best possible upgrade?

Jonathan G

Jonathan G

Jonathan G

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29 Dec 2009
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Im not sure if this is the correct area to post this but what would be the best possible upgrade for me to do for christmas?

pc specs:
CPU: Intel Pentium E5300 @ 2.60GHz
RAM: 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. G41M-ES2L (Socket 775)
Graphics: 256MB GeForce 7600 GT
PSU: Corsair 400W

i have around £350 - £400 to spend. Please help.;)
 
Graphics card and CPU really. And perhaps a new PSU to power them, although you could probably get away with the one you have depending on what graphics card you got.

After a very quick look I guess you could get
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (£130) (not going to be a massive boost compared to current CPU)
NVIDIA GTX 460 (£130ish)

To be honest, I think I'd recommend just upgrading the graphics card and leaving it at that, or saving further for a complete new system based around i5 or something.
 
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roduct Name Qty Price Line Total
XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE MOH Game XFX ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE MOH Game £149.99
(£127.65) £149.99
(£127.65)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £123.36
(£104.99) £123.36
(£104.99)
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £69.99
(£59.57) £69.99
(£59.57)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £59.98
(£51.05) £59.98
(£51.05)
Sub Total : £343.26
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 17.50% VAT : £61.73
Total : £414.49



You could maybe go for a Q6600 with a decent cooler and a GTX460 like said above.(6850 if you want lower power cost due to your psu)
 
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i am happy to just upgrade my graphics card, all im looking for is to play games like dirt2, cod, settlers7 without much or any lag. Do i need to upgrade my cpu to do things like that or would it just give me a boost with other tasks? I also take it that my motherboard can't handle the i5, am i right? (im still kinda new with learning what can handle what and which thing is better than what other thing.)

The HD 5770 looks like it could handle the games i need! But is it future proof?
 
i5 is a different socket, so you're right in assuming in won't work with your mobo.

5770 is a mid-range card, I wouldn't say it's particularly future proof, fine for less demanding games at lower resolutions though.

If you've got £400 to play with then you could consider http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-136-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1502 with a new PSU and upgrade the rest of your system next year when sandy bridge is out.

Edit: you could also look into getting a new cooler and overclocking your CPU?
 
Physics processing etc, everything which isn't 'graphical'. If you ask for some help on here then there's plenty of people who'll give you a step by step guide to getting a bit more out of your CPU. There's so many safety features on motherboards these days that even if you do mess up your overclock the chances of killing your CPU are generally quite low.
 
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I would get a Q6600 as suggested above (proabaly circa £100 if you search)

Then with that I would get:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-XF

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-032-OC

The gfx card because I prefer that brand and it does come with a game that you might play(don't bother) or sell to someone silly enough to buy it off you.

Choose a CPU cooler of your choice and overclock that CPU to 3.6ghz ish and away you go.

I don't think there is any point in waiting because the 5870 will sell out and it's too good of a card at that price. That system will game pretty much anything (not Crysis :D) on max settings unless your gaming at extremely high res.

Wu
 
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