Upgrade Advice

Kiith

Right, so i'm going to upgrading my rig in the new month or so (thank you bonus!), and was looking for some advice. Dont want to go crazy, so just something that will play most new games at high enough settings, and set me up for at least the next year or so. Gonna be upgrading what i have, so below is my current rig (or close to it). Looking to do this at the end of April.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, P965, Socket-775
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket
RAM: 2gb Corsair DDR2 pc4200
GFX: Saphire x1950xt 512mb
PSU: Seasonic S12 Powersupply 500W, 120mm
HD: 250gb Maxor (i think)
Cant remember the name of the case, but its worked pretty well so far, and seems to keep things nice and cool.

I was thnking i could keep the CPU, but maybe i should upgrade that to a quad core? And i'm guessing i'd need to upgrade the PSU and the graphics card? Currently using a 22" monitor, so only looking for 1680x1050 resolutions.

Varkov

Your motherboard can't handle anything higher than 1066MHz, so the only CPU upgrades you could go for is either a E7xxx or a Q6600/Q6700.

If you're on a budget and looking to upgrade sometime next year, I'd say keep the E6600, maybe get a mid-priced cooler and try overclock it a couple of 100MHz, grab a 512MB HD4870 and another 2 gigs of RAM. Your PSU would be enough for that anyway, and just do a completely new build next time you're upgrading.

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VGElJgtpHI1Ig/articledetail.jsp?aid=3916&agid=399

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VGElJgtpHI1Ig/articledetail.jsp?aid=22354&agid=717

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VGElJgtpHI1Ig/articledetail.jsp?aid=20688&agid=669

Throw in 30 quid for delivery, and you're looking at just over €200, even cheaper if you can pick up some of the stuff on Adverts.

Inquitus

Varkov wrote: »

Your motherboard can't handle anything higher than 1066MHz, so the only CPU upgrades you could go for is either a E7xxx or a Q6600/Q6700.

If you're on a budget and looking to upgrade sometime next year, I'd say keep the E6600, maybe get a mid-priced cooler and try overclock it a couple of 100MHz, grab a 512MB HD4870 and another 2 gigs of RAM. Your PSU would be enough for that anyway, and just do a completely new build next time you're upgrading.

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VGElJgtpHI1Ig/articledetail.jsp?aid=3916&agid=399

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VGElJgtpHI1Ig/articledetail.jsp?aid=22354&agid=717

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VGElJgtpHI1Ig/articledetail.jsp?aid=20688&agid=669

Throw in 30 quid for delivery, and you're looking at just over €200, even cheaper if you can pick up some of the stuff on Adverts.

Aye I had a think about it, and this man is right. A CPU upgrade is uneccessary right now, OC'ing yours to above 3Ghz will give a satisfactory boost and cope with the current slew of games just great.

A CPU Upgrade neccessitates a Mobo upgrade etc etc, and its not worth it at this juncture.

2GB of RAM can be had for less than 30 notes. A cooler for similar and i would recommend this off adverts

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=103681

as a decent GPU with a reasonable pricetag.....haggle a bit mind, its a reccession and a buyers market

Inq

Kiith

Would my PSU be good enough for a 1gb 4870? Was looking at the below one, as its a decent price.
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=25955&agid=1004

If i was to upgrade the CPU, PSU and motherboard, what would you recommend? Nothing too extravagent, but solid performance wise. Was lookin at...CPU - http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=23148&agid=398...for a cpu. Along with the above gfx card.

Not sure about the motherboard though? And would i need to upgrade my PSU with this setup?

Oh, and thanks for the advice.

Effluo

this would suggest your psu would support the 4870..

http://www.seasonicusa.com/s12.htm

Also if i were you, which i'm not....?

I would get this

http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=26532 (better than Q6600)


Someone on boards said they have stopped making these so that's why they're so cheap!

Here's your new graphics card!
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-Sapphire-HD4870-PCI-E-20(x16)-3600MHz-GDDR5-GPU-750MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP

and with sterling the way it is now... it's what i got this week!

Only thing i'd say is i don't know anything about in terms of power if you'd need more to support the Q6700 and the 4870. So someone needs to enlighten us about that!

If you do end up getting this Q6700 remember it's OEM so i doubt there is a cpu cooler included.


p.s.
what i'd say about the 1gig 4870 is that even when you're playing on a big resolution screen the memory doesn't make that much of a difference(from the reviews i've seen). The 512mb version would be grand.

uberpixie

1) buy at least an extra gig of ram
(if you are running windows XP 32bit you won't see much more than 3.25gig out of 4 due to the memory limits)

2) Buy the 4870. Have one myself on a 22" and it is perfect.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=442787
(something like this with a quiet 3rd party cooler) GFX card will make a much bigger impact on your gaming performance than a better CPU atm.

3) you PSU if perfectly fine, it is an excelent quality and will easily power a quadcore with a high end gfx card.

4) I am running a quad 2.4ghz @stock which has been fine for all games I have played bar crysis where overclocking it to 3.0ghz for a short while gave a monster extra 2 frames :pac:. (which did make the last level playable to be fair....)

You won't see a difference, for most games, moving from a dualcore 2.4Ghz to a Quad 2.4Ghz unless you are using hardcore media editing apps.

Some games a quad does make a bit of difference would be supremecommander and GTA4. Most games really only take advantage of a dualcore, but it can be nice to have an extra 2 cores running your antivirus software etc in the background.

TBH unless you are heavily multi tasking I would stick with the CPU you have and wait and see if prices drop a bit more before buying and if you see a cheap qaud you can pick one up.

A dual 2.4Ghz is still plenty of poke for gaming on a 22".

Inquitus

That 2nd hand GX280 >> a HD4870 and its the same price, less when you haggle, if I were you I'd seriously consider it.

requiem1

had the exact same dilemma before christmas, it all got sparked off when I got a 24" monitor and the 8800gts wasn't up to par anymore. I compromised and bought 4 gigs of ram and an gtx295. You can get the E6600 up to 3.4 or more no probs with the 965 chipset and some decent overclocking RAM.

Hold out from an overall upgrade and maybe focus on just buying some stuff you can carry forward into a new build when the time is right i.e graphics card, hard drives, power supply etc

If you want a hand overclocking just post up in the overclocking logs and we'll give ya a hand

Kiith

Thanks to all for the advice. Think i will stick with the current CPU, and just upgrade the RAM, graphics card and my hard drive. Gonna go with the Saphire 4870 1gb, get another 2 gigs of ram, and get a 1tb hard drive. Will stick with ATI as well, as i've always liked their cards.

Should i get look at getting a better/quiter fan? The computer as it is runs pretty quietly.

requiem1

Kiith wrote: »

Thanks to all for the advice. Think i will stick with the current CPU, and just upgrade the RAM, graphics card and my hard drive. Gonna go with the Saphire 4870 1gb, get another 2 gigs of ram, and get a 1tb hard drive. Will stick with ATI as well, as i've always liked their cards.

Should i get look at getting a better/quiter fan? The computer as it is runs pretty quietly.

Do you mean better quieter cpu cooler? If you're running stock there will be limitations when it comes to overclocking however I've seen people get some great overclocks with the reference HSF. If you are going to upgrade this consider getting a cooler that is compatible with the 1366 socket type for future proofing sake. But sure if its not bothering you then I wouldn't be too pushed but it you have the cash why not:)

Kiith

With reference to HSF...huh? I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to overclocking and non-standard cooling and stuff. I figure i probably wont overclock it for the time being, although will look to when it starts to suffer, performance wise. I have the stock cooler on my on it at the moment, so i guess i should upgrade it. Any good suggestions?

requiem1

Kiith wrote: »

With reference to HSF...huh? I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to overclocking and non-standard cooling and stuff. I figure i probably wont overclock it for the time being, although will look to when it starts to suffer, performance wise. I have the stock cooler on my on it at the moment, so i guess i should upgrade it. Any good suggestions?

Sorry sometimes I forget to explain, HSF is heat sink fan and thats the cooler on your cpu. If you're looking to upgrade it the best imo is the thermalright Ultra extreme 120 but I'll let you decide for yourself. Here's a really good article breaking down whats available right now and their performance It looks a bit confusing on the outset but its good info

Solitaire

IIRC the E6600 runs on a 266MHz FSB, and the maximum rated FSB for that old P965 mobo is... well, suffice to say that depending on its original quality the old mobo may end up severely limiting any overclocking attempt.

Varkov wrote:

Your motherboard can't handle anything higher than 1066MHz, so the only CPU upgrades you could go for is either a E7xxx or a Q6600/Q6700.

...Or a E5200, which only runs on a 200MHz FSB. Jumping to FSB1066 (266MHz) can bump it up to 3.33GHz. Easy But given the reduced cache and the ~€70 cost I think the move is only worth it if the mobo can't remain stable at any speed higher than 266MHz (which kills the E6600 OC attempt). The E7X00 is overkill and is overshadowed on all sides by its competitors. And I'm not 100% sure if any quad will be stable on the old P965 chipset...