Is this a worthwhile upgrade?

Malenko · 14 Mar 2006 at 14:15

Cash is very limited at the moment, but I'm itchin to upgrade.

Currently I've got:

2500+ XP at 3200 speeds
Gig of Geil (mix of value + Golden)
Dodgy Gigabyte motherboard
Leadtek 6800nu
Akasa 400w PaxPower
Hyundai ImageQuest Q17+

and all the other bits

I mainly use my machine for gaming.

As a cheap upgrade option I've found an opty 144 and 7800GTX at very good prices and a Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 from a lad at work. The lot would come to just over £300.

I could flog the 6800 and barton and probably get around £120 for them both so it would work out a very very cheap upgrade.

I run everything at native res 1280 x 1024 and with it being a TFT I can't stand the screen tear so run V-synch. I should be able to ramp up the eye candy in most games with the 7800gtx.

I know the GFX card will be a huge step up, but what about the opty and motherboard ? Would they be ok with my current ram (I could always sell them and get a matched gig) Even if the 144 only clocks to 2GHz (but hopefully higher) would I see a nice boost in games and be able to sustain a steadyish FPS ?

Admiral Huddy · 14 Mar 2006 at 14:17

short answer - Yes.. you will notice a big perfromance leap and the opt is a very good Oc'er too.. Should last you a few more years and you have taken the plunge to PCI-E, which is always a tough one to over come. Go for it.

.. THe PSU you have should be ok, but you might want to invest in a better PCI-E compatiable PSU to make things stable. Seasonic is a good buy IMO.

vanandjuanunited · 14 Mar 2006 at 14:17

You will certainly notice the difference.

If the memory is the same speed and size then it may run dual channel anyway.

Malenko · 14 Mar 2006 at 14:22

The mem is 2 x 512 PC3200 but they both have slightly different timings

semi-pro waster · 14 Mar 2006 at 14:22

I'd expect you to get a little closer to £100 for the Barton and 6800nu but it will still be a cheap and very worthwhile upgrade

The PSU ought to be fine as mentioned, is it an ATX 2.0 compliant model already?

Malenko · 14 Mar 2006 at 14:28

Yup, PSU is ATX 2.0

Been rock solid so far and silent

Admiral Huddy · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:13

Malenko said:
The mem is 2 x 512 PC3200 but they both have slightly different timings

this should be ok, set the timings in the BIOS manually rather than by SPD/Auto to avoid latency issues and conflicts. The timings should be that of the slowest you have.

Malenko · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:17

Schweet, cheers chaps