Is it worth upgrading?

Awesomeish

Awesomeish

Awesomeish

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I hope this is the right subforum - if not, my apologies!

Right, so I'm getting back into PC gaming, and I'm considering whether it's worth it to upgrade my oldish (like 4/5 years old now) PC, and how to upgrade it. It runs games fairly well on medium/low (although I haven't played anything incredibly taxing, yet), but if I'm getting back into gaming I think I'll want something a bit more capable.

What I have currently:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.2 Ghz)
RAM: 2 GB DDR2
GPU: XFX GeForce 9600 GT
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 550w
Mobo: XFX nForce 4 680i LE
-some generic cheap case
-500 GB HDD

I was wondering what the best way to upgrade is, without spending too much. I'm sure I could re-use a lot of these parts if I were to rebuild a new PC, right? I had two ideas in mind of what to do, and these are:

Cheaper/not as powerful:
-Get 2GB more of DDR2, and another GeForce 9600 GT in a SLI, maybe try overclocking the CPU some (though I don't know much about that)

More expensive, but more performance:
-Essentially rebuild the PC and re-use what I can. Get a new motherboard, some DDR3 RAM, new CPU (i3?), a good graphics card (would a Radeon 6850 be good enough?), and re-use my old HDD, PSU, case and optical drive.

I think I'd prefer the second option, unless the folk on this forum convince me otherwise :P. I'm not entirely experienced in building PCs though, so I'll probably be asking a lot of questions. Can I definitely re-use my old parts, or would certain sockets/whatever have changed over the years? And would it be worth getting a Crossfire/SLI-capable mobo for future graphics upgrades?

As for budget, let's say about £350 but I might change that if necessary. Cheaper is better, though, of course!

Oh yeah, and I'd better get a copy of Windows 7 - I don't think XP 32-bit would do the new system much justice.

Any help is appreciated!
 
New machine is the better option here imho, is your HDD SATA and is your optical drive a CD or DVD drive and is that SATA? If so then at least those can be used in the new build, the PSU you have currently should be enough for your needs at the moment.

Here is a quick spec which includes a new case but no OS:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked FTW 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (01G-P3-1363-KR) £124.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black £39.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £35.99
Total : £345.05 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Stoner81.
 
This Ram.

This GPU.

That saves you £60 using the spec above and your budget being £350. I would invest the money buying a better MB, with some overclocking in mind and a future upgrade path, 2500k, ivy and maybe Crossfire. The OS would eat into your budget and have a serious impact on the quality of system you could build. So if you can't afford win7 stick with XP for now then upgrade when you have sufficient funds.

Edit:

The first option you mention is only good imho when you only need to add 1 or maybe 2 cheap components. You need 2GB of DDR2 another GPU for SLI and a cooler so you can overclock you current CPU or another CPU like a fast E8400 E8500, an overclocked Q6600. Just not worth the outlay when the above spec with some changes can be got for £350.
 
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Stoner81 said:
New machine is the better option here imho, is your HDD SATA and is your optical drive a CD or DVD drive and is that SATA? If so then at least those can be used in the new build, the PSU you have currently should be enough for your needs at the moment.
Click to expand...

I believe so, but I'll double check when I can. I've been out of the whole PC-building loop for a while so I've forgotten a load of stuff :P

Thanks to both of you for the speccing, although, do I really need a new case? I'm happy to use the one I have now. I know it's plain cheap case but it works fine.

I would invest the money buying a better MB, with some overclocking in mind and a future upgrade path, 2500k, ivy and maybe Crossfire.
Click to expand...

Is there much difference between Sandy bridge and Ivy bridge, and what do you mean by '2500k'? Sorry for the stupid questions, but like I say I've forgotten a lot about this sort of thing :P
 
I will try and make it simple:)

To overclock properly you need a "K" CPU (unlocked multiplier) and either a P67/Z68/Z77 board.

There are a few exceptions such a CPU's without the "K" but that still have Turboboost, you can do "limited" overcloking of these by four speed bins higher than the maximum Turbo ratio.

The H77 board allows limited overcloking also, as well as the three mentioned above.

The H61/H67 dont.


Think of Ivybridge as Sandybridge with smaller transistors, a better integrated graphics core, a better memory controller and PCI-E3.0 support with the right motherboard.
 
Awesomeish said:
Thanks to both of you for the speccing, although, do I really need a new case? I'm happy to use the one I have now. I know it's plain cheap case but it works fine.
Click to expand...

Do you know what your old case is? We could look it up and see if it will fit new hardware.

Awesomeish said:
Is there much difference between Sandy bridge and Ivy bridge, and what do you mean by '2500k'? Sorry for the stupid questions, but like I say I've forgotten a lot about this sort of thing :p
Click to expand...

IvyBridge is the revised version of SandyBridge, the name refers to specific types of CPU's which use the 1155 socket. IvyBridge has a better memory controller and better integrated graphics (IGP) compared to SandyBridge, most people here don't like IvyBridge due to the thermal limits it has for over clocking though I doubt this is something you will need to think about.

The 2500K is a SandyBridge chip with an unlocked multiplier (denoted by the "K") this means that the CPU will over clock like crazy! Over clocks of 4.5GHz are the norm with these types of CPU's.
 
Something like this would suit if you're willing to squeeze an extra £30 onto your budget?


Please resize no wider than 1024

The cpu is the dog's ********, and combined with that board would overclock very easily (it's very easy to do with these chips). The cooler that comes with it isn't amazing, but you could still overclock with it (perhaps not over 4GHz without it getting toasty though). You could always stick a decent £25 cooler on later if you wanted more grunt, but that wouldn't be for a long time.

If you wanted to go the whole hog, for an extra £15 quid or so you could have 8GB or RAM instead of 4GB.

The card is enough to play most games at max at 1080p, perhaps with the AA turned down a bit in some games (or a few tweaked settings in BF3 which is quite demanding. You can always overclock the card too if you want more performance (it's free, do it!).

Stulid may have some refinements to make to that spec, as he knows his stuff, but I'd spend the extra to get the i5 and save you another upgrade later on.
 
Stoner81 said:
Do you know what your old case is? We could look it up and see if it will fit new hardware.



IvyBridge is the revised version of SandyBridge, the name refers to specific types of CPU's which use the 1155 socket. IvyBridge has a better memory controller and better integrated graphics (IGP) compared to SandyBridge, most people here don't like IvyBridge due to the thermal limits it has for over clocking though I doubt this is something you will need to think about.

The 2500K is a SandyBridge chip with an unlocked multiplier (denoted by the "K") this means that the CPU will over clock like crazy! Over clocks of 4.5GHz are the norm with these types of CPU's.
Click to expand...

You say the norm but with the new batches of SB chips aren't people struggling to get clocks of 4.4Ghz?
 
Thanks again. I went to find out exactly what I had:

Case is "Casecom KB-7720BK Black ATX Midi Tower Case"

HDD is "MAXTOR S TM3250310AS" (turns out it's 250 GB rather than 500 GB, but I'm not bothered)

Optical drive is "Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200S"

I guess I should go with an IvyBridge CPU then :p

edit: are only i5s/i7s IvyBridge? I was planning on getting an i3
 
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Yes, yes you should in fact. I thought they'd be more expensive, but if you replaced the 2500k (sandybridge) with the 3570k (ivybridge) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-404-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

it's exactly the same price and fits the same boards, just with a bit more performance. They do run hotter and don't overclock as easily as a result though. Whichever chip you choose, they're both good. I have a 2500k and it performs wonderfully and quietly (cool), but I can't comment on the later ivybridge chips from personal experience.
 
IB chips only really run hot over 4.4Ghz in all honesty. At least thats when they start to really get hotter than SB. But as I said earlier from what I've heard people are apparently finding it harder to get 4.4Ghz on SB chips in the latest batches. There is really little wrong with IB and most people fail to see a lot of the time that they actually work about 5% faster than SB do. So even if you're clocking 4.4Ghz on an IB that's about 4.6Ghz on SB give or take.
 
Oooh, well even if you went with an OEM copy (which has its downsides in the form of not being able to move it to a new build, in theory anyway) and an i3 you'd be at about £365. with the build I posted (same board/ram/gfx). That'd leave a nice upgrade path to ivybridge down the line, and you could plonk in an extra 4GB of RAM later, upgrade your gfx. All of which are "one at a time" upgrades that you could treat yourself to when you have the cash.

If you kept the i5 in the mix and got W7 (OEM, not retail), then it'd go up to £450, which is quite a bit above the given budget. A retail copy of W7 (stays valid as long as you only have it on one PC at a time, but can be reactivated legitimately on new builds), would push it up to just under £500
 
W7 is worth it tbh if you can afford it... even if it's OEM make sure its proffessional/ultimate and you're fine.. if you can't afford proffessional I guess you could probably live with home premium.
 
Agreed, also my XP is 32-bit, and that can only handle so much RAM.

Would the difference between an i3/i5 affect me much? I was thinking the 3.3 Ghz i3 would be fine for what I need. It also seems like Radeon cards (6850/6870) are better value compared to the GeForce equivilents (460/550/etc.), unless I'm wrong there:p

@ollie, what's the difference between home/professional/ultimate?

again, sorry for all the questions :p
 
It's alright. Theres not much of a difference in it. If I remember correctly Home Premium (64bit) can only use up to 16GB of RAM (I say only it's more of a future proofing thing) where as professional + ultimate can use 192Gb of RAM (only 64Gb on X79 motherboards currently at least.) You're probably best getting professional if you can. or just grab 64 bit home premium at the least. I doubt you would use more than 16Gb of RAM ever (if you even installed that much)
 
Awesomeish said:
Agreed, also my XP is 32-bit, and that can only handle so much RAM.

Would the difference between an i3/i5 affect me much? I was thinking the 3.3 Ghz i3 would be fine for what I need. It also seems like Radeon cards (6850/6870) are better value compared to the GeForce equivilents (460/550/etc.), unless I'm wrong there:p

@Ollie, what's the difference between home/professional/ultimate?

again, sorry for all the questions :p
Click to expand...

The difference between the i3 and the i5 is pretty big since the i5 is a quad core CPU (better for heavy duty gaming). As for video cards it really depends on which cards you are comparing, each card is aimed at competitor cards (ATI vs nVidia) so it really depends on what you want and how much you can spend.

Check this link[url] for the difference between Windows 7 versions.

Stoner81.
 
Awesomeish said:
Agreed, also my XP is 32-bit, and that can only handle so much RAM.

Would the difference between an i3/i5 affect me much? I was thinking the 3.3 Ghz i3 would be fine for what I need. It also seems like Radeon cards (6850/6870) are better value compared to the GeForce equivilents (460/550/etc.), unless I'm wrong there:p

@Ollie, what's the difference between home/professional/ultimate?

again, sorry for all the questions :p
Click to expand...

Don't worry about HP versus pro right now. You can do an "anytime upgrade" in about 10 mins directly over your existing install if you decide to upgrade later. Pro gets you XP mode (a virtual xp operating system that's handy for testing stuff or running old bits of software/hardware) and domain joining. HP is fine for normal use.

As said, the i5 is significantly faster. See here for stock clocks comparison
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=288

Some games won't see a difference, but more games are beginning to make use of quads (ex BF3, Dirt3, strategy games). If you went i3 you could always stick an i5 in later in the same board and ram though. It isn't ideal, but if your budget can't stretch that far (my budget is always tight so I can relate there!), then be realistic and get what you can afford and upgrade later when you need to.

and see this for 6850 vs 460 1gb
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/539?vs=542
 
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