cheap upgrade for old system?

latercomer2 · 17 Feb 2009 at 15:43

Hi folks

I'm looking to upgrade my old system to something a little more current. Plan is to re-use the case, HD, gfx card and PSU. This is the existing system:

Athlon 64 3500
MSI Neo-4 mobo of some description
4x512Mb ram
250Gb WD SATA
Sapphire X1950 pro PCI-E card (256Mb IIRC)
Old Antec case
Antec 520W PSU

I'm not a heavy PC use in any respects these days, only game I play is X3: Terran Conflict which like all its predecessors is known to bring even top end machines to their knees. Hence it generally runs like a dog on my old system despite having most settings down low. I care about FPS rather than pretty pictures.

I've got around £200ish to play with at the moment and this is what I'm considering:

Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Abit £65.54
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500 Gold Edition 4GB Dual Channel £43.69

Sub Total : £148.97
Total : £181.08

I'm going to try and use the gfx card for now and upgrade that at a future date. I'm also planning on overclocking hence my choice of CPU. I was thinking about just starting out with the stock cooler and seeing how it goes or should I go for an aftermarket cooler from the start? If so any recommendations?

Would I be better going for a higher end CPU?

Any general comments? (other than Abit no longer making mobos

)

Kennysevenfold · 17 Feb 2009 at 15:52

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £70.14
(£60.99) £70.14
(£60.99)

Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £65.54
(£56.99) £65.54
(£56.99)

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX6400D2K2/4G) £42.54
(£36.99) £42.54
(£36.99) Sub Total : £154.97 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL @ Home Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.49 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £24.52 Total : £187.98

latercomer2 · 17 Feb 2009 at 16:26

thanks for that. Any reason for the Kingston RAM instead of the OCZ? Also I went for the 5200 after reading about the great results a lot of people are getting with overclocking it both here and elsewhere. I know its not guaranteed I thought it was worth a try.

Kennysevenfold · 17 Feb 2009 at 17:18

latercomer2 said:
thanks for that. Any reason for the Kingston RAM instead of the OCZ? Also I went for the 5200 after reading about the great results a lot of people are getting with overclocking it both here and elsewhere. I know its not guaranteed I thought it was worth a try.

kingston is compatable with a wider range of motherboards, i personally have had a few problems with OCZ ram and certain motherboards

latercomer2 · 17 Feb 2009 at 17:21

Fair enough. Thanks for the replies.

freddie64 · 18 Feb 2009 at 09:39

I would go with your original plan. I am using OCZ ram with my Abit IP35 Pro XE board with no issue.

latercomer2 · 18 Feb 2009 at 09:53

Thanks.

Ok what about an aftermarket heatsink & fan? Is it worth getting at the same time or should I try overclocking first and see how I get on? I know some folks get very good results on stock coolers.

errata · 18 Feb 2009 at 10:36

Go retail, try the included stock then decide, personally I would get a better graphics card before splashing out to much on overclocking gear.

The same board is available as b grade if you can tolerate the small warranty and possibly missing accessories

latercomer2 · 18 Feb 2009 at 11:19

I noticed that but wasn't sure abuot going for a B grade. Is there any way to find out what is missing/wrong with a B grade item or do you just have to take a chance?

Because I dont do a huge amount of gaming and am happy with lower details I hoped the existing graphics card would be sufficient. Whats the best value graphics cards around at the moment.

The budget can stretch a little if its going to make a worthwhile difference to the upgrade.

uktinman · 19 Feb 2009 at 14:09

To be honest I would look at your graphics card and your processor as 256mb on your graphics card might not be cutting it. Maybe 512mb graphics card, a nice cheap dx9 or something. Maybe get a 512mb version of the card you have as i had that graphics card with 512mb on board and it was great. Can be picked up on ebay or something for 50 quid or less.

x3 is graphicly an intense game so that I feel should be your main focus. Maybe get a faster Athlon 64 processor too just for that extra mph or get a dual core athlon as they can be picked up cheap but might just be the same as a single in terms of perfomance in games.

Hope this helps

Redgie · 19 Feb 2009 at 14:10

Scrap it for parts and buy a new one

errata · 19 Feb 2009 at 19:14

I'm a big fan of x1950 pro and it can hack it for all your existing games and those new ones programmed by realists ie Valve not Crytek

New mobo and core will make it a lot better as I doubt the old cpu could max it out

latercomer2 · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:54

thanks for all the opinions. I went for the E5200, Abit IP35 Pro XE and 2x2Gb 8500 OCZ ram. Parts are installed and XP is fully updated. Initial results are encouraging as the benchmark in X3:TC demo has jumped up considerably from 34fps to 57fps with all options on low or turned off. I'm going to attempt to overclock it in the near future so I'll no doubt be posting on the Overclocking board asking stupid questions