Upgrade Help really needed

SparkiUK

SparkiUK

SparkiUK

Associate
Joined
27 Sep 2007
Posts
38
I really need your help, bit of a newbie having built my own pc 3 years ago. Now needs upgrading i think as i'd like to run Vista (some may say why!!)

Currently run an AMD 64 3Ghz processor on a MSI Neo Platinum K8N motherboard (Socket 754), with 2GB of DDR400 RAM, 120GB SATA Disk and a now broken and needs replacing ATI Radeon X1600 Pro (512MB) graphics card.

As I said, I'd like to run Vista and did try 6 months back but slowed my Pc to a crawl for some reason, so back on XP. However, graphics card now packed up so with around £200 or so to spend, am I best to upgrade my graphics card to say the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro at around £110, and hope for the best, or any other alternatives (I play World of Warcraft), or stuff it and change the motherboard and processor and go dual core and new graphics card, RAM which i can do just about for £250 (athlon 64 4800 dual core processor and board at £130, 2GB Ram at £60 and cheaper card).

Really not sure of best route and really appreciate your advice.

Thanks in advance

Simon
 
Welcome to the forums, slightly over the £250 but should offer a major improvement and allow a fair bit of overclocking. :)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
Sub Total : £211.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £38.66
Total : £259.57
 
[EDIT]: Heh semi-pro waster picked roughly what I would have picked bar the motherboard, was just specing something up and replying :-) The system he's mentioned is great and well worth it. Left my original post in just for notes on why I would agree on the parts.


Welcome to the forum :-)

Spec'd you something up for £240 in case you were interested, features a dual core Intel system with a nice new motherboard, RAM and 512MB x1950 Pro which will do you wonders for World of Warcraft and other similar style games that you might play. If you couldn't stretch that far then I would recommend just getting the graphics card for £76 and keeping your current system. In this spec I am assuming you have a good enough power supply to run the system as you haven't mentioned what one you have.

This system would be a very noteable speed increase over your current, since you are on a single core processor, DDR1 and even the older (now broken) graphics card would have been a chunk slower than the 1950 Pro. Note however that the graphics card and the RAM are on the "This Week Only" offer so you would have to order before Thursday lunch-time otherwise the prices of both would increase back to what they normally are (looking at about a £20 increase in price for both, so £10 each).

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Thanks for your help so far guys, still unsure of whether to go the whole hog with new board, ram etc, seems such a waste of old baord, ram, processor etc as they'll be jsut scrap as I'm presuming i can fit new board into existing case? would possible go AMD rather than intel? thought the AMD 4800 is better than the intel proposed? I think my old (current) system is DDR2? certainly has DDR2 400 crucial memory in it. Am io really going to notice a difference compared to just upgrading my card?

power suuply is a Hiper HPU-4S425 425W unit, enough to run the X1950 card? To just replace the card is a special offer i know, but the one mentioned above is PCIe, i need AGP i think is that more expensive?
 
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SparkiUK said:
Thanks for your help so far guys, still unsure of whether to go the whole hog with new board, ram etc, seems such a waste of old baord, ram, processor etc as they'll be jsut scrap as I'm presuming i can fit new board into existing case? would possible go AMD rather than intel? thought the AMD 4800 is better than the intel proposed? I think my old (current) system is DDR2? certainly has DDR2 400 crucial memory in it. Am io really going to notice a difference compared to just upgrading my card?

power suuply is a Hiper HPU-4S425 425W unit, enough to run the X1950 card? To just replace the card is a special offer i know, but the one mentioned above is PCIe, i need AGP i think is that more expensive?
Click to expand...

I would advise replacing the motherboard, go with the one that semi pro mentioned as it's more new. Then I would use your existing RAM in the new motherboard. Initially I thought your RAM was DDR1 as you mentioned it was "DDR400" but no worries. So yeah, grab the new motherboard and the new processor and use your existing RAM. If your case is an ATX case then you won't have any trouble fitting the new motherboard into that case. You could sell your old parts aswell to get some money back if they are in working order.

Your current PSU is easily enough for the new cpu, motherboard and definetly for the graphics card so I wouldn't worry in that respect.
 
My mistake, it is DDR400, not DDR2

I thought i read somewhere that i needed 450w to power the x1950 card, are you sure my 425w is enough? Also wondering if perhaps this is the reason my old card failed? Not enough power

If i do decide to jsut go for the AGP x1950 and keep current system (for 12 months) then is my current PSU sufficient?
 
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SparkiUK said:
I thought i read somewhere that i needed 450w to power the x1950 card, are you sure my 425w is enough? Also wondering if perhaps this is the reason my old card failed? Not enough power

If i do decide to jsut go for the AGP x1950 and keep current system (for 12 months) then is my current PSU sufficient?
Click to expand...
Your PSU is definetly sufficient, I've seen 380W PSU's power that card. If you got the "425W" from a manufacturer website or from official specifications then they always tend to be out somewhat. Such as Nvidia state you need about 650w for a 8800 GTX, yet it runs perfectly fine on a 520w Corsair PSU. AMD also said similar about the 2900XT but it does run on lower wattage PSU's without no problem at all.

Your PSU should have no problems running your system and the new card, I wouldn't worry about it. The only issue I can think of (and this is a seriously minor issue) is that your PSU is very old and isn't integrity has dropped, which happens to PSUs, and it's rated wattage is not near what it states. If your PSU is less than 3 years old then I would not worry.
 
Thanks very much for your help. PSU issue does concern me as the PC used to boot real quick with X1650 in it, then i kept getting an error on boot, too quick to read it before launching windows and then most recently graphics card would'nt work. So my thinking is its the card as my really old ATI 9600 I'm having to use instead is fine, so maybe it is the PSU with not enough power and the X1650 is fine?? PSU i think i bought from you guys 3 years ago.

My thinking is if the PSU is fine, then just get the new AGP X1950 from you guys, should do for 12 months then pass on PC to the kids, or sell it, then upgrade. If PSU is a problem, then not so sure
 
If you really want peace of mind about the PSU you could check the rails of your computer, if they are flaking in any way then you might need another PSU, however if they are very stable (which I'm expecting them to be) then your PSU is probably fine. You can check the rails in the BIOS (+12v, +3.3v etc) and making sure they are within limits. They won't be dead on, only way you can do that is to use a piece of seperate hardware. If you use a multimeter however you won't be able to test the power supply under load I don't think.
 
thanks for advice, about to order the AGP card from you guys, upgrade in 12 months. Tested my PSU rails and seemed fine under load, though for some reason today my screen kept going blank for a second, then fine again, maybe that's my old card?

Anyway, ordering now, any further advice apprecaited

Simon
 
The X1950 Pro that me and semi pro' have included in our specs is not AGP mind, it's PCI-E (noticed you said you're ordering an AGP card). Just wanted to make sure you knew that in case you ordered it then found out that you can't fit it in your current motherboard.
 
All fitted, great service thanks. Though maybe you can advise also? Installed card, picked up drivers ok, and went to play World Of warcraft. Updated setting their too and big improvement in framerate, though never more than 50 and many peopel get over 60 on this card. Adjusted settings down but little effect, but what i do get are regular black screens? CAn still hear music in the game but screen freezes, and have to reboot, didn;t to that before the new card. REinstalled WoW but same problem. WoW think it's my card, but it's brand new. Any ideas, is RAM too low for the card to be at it's best? or CPU too weak. Running AMD Athlon 64 3000, with 2GB DDR400 RAM (Mobo won't take any more).

Any ideas would be appreciated. Still wondering if it's the PSU but seems to fine under load.
 
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