Upgrade advice if you have a minute.

KnightStalker · 5 Jan 2011 at 10:40

Hey guys, normally wouldnt do this, but i havent been keeping with the times of pc internal hardware as of late so im a little out of the loop - Anyway my ageing system is really showing its age now with most modern games so im wondering what type of upgrade i could get with around £350, less is always better.

Anyway current specs are (dont laugh)
E6300 755 - OC'd to 3.3ghz
4 GB Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 800MHz
Gigabyte 965-P DS3 Rev1
and lastly old faithful Ati 4850 512mb

What ya got to show me.

[TW]Sponge · 5 Jan 2011 at 10:53

Save your money and get a new system imo.

KnightStalker · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:04

sponge999 said:
Save your money and get a new system imo.

Dont need to upgrade anything else apart from the above..Graphics could be left out as quite frankly the 4850 does the job most of the time.

R088ieS86 · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:06

Wait another 4days and see what Sandy Bridge bundles appear

KnightStalker · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:08

R088ieS86 said:
Wait another 4days and see what Sandy Bridge bundles appear

Okie dokie will do that then

Marine-RX179 · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:12

I agree with others. Upgrading the system first, and then later in the future you got money to spare upgrading the graphic card.

Or you could try getting a 2nd hand Q6600 G0 at around £70 and spend the remaining £230 on getting a 6950...

95thrifles · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:22

Marine-RX179 said:
a 2nd hand Q6600 G0 at around £70 and spend the remaining £230 on getting a 6950...

this, imo

Purgatory · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:24

Marine-RX179 said:
Or you could try getting a 2nd hand Q6600 G0 at around £70 and spend the remaining £230 on getting a 6950...

+1 this is what I would do and sell the cpu and graphics you have and maybe use the money from them too to update other things like PSU more hardrives, maybe a new screen.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2314#

I see it does not support Q9*** series of chips so your only options for a quad are the Q6**** series. So as above get a Q6600 G0 stepping if you can find one stick that in and clock it to 3ghz+ and you will have a great system again, once you also update that graphics card too.

BTW what resolution do you currently game at ?

KnightStalker · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:24

Marine-RX179 said:
I agree with others. Upgrading the system first, and then later in the future you got money to spare upgrading the graphic card.

Or you could try getting a 2nd hand Q6600 G0 at around £70 and spend the remaining £230 on getting a 6950...

Would that be a "wise" choice? would makes things easier just a case of swapping CPU's out and new card in.

95thrifles · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:26

Yes, definitely

Marine-RX179 · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:28

KnightStalker said:
Would that be a "wise" choice? would makes things easier just a case of swapping CPU's out and new card in.

It will give you the biggest performance boost for game at the cost of £300 mark, but your motherboard's BIOS need to be updated to F12 though: http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2314

Check what version BIOS your motherboard's currently on...

Chicken #16 · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:28

your spec is pretty much my PC but with more ram.

For Christmas I got Windows 7 and an SSD drive. I would definately recommend that.

KnightStalker · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:31

Ill look into that option then, time to scour the net for one, thanks guys much appreciated. Oh my bios is F14 ive been keeping that updated as i like to try and push my overclocks lol

Marine-RX179 · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:34

Chicken #16 said:
your spec is pretty much my PC but with more ram.

For Christmas I got Windows 7 and an SSD drive. I would definately recommend that.

SSD is a good upgrade, but not one that's really helping much in making games more playable in terms of frame rates...

cravin penut · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:39

You could probably sell your current mobo, CPU and ram, combine it with the money to buy a sandy bridge mobo, CPU and ram. Should give you a general boost plus it's latest and greatest tech as allowed to several year old tech.

KnightStalker · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:41

cravin penut said:
You could probably sell your current mobo, CPU and ram, combine it with the money to buy a sandy bridge mobo, CPU and ram. Should give you a general boost plus it's latest and greatest tech as allowed to several year old tech.

Well it will take me a while to find a Q6600 g0 stepping withing a decent price range, so thats still on the cards aswell.

Marine-RX179 · 5 Jan 2011 at 11:45

cravin penut said:
You could probably sell your current mobo, CPU and ram, combine it with the money to buy a sandy bridge mobo, CPU and ram. Should give you a general boost plus it's latest and greatest tech as allowed to several year old tech.

He will be getting less than £100 back for selling his CPU, board, RAM...and SandyBridge board+2500K+Memory would cost around £350, so he would need to spend like extra £250 instead of selling his CPU at around £20~£30 and spend only around £50 extra to get a 2nd hand Q6600 G0.