Upgrade advice please.

Grumps82 · 5 Jun 2009 at 14:03

Hi guys.

You lot were kind enough to help me out with some upgrade with my measly budget. I didn't get round to doing it then (Feb) due to a few bills etc.

Anyway, i need your help again please.

MY CURRENT SPEC :

CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3Ghz (overclocked).

RAM : 2GB Corsair Dominator Twin XMS2-6400.

HDD's : 150Gb Raptor For OS and Games & 74Gb Raptor for Demos & files.

GPU : EVGA Geforce 8800GTS superclocked 640Mb.

PSU : Hiper Type-R 580W.

Case : Antec 900.

CD/RW : Some random Hitachi thing.

Monitor : Samsung 245B (24" 1900x1200 Res).

MY BUDGET : £250-£300 MAX

THE PURPOSE OF UPGRADING :

Best bang for buck,

I only use my pc to play games and browse the net, i would like the fastest possible combination with my budget. I know its not a great budget but hopefully we can get a best bang for buck upgrade. Has to be able to play games at 1900x1200 res, framerates are very important.

Thank you so much for helping, it really is appreciated.

siumatfung · 5 Jun 2009 at 14:13

user1453 · 5 Jun 2009 at 14:21

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 £134.99
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 Dark Knight 1GB GDDR5 £129.98
OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel £28.74

£304.64 total

wbc1 · 5 Jun 2009 at 14:26

Get another 1gig of ram if you're on a 32bit system, otherwise get a new 2x2gb set.
Your CPU is fine for games, maybe see if you can get a bit more out of it. (3.2ghz?)

Get the XFX 4890, great card.

Angst · 5 Jun 2009 at 14:31

i would get a 4890 and a e8400 rather than the q6700 as the pc is only used for gaming

Grumps82 · 5 Jun 2009 at 16:45

phill0i said:
i would get a 4890 and a e8400 rather than the q6700 as the pc is only used for gaming

That was mentioned in my thread a few months ago. Due to being a great overclocker ?

My machine is only for gaming, no multi-tasking as such.

95thrifles · 5 Jun 2009 at 18:04

wbc1 said:
Get another 1gig of ram if you're on a 32bit system, otherwise get a new 2x2gb set.
Your CPU is fine for games, maybe see if you can get a bit more out of it. (3.2ghz?)

Get the XFX 4890, great card.

+1 to this, no real need to upgrade the cpu, best bang for buck would be to spend it on gfx and ram, either 4890 or maybe even a 4870x2

pastymuncher · 5 Jun 2009 at 18:54

Another vote to keep the cpu. Get it clocked more. Most will hit 3.6Ghz with a bit of extra voltage. A new graphics card and some extra memory would be good. I would think about replacing the Hiper too. There seems to be a new round of failures taking place. Three failures/blow ups in the last three days.

wbc1 · 5 Jun 2009 at 18:55

pastymuncher said:
Another vote to keep the cpu. Get it clocked more. Most will hit 3.6Ghz with a bit of extra voltage. A new graphics card and some extra memory would be good. I would think about replacing the Hiper too. There seems to be a new round of failures taking place. Three failures/blow ups in the last three days.

Actually 4 in the past 3 days.. scary stuff :S

Grumps82 · 5 Jun 2009 at 21:27

So are ATi back in the game now ?, as you can see im a bit out of touch and the last time i checked NVidia ruled the roost.

siumatfung · 5 Jun 2009 at 22:31

yes ATi have the value for money bang for buck in all areas of the market atm as far as i can tell

but just check if you require physX and CUDA

Grumps82 · 6 Jun 2009 at 09:09

Ok, thats interesting. Thanks for your help.

So the general consensus is :

1). Replace GPU with a new ATi Card
2). Increase my RAM to 3Gb
3) Possibly change the PSU.

Thanks guys

Minato · 6 Jun 2009 at 10:05

clock the CPU up a little bit, and get like the others said a 4870 or 4890 and a bit of ram. alternatively you could just get the gpu and save the RAM money for another day?

good luck mate =)

Grumps82 · 6 Jun 2009 at 16:03

OK, i have sorted out the RAM situation, that is on its way. Just going to do a bit more research regarding the GPU.

Thanks a lot for all your help.

Grumps82 · 7 Jun 2009 at 12:02

siumatfung said:
yes ATi have the value for money bang for buck in all areas of the market atm as far as i can tell but just check if you require physX and CUDA

Without trying too sound like a plum (which i am), why do i need to check if i require physX and CUDA ?.

Is this like a new standard for gpu's that nVidia have against ATi ?

Sorry for being dense, i just want to make the right choice.

lukext · 7 Jun 2009 at 12:48

Basically if your games use physX, which could add some small, yet nice effects. and if you fold nvidia are better due to CUDA.

personally:
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £164.99
(£143.47) £164.99

Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £73.99
(£64.34) £73.99

Total: 238.98 (inc free shipping as you have lots of posts

)

I went with the Asus 4890 as it comes with a voltage tweaking tool for better overclocks!! And yeh I bought my hiper before I heard about their reputation. its been goin just under 3 years...

Ps: Heres a list of physx games:http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_physxgames_home.html

Grumps82 · 7 Jun 2009 at 13:20

Thanks for taking the time to help out with that, Yeah the power supply is one of those nagging issues. I dont want to change it but i will probably be forced to in a bad way.

That GPU gets a lot of good words round theses parts, everyone does seem to like them.

I may have some more questions later, just got a few things to do now,

Thanks a lot