PC upgrade question and advice...please.. pretty please...

whitelight1985

whitelight1985

whitelight1985

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22 Dec 2012
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Hey guys (and girls) SO... (deep breath)

About 6 years ago I ordered a gaming PC from (AHEM...somewhere) and since then it has served me well, running any game I could throw at it. Recently I have been considering an upgrade as the new games I want to play are sapping it a little too much... and then last week the GPU frazzled and now it wont even load windows, rather forcing my hand. The specs are as follows...

Motherboard: Nvidia EVGA nForce 78i SLI
Processor: Q6600 overclocked to 3Ghz
GPU: Nvidia 8800GTX eVGA superclocked
Power: Tagan 700W
RAM: OCZ DDR2 2GB
OS: Windows Vista

What I am looking to upgrade is the GPU, RAM and OS to windows 7. I've always been an Nvidia fan-boy so I was thinking the Geforce GTX 660 or 670 and then maybe replace my RAM with 2/3x 2GB sticks.

Firstly I would like some opinions on all of this as I have been a little out of the PC realm for a little while and am not sure what is out there.

Secondly I have never built a pc before and need to know what GPU's and RAM my 6 year old motherboard can take - both compatibility wise eg. Will I have to choose only DDR2 RAM sticks? and other issues like size? My 8800GTX is a pretty big card and just about fits my NZXT Zero case, does anyone know comparison sizes with the 660 and 670?

Thirdly is it difficult to fit and install these items?? - am I best buying them and then paying an 'expert' to fit them? ..or are GPU's plug and play and then its a case of reading something off of the internet for the RAM and windows 7?

Cooling wise I think I'm pretty well catered for with my Titan Amanda fan... its massive .. and just to add I'm not really interested in upgrading my processor or motherboard yet if at all possibly as that would be WELL beyond my abilities.

Thanks for any help/advice anyone can give me!

Cheers,
Lee ;)
 
Last edited:
Lol, my apologies!

I was thinking perhaps £250 for a GPU and another £50-£100 for the RAM + whatever windows 7 costs. Any more and the wife might go crazy... some people are so closed minded.
 
You'll want a new PSU as well, Tagan are not reliable PSU's by any means.

£250 can grab you a 7950 as well but then I think your CPu could easily become a bottleneck.

Also I take it your motherboard does not take DDR3 RAM?
 
Is the 7950 the best value Nvidia GPU for that price range u think? No i dont believe my mobo can take DDR3 RAM... U think that's a necessity for new games? Even if I bought 4 or 6 gig of DDR2 RAM?
 
Have you tried fixing your GFX? Putting it in the oven might fix it :)

I would recommend picking up a 7950 as well as 4GB of RAM to replace your 2GB (picking up the RAM second hand is cheap!):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £239.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
Total : £331.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
Awesome, I'll have to take a look for some RAM.. I've heard this 'put your GPU in the oven' thing before... can it really work? Do you need to do anything beforehand (I heard you need to remove the heatsink... is that just a screwdriver jobby?
 
I've just looked at the DDR2 RAM they're selling on the overclockers site, 4Gb is about £50 which is fine with me. Just looking at the corsair 800MHz RAM Speed, CAS 5-5-5-18 Timings. There's another one slightly cheaper 667MHz RAM Speed, CAS 4-4-4-12 Timings, 1.8-1.9v VDIMM .. but what is it I should be looking for, higher timings or the higher MHz?

Thanks
 
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