Need performance upgrade advice...

Pookie Bear · 25 Jul 2007 at 17:49

Hi all,

My friend has a system which he wants to upgrade, but I'm not sure what's right for him. I'd be most grateful if someone could have a look at this specs and tell me what might be his best "bang for buck" option to improve performance. His main components are:

MOBO: ASUS A8N-SLI
MEM: DDR PC3200 2x 512mb 184 pin DIMM
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 4200+
GFX: Geforce 7800GT

Thanks in advance for any suggestions...

Alex UK · 25 Jul 2007 at 17:57

I guess the best place to start is with a C2D based Mobo/RAM/CPU combination. How much is he looking to spend?

Pookie Bear · 25 Jul 2007 at 17:58

That's a good point - I really should have put a figure on.

He's not over-loaded at the moment - if he had to upgrade one thing to improve his overall performance (he plays games mostly), what would it be? Memory?

jak731 · 25 Jul 2007 at 18:05

Depends on what games he play, BF2 X3 , Fear amongst others can use 1gb+ and really slow down a PC, could get 2*512 generic DDR to sort that out.

Garyj881 · 25 Jul 2007 at 22:20

Agreed more memory is the best option, but i don't think he will see a huge improvement.

I think improving that rig is a waste of time and money especially in a few months as he wont be able to play up and coming games on nothing but low settings.

I would sell up and move on to a core 2 duo system.

I know that wasnt what you asked but just my opinion.

HangTime · 25 Jul 2007 at 22:37

I'm inclined to agree with the above.

I added another gig RAM to my S939 system, which meant changing from 1T to 2T plus dropping the FSB. Then about 3 months later I ended up doing a full mobo/C2D/DDR2 upgrade anyway, so it was a waste of money really.

Pookie Bear · 27 Jul 2007 at 11:52

Thanks for the advice, fellas. Appreciate it.