Upgrade help plz

tokipoki

tokipoki

tokipoki

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Joined
10 Dec 2008
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2
Hi all I was wondering if anyone could help me out with an upgrade. And if its possible to do in stages with m current setup which is pretty old.

Current spec: Amd Athlon 64 3200+ (2.21ghz)
1g ram ( 2x256mb) (1x 512mb) ddr 400 pc 2700
Asus k8ne-deluxe mobo
radeon 9800pro gpu
160g hd
thermaltake purepower 420w psu
thermaltake xaser III case

My pc is only used for world of warcraft as faras gaming goes.... and as of wotlk its stuggling with 25man raids which is a big problem. As of lately ive been having some dcs/choppyness also which is why im here looking for advice on upgrading as im getting the feeling something is on its way out. As far as money goes im just looking for a larger performance than what ive got and like i said as long as it plays wow perfectly im happy;)
 
The bad news I'm afraid is that your motherboard, ram, graphics card and CPU are out of date.

Changing one of them means changing all four.

You have DDR ram, and any board you bought now uses DDR2 (or DDR3)
You have a socket 939 board, and no chips are being sold for that board.
You have an AGP graphics card (I think) and no board you buy would take it (possibly there are some, I haven't checked.

So I'm afraid an incremental upgrade with inexpensive steps is not possible. Sorry!

You'd have to go out and get a whole new package.

I'm afraid you are looking at spending 250+ to get something else. However it will be much better at WoW

Edit : Hang on, I'm wrong. It can be done cheaper... bear with me and I'll see if I can work out a spec.
 
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Actually it's even worse. Your motherboard is socket 754 not 939. At least if it was 939 you could drop a dual core in it. Socket 939 killed off 754 and there were no dual cores for 754. The fsatest cpu that you could drop in there is a 3700+ @2.4Ghz but the price would be ridiculous even if you could find one. The motherboard has a AGP expansion slot so you can't stick a modern graphics card in there either. I think the best you could get is a ATI 1950 Pro or (if you can find one) a ATI HD3850. The cost really is'nt worth it though. I am afraid you had better just save up for a new rig.
 
Right, my FTP isn't working, so I can't show you a snapshot of the basket...

However!

Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 Rev2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard

This unique motherboard will allow you to use your existing graphics card, then at a later date throw it away for a decent one.

It will allow you to use Socket 775 Intel Dual Core processors.

The minimum you should go for is the clock speed you have at the moment, otherwise any games that only use one core (I suspect WoW will only use 1) will be SLOWER!

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail

You'll need new memory too. I don't like to recommend anyone runs 4 modules, 2 is the best number. Ideally 2 identical ones. However you can start off with just 1 1GB module and add a second whenever you like.

Kingston HyperX 1GB (1x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Memory Module (KHX6400D2LL/1G)

This will give you little bit of a speed increase, but not a great deal.

It'll cost about £120 including delivery.

You can then perform cheap upgrades.

First one should be an extra GB of ram for an extra 20 quid including delivery (it'd be cheaper to get it at the same time as the first main upgrade, rather than wait)

The second would be a graphics card. Pick any PCI-E card, and spend as much or as little as you'd like. I wouldn't spend less than 50 quid on it, otherwise you'll want to upgrade again later.

The third upgrade would be a new CPU. Again pick any 775 socket CPU that's faster than what you have.

You should also be able to overclock your new CPU, the chip I've suggested does have a bit of room in it.

Edit : Here's the snapshot, chief.

wow_upgrade.jpg
 
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BTW, that isn't the optimal or most efficient route, it's just the only way that allows a cheap "first step".

If you're prepared to spend more than £120 then post and say and I'll respec it.
 
I can see where The Halk is coming from but that Asrock board is a pile of pap. It is restrictive in just about every way. Best bet is to pick up a board and cpu from the bay. I got a brand new still sealed Gigabyte P35 DS3R for £28 delivered a few weeks ago. I also got a E2160 for £18 and two days ago picked up 4x1GB sticks of PC2 5300 (perfect for the E2160) for £23. The E2160 is currently clocked at 3.2Ghz. There are still bargains to be had if you look.
 
pastymuncher said:
I can see where The Halk is coming from but that Asrock board is a pile of pap. It is restrictive in just about every way. Best bet is to pick up a board and cpu from the bay. I got a brand new still sealed Gigabyte P35 DS3R for £28 delivered a few weeks ago. I also got a E2160 for £18 and two days ago picked up 4x1GB sticks of PC2 5300 (perfect for the E2160) for £23. The E2160 is currently clocked at 3.2Ghz. There are still bargains to be had if you look.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that board doesn't run AGP. He needs a board that does both AGP or PCI-E, or he'll have to buy a new graphics card at the same time.

An option I guess though is to get a board with integrated graphics - I don't know if they outperform, or at least match the card he has at the moment though. From his post I don't think he'll want to step backwards.

The restrictive board probably wouldn't be a big issue for him though, it's not as if he's a hard core overclocker.
 
Hi thx for the help appreciate it. Its a shame my pc decides to go **** up at the time around christmass due to being skint. I could stretch £250-300 atm for the hardware. What type of system will that give me as far as in performance, ino its not a lot of cash and ideally £600 is the amount to get something rly nice made but just not able to atm.
 
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