What should I upgrade?

Joh619

Joh619

Joh619

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Joined
2 Nov 2009
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10
What should I upgrade? Need help setting it up :(

Hey up.

I've got a PC that I bought from OcUK nearly 3 years ago, that a friend built for me. Its the longest I've ever kept the same PC for and it starting to get a bit slow. The only upgrades I've done to it is to get another 4Gb RAM (making it up to 6Gb) and go from XP > Vista.

I mostly play on WoW, although I do sometimes play on other games when my addiction lets me, but most of them are older.

I tend to play WoW on my main monitor (24") and have the internet/DVD playing on my other monitor. The problem seems to be that everything is starting to slow down so I'm considering upgrading some stuff. Someone suggested that I just buy a new PC, but I don't think I can afford anything amazing atm. Problem is, since I built this PC I haven't really paid attention to what is good etc so I'm a bit lost as to what to get and was hoping for some friendly advice :)

This is what I've got atm:

Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB 2500YS SATA-II 16MB Cache

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz

Leadtek GeForce 7950 GT EXTREME 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (upgraded to 6Gb)

Enermax Galaxy 850W EGA850EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU

NZXT Lexa Classic Series Ultra light Aluminum Midtower.


I'm guessing it would be worth upgrading the CPU and Graphics Card? But what would I need to get (that would work with my motherboard, and fit in the case). I was thinking of spending £200-£300, maybe a little more for something that'll last a bit longer. Any advice appreciated :)
 
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Hey, your main weakness there is the gfx card, if you bought a new 5850 that would solve that, have you overclocked you CPU yet? If not Id just do that rather than buy a new one, should be able to get that above 3GHz which will save you some money, have a read of the sticky in the overclocking and cooling subforum. Other than that a fresh install of your OS (wiping everythin else in the process) should generally speed things up, you could get a new HDD (samsung F3 500gig) and install OS on that then copy across any old files you need
 
Thanks for the advice on the graphics card. I'll definately have a good think about getting that.

As for overclocking...it sounds pretty scary and I don't know if it would be something I'd be able to do. Also, I'm fairly sure the cooling in my case wouldn't be much good as I mostly bought it coz it looked pretty and not because of its cooling abilities :rolleyes:
 
If he has 6 gigs of 6400 i can't see the point in upgradeing the ram

The graphics card is the weak link but if he is mainly playing old games i think the 5850 is overkill and something along the lines of the 5770/4890 would be better suited.

Would love to have the 5850 personally but something in me is saying overkill.
 
Hey,

I'm back! Happy New Year! I bought the 5850 as per your very kind advice last year. I'm now looking to maybe upgrade something else. I have no idea about overclocking, and my case cooling probably isn't up to much, although I just got some new fans for it.

I was thinking about getting a new processor, but I'm assuming that I'd have to upgrade the motherboard for that? And then if I do that, I might as well upgrade the RAM as well.

I've been looking at stuff online, but I'm not sure about compatability with the things I've already got, and if anyone has any recommendations as to a good set? I'd probably want to spend around £200-£300.

The other thing is, is there any size guides for motherboards? My case isn't massive and the power supply is pretty huge so I'm worried that it might not fit :)

Thanks.
 
Hey
Hope you had a good one
I'd recomend looking at something like this, would be a nice boost

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £111.61
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £69.98
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £42.99
Sub Total : £191.14
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £35.02
Total : £235.16
 
Joh619 you should really consider overclocking your CPU. A new HSF/CPU cooler will could cost you as little as £30.

Core 2 Duo's are incredibly easy to overclock, and most importantly, you have a high quality PSU, so you can be safe in the knowledge you won't have any dodgy power fluxuations. You've obviously paid for a quality item there, so there's no point in not using it.

Your 2.4ghz chip could see over 3ghz easily. It's a very good chip that has the larger 4MB cache on it, so it has the brawn comparable to an i3. As your mobo is an intel chipset, it could take that chip to probably around 3.5ghz. You should do some research and see how it overclocks in that board. You could also see if you can find a Core 2 Duo quad core from somewhere cheap, and shove that straight in there.

If you really wanna see a performance upgrade though that'll seem like you've spent £200 on new PC guts, GET A SOLID STATE HD.

A C300 64gb (£94) HD will make your PC fly, literally. Photoshop, outlook express, any office application will open in under 5 seconds flat everytime, and you'll never need to defrag your PC again. You'll have to learn to keep a tidy ship from now on, as you C300 will be your OS hard drive, but it'll garantee a fast experience.

New HSF/CPU cooler, ~ £35, new SSD HD £94

If you really want to buy a new PC though, 95's suggestion on a Quad core AMD rig will eat anything your doing. Those 955 AMD chips are bloody amazing.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look into both of them.

Only problem is that I have an OEM version of Vista, so I'll probably have to buy a new OS as well. But it's probably a good time to upgrade to Windows 7.
 
Hey,

Thanks for the suggestions. I went ahead and bought all this and I've got it installed. It seems to be working fine, but I'm getting beeps like the BIOS beeps (2 short beeps) but there don't seem to be any issues... I can boot into Windows fine. I rang up overclockers tech support but they hadn't heard of that problem either.

/edit...I think its coming from the PSU :O
 
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OK, so I've narrowed it down to being the PSU that's making the noise. I've also found the rest button on it that stops it beeping, but there's still a big red light on the back of it :S

Looking in the manual it says that the red light, along with 2 beeps and the fact that its still working means either:

Power good, signal abnormal.
or
System loading lower than PSU minimum output load requirement.

I can't see it not having enough load on the PSU with all the things I've got connected. But I don't understinand what the "signal abnormal" might mean? I've not done anything with the power cable. I didn't even move it from my desk and it's still plugged in the same place.

Has anyone else has a similar problem? Or have any ideas as what I can try to get it to not beep at me? :(
 
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