Looking to upgrade system

TheDoc

Howdy all those in the know.

I'm still out of touch with pc hardware so I've come to the gurus.

Around this time every year I have spare cash from the bookies, so I go and upgrade the pc, everything is running nicely at the moment ( except sluggish start up times) so I'm looking for advice on upgrades, and if any use.

Build is as follows.

CPU:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2,5GHz,

RAM:
OCZ DDR2 PC6400 4GB KIT XTC, Vista ( ram only recognized at 3gb, anything i can do? )

MOBO:
MSI P31 NEO-F V2, G31, Socket-775, DDR2,

GPU:
Nvidida Geforce 8800GTS



I'd say the graphics card is something to look at, budget wise, I do not want to go mad, but I'd want good bang for my buck, I do not essentially need it, its just something i do year to year.

This year games been played are WoW,Arma 2 and thats really it.

marco_polo

TheDoc wrote: »

Howdy all those in the know.

I'm still out of touch with pc hardware so I've come to the gurus.

Around this time every year I have spare cash from the bookies, so I go and upgrade the pc, everything is running nicely at the moment ( except sluggish start up times) so I'm looking for advice on upgrades, and if any use.

Build is as follows.

CPU:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2,5GHz,

RAM:
OCZ DDR2 PC6400 4GB KIT XTC, Vista ( ram only recognized at 3gb, anything i can do? )

MOBO:
MSI P31 NEO-F V2, G31, Socket-775, DDR2,

GPU:
Nvidida Geforce 8800GTS



I'd say the graphics card is something to look at, budget wise, I do not want to go mad, but I'd want good bang for my buck, I do not essentially need it, its just something i do year to year.

This year games been played are WoW,Arma 2 and thats really it.

Any indications of budget and monitor specs? The only way to solve your 3GB woes is to upgrade to 64 bit vista (If it is a retail edition you can get an upgrade disk from MS for about a tenner), but perhaps you will be as well off waiting for Windows 7 at this stage.

A relatively painless and signifigant upgrade would be a better Dual Core like the E8400 and a HD4870 for about 290 total inc delivery. Combined with a fresh 64 bit OS install you would be laughing. Bit more to spare and you could drop in a quad Core instead.


http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=5292&agid=398

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=24184&agid=1004

TheDoc

64bit os?

I'm pretty happy with xp at the moment, although thoughts of an OS upgrade had crossed my mind.

€290 is a bit much at the moment, I was thinking today that maybe just a graphics card upgrade might suffice, since the cpu i didnt even buy a year old at this stage.

Would upgrading my gpu be worth while, is there MUCH better out there now?

jonny72

Apparently Arma2 plays much better with a quadcore.

The sluggish startup is probably due to a lot of startup programs and general slowness after a year.

For 290 you could just about get a quadcore chip (q6700 2.66, if its compatible with your board) and for graphics you could pick up an Ati 4780 (about 130 euros) or even a Nvidia 260GTX (which would be handy as you wouldn't have to go through that awful driver changing process)

Is the 8800GTS the 320, 640 or 512 version?

If its the 320, it may be time to upgrade.

Anyway to check how your graphics card performs, I've picked a close equivalent and you can see how it stacks up in these charts
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_4730/28.html

marco_polo

TheDoc wrote: »

64bit os?

I'm pretty happy with xp at the moment, although thoughts of an OS upgrade had crossed my mind.

€290 is a bit much at the moment, I was thinking today that maybe just a graphics card upgrade might suffice, since the cpu i didnt even buy a year old at this stage.

Would upgrading my gpu be worth while, is there MUCH better out there now?

All operating systems now come with 32 and 64 bit versions. The problem with 32bit Operating systems is that they can only address up to 3GB of memory or thereabouts, so anything above that is wasted.

There is nothing wrong with the CPU, just wasn't sure how much you were willing to push the boat out . Gaming wise the graphics card would offer the more noticable gain anyway so that would be a good road to go down. I am presuming you are gaming at moderate enough resolutions? The HD4870 would be a good step up from your current card.

witnessmenow

Have you tried over clocking your CPU? I have a E5200 too, I have it overclocked to 4ghz on Air, using Scythe ninja 2 cooler (its keeping my temps at around 63c under torture, but solataire was saying that it wouldnt be the best cooler , and I'd trust his judgement more than mine!). That should give you a bit of a boost.

But as mentioned Arma is ment to gobble CPUs so maybe upgrading to a quad might be something to consider.

I'd install the 64bit version of Windows 7 and see what sort of a diffrerence it makes. Boot up times seem very good (for me anyways), It uses all 4gb of your Ram and is ment to be better than XP at running Arma.

You might be happy with the performance increase and it wouldnt cost you a cent.

Whats the resolution of your monitor?

Unregistered.

marco_polo wrote: »

The only way to solve your 3GB woes is to upgrade to 64 bit vista....

marco_polo wrote: »

All operating systems now come with 32 and 64 bit versions. The problem with 32bit Operating systems is that they can only address up to 3GB of memory or thereabouts, so anything above that is wasted.

witnessmenow wrote: »

I'd install the 64bit version of Windows 7 and see what sort of a diffrerence it makes. Boot up times seem very good (for me anyways), It uses all 4gb of your Ram and is ment to be better than XP at running Arma.

Baring in mind that a 64bit OS has a bigger footprint than a 32 bit OS, i.e. it will use more RAM in the first place. How much more depends. I guess a good idea would be to install Win7 RC, turn off all the services/startups that you don't need and see how much ram is recognized (we will asume it will be 3GB). Now see how much ram is used while idle and how much is used with couple of programs open - whichever ones you use most often!

Once you've done that, install 64bit win7 which will recognize ALL of your ram and see how much ram is being used again at idle and under load. If it's using less than 1GB more than before, then you should go for a 64bit OS!

witnessmenow

on w7 64 bit, when i was torture testing with IBT there is an option to use the max amount of ram available to use, and it was saying i could use 3.6/4 gb of ram so i presume thats a decent enough indication to how much ram w7 is using

Unregistered.

witnessmenow wrote: »

on w7 64 bit, when i was torture testing with IBT there is an option to use the max amount of ram available to use, and it was saying i could use 3.6/4 gb of ram so i presume thats a decent enough indication to how much ram w7 is using

I dont think so?

witnessmenow

ok so it was small bit off by the looks of things



as opposed to the 400mb i mentioned above

Unregistered.

witnessmenow wrote: »

ok so it was small bit off by the looks of things



as opposed to the 400mb i mentioned above

I take it that's @idle from the low number of processes and CPU @ 0%. What's it like with a couple of tabs open on IE/firefox, msn, itunes and say, an online game or McAfee's (dreadful) virus scan on the go?

witnessmenow

Chrome 6 tabs open (nothing hectic)
Itunes (playing)
Filezilla
Paint.net

Unregistered.

witnessmenow wrote: »

Chrome 6 tabs open (nothing hectic)
Itunes (playing)
Filezilla
Paint.net

Seems reasonable!

witnessmenow

Sorry was messing with the names a bit your edit has gone missing

Unregistered.

witnessmenow wrote: »

Sorry was messing with the names a bit your edit has gone missing

witnessmenow

sorry was rushing back to work:

Sorry was messing with the names a bit your edit image has gone missing

marco_polo

Unregistered. wrote: »

Baring in mind that a 64bit OS has a bigger footprint than a 32 bit OS, i.e. it will use more RAM in the first place. How much more depends. I guess a good idea would be to install Win7 RC, turn off all the services/startups that you don't need and see how much ram is recognized (we will asume it will be 3GB). Now see how much ram is used while idle and how much is used with couple of programs open - whichever ones you use most often!

Once you've done that, install 64bit win7 which will recognize ALL of your ram and see how much ram is being used again at idle and under load. If it's using less than 1GB more than before, then you should go for a 64bit OS!

True but it would hardly be using more that a couple of hundred Megs more that the 32bit at the most. Even in the worst case scenario you are still probably looking at a minimum of a 500MB gain in capacity.

Unregistered.

marco_polo wrote: »

True but it would hardly be using more that a couple of hundred Megs more that the 32bit at the most. Even in the worst case scenario you are still probably looking at a minimum of a 500MB gain in capacity.

That's my point though. It will vary depending on the user and what he/she is doing. If they are already using 3GB and the rest paged, switching to a 64 bit OS may still result in the pagefile being used.

marco_polo

Unregistered. wrote: »

That's my point though. It will vary depending on the user and what he/she is doing. If they are already using 3GB and the rest paged, switching to a 64 bit OS may still result in the pagefile being used.

Sorry was skim reading, I am following you now

TheDoc

ok so sorry, back on topic, me me me me me

I'm considering selling a camera that will throw me loads of dosh dosh.

I recently found out my pc is running at a rather hot temperature, must download the programme again and see what the thing is at.

I play on a 36" HD telly at 1280 x 768, with all details on highest setting, Arma although it would be nice, isnt the priority, its a filler game, wow is the main one.

Although wow runs fine and dandy, I want more

Id prefer to stick nvidia because i have always done so, but if its worthwhile I'll pick up an ATI.

I have never done overclocking before, but its something I might look into, although as said my machine runs a bit outragously warm.


The GPU was always something I found was an easy upgrade and the most useful in gaming. I think my CPU is fine for the moment, a dual core, and wow is not even taking advantage of it.

So if we can focus on the gpu.

I've an 880gts 320mb version. I'd be willing to fork out €200, but then again, did someone mention a quadcore or something for an extra 90 euro?

I'm also looking at replacing the actual pc case, I think it might be part of my problems with overheating, and want something stylish, and I usually run a black base with orange neons, so that will have to be considered

Overclocking sounds very tempting, watercooling sounds tricky and expensive. So I think I'd be happy enough with just the GPU upgrade and the case upgrade, however if something was presented of good value for money, I might go with that

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=442787

Seemingly this card is pretty decent and the fan on it keeps it relitively cool and quiet?

Thoughts?

Cheers in advance

marco_polo

TheDoc wrote: »

ok so sorry, back on topic, me me me me me

I'm considering selling a camera that will throw me loads of dosh dosh.

I recently found out my pc is running at a rather hot temperature, must download the programme again and see what the thing is at.

I play on a 36" HD telly at 1280 x 768, with all details on highest setting, Arma although it would be nice, isnt the priority, its a filler game, wow is the main one.

Although wow runs fine and dandy, I want more

Id prefer to stick nvidia because i have always done so, but if its worthwhile I'll pick up an ATI.

I have never done overclocking before, but its something I might look into, although as said my machine runs a bit outragously warm.


The GPU was always something I found was an easy upgrade and the most useful in gaming. I think my CPU is fine for the moment, a dual core, and wow is not even taking advantage of it.

So if we can focus on the gpu.

I've an 880gts 320mb version. I'd be willing to fork out €200, but then again, did someone mention a quadcore or something for an extra 90 euro?

I'm also looking at replacing the actual pc case, I think it might be part of my problems with overheating, and want something stylish, and I usually run a black base with orange neons, so that will have to be considered

Overclocking sounds very tempting, watercooling sounds tricky and expensive. So I think I'd be happy enough with just the GPU upgrade and the case upgrade, however if something was presented of good value for money, I might go with that

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=442787

Seemingly this card is pretty decent and the fan on it keeps it relitively cool and quiet?

Thoughts?

Cheers in advance

Great card choice, cool and quiet and gives you about the same performance levels as a GTX 260 and leaves you with a fair wad of cash to spare in the difference.

TheDoc

Superb, I'llprobably go with that then

I appreciate all the advice on windows 7, I might look into doing that. Although I'm having trouble actually acquiring the free beta key for it, page keeps lagging out.

But for nw the card seems to be the main priority.