Is it worth upgrading this PC?

McGraw

McGraw

McGraw

Soldato
Joined
16 Jan 2006
Posts
3,049
Hi.

Our main desktop is a Dell Vostro 200 with:

E2160
2x1Gb DDR2
6800 GT
1X160Gb 5400
1x200Gb 7200
Foxconn Mobo with 3xSATA

This replaced my Athlon 3800+ with X800XL (died) that I sold to my mate after I inherited the above the PC from work.

Now as we game on our 2 360s and have a VAIO laptop with a P8400 and 4gb RAM, I've not seen the point in upgrading the desktop as the few games we do play (Dawn of War 2 and Civ 4) will still run at 1680x1050 at medium/low detail with no AA.

However, I've just built an i5/470 for my Dad and naturally, it's giving me the upgrade urge. I can justifying it by my desire to play Total War and Civ 5 at high detail/smooth frames.

So, is it worth sticking a decent Quad Core, 2gb more ram and a GC (PSU?) that won't be bottlenecked by the CPU or am I best off just considering a new board and ram too?

Just thinking.

Cheers.
 
yep.

buy a second hand Q6600 for £75.

get more ram, or a complete ram kit for 4gb total.

and a 9800GT is £60 (ZOTAC do a "green" edition that doesnt need a power cable from a psu, its power is all taken from the PCI-E slot) is your motherboard AGP or PCI-E? as the 6800Gt came in both types.
 
Last edited:
Remember that its a dell machine we're talking about. Cpu upgrades might be limited, especially a jump from dual to quad. I'd suggest a better dual core, another 2x 1gb of RAM and that zotac green edition 9800GT. If you'e stringent and look hard enough you may be able to do it all for under 100 ;)
 
I say it would probably be better to just build a Phenom II X4 955BE from scratch, as I don't see anything in a Dell build would worth saving (even the RAM would most likely be generic with low speed high timing, and the motherboard would be a crap one). Not really worth throwing good money on good CPU to pair up with poor parts...
 
Last edited:
I'd probably buy a GT 240 and leave it at that or build/buy a new PC. Decide from the start how much of an upgrade you want. There's no point buying a new CPU, new RAM, new graphics card, new PSU and then deciding you need a bigger HDD for the games. then deciding you want a motherboard that can overclock and then that you don't like the case:o
 
Cheers.

A few more points:

I like the case.
I can do without more HD space for the time being.
I would like to be able to play the latest games at a decent level as all my previous upgrades have handled all the latest games at the time I bought them.
 
stulid said:
you do know that a 9800gt was just renamed into GTS250, so is faster.
Click to expand...

the reason I thought of a GT 240 is that I installed one into a pre-built PC with a 250w PSU and typical small case. It's been working fine for ages and I was very impressed by it in terms of size, performance, noise and price. Also, with a 1.8ghz dual-core CPU on a motherboard that won't overclock, the CPU would be the main restriction and I did say I'd either just buy the GT 240 or buy a new PC.


The 9800gt has more in common with the 8800gt when we look at the size etc. I think the GTS 250 is closer to a 9800gtx.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom