Help with Alienware upgrade.

[PaulE]

I currently own an Alienware Area51 750i
intel core2duo 34500 @2.20ghz
nforce 680sli mb.
2gb ram (pc2-6400)
1x nvidia geforce 8600gts

I've got about £500 to spend to update it more for gaming, i'd like to increase ram, and switch to 2x gfx, and possibly processor.

I'll buy all parts from OC, please give me some ideas?

 

[PaulE]

You'll get a much better upgrade going for 1 decent gfx card than adding another 8600, if I were you Id look at this

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" Superclocked 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (896-P3-1257-AR) £221.94 (£192.99)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £149.49 (£129.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £82.79 (£71.99)

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £39.09 (£33.99)

Sub Total : £428.96
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 : £65.62
Total : £503.07

Ive included a new HDD in there too as I suspect the one you have will be old and slow, prob 5400rpm, based on your other components

I'm glad you've included a 1tb HD in that, as that was also on my wishlist.
Do you think the above upgrade would provide a decent boost in gaming capabilities?

also, im presuming the processor you've quoted on will be compatiable with my current mobo?

 

[PaulE]

Thrifty's spec will blow you away, I promise.

To be honest, I'll probably end up going for it!
Only have a 32bit windows vista install though, is is REALLY worth the price of upgrading to 64bit for extra just shy of one gig it'll give?

 

[PaulE]

Is it the best gpu to go for at that price for my current specs?

 

[PaulE]

You can use any 32bit key for the 64bit version, OEM or retail whatever, it's fine.

Worth the however much it takes to get the install media.

& technically, if i download an iso of 64bit vista oem, seen as I own a 32bit OEM license, that's okay isn't it.

Would i definately need to flash bios for that gpu?

I also forgot to mention, im playing on a 42" samsung hdtv.

 

[PaulE]

that was a pretty poorly specced alienware tbh. basically you got a case and a badge and nothing under the hood. hope you got it second hand.

anyway thriftles reco will be a MAJOR upgrade

I bought it two years ago now!
I think the above upgrade is what I'll go for.
I'm a little uncertain on how to flash my mobo though


Also, one final query
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) + Company of Heroes Bundle - Retail
would that gpu not be any better than the one above?

 

[PaulE]

Its on a par with the 260 performance wise, as we were saying before though your board suppports SLI not corssfire, so the advantage of getting the 260 is if in a year or so's time you need a gfx boost you can just buy another card and SLI them, if you got the 4870 you'd have to bin the card and get a completely new one

Just quickly, having never used SLI, there's one element of it i'm unsure of how it works.
There is a port on the back of each Card, so which port would i plug my monitor onto, the port on the first or second card? :S