Is it worth upgrading my comp or just getting a new motherboard and start over

[Infinitiguy19]

I have a K8V-SE Deluxe Asus motherboard with 1.5 GB or ram and a X64 1.6 GHz AMD CPU. I want to max it out and put 3 GB of ram and a dual core 3.XX GHz CPU.

Would it be more cost effective to just get a new motherboard and start over or stay with my current socket 754 setup?

I have no problems really but the stuff is just out dated. And it was meant to be a server so I added a 64 MB GPU but I now want to play some games on it since its pretty fast.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Socket 754 is very very obsolete. I just replaced a socket 754 machine myself. Options are pretty sad, with all the decent Athlon64 chips being socket 939. Also, I'm going to assume your socket 754 mobo has an AGP slot rather than PCIE slots, which means you're not going to be able to find a video card for it, and if you do it'll be expensive. No one makes AGP cards anymore.

Your timing is excellent, though. Intel's budget LGA1156 boards and chips are out there now, and that's the way to go. The Core i5 is very cheap but the performance is fantastic (better in many cases than the still-expensive Core 2 Extreme). They're quad core 2.66ghz. You can get motherboard and CPU for around $300 total.

The one downside to going this route is that you can't reuse your DDR2 memory from your socket 754 system. You need to buy new dual channel DDR3. Don't bother with the pricier triple channel stuff, the 1156 mobo won't support it.

Toss in an Nvidia GTX200 series card (under $200) and you're set.

[Infinitiguy19]

You are correct on the video card it is AGP. Any chance you still have some of the old 754 stuff or is it trashed? At least the good part about this is that I paid only $60 for the motherboard, GPU and CPU.

I am surprised the CPU's are still $100 and 1 GB memory (PC 3200) is $34. I MIGHT stay with this setup for a while or till I get another hard drive so I can have a true home server.

[MinisterofDOOM]

My 754 machine (it's a whole machine) is not working at the moment. I THINK it is a power supply issue. I don't really have any use for it, though. It's got 2GB of DDR2 (Kingston HyperX, good stuff) and a hard-to-find AGP Radeon HD2600 (512MB). The CPU is just a 2.2ghz Athlon64 3200+, though.

[Infinitiguy19]

Hey MoD you have mail!

[nnorton44]

Id stray away from Socket 754 as it doesn't support dual-core.