Upgrade

spoogle

spoogle

spoogle

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3 Sep 2008
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462
Time for an upgrade, what component should be replaced first?
This is for playing games, here's the spec:

-AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 920 2.80GHz (Socket AM2+)
-Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H AMD 780G (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
-Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (BL2KIT12864AA106A)
-ATI Radeon 4870 512mb Graphics Card

Haven't played games in a while so the spec is a bit dated, suggestions?
 
In most games, your PC should still play games pretty well. I suggest giving it a try in modern titles before splashing out on an upgrade TBH.

However, if you definately want an upgrade, may I first ask what PSU you are using?

My upgrade suggestion would be:

- Get a CPU cooler like this and overclock the CPU as far as you can
- Get 2GB more RAM (or sell the current kit and and get a 4GB (2x2GB) kit)
- Get a new graphics card. This is a very good card at a great price.
 
Budget: just the same as anyone else really, if it needs replaced for newer games, I'll replace it. Is the graphics card/cpu outdated enough to need a replacement?

I assume there's an issue with mis-matched memory as I don't think I'll find the same memory anymore.
 
Can usually run different RAM sets together if the speed and timings are the same.

The 4870 is still a decent card, what resolution screen are you playing on? If it's lower than 1920 x 1080 and you're not having serious frame rate issues then you might as well wait until the AMD 6000 series cards are out.
 
Great PSU that, it will handle any single GPU about except possibly the Nvidia GTX 480.

The thing with crysis is that very few PCs play it that well. It doesn't really benefit from quad cores and in graphics the multi-gpu scaling is not very good. Therefore I wouldn't suggest using crysis as the target game for your system (however it should run it OK in your current system at 1920x1080 with AA off and settings medium/high).
 
It's a 24" Dell Monitor I'm using, native resolution 1920x1080 so that's the aim, to run everything well at that resolution.
Will the operating system have any effect on game performance? As the gaming rig is still using Windows XP.

It has a Zalman CNPS7000C CPU cooler, which allows the CPU to run at 42 degrees, haven't tried overclocking it yet. I've read that the new cpu coolers on AM2 point the fan upwards which is no use for the case I have - Coolermaster ATC201 - PSU sits on top
 
XP should be good for gaming performance, but obviously you won't be able to play DirectX 10 and 11-only games on your system as XP does not support this, however these games are few and far between (though Just Cause 2 is a joy). However, with XP (presumably 32bit) you won't be able to address all your memory if you upgraded to 4GB system memory, so it may be worth waiting for an OS upgrade before upgrading the RAM.

With the CPU cooler, does that 42 degree figure occur when under full load or when idle? How hot does the CPU get in 10 minutes when running OCCT stress test?
 
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I'd also suggest picking up a copy of Windows 7. :) for me it seemed like quite an improvement from XP and considering XP is already 8 years old you can't expect it to be supported properly for too much longer.
 
Okay, well I've got a windows 7 sitting on my desk ready to go so that's tonight sorted!
Yeah 42 is idle temp, I've stressed it a while ago and I dont remember it increasing any further than low 50's.

Should I install 32bit or 64bit Windows 7?
 
Thanks, CPUZ and Prime 95 are what I've used/use at the moment.
Never tried overclocking in Windows, only tweaking BIOS.
Time for a long read on overclocking!
 
I wouldn't suggest overclocking from Windows, doing it from the BIOS is far better, just nice to have plenty of apps to check everything is stable and not over heating.
 
Ah right, that's fine then, have a good idea what I'm doing now.

Would buying another 4870 and running crossfire be cost effective, or better buying a single new card?
 
spoogle said:
Ah right, that's fine then, have a good idea what I'm doing now.

Would buying another 4870 and running crossfire be cost effective, or better buying a single new card?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, your 2nd full size PCIe slot only runs at x4 speed - this will severely bottleneck your crossfire performance.

Also, AFAIK the 780G boards only support hybrid crossfire (linking the onboard graphics with a single discrete graphics card), not CrossfireX (linking two discrete graphics cards).
 
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