Should I upgrade?

cainey

cainey

cainey

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Joined
31 Jan 2007
Posts
62
Hi folks,

I'm looking for some advice and you guys seem to mostly know what you're talking about. ;)
Basically I've caught the upgrade bug (again) and I'm wondering with my current spec (below) if it's worth while? I'd be looking at spending around £500.
Currently use it for gaming and general PC use. Games like Forged Alliance however seem to run like treacle. I think it's the CPU that struggles with it more than anything.
Current OS is Vista 32bit but I'll probably go 64bit if I upgrade.

Current spec...

Asus P5B Deluxe (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 XTC 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Series
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB)
Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU
Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

So what do you reckon?
 
Overclocking your current cpu will help and perhaps change the GPU to a 4890 or Nvidia 270.
 
How about this mate...




Product Name Qty Price Line Total
GX-109-HT_60.jpg
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £199.99
(£173.90) £199.99
(£173.90)
SW-037-MS_60.jpg
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99
(£79.99) £91.99
(£79.99)
CA-005-CS_60.jpg
Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-520HXUK) £82.98
(£72.16) £82.98
(£72.16)
CP-251-IN_60.jpg
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09
(£53.99) £62.09
(£53.99)
HS-000-TQ_60.jpg
Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3/LGA775) £28.74
(£24.99) £28.74
(£24.99)
MY-072-OC_60.jpg
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 XTC 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Series (OCZ2P800R22GK) £19.99
(£17.38) £19.99
(£17.38) Sub Total : £422.41 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £64.86 Total : £497.27
 
Thanks for the quick replies chaps.
CPU is currently OC'd at 2.17Ghz but runs a litte warm at 60c when under load. Doesn't seem to make much difference to performance anyway.

Ignore the Vista for now I'll sort the OS at a later date.
Would that PSU, CPU and Cooler make that much difference than my current spec?

I was thinking more along the lines of
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6700 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.66GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 XTC 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Series
OcUK Value GeForce GTX 275 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail or the ATI 4890 (I tend to favour the GeForce but I guess I could xfire another 4890 at a later date)
Maybe add another Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache and set up RAID.

Looking at the specs on my motherboard it says "Intel® Quad-core CPU Ready" but then says "Compatible with all FSB1333/1066/800/533MHz CPUs except Quad Core" lol erm ok what kind of Intel Quad-core CPU is ready for then?

May be I should push my budget up a little... lets say £600
 
I'd look at the Q6600 rather than Q6700 if you are going down that line. Brilliant little overclocker at brilliant price.
But as you are playing SupCom why not just save yourself a lot of money and get either a E6750 or E8200. SupCom doesn't use multi cores even if you use the multicore optomiser (it doesn't really work no matter what people say). So spending the extra money on a Quad is a little pointless.
Look at maybe picking up a 260GTX while their cheap or HD4870.
 
You want 4 gig of RAM, that will make a big difference, vista struggles with 2, also re your OS upgrade, rather than buy a new OS, get the upgrade disc from microsoft, only about £7 (cost of p&p)
And re actual upgrades, how about AMD?

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £195.99 (£170.43)
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £120.74 (£104.99)
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £120.74 (£104.99)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz TwinX Dual Channel (TW3X4G1333C9) £54.04 (£46.99)
Sub Total : £427.40
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £65.54
Total : £502.44

RAM is out of stock atm but Im sure wont be long til back in, this would be a very nice step up on your current system. If you dont OC the stock cooler will be fine, if youre thinking of clocking add in the sunbeam as above, great cooler
 
Last edited:
khrall said:
Take the hyperlink out, or link to manufacturer's website if you want to link.
Click to expand...

Apologies and done ;)

Thanks for the advice folks. I'll try the cheaper option first of going 64bit, OC'ing further, add a couple of sticks of RAM and shove a sunbeam on it see how it comes out.
 
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