Worth an update or is it a waste?

igorm

igorm

igorm

Associate
Joined
18 Apr 2012
Posts
251
Location
London
Good evening everyone.

Once again I was forced to think about either update or new PC, since mine is getting old. So, since I cannot afford myself a whole new PC straight away I am checking if any of the components worth updating, to get to atleast mid-range performance. Mostly performance is needed for WoW (so just you know the benchmark, eventhough mine passes even the recommended requirements, it is still close to impossible to play, as FPS is as low as 1-15 on the lowest settings).

Well, my PC is as follows:

Motherboard
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 531, 3000 MHz (15 x 200)
Motherboard Name Asus P5QL Pro (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Eaglelake P43
System Memory 4096 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
DIMM1: Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3: Kingston 2G-UDIMM 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)
BIOS Type AMI (10/31/08)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT (256 MB)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Monitor LG L197W (Analog) [19" LCD] (1711197664)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Realtek ALC1200 @ Intel 82801JB ICH10 - High Definition Audio Controller

Power supply
Modecom Feel III 350ATX 12cm FAN PFC bulk


Motherboard, GPU, ram and Power Supply were changed since I bought it ages ago, but not CPU. So at this moment I am thinking of updating that to something like dual core e6600 (cheap and it seems that it will give the most boost to my performance)

So the real question is: is it really going to improve my performance or at the same time I will need to change GPU, since that at its limits already as well and it is better to save money and get a new one?

P.S. I have been checking performance tab in task manager for the last few days and there is deffinately something wrong with CPU, since when I have only chrome and task manager open it goes from ~25% of cpu usage to about 95% every half a minute or so. CPU usage varies from 95% to 100% when i am playing WoW, I dont know if that suppose to happen or not, but it does and it freeks me out.

Thank you very much for your help in advance.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum :)

Did you have a budget in mind?

I would also suggest purchasing a quality PSU from the like of Corsair and XFX.
 
Thank you very much for warm welcome :)

At this particular moment I have around 100-150 spare quid. As I was thinking to gradually update every component, but the problem is that if I will update my CPU now, and will have to update motherboard later, then I, again, will have to updage CPU, so new processor will only work as a temporary solution.
 
I'm wondering what is the best bet to do, I am half in mind to say save up a bit longer and get a complete new pc or have a look at one option below;


Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
(£83.29) £99.95
(£83.29)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
* Sub Total : £112.45
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £24.34
* Total : £146.04
 
Whoops, Meant to say add the E6600 as well and these should give you a increase in performance.

Looking at 2nd hand prices the E6600 is around £10~
 
Is it safe to buy 2nd hand PC components though?

I assume both of the products mentioned above are from OC website?

P.S. By the way, do you know the reason of such overusage of my CPU that it goes upto 100% when almost nothing is running?
 
A lot f people do purchase second hand CPU'S without issue, as the the E6600 has been EOL for a long time new purchase price will be high, seen one site selling them for £96 ~.

The items posted above are from OCUK.

Does task manger show any program's that is using the CPU cycles, check for any spyware ect.
 
Posting screen of my task manager performance task, checked all the proceses in resource monitor and haven't noticed any processes eating a lot of CPU performance and when it spikes, nothing realy increases the use of CPU, the highest i've got is wmiprvse.exe at 12-14% and the next 4 processes are at about 4% and the rest are smaller than 2%, that explains ~30-40% of usage, but where are the spikes from?
taskmanagerc.jpg
 
Keep a eye on the processes tab in task manager, I think this should show what is giving the spikes.

What operating system are you using.
 
Was keeping an eye on task manager, but could not spot any particular activity change during the spikes. Did the full system scan as well, didn't find anything.

OS is Win 7 64 bit.
 
Realised that I have been an idiot and kept an eye on average % Cpu usage and that spikes will not really affect it that much. After I realised that and looked at what I needed, I have noticed wmiprvse.exe spiking up to 56%, as well as svchost.exe spiking up to 16% from around 2...
 
run a search for wmiprvse.exe in my computer.

Any results outside windows/system32 and you need to reformat.

I'd reformat anyway tbh to see it that helps.
 
+1 for a fresh windows install - if you have had the current install for a while and it is running sluggishly then this is the best way to get the maximum performance back while not taking too long (depending on how long backing up takes).

The suggestions for a new graphics card (specifically the HD 6850) and a new PSU (like the XFX 450W) are very good ones and absolutely worth doing.

As for the CPU, you budget is tight to get something really nice (like a Q6600 G0 stepping for ~£50), but you should be able to afford a decent second-hand core 2 E6xxx series CPU as suggested by RJC for a fraction of that. I wouldn't worry about buying these CPUs second-hand as these chips are very hardy - just make sure you buy from a seller with a decent reputation then.

As has been pointed out, all the CPUs that work in your motherboard stopped being produced years ago - so the only ones you will tend to find for sale new will be massively overpriced.

I would also recommend you get a cheap-but-decent CPU cooler that fits in your case (like this one). Your P5Q series motherboard actually overclocks Core 2 CPUs very well and the E6xxx series are known for overclocking well too. Therefore, a decent CPU cooler will allow you to overclock the CPU (and give you a crucial CPU performance boost) while keeping the temperatures of the chip in the safe zone.
 
cmndr_andi said:
+1 for a fresh windows install - if you have had the current install for a while and it is running sluggishly then this is the best way to get the maximum performance back while not taking too long (depending on how long backing up takes).
Click to expand...

+1

I usually refrormat every 3-6 months depending on how much stuff ive installed on the machine - i like to keep it down to a minimum :)
 
8600 GT is certainly the biggest problem here.

What screen res are you playing on?

If your budget is low I'd go for a HD 6670 as you could use you existing PSU.

Asus HD 6670 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express £56.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-258-as&groupid=701&

nvidia are normally better for wow, but they don't have anything that can match the hd 6670 in that price range, the gt 440 is a good deal slower.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/asus/geforce_gt_440/20.html
The HD 6670 is 5-10% faster than the HD 5670 shown in this benchmark.
This is on Ultra, so you should get higher rates at lower settings.

After the GPU, the CPU upgrade to an E6600 as already suggested is a good idea. Don't get a Q6600 for wow, it would be a total waste. If you were looking at spending £50 on a CPU the E8400 would be the best option for wow and any other 1-2 core limited games (most games).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom