amd 3500+ upgrade

**davegibbon09** · August 27th, 2011, 11:21 AM

hi al. My hd for my pc has burned out. It seems time for a new pc but Its been many years and I'm now lost. I don't game I do burn movies and do homework. My current setup is the 3500+ with 1gb ddrsdram. These dual core pcs seem slower for ex. 2 cores 2.0 ghz each. Does yhat mean my 3500+ will operate better at single core applications?

do you think these would perform better than my current setup? These are like 200 pcs in canada. Thanks
I've looked at these two there cheap pcs.
amd 64 x2 245 2gb ddr2 ram
intel dual core e5700 2gb ddr3 ram
and

intel dual core e5700 2gb ddr3

**stroyal** · August 27th, 2011, 12:32 PM

Welcome to TechIMO!
The majority of programs, still only use 1 core.

Lets start with a few benchmarks.
assuming yours is a Sempron 3500+
It scores 499 with Passmark (low end chart)
A $125 Sandy Bridge I3 2100 @3.10Ghz scores 3861 (high end chart)
PassMark Software - CPU Benchmark Charts

Of course the Sandy Bridge scores that only if all 4 cores are being utilized.
But even with 1 core, it would be much faster than that 3500+
In theory 1 core would score 966

You can't compare Ghz speeds, as they are really meaningless, with a CPU that old, and this new.
There are many other factors, that have sped up processors.

The $67 E5700 scores 2015 so even on 1 core it is about twice as fast as the 3500+(mid range chart)

If you don't game all you need is a motherboard, with on board graphics, or the Sandy Bridges have graphics built into the processor.

The best thing to do is give us a budget, and what programs you use, and we can put together the best bang for your buck.

If you want to try to reuse some parts, we need to know, their specs, so we know if they will work.

Power supply specs, are most important, but one that old, should probably be replaced anyway.

What kind of case, if you think you want to reuse it, and any optical drives (color on these also if getting a new case)

I can't find the Athlon II X2 245e, but the 260e which is better only scores 1108, so would be about the same or slower that you 3500+, in single core operations.

So if you are not going to build it your self the Intel e5700 is better by far, as well as you want DDR3, not DDR2, like the 245e has.

Let us know what you want to do, and we will get more detailed.

**davegibbon09** · August 27th, 2011, 12:56 PM

wow thank you very indepth article. Sorry it was a athlon 3500 . The programs I use are vlc player for hd mkvs and dvd shrink lol. The pcs are both 240 bux with 500gb hd each. And I have a x800xl pci express barely used which is probably better than that onboard. That's so much information thank you so much.

**stroyal** · August 27th, 2011, 01:13 PM

It must be a Athlon 64 3500+ then.

That would raise the score to about Passmark 585 just a little better.
Just make sure it has a PCI-e x16 slot, some with on-board don't have one.

**davegibbon09** · August 27th, 2011, 01:22 PM

ok thank you very much. On a side note is it much cheaper building your own?

**stroyal** · August 27th, 2011, 01:27 PM

PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards

I don't know what kind of on-board it is, but it should be better.

If you want to see where the X800XL ranks, it is at 565, on the high end chart

**stroyal** · August 27th, 2011, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by davegibbon09

ok thank you very much. On a side note is it much cheaper building your own?

You have to compare Apples to Apples.

With a low end build like you are looking at, probably not.
But I haven't tried, to price one that inexpensive.
What's the exchange rate though, I am talking dollars. are they about $600

In the $600 and up range, yes.
on a low end store bought machine, you will be getting a power supply, that we wouldn't even consider, as well as everything else will be as cheap as they can get.

Mostly you get a much higher quality computer, than a store bought, even a low end one.

Give us a budget, and we will see what we can come up with, but in the $300 dollar range it will be better, but probably not cheaper.

I'd have to look, as most of out requests are for gaming machines $600 and up.

There are others here that are much better at picking systems than me, and may take it as a challenge.

**stroyal** · August 27th, 2011, 02:57 PM

Exchange rate looks pretty close to 1 to1. about 99cents to the dollar.

**ShyguyXPC** · August 27th, 2011, 11:50 PM

Originally Posted by stroyal

PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards

I don't know what kind of on-board it is, but it should be better.

If you want to see where the X800XL ranks, it is at 565, on the high end chart

There's something screwy with those tests/benchmarks, according to it, the X800 XL out ranks a standard X1900, which is just not possible.

The X1900 is 2 generations newer than the X800 XL and replaced the base X800/850 series cards.

**stroyal** · August 28th, 2011, 12:03 AM

Originally Posted by ShyguyXPC

There's something screwy with those tests/benchmarks, according to it, the X800 XL out ranks a standard X1900, which is just not possible.

The X1900 is 2 generations newer than the X800 XL and replaced the base X800/850 series cards.

I know, that's why I say it is quick and dirty.

It is only where I look first, when I get serious, I look for real benchmarks.

It's artificial, unknown systems, and sometimes you can find the same card in several places.
I've been too lazy to actually find out how they are submitted, but I already know it isn't a very good system

I only use it for a general idea.

My guess is half the people don't even know what their system is.

I'm open for suggestions, for one that has most cards on one page, that is more accurate.

**ShyguyXPC** · August 28th, 2011, 12:07 AM

Looking through newegg's canadian site, not much in prebuilt systems in that price range.

Building one yourself, you'll get more.

Newegg.ca - BIOSTAR ECO HD61 Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 (LGA1155) Intel Socket H2(LGA1155) Intel H61 none 1 x HDMI Remote Control Barebone

Newegg.ca - LG DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH24NS70 - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.ca - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.ca - Rendition by Crucial 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model RM25664BA1339

Newegg.ca - Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz 2 x 256KB L2 Cache 3MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80623G620

About $394.94 before shipping and other fee's.

But its a good budget system, the onboard Intel graphics may not be as powerful as the old Radeon card of yours, but its more updated, current and more than capable of running HD video and what not, as well as some light games.

The CPU isn't all that fast, but its with Intel's latest generation of Socket 1155 CPU's, and will be leaps and bounds over your old system, as well as be much faster than either of the ones your looking at now.

2GB DDR3 RAM in there, plenty for what you listed you do.

1TB SATA II Hard drive, 32MB Cache Buffer, 7200RPM, Western Digitals Middle ground series of drives (From slowest to fastest, Green Series, Blue Series, Black Series)

SATA based DVD Burner.

Windows 7 32-bit, should be all you really need, could grab 64-bit, will work fine with older 32 bit software, main advantage is use of over 4GB RAM.

the case, with built in PSU and mobo, is decent, small enough. The Motherboard has a PCIe x16 slot, but this case is a half height case, so you won't be able to use your old Radeon card anyways, and it'd probably wouldn't work too well with the included PSU.

Then just use your current Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers and Monitor.

**ShyguyXPC** · August 28th, 2011, 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by stroyal

I know, that's why I say it is quick and dirty.

It is only where I look first, when I get serious, I look for real benchmarks.

It's artificial, unknown systems, and sometimes you can find the same card in several places.
I've been too lazy to actually find out how they are submitted, but I already know it isn't a very good system

I only use it for a general idea.

My guess is half the people don't even know what their system is.

I'm open for suggestions, for one that has most cards on one page, that is more accurate.

Yeah, not really sure, Toms Hardware is decent, But I rarely use it anymore, as loading the dang lists gets really laggy, and they keep screwing with the method for searching for a card.

I know there is a couple review sites that list cards, total cumulative scores based on the benchmarks they run, but since the benchmarks change over time, its not really a good measurement for older cards, vs newer ones.

**stroyal** · August 28th, 2011, 12:17 AM

Yeah, Toms can be a pain, and it doesn't go back very far.
They haven't had a Flight Sim benchmark in years, the slackers.

A lot of times, I just google the 2 cards I'm looking at, and get the actual Toms articular, that is pretty good though.(but they have to be pretty close in age to find a comparative benchmark)

I try to warn everybody that PassMark is only close.

**ShyguyXPC** · August 28th, 2011, 12:20 AM

Yeah, when I do my searches, I usually google search the video card and word "review" in the terms.

Or if I'm on GPUreview.com getting spec data for a card, they have a multitude of review links from various sites for each card as well.

Just an example, ATi Radeon X800 XL PCI-E Video Card - Reviews, Specifications, and Pictures - GPUReview.com Has 8 review URL's below the specs.

**stroyal** · August 28th, 2011, 12:29 AM

I actually have that bookmarked, but forgot about it.

I don't think I noticed the reviews at the bottom, I thought you only used it for specs.

I'll give it a try, again.

Well the rain from the hurricane just started, but the highest winds, are only foretasted for 50 MPH gusts now.

Hope I don't loose power.