Budget upgrade for old PC

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Back in 2007 I put together a PC with the following kit:

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (socket 775) PCI-E DDR2
GeIL 2GB (4x512MB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
Core 2 duo E6300 1.86 1066 FSB
Antec sonata II Case with 450W PSU
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320Mb GDDR3

I followed some overclocking guides and bumped the cpu up to 3.1 and it’s been running nice and stable so it’s been left well alone till now. However I’m now starting to wonder what cheep upgrades I could do to get a bit more out of it; I’ve not used it much for gaming and was quite surprised how low I had to set the options to get a decent and consistent frame rate when I tried Fallout New Vegas on the weekend. I don't really want to spend more than £150 - £200.

Could anyone point me in the right direction of a sensible upgrade path, which single component would make the biggest difference to gaming performance is there an obvious week link? Is it even worth investing in 775 stuff now, would I get better performance from more modern budget components? Would upgrading my graphics card to a Radeon 6850 do the trick or would the rest of my system be too much of a bottle neck?
 
1. Better graphics card 5770 or better.
2. More ram 4Gb
3. Quad CPU

All possible from second hand markets
 
A new graphics card will give you the biggest "bang for buck" upgrade. What res do you game at? Something like the XFX 5770 on today only or a 460GTX would be a good jump.
 
£70 on a 2nd hand Q6600 and overclock to 3.0GHz (965 board support Q6600 from what I recall)
£125~£130 on a GTX460 768MB

Is that 450W PSU decent branded, or is it generic crap by the way?
 
The native res on my monitor is 1920 x 1200, but I think that might be a bit ambitious! Happy to play at 1600 x 1200 if possible.

I think the power supply probably falls under the "generic crap" label, it was bundled with the case.

Thanks all for the info so far, that's given me some good options to look into.
 
If it came with the case is probably an Antec Smartpower or Earthwatts which are quite good psu's. A 6850 or 1Gb GTX460 would be ok for your monitors native res.
 
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The Sonata ll shipped with Antec's own psu unless he bought it second hand and someone swapped the psu's. Worth checking to make sure though.
 
Hi
I have the same mobo and have upgraded several parts over the last two years or so (went E2160 to E5200 at 3.8Ghz and on to the Q9650), ending now with a Q9650 at 3.7GHz and 4890 graphics card (started with the 8800GTS 320, then 512 before jumping to ATi), but to be honest that is about as far as we can go now. I have a P5Q Pro sitting on the shelf, but I'll probably hang fire for the follow on to 1156 boards.

Quads are pretty expensive now, so unless you need one (I play Arma2 and BF:BC2 which both benefit from more than two cores) maybe one of the E5x00 CPUs might be a cheap way to get closer to 4GHz, along with one of the GPUs mentioned. A 460 appeals to me but I think would not be enough of a change from a 4890.

Hope it helps.

cjph
 
I'm at work now so I can't check but now you mention it Antec Smartpower rings a bell and as it was bought new I'm fairly sure that's what's in there. Good news then!

So a 6850 should do the trick without upgrading anything else? I haven't dug around too much but a Q6600 looks like it'll set me back about £100 (I obviously need better bargain hunting skills) but even at £70 I'd be pushed to buy both and then I suppose the memory would become the bottle neck.

If I could get away with playing at the native res on high settings with just the 6850 upgrade I'd be very happy!
 
Thanks cjhp, all good info just out of my price range at the moment.

When I start thinking about upgrading several components I think I might be better holding off for now then jumping to i7.
 
Your current CPU will definitely be holding you back if you upgrade your graphic card. I agree with cjph on the E5x00 CPU...they are cut down wolfdale (same arcitecture as E8400), and you can get one 2nd hand at around £20-£30. They are great CPU and decent clockers for the price they are at. I myself bought a 2nd hand E5300 at £25 couple days (should arrive tomorrow), which I gonna put onto my old motherboard and upgrade my mom's PC from a single to a dual :D

My dad's PC with a E5200 is overclocked to 3.75MHz.
 
So the Pentium Dual Core chips will significantly outperform the Core 2 Duo's? If I go for a E5300 or even a E6300 PDC I'll be getting a good cheep upgrade, sound's good to me!
 
In fact I wouldn't have blown the budget by too much with a new PDC E6500 @ £62 and a HIS 6850 @ £150. I'm a little worried by getting a second hand CPU in case it's been cooked within an inch of its life!

Memory wise obviously more is better and I assume 1066 would be the way to go, but how much will my current memory effect performance if I hold fire for now? It's not been mentioned much so I guess it's not such a huge factor?
 
So the Pentium Dual Core chips will significantly outperform the Core 2 Duo's? If I go for a E5300 or even a E6300 PDC I'll be getting a good cheep upgrade, sound's good to me!

Is this right? I ask because I have the same gfx card and motherboard with a e6400 clocked to 3.2ghz. I had assumed that without a newer graphics card, a processor upgrade by itself would not make that much difference to game performance?

Ready to be corrected though!
 
Don't just assume a PSU that comes with a case will be same brand as the case, as I've seen many shops bundling cases with generic PSU. Best bet is for the OP to open the case and check the label on the PSU.

Anetc PSUs are usually made by Delta or Seasonic - highly trusted brands.
 
So the Pentium Dual Core chips will significantly outperform the Core 2 Duo's? If I go for a E5300 or even a E6300 PDC I'll be getting a good cheep upgrade, sound's good to me!

No it won't. I did a benchmarking roundup of Intel dual core cpu's a while back and among the cpu's tested was a E5200 and a E4300 (slightly slower than your E6300). In games the E4300 was neck and neck with the E5200 and in some cases beat it even when the E4300 hit it's max of 3.4Ghz and the E5200 hit it's max of 3.6Ghz. Going down this route will be no more than a sidestep not a upgrade.

Another thing to consider is that unless your board is rev 3.3 it will not take any 45nm core cpu's so that would rule out all Pentium dual core E5000/6000 series, all E7000/8000 series Core2Duo's and all Q8000/9000 series Core2Quad's.
 
Thanks for clearing that up Intel’s naming convention doesn’t make much sense to me!

My board is a 3.3 so no worries there, I’ll get a signature sorted out with my info.

After a bit of thought I’ve decided to go for the best graphics card I can stretch to as it’ll be the only thing I can roll forward when I finally update my motherboard. I read there’s a direct replacement due imminently for the 5850 which I imagine will drop in price as soon as it’s superseded. My only concern is whether my PSU can handle a 5850, I think I should be ok if I leave it stock then I can overclock when I get a new supply, but feel free to correct me on this!

Just to clear up the PSU is an Antec Smartpower 450W.

CPU – I can’t ignore the advice to go for a Q6600 but as I’ve mentioned I have my worries about going second hand. Does anyone have any experience of buying these second hand, are they fairly robust or easily damaged from overclocking? I can pick up a new E7500 C2D for about £80 is the Q6600 better by enough to justify the second hand risk?

Anyway thanks again to everyone for the suggestions and info, I’m getting a much better picture of what my choices are.
 
My advise for graphic card is 6870- slightly faster than 5850 at similar, and better Crossfire scaling (you might not need crossfire now, but you might if you upgrade in the future)...and not realy to get a 5850/5870 now, except for people that are getting a 2nd one for Crossfire, or can find one 2nd hand for cheap.
 
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