Upgrade Advice please!

Nelson15

Nelson15

Nelson15

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Joined
6 Aug 2006
Posts
17
Morning all!

My current system is as follows:

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 Mobo
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.8Ghz - Currently Overclocked at 2.5 (but probably could go higher) with a Scythe Ninja cooler.
4 GB Geil RAM - 2GB initially then put more of what I thought was the same in, but now it appears I've got 2x PC2-5300 (333Mhz) and 2x PC2-6400 (400Mhz).
A 256MB X1800XT Graphics Card
SB Audigy
A Lian Li PC-7 Case with a Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply
250GB IDE Hard drive

Now I've been thinking of upgrading slightly -

I'd like to get a 5770 Graphics Card and a 1TB SATA HD and install windows 7 at the same time. I think I'd probably get a 650W PSU as well to run it all properly.

Two questions really

1 - Would buying the parts and slotting them in be worthwhile, or would it be like installing a V8 into an Austin Metro - a bit pointless without getting a whole new shooting match CPU, MOBO, RAM etc.

or

2 - Would everything work correctly and decently for a decent period without causing me problems?

Your advice is very much appreciated!

Thanks.
 
Even thought your CPU is a bit old, it still has some life left in it and it's definitely not the main thing holding you back.

Your worse part atm is a hard drive so you definitely change that, also it will last you for future so it is worthwhile : ). Get a good HDD like spinpoint f3, tho I'm not sure of 1gb -I always prefered to have 2 smaller HDDs than 1 big - in case something dies you don't loose everything. So 2x500GB will be perfect and you can raid them as well if you wan't.

New GPU definitely as well, that's second bit which you have to change, 5770 is a huge step forward and you'll definitely be very happy with it.

Then OC your CPU to around ~2.8-3.0 if you can and OC the ram as well !, try running both rams at around 840mhz+ 4-4-4-12 timings or better if possible ( top range rams do 900+mhz 4-4-4-12 ).

That should set you for a year or so yet and then you can get a whole set of mobo+ram+cpu when you get more cash : ).
 
I should add that I'm not expecting a fantastic all singing all dancing system with the upgrade, I just want to improve it for the meantime, with the idea of doing the rest of the upgrade CPU, MOBO, RAM etc in about 6 months without having to buy unnecessary things.
 
PhoenixUK said:
Even thought your CPU is a bit old, it still has some life left in it and it's definitely not the main thing holding you back.

Your worse part atm is a hard drive so you definitely change that, also it will last you for future so it is worthwhile : ). Get a good HDD like spinpoint f3, tho I'm not sure of 1gb -I always prefered to have 2 smaller HDDs than 1 big - in case something dies you don't loose everything. So 2x500GB will be perfect and you can raid them as well if you wan't.

New GPU definitely as well, that's second bit which you have to change, 5770 is a huge step forward and you'll definitely be very happy with it.

Then OC your CPU to around ~2.8-3.0 if you can and OC the ram as well !, try running both rams at around 840mhz+ 4-4-4-12 timings or better if possible ( top range rams do 900+mhz 4-4-4-12 ).

That should set you for a year or so yet and then you can get a whole set of mobo+ram+cpu when you get more cash : ).
Click to expand...

Thanks Phoenix. The OCing is all a bit new to me too, so that'll take some time to work out. Would the HD be actually slowing me down, or is it just a case of it's old and a bit small. I've got an external USB thing for most documents at the moment, so it'll just be for the big stuff. I've no idea what RAID is either, but I'll google it ;)
 
I was thinking something along these lines as an upgrade (as well as Windows 7 of course)

3.jpg


Any good?
 
looks like a good upgrade, the gfx card is much better then what you have, the wd black drives are very good as well, I currently got a 500gb one with my windows 7 on, tho a Samsung f3 1tb maybe better, I got a f3 in my system aswell and that also runs like a dream.
 
Nelson15 said:
Thanks Phoenix. The OCing is all a bit new to me too, so that'll take some time to work out. Would the HD be actually slowing me down, or is it just a case of it's old and a bit small. I've got an external USB thing for most documents at the moment, so it'll just be for the big stuff. I've no idea what RAID is either, but I'll google it ;)
Click to expand...

Nelson15 said:
I was thinking something along these lines as an upgrade (as well as Windows 7 of course)

3.jpg


Any good?
Click to expand...

Looks decent however, I'd go with
THIS HDD

And corsairs are a bit pricey for what they offer nowadays as well.

I'd get THIS ONE

Also you might grab a tube of
THIS

Will help you with OC by dropping few degrees off the CPU and will last you for ages for future upgrade as well ( I've built 8 or so setups from my last tube, some including GPU coolers as well).

Also if you got some more cash to spend you might consider getting a better cooler like the new Tuniq Tower 120EX

or the corsair h50-1 cpu watercooler

Not only again a good cooler will allow you for higher and more stable OC but also will be more silent and should last you for next cpu/mobo/ram upgrade considering that both of those coolers support all the newest CPU brackets like 1156/1366 and AM3.


Regarding overclocking, take your time and have a read >HERE<

and HERE : )


If you need any help, don't be afraid to ask.
 
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