Buying an AMD, what should I do?

I've posted about upgrading to an AMD a couple of times, but now I'm stuck. I have a Intel Prescott 3.00 GHZ and was going to get a 3200+ AMD 64 but though that wouldn't be much of an upgrade and a 3500+ would be better. This would cost about £60 more. However, now most of the online shops I look at, Ebuyer, Scan, don't have the 3500+ in stock, ebuyer don't even list them anymore. Are they still being made? Anyway, would it be worth buying a 3200+? would I see much performance increase from my Prescott 3ghz? If I bought a 3500+ it would cost about £200 as i'd need the retail Heatsink, add on around £100 for a decent motherboard (MSI NEO 2 PLAT recommended by Ricky ) and its costing me £300 for the upgrade, while a 3200+ would be about £130 retail. I won't bother to upgrade it yet though, unless I will see a notable performace increase from my prescott...
What do you think?

 

While i'd imagine that even an Athlon64 3200+ would be a nice little upgrade, i dont think it would be enough to spend money on at the moment. You might see some improvement in video rendering and a decent jump for gaming, but not enough for that price IMO.

a 3ghz Prescott is not a bad chip, and i think it would more worth it to wait a while for the 3200+ or 3500+ to fall in price before you make a purchase.

 

Yeah, you're probably right. One of the main reasons I want to change to an AMD is because the prescott runs really hot, 55C idel and over 70C on games using AS5 thermal paste and a Theralright XP120 heatsink. The case is cool, 22C I mainly use the computer for games and thought an amd would be nice, but maybe i'll wait for a cheaper 3500+ or 3800+

 

AMD just dropped the price on the 4000 to $482. If I were you, I'd save up that little extra and jump on that bad boy.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22956

 

If you check scan stocks later on today they usually get new stuff after weekend or bankholiday,also I'm going there later on for some stuff I'll ask when thier next shipment of chips are coming.

 

Although the AMD 4000 + and the 3200 + are great chips, you aren't going to really see a huge improvement over a 3.0 GHZ Pentium.

Certainly not one to justify the cost.

CPU's upgrades only give a decent performance boost if there is a fairly large jump in processors, usually a 50% increase, and as you already have a decent processor to begin with then an "upgrade" isn't going to do much.

If temperature is your main concern than look at improving cooling, or if you want to improve performance then look at other things like video card, memory and or hard drive/s, depending on your current specs off-course.

 

I agree most of the performance gain will not be seen with any 64 bit chip unless you are using a 64 bit capable O.S and even then not all the software makers have written 64 bit programs to go with an 64 bit Operating system. I am personally holding off till Windows 64 bit O.S is out for a while and there are more programs and drivers written for a 64 bit O.S.

 

I agree, wait a little, and just get better cooling, what video card do you have?

 

I've got a Geforce 6600GT graphcis card. I'm please with the PC's performance but just can't cool the thing down. I tried rearanging the wires to keep them out of sight and airflow, but didn't really make much difference. I have a coolermaster Praetorian case which was expensive, but maybe should look at a new one with better airflow? The Thermalright XP120 HS pretty much takes up all the room in the case and probably isn't very good for the airflow. Maybe I should look into getting some inexpensive water cooling...? 55-60 idel and 70-75C load is just too hot!

 

I would def go water instead of buying a new case but i would not skimp om the water cooling parts buy a good set and you will sure to get significant temp drops

 

I thought this looked interesting.

 

Why don't you go back to basics before you do anything major?

Remove the heatsink and old thermal paste and re-apply a decent brand like Arctic Silver, but only put as thin a coat as possible.

The thinner the coat the better the heat transfer.

A Pentium 3 with stock fan and heatsink should run fairly cool, and if yours isn't then I would change the thermal paste and heatsink/fan before doing anything else.

 

Why don't you go back to basics before you do anything major, especially water cooling?

Remove the heatsink and old thermal paste and re-apply a decent brand like Arctic Silver, but only put as thin a coat as possible.

The thinner the coat the better the heat transfer.

A Pentium 3 with stock fan and heatsink should run fairly cool, and if yours isn't then I would change the thermal paste and heatsink/fan before doing anything else.

 

Pentium 3?!? don't diss the system dude! lol
It's a Prescott 3GHZ. I've used Artic Silver 5 thermal paste applied like they advise on the website, less than a grain of salt in size. With a Thermalright XP120 heatsink. This thing is huge and has a 120mm fan on top! The cpu still gets hot hot hot! I have a coolermaster -full aliminium- Praetorian case which has two front fans sucking in, one back fan blowing out and a blow hole which I switched from sucking in to blowing out. I also rearanged the wires so the air flow was more effective. I can't think of anything else to keep the system cool apart from water cooling, but thats so expensive for a decent kit.

 

you could mod the side of your case and install a duct to directly move cool air outside your case onto the heatsink. ducts if done right are a very efficient way to cool CPU temps.

check out the guides at www.overclockers.com

heres 2 good ones-
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1187/
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1186/

 

What are you using to measure the temperature?

Try running it with a side cover off and see how hot it runs.

 

I'm using Motherboard monitor to measure temps. Having the side off lowers temps by about 5-10C depending on the time of year. Nice and warm in England now so its less effective than winter. But thats not a good long-term solution, is it? I heard dust built up can cause fires...
I looked at the coolermaster water cooling system someone suggested but the reviews say it only cools the cpu about 3-5C lower than the Thermalright xp90, and I have the improved XP120, so I don't think it would be worth the effort of installing or the money.

 

I didn't suggest it as a long term solution, rather to see where the problem was, from the case or the heatsink/fan.

I would stay away from water cooling and try everything else first, starting with the easiest and cheapest solutions.

Have you tried the stock, or another, heatsink/fan, and is re-routing and thinner cables an option?

 

your prescott with an xp-120 and arctic silver should be below 50 degree's in the desert,I would check the pressure of the heatsink on the cpu and try reapplying the AS-5,check if it rock's easily on the cpu,most importantly check the voltage it shouldn't be more than 1.5v even if it is 1.5 it could be a false reading,try lowering it gradually untill it becomes unstable,then raise it a few points to stability.Also try reversing the fan.

Those chips run hot but you have invested in AS-5 and an xp-120 so it should be alot cooler.

 

When I put the heat sink onto the cpu it was a real tight fit. I had to wiggle it about a bit but I made sure it didn't lift so as not to let air bubbles into the paste. I don't have the fan recommended for the XP120 which was a 120mm Panflow. I have an old 120mm fan i pulled off another case, maybe that would help. I took a printscreen of cpu-z, i don't know if you tell anything from the readout, i think cpu voltage is on there?
One thing that is annoying about the case is that the front and top fans are covered by a thin mesh which stops dust getting in but also i think must stp some airflow. Maybe i could get a new fan for the back and stick into the spare pci slots?

 

I just looked on a site someone suggested that had an article about 'MOSFETS' getting hot with prescott processors. The author made tiny heat sinks for each MOSFET around the motherboard. This guy has the same MB as me, so maybe that would help spead the heat? He lowered the temperatures by about 10C doing this.
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1142/
Also, I'm not too knowledable about these things, but I gathered that overclocking a cpu can reduce temperatures? Is this true??

 

Your cpu voltage is fine 1.44 just right,I just read over the thread again looking for a clue,and you stated that you applied less than a grain of salt of arctic silver 5,thats not enough,especially if your chip has a heatspreader,a flat peice of metal covering the entire chip.have a look at these pictures-

http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/cooling/arctic_silver5/index_4.shtml

They use slightly too much but it gives you an idea how much you need,if you have a heatspreader use as much as the right picture but all over the chip,then use a credit card and drag it over to get it as flat as possible so no air is trapped.

If you decide to try this have a look how much of the chip was covered when you pull of the heatsink.