Upgrade of system - Can't decide

ShivP

ShivP

ShivP

Soldato
Soldato
Joined
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Hey people,

Here's my dilemma; I have a P5N-E SLI Asus Mobo, which is quite dated now, with an nVidia GeForce 8600GT (dated) and a Q6600 Core 2 Quad @ 2.4ghz (dated.) Now, the thing is, my graphics card is basically dieing. The fan is beginning to scrape against the shell of it's casing on the card and I often get BSOD which I believe to be the GPU's fault, as it happens when I run GPU intensive stuff :)

So, I either can get myself a new mobo and CPU, but I will be running integrated graphics, which will still be better than the GeForce. However, my other option is to get an around £100 GPU, but risk having to update everything else in a year or two's time.

If I update my mobo and CPU, I guess it will last for 5/6 years to come with no problems.

I also run some games, I don't need particularly ridiculous FPS, but a good stable 50-60fps would be nice.

Obviously the GPU upgrade would be cheaper, (something like a 650Ti or Ti Boost would do nicely) but risk having to upgrade fairly soon. I could also update the CPU and make do with the iGPU, which could also work well but may turn out to be too expensive.


What would you do? I need some help with this decision, I'm currently running on a tight budget.

Feel free to ask questions! :D

Cheers,
Shiv
 
Last edited:
Sorry, mate, but people do experience lagging (<60FPS constant) in their PCs worth >1000 pounds, and you think to solve your problem by buying a card for 100 pounds ? :)

Everything depends on games you play (FPS or RPG), resolution and expected details level.

Personally, I'd change graphic card first (GTX 460 for 50 pounds, used on Ebay, for example) and see how it goes with your games. Obviously if it is your graphic card's fault, and not PSUs one :)

Within few next months (or a year, as you said) platform change would be probably a need (about 200 pounds estimated, it's like Z77 platform and SB or IB used non-K CPU + 4 GB of RAM), but you will know then how much your graphic card is enough for playing = so how much to spend more to graphic card :)
 
I'm not talking about Battlefield type games, more like minecraft and stuff, not as GPU intensive, but still needs some power.

The PSU is brand new, Corsair 600W Builder (Modular) Series, I doubt it will be that I think.

I was looking at a 4670K with a MSI Z87-G41 mobo or Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 mobo with 8gb of RAM, but that is quite a lot.
 
I was more thinking of a 650Ti, (don't particularly fancy AMD haha.)
One thing, this mobo only supports PCI-E 1.1, will that be a major problem? I think it probably is, perhaps bottlenecking the card and/or not supplying enough power?

Cheers,
Shiv
 
Shivy011 said:
I was more thinking of a 650Ti, (don't particularly fancy AMD haha.)
One thing, this mobo only supports PCI-E 1.1, will that be a major problem? I think it probably is, perhaps bottlenecking the card and/or not supplying enough power?

Cheers,
Shiv
Click to expand...

The 7850 is by far a better Gpu. The mobo will be fine with this card and the extra power required comes from the PCI-E connectors on your Psu.

2 x PCIe x16 , Single VGA mode: x16 (Default), SLI mode: x8, x8
Click to expand...

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5NE_SLI/#specifications
 
I am runing some games like WoW at reasonable fps and medium settings on integrated gpu and haswell + 8gb ram. I see a lot of people eith low budget go for amd rigs. You can get a motherboard/cpu/gpu/ram for 400£ easily. Or for the same price get a haswell, motherboard and 8 gb ram. And you wont need an upgrade for some time.
 
If buying by Tuesday night then something like:

4670k £170(normal price £180)

Gigabyte d3hp £110 comes with a free CPU cooler that's better than the stock Intel cooler

8gb ram £60-£80

That's under £400 including delivery

Would suggest saving up some money rather than trying to stick with such dated tech.
 
I think I'm just going to have to end up doing what you said fowler, though if this GPU conks out, got another decision again :P
 
Literally SNAP
I have a q6600 and that exact motherboard. I'm 50/50 to build it into a HTPC gaming machine or "go big" with the specs.

From what I've read, an overclock and a 7850 will breath new life in but countering that most people say a step up to even a 2nd hand 2500K is massive.
 
Hey,

Well as you know, I'm looking at these options to fix BSOD problems mostly, but partly to improve my current system.

I ran a program called BlueScreenView, showing all my recent BlueScreen crashes and their respective bug codes etc. In the link is a picture of the program and the dump files being read, can anyone have a look and perhaps give me some info about what is happening? (I have basically no idea :P)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mhxnmn4rru6f066/BSOD Viewer.PNG

Cheers,
Shiv
 
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