Time for an Upgrade

Shkity

Shkity

Shkity

Associate
Joined
13 May 2010
Posts
7
Hello,

I bought my computer about 4 years ago from alienware and said i would upgrade it when it couldnt play a new game, just casue 2 came out and i cant run it!

I am pretty good with computers but have never rlly upgraded a lot of hardware before, i think i want to upgrade the processor and graphics card, could anyone tell me if i also need to upgrade the motherboard as i was getting confused between AM2 and AM3 Sockets? Also computer spec is below, can anyone else see anything that needs upgrading? I am interested in keeping the parts AMD or NVIDIA so if anyone could also reccomend any hardware,

Thanks Guys :)

Chris


Processor Information:
Amd Athlon 64 x 2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ 2.00Ghz
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Speed: 2015 Mhz
2 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Unsupported
SSE42: Unsupported

Motherboard:

ASUS A8N-SLI - motherboard - ATX - nForce4 SLI - Socket 939
Chipset - Nforce 4



Network Information:
Network Speed:

Operating System Version:
Windows 7 (32 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 323 0x0 0x0 0x0

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT/GTO
DirectX Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll
Driver Version: 8.17.11.9745
DirectX Driver Version: 8.17.11.9745
Driver Date: 3 Apr 2010
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT/GTO
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x291
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Desktop Resolution: 1680 x 1050

Primary Display Size: 23.35" x 14.57" (27.48" diag)
59.3cm x 37.0cm (69.8cm diag)

Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 256 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x

Sound card:
Audio device: Speakers (Realtek AC'97 Audio)

Memory:
RAM: 2047 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
Microphone: Not set
Media Type: DVD
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 395471 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 107540 Mb
Steam Hard Disk Usage: 9545 Mb
OS Install Date: Oct 22 2009
Game Controller: None detected
Installed Packages: Firefox,Windows Firewall
 
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Probably everything mate since your motherboard is 939 socket you'll need to upgrade that in order to upgrade CPU, then you'll need a new CPU, GPU and RAM and maybe PSU depending on what you currently have.

However, what you could try is, since your CPU is still a dualcore, one of firsts but it could be alright for lower details is to OC the CPU a bit ( should do around 2.4-2.5ghz I suppose) and upgrade just your GPU for now ( 5770 is a good buy here, nvidia isn't really worth it right now so I wouldn't recommend them ) and see how that works for you.

If it's still not good enough and you feel the need for bigger upgrade, you'll need to do the whole lot. But I'd give an OCed CPU and 5770 a try just to see how that works. You'll need to upgrade GPU with new spec anyways so can just as well try it out first as you can keep it for the big upgrade later.


Whats your budget / monitor and what games you usually play?
 
Yeh i was just looking at motherboards, thinking about getting this combo..

Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Am i right in thinking that if i get the above a and then get some RAM then it will be ok?

Got a hp w2207 and usually play fps, rpg etc,
 
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overclocking a 3800X2 cpu is pointless, its just to old and slow now.

asabove, there is nothing to keep, maybe the dvd drive, case and the operating system.

Its time to build a new base unit, so do you have a budget?
 
Shkity said:
Yeh i was just looking at motherboards, thinking about getting this combo..

Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Am i right in thinking that if i get the above a and then get some RAM then it will be ok?

Got a hp w2207 and usually play fps, rpg etc,
Click to expand...

what psu do you have?

this is a more sensible option,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £128.99
(£109.78) £128.99
(£109.78)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £126.99
(£108.08) £126.99
(£108.08)
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
(£89.35) £104.99
(£89.35)
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £88.99
(£75.74) £88.99
(£75.74)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
Sub Total : £416.98
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 17.50% VAT : £74.63
Total : £501.11


Online finance options now available
 
Hey thanks for the replys, my budget is around £400, not overly bothered about getting a new hard drive just yet, if it isnt a nesscity that is?

psu IS :
NERMAX Noisetaker AX ATX12V Ver 2.0 485W Power Supply Model EG495AXVE SFMA 2.0
 
without a harddrive, and a non-crossfire motherboard,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £128.99
(£109.78) £128.99
(£109.78)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £126.99
(£108.08) £126.99
(£108.08)
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £88.99
(£75.74) £88.99
(£75.74)
Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £86.99
(£74.03) £86.99
(£74.03)
Sub Total : £367.63
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 17.50% VAT : £66.00
Total : £443.13


The difference betwwen this and your existing setup is massive, I use to have a overclocked 3800X2 and a geforce GTX260, and it was massively bottlenecked by the slow cpu. Once I had switched to a Phenom X4 955be, new motherboard and DDR3 ram, it was like my graphics card had been unshackled
 
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Shkity said:
Noob question but whats a non crossfire motherboard?
Click to expand...

you cant run two graphics card from it properly, the 890GX/FX chipset will other the same bandwidth to each card equally(8X/8X or 16X/16X)

all the other 8** series chipsets usually only run the second graphics card slot at a reduced 4X speed, while the top slot still gets either 16 or 8X speed.

And its the same with the 7** chipet, only the 790GX/FX do it properly
 
ah ok, not to bothered about that as ill just upgrade it agian in the future, one other stupid question, if i bout all the above today, is fitting it relatively simple? Do motherboards just fit in where the old one was lol
 
Shkity said:
ah ok, not to bothered about that as ill just upgrade it agian in the future, one other stupid question, if i bout all the above today, is fitting it relatively simple? Do motherboards just fit in where the old one was lol
Click to expand...

usually the standoffs fitted to the case backboard will line up correctly, you will have to change the I/O shield plate.

fit the cpu, add the heatsink that comes with it, push the ram in, push the graphics card in, connect the wires, reinstall windows, done.
 
ok cool, so once its all been fitted just put windows cd in drive and then turn it on and install windows, and its done?

Thanks for your help
 
Shkity said:
ok cool, so once its all been fitted just put windows cd in drive and then turn it on and install windows, and its done?

Thanks for your help
Click to expand...

pretty much, go into the bios first, set the boot priority to the dvd drive first, install windows, motherboard chipset drivers, graphics card drivers, sound, windows updates and so on.

then return to the bios and set it to boot from the harddisk first, disable all other options, this will speed it up when powering on.
 
stulid said:
overclocking a 3800X2 cpu is pointless, its just to old and slow now.

asabove, there is nothing to keep, maybe the dvd drive, case and the operating system.

Its time to build a new base unit, so do you have a budget?
Click to expand...

You'd get suprised at how many games will play with old dual even as old as the x3800 as long as you have 2gb ram and pop new GPU along.

Sure it won't do max details and res but will be still easily playable on lower res and amount of details. But yeh the whole thing needs upgrading if he wants a decent performance and it was just a thought to it since the GPU is one thing that he's gotta change for sure and he surely could wait an extra day in case its not enough for him to buy the rest of the parts : ).

---
Back on topic, I'd consider an x3 CPU if you're on that tight budget, maybe x4 635 and then you can eventually upgrade to 975/1055/1090 or whatever is out at the time.

If you're buying 955 you could just as well push that 30 quid extra to x6 tbh.
 
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