sealed packages) combined with a AMD Athlon X2 3800+ CPU only for 60 USD. I'm not actually decided about upgrade first, and started searching for parts.

So, with that in perspective, is A8N-SLI Deluxe also a good board? Does it worth 60 USD with the CPU it is combined with? Especially when compared to K84N-E Deluxe and Athlon 64 3700+ which is already on hand.

I compared the manuals and specs of both A8N-SLI and A8N32-SLI, but could not see any major difference of note, but of course I might be wrong.

I read a bit too fast and missed that the board was new.

If its new the Asus A8N-SLI is a great motherboard and a bargain for $60 with a CPU. Its not often you see one with bad caps so it should last many years. If its worth it over the stuff you have now is hard for me to judge but Im tempted to say yes. You will get some/most? of the money back if you sell your old stuff.

The differences compared to the A8N32-SLI are 8+8 PCI-E lanes when using SLI compared to 16+16, no solid caps and the A8N-SLI does not like to run the memory with CPC/1T timing at over 240 MHz.

Related question, is is worth getting an X2 over a frequency equivalent single Athlon 64 even if it's exclusively used for single threaded applications?

honestly if its only for single threaded, get an FX-55/FX-57/Opteron they are cheaper than the dual cores and are great for software up to about 2006.

Performance in games of those days may even be better with a single core. Sometimes older games don't work properly with SMP.

Ordered A8N-SLI and bundled CPU. I'm not sure yet if I order only one Zotac GTS250 or two, but probably will go for two, just for the fun of it. I never had a SLI setup before, and thinking about having one will be fun. 🤣

If I will have problems with the multicore CPU, I'll find a speedy cheap single core.