Advice on upgrading 3 year old system

Ricco_M

Ricco_M

Ricco_M

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Joined
5 Sep 2011
Posts
7
I have a gaming PC around 3 years old now and its got to that time to think about upgrading my current system or buying a new system in order to play the upcoming new games this winter


Unfortunately my knowledge of PC hardware is limited and I don’t know where to start with upgrades and would therefore appreciate any help or advice on what to do.

My aim is for a mid-range system able to handle the latest games such as Deus-Ex, Shogun 2 and Battlefield 3


My current system has the following specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 1066FSB SKT775
XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512MB DDR3 Extreme (Limited Edition)
ANTEC Full Case Nine Hundred
ASUS SKT-775 P5K SE S/L 1333FSB
500 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit
GEIL 2GB DDR2 800 CL4.0 Dual Channel Black Dragon Ret (Recently Upgraded to 4GB)
Thermaltake Blue Orb Ii (CL-P0257)
Hiper Power 580W Low Noise/Sli Ready



I’ve just upgraded the memory to 4GB and was thinking of getting Windows 7 OS and upgrading to this new graphics card:-


EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-160-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

Is there much difference between the various makes of GTX 460 card and is this a decent one to get?

Thing is that I don’t know if this would even be combatiable with my current system and power supply/motherboard and if it would be worth upgrading to if there was only going to be a ‘bottleneck’ elsewhere with the processor etc.


If any other upgrades are required I have a budget of up to 350 pounds

Any help and advise on this would be greatly appreciated
 
If you get Win 7, think about getting the retail, or upgrade version. If you think you'll be agrading the guts some time in the future (before Win 8 is out anyway). Although you have a good CPU.

Also, 4GB RAM is a lot nicer than 2GB, if you feel your system is sluggish. If you upgrade the GPU, get a good PSU as well.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice

CreMafia said:
In my opinion you should get a GTX 560ti or a GTX 570 if you want to play upcoming games at decent fps

Windows 7
Click to expand...

Thanks CreMafia I’m tempted by the GTX 560ti but will my current system be able to handle and get the most out of this card?


Davefran said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-OK
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-009-CR
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-127-MS

£370 inc p&p
Click to expand...


Cheers I think I’ll definitely upgrade to Windows 7 – the Solid State Hard Drive is interesting – I take it this would speed the whole system up?

Reaper 392 said:
more important than upgrading to win7 would be to upgrade that PSU. well, unless you wanted to become a member of the hiper explosive club?
Click to expand...
Lol – never knew my PSU was so bad – although I’ll currently have to join the other 22 members in the Hiper active club lol

Btw is it difficult to install a PSU? (my only experience is installing RAM…limited I know!!)
 
fowler002 said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-252-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-127-MS

under £300 before adding delivery.
Click to expand...

thanks for this fowler002 - that great price for the ATI Radeon HD 6870 especially as it includes Deus Ex.

Would this be as good a card as the 460GTX?

I’ve never considered an ATI card as I’ve always been a Nvidia man... well apart from my 9700 Pro many years ago!!
 
Thanks again for everyones input and advice

I think I will go for the option of upgrading the OS and GFX card and then try and Overclock the processor to around 3.0GHz – hopefully that will give me a mid- range machine to keep me gaming for the next 12 months or so

I listened to the advice and I’m now just going to spend £200 on upgrading saving £150 of my orginal £350 budget for a new processor/motherboard next year – so with £70 used for Windows 7 OS system that leaves me with around £130 or so to spend on a graphics card

From a bit of research I’ve narrowed it down to three cards all in and around the same price –

1) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 OC 1024MB - £143 (includes Free Batman: Arkham City PC game)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-087-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

2) MSI GeForce GTX 460 HAWK "Super-OC" 1024MB - £132

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-099-MS

3) OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB - £125 (Includes free Deus Ex PC Game)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-143-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866


Which card would be the best for my system?

Would I need to upgrade my PSU for the 560 GTX and would all these cards be compatiable with my motherboard?

Any feedback would be great thanks
 
Ricco_M said:
Thanks again for everyones input and advice

I think I will go for the option of upgrading the OS and GFX card and then try and Overclock the processor to around 3.0GHz – hopefully that will give me a mid- range machine to keep me gaming for the next 12 months or so

I listened to the advice and I’m now just going to spend £200 on upgrading saving £150 of my orginal £350 budget for a new processor/motherboard next year – so with £70 used for Windows 7 OS system that leaves me with around £130 or so to spend on a graphics card

From a bit of research I’ve narrowed it down to three cards all in and around the same price –

1) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 OC 1024MB - £143 (includes Free Batman: Arkham City PC game)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-087-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

2) MSI GeForce GTX 460 HAWK "Super-OC" 1024MB - £132

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-099-MS

3) OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB - £125 (Includes free Deus Ex PC Game)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-143-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866


Which card would be the best for my system?

Would I need to upgrade my PSU for the 560 GTX and would all these cards be compatiable with my motherboard?

Any feedback would be great thanks
Click to expand...

me go bang ;)

as long as the mb has a pci-e x16 slot then yes(pref 2.0 but should get away with 1.1)

p.s. are you not able to hold off upgrade for abit longer? new cards coming soon.
 
fowler002 said:
me go bang ;)

as long as the mb has a pci-e x16 slot then yes(pref 2.0 but should get away with 1.1)

p.s. are you not able to hold off upgrade for abit longer? new cards coming soon.
Click to expand...

Lol you're not holding out much hope for my poor Hiper PSU then. Should I get at least a 650w PSU? what sort of makes are decent?

When are the new cards coming out? Both nvidia and ATI? I take it there will be major price drops then
 
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