Looking to upgrade my setup. Advice needed

clownstyle · 27 Oct 2011 at 17:28

Hi all

Thought I would make a post as it's been a while since I upgraded my hardware and have noticed some slowdown in games (BF3)

Here are my specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Socket 775 2.66GHz 1333FSB 6MB Cache
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L iG31 Socket 775
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Gold
Nvidia GTX 260

How does this gfx card perform in newer games? I see there is a gtx580 available now so it seems I am behind the times.

I have toyed with the idea of spending a bit of cash and upgrading everything although if I can keep money in my pocket and re use some of this hardware even better.

Do you have any advice on what I should upgrade first to see an improvement in frame rate?

Thank you

95thrifles · 27 Oct 2011 at 18:36

Definitely gfx card, the 580 is great card but not that great value for money wise, also look at 570/560 for NVidia and 6970/6950 for ATi, not as good as the 580 but better value for money
Also look at overclocking your CPU if you haven't already, try n get it up to round 3.4, that should do you for now really

clownstyle · 27 Oct 2011 at 18:48

95thrifles said:
Definitely gfx card, the 580 is great card but not that great value for money wise, also look at 570/560 for NVidia and 6970/6950 for ATi, not as good as the 580 but better value for money
Also look at overclocking your CPU if you haven't already, try n get it up to round 3.4, that should do you for now really

Thanks for the fast reply

I have already OC'd the CPU and I had a feeling it was the GFX card letting me down. I think instead of going for a 580 I will settle for the cheaper alternative for the moment.

Dont really want to spend over 200 notes on a card so was looking at this.. What are your thoughts? :confused:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=

95thrifles · 27 Oct 2011 at 18:54

Very good

clownstyle · 27 Oct 2011 at 19:12

Great. One problem I may have is my PSU. Do you think a 520w will manage the new card or should I also upgrade that?

(Corsair HX520w)

Should probably have mentioned that in my OP

95thrifles · 27 Oct 2011 at 19:18

Should be fine

olivier renault · 27 Oct 2011 at 19:43

HX520 will handle it. 40A on 12V, you will be at max 350W.

clownstyle · 27 Oct 2011 at 19:56

Sweet. Now the only problem I have is that I want to pay on finance, which is not an issue but means I need to spend a further 130 to be able to do that.

What would be the best bang for buck upgrade I could achieve for that ammount?

My first thought was to get a SSD but they seem quite expensive for the moment. This is the problem when I start looking at things like this.. Maybe I should spend a little extra seeing as im going the finance route and add a new mobo / cpu and ram setup so the system as a whole is not outdated.

From what I can gather socket 775 is pretty old. Would there be much benefit in going the i5 route?