Cost effective upgradings?

ekam

ekam

ekam

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Hey folks im looking to upgrade my current pc but ive got the ancient LGA 775 socket, my current rig is:

Intel E8400 3GHZ
4GB xms2 ddr2 800mhz
Palit Geforce 560TI 2GB
Gigabyte p35 S3G Mobo
XFX 750 watt PSU

I was thinking of a quad core along the lines of the intel Q8*** or Q9*** as i dont really want to have to get a new mobo, memory, processor etc im looking to spend max £200 but im abit out of touch with the latest components and was looking for some guidance on what to do. Any help will be very much appreciated :)

P.S Also was thinking of upgrading the HDD to the western digital caviar Black as the current one seems to be a random Toshiba 250 BG
 
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Main use of PC? I would purchase a SSD for starters if you do not have one. made a huge difference to my old rig when i has one installed.
 
Blame said:
Main use of PC? I would purchase a SSD for starters if you do not have one. made a huge difference to my old rig when i has one installed.
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Mainly for gaming battlefield 4 league of legends and possibly witcher 2, i was thinking of an ssd but they are around 100 quid for a 240gb i think its the crucial m5 im thinking of, the plan i originally had in mind was to get a quad core cpu and new HDD as my current gpu isnt tooo bad yet is it?
 
Second hand Intel Q9650 or a Q9550 CPU, 4GB more Ram and a western digital black will be a good upgrade to that pc. Don't bother with an SSD if you want it for gaming, then save up for a better GPU.
 
Purgatory said:
Second hand Intel Q9650 or a Q9550 CPU, 4GB more Ram and a western digital black will be a good upgrade to that pc. Don't bother with an SSD if you want it for gaming, then save up for a better GPU.
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sounds like a better plan haha how do you think it would handle some of the newer titles like BF4?
 
An ssd would boost everything and make the whole pc snappier. Cpu wise would a q6600 be worth considering? (might be cheaper than the q9xx and free up more for the gpu)
 
I had a very similar system, an E8400 and the same graphics. I stuck a 64GB SSD (then, SSD were expensive :p) and the whole computer flew along. Like others have mentioned, I would opt for an SSD drive.

As for other components, maybe its worth saving a bit more until you have a better budget and can have a proper upgrade. I don't think there is any point making these incremental updates, sooner or later you'll have to replace the CPU and motherboard.

Saying that, an E8400 is a cracking chip, I'm sure it still has life in it.
 
SSD = 0 FPS gain, therefore no point if primary use is games. it can wait.

none of the C2Q are cost effective upgrades and E8400 is weak by todays standards.
 
kefan77 said:
none of the C2Q are cost effective upgrades and E8400 is weak by todays standards.
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This, the top 775 CPUs are still going for ridiculous prices (6 years on!). Any money spent on 775 is wasted.

As written above, the AMD 6300 punches well above its weight in BF4 and kills the C2D 8400 in all benchmarks (unsurprisingly):

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/56?vs=699

If money is tight you could also try a Kaveri build, which would be an upgrade over the 560Ti.
 
joeyjojo said:
This, the top 775 CPUs are still going for ridiculous prices (6 years on!). Any money spent on 775 is wasted.

As written above, the AMD 6300 punches well above its weight in BF4 and kills the C2D 8400 in all benchmarks (unsurprisingly):

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/56?vs=699

If money is tight you could also try a Kaveri build, which would be an upgrade over the 560Ti.
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You can get a Q9550 for £40-£45 if you shop around second hand and even the MM had them for that here. So for £40-£45 it's a good upgrade on the CPU and then also he can sell his and get a few quid back too.
 
Purgatory said:
You can get a Q9550 for £40-£45 if you shop around second hand and even the MM had them for that here. So for £40-£45 it's a good upgrade on the CPU and then also he can sell his and get a few quid back too.
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I'm a hypocrite, just picked up a X3320 (Xeon version of Q9300) on ebay for £40 posted for an old 775 system. :D

A Q9x50 would have been nicer for the cache, but meh.

If anyone's wondering, the following Xeons should work in any 775 board that supports the Core 2 Quad version: X3230, X3220, X3210, X3380, X3370, X3360, X3350, X3330, X3320, L3360.
 
Dont go for fx, it's on dead socket, get 1150, i3 for now, ddr3 and ssd, since u dont update ur system very often. In the future u be able to get i7 or i5, no point sticking with 775 and ddr2
 
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Agree on getting a ssd, will breathe new life into it and can be used if you decide on a big upgrade further along.
 
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