£300-£400 upgrade, but what to upgrade?

Reed · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:10

Hey guys seems recently with playing more PC games my rig is struggling in quite a few. Current specs are;

E8500
P5Q-E
4GB DDR2
HD 4870 X2

Problem is I am really not sure what is specifically holding me back as the computer as a whole is getting pretty old now. Any recommendations would be welcome.

stulid · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:11

is it overclocked?

you could stick this lot in.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £164.99
(£137.49) £164.99
(£137.49)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £104.99
(£87.49) £104.99
(£87.49)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £28.79
(£23.99) £28.79
(£23.99)
Sub Total : £278.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £57.69
Total : £346.15

chipps101 · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:11

what games is it struggling with ?

Predicament · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:17

I'd say first step is new CPU + mobo as your ram and gfx cards should be sufficient unless your planning on playing crysis

stulid · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:18

Predicament said:
I'd say first step is new CPU + mobo as your ram and gfx cards should be sufficient unless your planning on playing crysis

so what modern motherboard should he choose to keep that DDR2 ram?

Reed · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:34

chipps101 said:
what games is it struggling with ?

Just Cause 2, Rift, SC2 (although only on really high settings), Dragon Age: Origins are the ones that pop into my mind

stulid, the CPU is not currently overclocked

stulid · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:38

Reed said:
Just Cause 2, Rift, SC2 (although only on really high settings), Dragon Age: Origins are the ones that pop into my mind

stulid, the CPU is not currently overclocked

first thing to do then is.

Buy a heatsink for £35.

re-install windows with newest drivers, and to clear any crap out.

overclock it using guides around the web.

if it still struggling, upgrade the cpu/ram/motherboard, using the new heatsink too.

sell the old gear to help with the costs.

Redmint · 15 Feb 2011 at 22:58

stulid said:
first thing to do then is.

Buy a heatsink for £35.

re-install windows with newest drivers, and to clear any crap out.

overclock it using guides around the web.

Sounds like a decent suggestion to me, that chip + motherboard combo should be good for 4GHz+ (providing your RAM is also a decent speed to allow for the overclocking).

chipps101 · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:02

sc2 especially is very cpu dependant so overclocking will help as would a quad core like a q6600 overclocked to over 3ghz.

reilly · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:11

Hey I had a similar setup to you before

C2D E8400
Asus Striker Extreme
4Gb Ram
4870x2

I was too struggling, at stock but had the cpu at 4.5 and it wasn't too bad.

I then upgraded to an i5 but kept the 4870x2. All is very good, and the quad core helps ten fold in games such as JC2, F1 2010, BC2, NFS etc etc.

So either overclock the CPU
or uprade to a Quad core on LGA775
or upgrade socket.

Which ever is best but I find the 4870x2 still very good.

Reed · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:16

reilly said:
Hey I had a similar setup to you before

C2D E8400
Asus Striker Extreme
4Gb Ram
4870x2

I was too struggling, at stock but had the cpu at 4.5 and it wasn't too bad.

I then upgraded to an i5 but kept the 4870x2. All is very good, and the quad core helps ten fold in games such as JC2, F1 2010, BC2, NFS etc etc.

So either overclock the CPU
or uprade to a Quad core on LGA775
or upgrade socket.

Which ever is best but I find the 4870x2 still very good.

Ah that's quite good to hear, having to buy a new graphics card would mean me spending like 50% more then what I would ideally like to at this point in time. Will probably go with stulid's build then.

Liquid · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:48

I recently upgraded from an E8400 overclocked to 4ghz to a sandybridge system, kept my current video card and it has made a big difference to how well my games run. I was quite surprised tbh.