PII 920 @ 3.6 to AM3 X2 550 is it worth it?

[Cisco Kid]

question guys & your thoughts

Is it worth it at an extra cost to me after selling gear to go from my DDR2 based

MSI dka79gx platinum (excellent board)
x4 920 at 3.6 (probably can do more have not bothered)
4gb Gskill PC8500
crossfired 3870's

to a

MSI 790FX-GD70 (this would be the board I buy nothing else)
AM3 X2 550 (hopes to unlock)
4gb 1600 gskill DDR3
crossfired 3870's

would an x2 550 unlocked perform as well at 3.6 vs a truequad overclocked to the same? Second, w potential of no success unlocking depending on stepping of the 550 would a dual core hopefully @ 3.9 seem similar in gaming , light video editing and multitasking vs a quad?

Is it at this time smarter to leave system alone wait for 8 series boards or a BE955 into it late??

Video card wise I will leave my crossfire 3870's in a bit longer before flogging them.... as I just replaced a pair of Diamond HD3850's w the 3870's at a tiny cost..

I guess the fun factor of building a new box and tinkering is fine but would some extra cost justify AM3 performance, possibly being left w only a faster clocked dual core if unlock is unsuccessful? Is AMD DDR3 giving a worthwhile bandwidth increase as I am not interested to go Intel again .......

Lets here thoughts as I just don't read about gear enough anymore...

 

[Dolk]

would an x2 550 unlocked perform as well at 3.6 vs a truequad overclocked to the same? Second, w potential of no success unlocking depending on stepping of the 550 would a dual core hopefully @ 3.9 seem similar in gaming , light video editing and multitasking vs a quad?

A true quad will out do the performance of a dual core in your day to day tasks. When it comes to gaming you may see a slight change but nothing to big. Video editing will have a big hit.

Is it at this time smarter to leave system alone wait for 8 series boards or a 955 into it later??

Video card wise I will leave my crossfire 3870's in a bit longer before flogging them.... as I just replaced a pair of Diamond HD3850's w the 3870's at a tiny cost..

I suggest spending the money on a nice 48x0 card and upgrading the system much later if you want to. The new 8 series may make a performance change or it may not. It will probably be directed for a newer version of Fusion and the 5 series Radeaon cards.

 

[Cisco Kid]

Thanks for reply Dolk, I am leaning towards your thoughts, previous to the 3870's I had a GTX 275 but sold it for pretty much what I paid new for it , I was just not gaming enough to take advantage of it, but once fall rolls around I will game more.

I also wanted to play w xfire, surprisingly the Hd3850's previous to the 3870's I have did very well so I expect the 3870's can hold me for a while and I will look at a gpu single card upgrade in later fall.

I guess at this time clock speed will still be the benefit over the small bandwidth. To date the DKA790GX has been a really really solid board and I have only read really good things about the DDR3 70 version from MSi but to make the move to AM3 would cost a few bux and from the feedback I am seeing here and on a couple other forums it does not make sense to possibly just end up with a higher clocked dual core which knowing my habits will end up being replaced with a faster quad later on....

Other thoughts are still welcomed

 

[QuietIce]

I tend to agree with Dolk. At best you'd get a 10% increase in single- & dual-threaded game performance (3.6 v 4.0 GHz) and loose performance almost everywhere else.



Edit:
LOL - Man, is this the Blue Room ...?!?

 

[Dolk]

Lol I think it is

 

[87dtna]

I'd wait, you're setup is pretty strong. I'd upgrade to a single 4870 if you were set on buying something right now, it will be about the same or slightly better performance than 2x 3870's and probably less power consumption. They it keeps your options open in the future for Xfired 4870's.

 

[SCFAdamVcG]

It's a downgrade honestly.. you'd have to push the dual core high ... like in the range of 4ghz although having said that dual cores are still very good.