Upgrade decision

petey89

petey89

petey89

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Joined
29 Nov 2007
Posts
5
I bought my PC in 2007 and I was wondering if its worth doing some upgrading at all. If so, what components should go first? My first thought was the RAM. However, my mobo can only support 2 sticks of DDR3, only up to 4GB of it. Would this make a worthwile difference to my current set-up?

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R

Graphics card: BFG Nvidia Geforce 8800GT. I believe it's overclocked but I cant be sure:
Core Clock 625 MHz
Shaders Clock 1566 MHz
Memory Clock 900 MHz

RAM: 2GB (2x1) GeIL 400MHz DDR2-800

Hard drive: Western Digital 250GB SATA2

Thank you for any help.

EDIT: Thought I'd add that I mostly use the system for gaming on recent-ish titles. Battlefield Bad Company 2 for example is a bit sluggish, even on low settings.
 
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Well it depends on how much money you wan't to spend. Personally if it was me, I would be getting myself a decent cooler and overclocking my cpu. This is a must, you should be able to get your cpu to at least 3.5Ghz with a £40 air cooler. This will make a big difference in games.

Of course you could just buy a new CPU. Namely something like a Q6600. This being a quad core will be a lot more efficient for gaming. But it's a price thing, depends on what you have to spend.

I would definitely upgrade your RAM, seeing as your boards supports both DDR2 and DDR3. I would take out the DDR2 and get yourself some Corsair 4GB DDR3, they were going for around £40 last week. This will also make a brilliant performance boost for games, as well as general pc use.

Thirdly, depending on what sort of PSU you have, Maybe a new graphics card. That then is down to choice and personal preference and I wouldn't like to comment on which one to go for. Not really my area, someone else would be able to offer a better suggestion.

Good luck :)
 
moving to quad core will make no difference in gaming. Up your ram, OC your CPU, and grab a better GPU, something like a 460. Should be a good improvement for little outlay!
 
petey89 said:
How would I go about overclocking the CPU? I have no real idea. It seems like a good investment for the money it might cost.
Click to expand...

It is does in the BIOS. There should be a guide around here for it somewhere but every cpu and mobo combination is different. It's all about trial and error. Once you get a decent cooler fitted, then come back and ask for advice on overclocking. No point in doing it just now.
 
I think, at this stage, it might be best to just save up for a sandy bridge bundle. I have system specs similar to yours and that's what i'm about to do. I plan to spend a fraction over £500 on it all (although £140 of that is on a new case which you might not need).
 
have a look around for a q6600 CPU. £80 ish. look at 4 (2x2) gigs xms3 ddr3. £40ish . a gtx 460 or equivalent should do the trick.

eitherway a decent cooler like a Titan evo fenrir should do there to overclock well.
 
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