hun73r

So I hope you can help me with this!

I have realised that it is time for some serious upgrading to be done. This could be expensive so I would like to do it bit by bit if I can but I'm not too sure where to start. I believes I should go for a processor upgrade first as I will probably notice the biggest difference? I'll tell u my current spec then some rough idea of what I have in mind. Any advice on what to get would be great. I don't want to spend a fortune, but don't mind spending enough to get a decent upgrade!

ASUS p5wdh delux
Intel pentium 3.4 D dual core
7950gx2
2GB Ram pc-5300 (I think, can't quite remember and not near enough to look!)

I was thinking intel 775 quad core...are the 9650's way better than the 8500's? Or just a bit? The price is nearly double but the cache is 12mb rather than 4mb.

Graphics, was looking at the intel 400's range (obviously) but the 480's and 580's look a little steep...unless u thinks it worth it?! Again the price is nearly double.

My board can take 8Gb memory so...at what point should I be upgrading this?

Really appreciate the advice!! P.s. I'm pretty nee to this game...haven't upgraded for about 4yrs so please excuse me if I miss some if the technical bits!!

hun73r

Just reread my post I meant are the Q9650's that much better than the Q8400!? ( not the 8500 as I put above) thanks!

synthesis204

What's your budget? For most intents and purposes, the 775 socket is dead - I would go with an 1156 for your needs (a quad core i5 would probably be best).

EZero

Socket 1156 is also soon to be dead come early next year.
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To OP, it really depends on how you want to upgrade. Upgrading to another LGA775 CPU at this point is kind of pointless. If your motherboard dies down the road it'll be really hard to find replacements. DDR2 RAM prices are also getting more and more expensive. You're probably better off building an AMD platform on the cheap and use your current graphics card.
Then again, AMD's AM3 platform will also be obsoleted before the end of next year.

So it's a really crappy time to be buying a new computer

hun73r

lol...ok, bad timing then.

Well I'm not in a massive rush...just would be good to be able to play 'COD black ops' on a graphics setting above the minimum!!!

Budget wise I reckon up to an around $350 for the CPU and GPU (so a $750 total) then I guess the Memory will cost me around 200 on top.

I guess I had my mind set on keeping the mobo (and therefore the 775) to avoid ALL the costs of an upgrade or else I'll be after new Hdd's, Cd/blue ray etc etc and I could do without spending that. I have a 650w PSU...that should be plenty right?!

I suppose I'm after a half decent upgrade to last me a yr or 2 that gives me good quality gaming...and then if I win the lottery I can go out and spend crazy!

Your help is appreciated!

hun73r

Oh and I'm in the uk but I put prices in $ as I figured that would help?!

Jac

I'm in a similar position, have a look at my system specs for details.

I'm doing a small upgrade in a week or so. I'm keeping my Dual Core for the time being, nothing I do with the system seems to be limited by the CPU so upgrading that can wait & a CPU upgrade will mean a new mainboard, memory and processor.

For you I would reckon a core duo quad would be fine - I've seen them hovering around the £100 mark. Check your mainboard will accept the specific chip. Put another 2GB memory stick in to take you to 4GB. Unless you're editing video or doing large scale image editing I don't think you'll meed 8GB for a year or two.

The biggest difference for you would be a new graphics card - the best price point at the moment would seem to be a GTX460 at around £100 - £140 depending upon the spec. Someone else will be along to decry Nvidia in a moment so ask them if there is an alternative Ati. The GTX460 should be enough to run Black Ops maxxed depending on your resolution.

Takaharu

hun73r - If you're just after playing a specific game then I'd recommend a graphics card upgrade to start with as that's going to be the only thing stopping you from playing the game at a decent level and it's one of the only things that you'll be able to keep when rolling over to your next PC.
$350 is, rounded up, £220. That's going to get you a very nice graphics card without going overkill. If Nvidia is your friend there's the GTX 460 OC that does very well for itself and gives you some change or, if you're an ATI person, go with the 6870 as it give that little extra over the 460 at a little under £200 and you'd have one of the latest graphics cards on the market, which is a benefit to its lasting ability.

You won't get the maximum performance out of your graphics card but you will be able to play any games that you want.
Hold fire on upgrading your other components, even if it's a new hard drive (unless your current one dies). I don't know about AMD (they seem to be able to be forwards-compatible half of the time) but Intel are, apparently, getting a new socket. It depends on how patient you are but if you can, hold off. The most modern series will let your PC last for much longer and you'd be able to make benefit of SATA-3, USB 3, DDR3 and an overall faster processor.

On the flip side, a new socket for either manufacturer will probably keep until mid next year, starting with the fastest processors, working their way down and throwing in a couple of even faster processors, knocking the price down of their current ones. Bang for your buck all depends on when you want to jump in.

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synthesis204

I'd vouch for the GTX 460. I'm running a stock version of it, which retails for about $190 (1GB), and can hit near-max if not max smoothly on all games at 1920x1200.

1156 is going to be dead, but it isn't dead yet, and won't be for a couple months.

@OP: remember you need to buy a motherboard, as well. And a case if you intend to keep your old computer.

hun73r

Ok, so if I was to splash out on a 460 or a 6870 (dont want to start a debate), then do you think that my 3.4D will hack it?

I just looked and my mobo is not compatible with the Q8400, so it would have to be a Q9650...ouch twice the price!

Perhaps just get the GPU and see how happy I am with the results...maybe therefore i should start a 6870 vs 460 debate? To those who just dot know (me!) AMD just seems sooooo much cheaper for what you get...

Also....can you guys see a price drop straight after xmas has been and gone?

Jac

I think a graphics card upgrade will give you the most obvious boost. I am going for the 460 because I want the Physx and other extras that you get from Nvidia. That said techs like DirectCompute should level the playing field again.

I'm not sure what sort of performance you get from a Pentium and wether or not it would be worth the money to upgrade to a Core Duo or Core Duo Quad. It might be worth holding off until you take the big step of new board, memory & cpu. You could try the card and see if your games are becoming CPU bound.

hun73r

Ummm...how would I know if they were?

<- spot the new guy

Jac

Well if you were running at 1280x720 and were getting 15fps then you dropped the resolution to 800x600 and were still getting 15fps then it would be an indication that your CPU (or something other than your graphics card) was holding you back.

hun73r

Ahhh! Simple when u know how!

blibbax

Your PSU and HDD should be fine presuming they're good brands...

A system based around that motherboard is never going to be up to the latest standards, but it could still be pretty decent as a cheap stop gap.

DO NOT buy anything as expensive as a Q9650. Anything costing more than a new motherboard and processor combined, I think you will agree, seems like a bad move. Consider second hand components if what you want is a stopgap to the next generation.

I'd also reccomend against getting another 2GB of DDR2 RAM. You're likely to want to get a new motherboard in the not too distant future, and 2GB is still usable within reason at the moment in my opinion. Especially if you have a 32 bit operating system, of course.

Also, with a PC of that age, you may find that a simple reformat and defrag improves performance no-end. Just a thought.

However, as others have said, if you can't run black ops above minimum settings, then, (depending on your resolution) this is likely to be a gprahics card issue. And, the great thing about that is that when you do buy a new system in 1 or 2 years time, you can put the 7950 back in your current one, and put your GTX460 (or whatever) in the brand new system.

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synthesis204

I would recommend either an entirely new rig, or just a new graphics card. As for the 6870 VS 460 debate - it depends on what camp you would prefer. You can read the reviews on HH here:

Also, just a note: in the US, at least, the 6870 looks to be a good $50-$100 more expensive than the GTX 460 - if you wanted to compare, you should go GTX 470 VS 6870, or GTX 460 VS 6850.

GTX 460 VS 6850:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html

6850 and 6870 review:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html

GTX 460 review:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html



If allowed, I would recommend one of the pre-OC/custom cooling models of the GTX 460. Sparkle's Calibre 460 comes with an Arctic Cooling after-market cooler and lifetime warranty already in place for $205; the MSI Cyclone 1GB GTX 460 is $175 after rebate (cheaper/same performance as a 6850).

You may be able to tell I'm slightly biased for fairness's sake, if you'd want to get a 6850, I'd recommend the Sapphire Toxic HD6850 ($210), the PowerColor PCS+ HD6850 ($210), or the ASUS DirectCU HD6850 ($190).

As for 470 VS 6870...

If you wanted performance, Gigabyte's SuperOverclocked GTX 470 can't be beat - the equivalent, in terms of price and performance, would be XFX's Black Edition HD6870.

In terms of budget...PowerColor's HD6870 ($240) would be good, as would ASUS's GTX 470 ($230 after rebate).

Relative links:
GTX 460's:
Newegg.com - SPARKLE Calibre Series X460G GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Newegg.com - MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

HD6850's:
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Toxic 100315TXSR Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
Newegg.com - PowerColor PCS+ AX6850 1GBD5-PPDHGJ Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
Newegg.com - ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

GTX 470:
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N470SO-13I GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5/V2 GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

HD6870:
Newegg.com - XFX HD-687A-ZNBC Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card with Eyefinity
Newegg.com - PowerColor AX6870 1GBD5-M2DH Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Hope this helps

OldBuzzard

Kinda confuzulates me

When I first saw $750.00 I was thinking that with that amount of $$ to spend you could upgrade the CPU, MB, RAM and GPU.

With that in mind, I found a combination of those that would play just about any game at max or near max settings on Newegg for a total of $760.96.

But then, I saw you were in the UK. So I used OVERCLOCKERS.CO.UK, and a similar setup (had to substitute an Asus MB instead of an ASRock), and came up with £619.95, £527.62 ex VAT. At YoYo Tech I came up with £601.21, £503.16 ex VAT.


So, what is your budget in £ ?

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Takaharu

£450 is the closest round number to $750. Overclockers compared to other online retailers is like comparing retail to online, though you'd have to question why their prices are higher. eBuyer is your best bet, followed by MicroDirect and Scan. I don't personally rate dabs.

I have known a number of low-end CPUs running with mid-range graphics and, although they don't top out at the GPU's best performance, they run the games those people like quite happily. A couple of friends of mine have mid-range graphics cards and they used to run with CPUs with less power than a Pentium D 3.4 and they were quite content. They upgraded when they had the money. It's not a 100% guarantee but I'd put money on it that a new graphics card would improve your situation and not hinder you from upgrading to a new rig. The 7950, despite being dual-GPU, is a really out-dated and slow graphics card by today's standards, which really surprised me when I found out; the ATI 2000 series beat it and we're now 4 series on from that.

I went with EVGA's 460 SC EE (well, 2 if I'm being honest) but I would rate the 6870 too if it's a decent brand (Sapphire, for example). I'm going to go out on a limb and say go for the 460 in some flavour and save the money for when you do upgrade.
Sod the CPU and memory for the time being as they really won't do your wallet any justice.

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EZero

This might help.
Holiday 2010 System Builder's Guide - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News