Upgrade advice if you would be so kind!

Archy

Archy

Archy

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Joined
15 Sep 2008
Posts
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Location
N.Ireland
Thinking about upgrading my rig, its a tad outdated, and don't want to spend a whole pile on it as I'll probably build a new machine next summer (ish). I use it mainly for gaming, but just games like Counter Strike Source, Left 4 Dead, got Fallout 3 and Farcry 2 recently too. I'm not expecting to be able to play these at high detail levels, but was wondering if its worth spending a few quid on my current machine, or just waiting till I'm upgrading the whole thing.

Current specs:

Windows XP64 Pro

AMD Athlon x64 4800+
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard
4GB Ram (4x1GB)
1x GeForce 7800GTX 512

Any advice welcome!
 
Hi Archy,

It's a good mobo so (assuming you either have or can get a decent heatsink) i'd recommend clocking that chip a bit. 2.6ghz should be easily achievable but i'd try for 2.8ghz+ if i were you.

Next i'd consider picking up one of the cheaper high end cards - the 4850 is a lovely piece of kit and will work well in your system. Priced around £120-£130 they're very good value for money.

Not only that but you'd get around £30 for your 7800 in the 2nd hand market meaning the 4850 would cost you no more than £100.

Finally, what PSU do you have in your system?

For gaming the GPU upgrade is more effective than a CPU upgrade.

gt
 
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I would go for an Intel E5200 CPU £50-£60, a cheap P43/45 chipset motherboard £70 and 4GB of DDR2 (unless your currrent memory is DDR2?) £40ish. Can always get an Ati 4850 too if you wanna spend some more on it.
 
gt_junkie said:
Finally, what PSU do you have in your system?

For gaming the GPU upgrade is more effective than a CPU upgrade.

gt
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, will probably have a go at overclocking it a bit, I am just running on air cooling, with a gigabyte g-power pro cooler.

Have a Tagan 850w (i think, either that or 900w, at work atm so can't check) psu, so it will do me fine I reckon, nice stable voltages.

fobose said:
I would go for an Intel E5200 CPU £50-£60, a cheap P43/45 chipset motherboard £70 and 4GB of DDR2 (unless your currrent memory is DDR2?) £40ish. Can always get an Ati 4850 too if you wanna spend some more on it.
Click to expand...

Yeah i have DDR2 at the moment in the machine.

Thanks for the replies guys!
 
Archy said:
Thanks for the advice, will probably have a go at overclocking it a bit, I am just running on air cooling, with a gigabyte g-power pro cooler.

Have a Tagan 850w (i think, either that or 900w, at work atm so can't check) psu, so it will do me fine I reckon, nice stable voltages.
Click to expand...
That psu would be excellent - even if you had a couple of GPU's.

Cooler looks decent as well so i'd say 2.6ghz should be easy to get to.

Good luck. :)

Lastly, i thought the A8N-SLI took DDR1 rather than DDR2? Is it socket 939 or AM2?

gt
 
Most of your kit looks decent enough - although I would probably upgrade the graphics card first. There's some good options out for <£100 at the mo. The one I'm using (see sig.) is a good bet for a budget card. I can play most games on high detail settings with good framerates.
 
gt_junkie said:
That psu would be excellent - even if you had a couple of GPU's.

Cooler looks decent as well so i'd say 2.6ghz should be easy to get to.

Good luck. :)

Lastly, i thought the A8N-SLI took DDR1 rather than DDR2? Is it socket 939 or AM2?

gt
Click to expand...

Yeah you're right, DDR ram in it, whoops!
 
Archy said:
Yeah you're right, DDR ram in it, whoops!
Click to expand...
No worries.

As others have said - to save a very big upgrade just get the 4850 and clock the CPU a bit. Should run stuff like Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 quite happily especially seeing as you have 4gb of DDR. :D

gt
 
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