New Card? .. or New System?

[MaareK]

Hi folks,
First time poster here.. but I've been reading these forums and buying from Overclockers for a few years now.

I find myself in need of some sort of upgrade, My current system specs just don't cut it anymore and I figure you guys are the best folks to ask. Especially seeing as I've been addicted to Warcrack for the past 18 months and hence, I'm a bit out of touch with what's hot and what's not.

My current system is as follows :
Asus 9800XT 256Mb
DFI Lanparty PRO875
Intel P4 3.2Ghz
2 x 512Mb Crucial XMS PC3200
150Gb Western Digital IDE HDD
Seasonic S12 380w PSU

The graphics card is what's really letting me down here, and was wondering whether it would be worth flogging the dead horse some more and get a new AGP card? (something like an ATI X850GT or XT if I can find one). The low wattage of the PSU is a concern though.

The other option is, of course, to spend a bucket load more cash and getting a new Mobo, CPU, PSU and a nice spangly PCI-E graphics card.

My budget if I'm just replacing the card is around £150, if I'm replacing the main system components.. I'm willing to spend about £500-550.

Thanks in advance for any useful tidbits you can throw at me.

MaareK

 

[melbourne720]

Purely because decent AGP upgrades are quite pricey, I'd seriously think about a full system upgrade. Your system is new enough to still have value on the second hand market, but still old enough to justify a major upgrade. How about:-

Intel Core 2 DUO LGA775 E6400 2.13GHz Retail / Gigabyte 965P DS3 / 2GB Corsair XMS2-6400C5 DDR2 - £449.99 Including VAT

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 - £140.99 Including VAT

Thats a little over your £550, but maybe if you went for a 6300 it would bring the price down.

 

[Silver21uk]

im no expert but will give you my 1 penny of thought.

6 months ago the pc died, managed to fried the lot, Actually the GF did....
i went for the total upgrade 1900Xtx 2gb ram X2 yada yada.

the problem you got if you do upgrade nows not the time to do the whole system. wait till feb 07 for that. getting a new card you will see a good performance over the 9800xt especially if you go with the 850xt. You might need a lil better power supply, stick with 450 or something.

me id do the lil upgrade for now, card + powersupply. save ** cash for a bit, then blowout big time. or just just spend some on a nice lil rig. Either way u will be pleased with the perf increase. just dont go expecting mind blowing results.

 

[melbourne720]

the problem you got if you do upgrade nows not the time to do the whole system. wait till feb 07 for that. getting a new card you will see a good performance over the 9800xt especially if you go with the 850xt. You might need a lil better power supply, stick with 450 or something.

Easy for you to say, you have a really nice system

What if he wants to play FEAR, Prey or Oblivion over the winter?

 

[MaareK]

Thanks for the input guys.. both valid options.

I have Oblivion and I pretty much refuse to play it with my current system. I've had half life 2 since launch and never finished it, simply because I was unhappy with the way it ran. (wouldn't mind getting episode 1 either) Battlefield 2?, same story.

I guess I'm a stickler for playing a games at they were 'ment' to be played. There are loads of good games i've neglected in my time absorbed in WoW.

I'm leaning towards a system upgrade, but was hoping to keep the 1Gb of ram I have. Looking at the demands of current (and up and coming) games. 2Gb would be a more sensible (if not more expensive) option and the new Intel chips use DDR800 not the 400Mhz sticks I have.
Is AMD still a viable upgrade path at the moment? .. or does the new Intel stuff simply blow AMD out of the water atm. (AM2 for example?)

However my main concern, as Silver mentions, is that there is new technology on the horizen and whether or not it would be worth the wait? Or just to simply say, 'bugger it' and buy the best I can now with the money I have.

Grrr.. decisions, decisions.

 

[melbourne720]

Pound for pound Core 2 Duo blows AM2 out of the water. Even the 6300 punches well above its price.

DX10 probably won't be sensible money until well into next year, so you could pick up a cheap (relatively) DX9 card now with a new CPU/Mobo/Memory bundle and play HL2, Oblivion, Prey, FEAR,... 'the way it was meant to be played'.

You could put a new DX10 card in later in 2007, kentsfield CPU or faster conroe,.. all with a half decent P965 chipset motherboard.

 

[man_from_uncle]

If you are going for a full upgrade Intel is really the only option. There is no competition between Core 2 and AM2 as it currently stands, and the up coming quadcores from both sides don't change this. Even the cheapest and most humble Core 2 cpu (£120) can overclock on air and beat even the most expensive AM2 (£500) on liquid nitrogen. In fact if you are going AMD you might as well stick with socket 939 as you can reuse your ram and pick up a decent overclocking motherboard and CPU for £150 total.

 

[hyper_piper45]

I had a very similar system to you although i had a x800 pro.

I decided to go for the full upgrade . You can always sell your old parts to take the edge of the extra cost aswell.

 

[MaareK]

would any of you be kind enough to recommend a good PSU?
Something that could handle any upgrades I may choose to go for.

Modular is nice (to keep the case tidy) but not necessary.

It's doubtful I would ever go for an SLI or x-Fire configuration.

 

[melbourne720]

Seasonic are supposed to be very good, but you pay for it.

Steer clear of Q-tec, so I've been told...

 

[man_from_uncle]

The Hiper 580w, like I'm using is good. It's modular, can handle SLi and, even though it's not crossfire approved, seems to do the trick there too. It isn't too pricey either.

 

[hyper_piper45]

If you can afford it i would go for one from the seasonic m12 range.

 

[MaareK]

Thanks for the info chaps.. will get back to you all later when I've had time to mull things over.