What should I upgrade?

rossk26

rossk26

rossk26

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Joined
23 Nov 2009
Posts
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North East of England
Got the following set up:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93GHz
Asus P5QC DDR3 ATX Motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 1GB GDDR3
4GB DDR2
Arctic Power 500W PSU
- Displayed on 22" LED Monitor

My only purpose is to play games, MW2, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Arma 2.

So my question is what would be best to upgrade on that list?

I have been considering an ATI 5850 card, but at £200, i would like it to come down in price. I only purchased my current set up in december.
 
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It's a tough call, the 5850 is a very nice card but from what I've heard BC2 does run quite a bit nicer on quad cores. Maybe see if you can pick up a used Q6600 for £80ish and sell the E7500 (you shouldn't lose too much doing that).
 
My mobo supports the following quad cores:

Core 2 Quad Q6400 @ 2.13GHz

Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40GHz

Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66GHz

Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHz

Core 2 Quad Q8300 @ 2.50GHz

Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66GHz

Core 2 Quad Q9300 @ 2.5GHz

Core 2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66GHz

Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 2.66GHz

Core 2 Quad Q9500 @ 2.83GHz

Core 2 Quad Q9505 @ 2.83GHz

Core 2 Quad Q9550 @2.83GHz

Core 2 Quad Q9650 @ 3.00GHz
 
The biggest jump in performance for you would be to upgrade the graphics card and overclock the E7500 which should hit 3.6Ghz easily and maybe even 4Ghz.
 
pastymuncher said:
The biggest jump in performance for you would be to upgrade the graphics card and overclock the E7500 which should hit 3.6Ghz easily and maybe even 4Ghz.
Click to expand...

+1

In almost all games, a good Core 2 Duo like the one you have is more than enough, only a very small number of games benefit from a quad core and far fewer actually require one. As pastymuncher suggests, overclocking is a great idea. Get a decent cooler like this and have a go - there are many guides on the web for overclocking C2D chips.

At the minute, your graphics card is limiting your gaming performance. If £200 for a GPU is a bit much, then you may want to consider the 5770. This card is very good value and will give you a huge boost in performance.
 
cmndr_andi said:
+1

In almost all games, a good Core 2 Duo like the one you have is more than enough, only a very small number of games benefit from a quad core and far fewer actually require one. As pastymuncher suggests, overclocking is a great idea. Get a decent cooler like this and have a go - there are many guides on the web for overclocking C2D chips.

At the minute, your graphics card is limiting your gaming performance. If £200 for a GPU is a bit much, then you may want to consider the 5770. This card is very good value and will give you a huge boost in performance.
Click to expand...


Cheers for that info, I already have that cooler, have been waiting to fit it as wasnt sure if i would be keeping my CPU. I think i will start overclocking my current CPU and see where i get with that. the 5770 is very good value, but ive heard that the 5850 will be coming down in price with the new Nvidia card coming out, but recently I have actually seen it rise in price on overclockers, cheapest is 229 now iirc, and you could get ot for 200 couple weeks ago.
 
Also does my PSU sound like it can support being overclocked and running a 5850.

The calculater i found on the web suggested minimum of 550w.
 
rossk26 said:
Cheers for that info, I already have that cooler, have been waiting to fit it as wasnt sure if i would be keeping my CPU. I think i will start overclocking my current CPU and see where i get with that. the 5770 is very good value, but ive heard that the 5850 will be coming down in price with the new Nvidia card coming out, but recently I have actually seen it rise in price on overclockers, cheapest is 229 now iirc, and you could get ot for 200 couple weeks ago.
Click to expand...

A few months ago I would have thought the Nvidia launch would cause some large price drops on 5850 and 5870 card, but now i'm not so sure. From everything I have seen so far, Fermi is going to be a hot, expensive GPU with performance that rivals, not obliterates, the current AMD lineup. If this does indeed come to pass then AMD prices may not fall, heck they may even go up as their rival fails to live up to expectations.

I for one hope this isn't the case, I really want to see some good healthy competition in the graphics market. I just pray Nvidia have been orchestrating an ingenious "reduce expectations" campaign and Fermi will in fact be the second coming. However, I wouldn't put money on it.

Edit: As for your PSU working with the "new" system, a good 500W PSU should be fine. I used this PSU calculator, and when overclock to 3.4GHz the entire system uses 255W. Which calculator did you use that gave you 550W? However, PSUs need to be judged on quality not just power rating, the Compucase Arctic Power 500W is a very cheap PSU. Personally, I would not trust it with expensive PC components, but that determination is up to you.
 
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Get that e7500 overclocked! There is really no excuse for running it at stock.
The component change that will give you the boost is the video card. No doubt.
Grab yourself a 4890 or 5770 for £120 and you'll be laughing.
 
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reiyushin said:
What's your total budget? I'm assuming ~£200 + and parts sold?

Is that res 1680x1050 or 1920x1080?
Click to expand...

Res is 1680x1050.

I dont really have a budget, I just want to keep costs as low as possible, but at the same time, get good parts that will impress me. So about £200 is a fair price, but i will need graphics card and a few case fans if im overclocking.
 
rossk26 said:
Res is 1680x1050.

I dont really have a budget, I just want to keep costs as low as possible, but at the same time, get good parts that will impress me. So about £200 is a fair price, but i will need graphics card and a few case fans if im overclocking.
Click to expand...

As others have said, the GPU upgrade will impress you the most with something like a 5850 especially so.
 
At that res a 5770 will be a great upgrade, I'd be weary about throwing a 5850 in with a lacklustre PSU but if you can afford it, it'd be a brilliant upgrade.

My money:
5770 (4890 if you don't care for DX11) ~£120
CPU cooler ~£30

Which leaves ~£50 to be used to improve case airflow if needed :) or to buy some games and a nummy pizza :)
 
I've got a E7500 and I run it at 3.6ghz. I've had it at 4.1, but I'm not great at OCing, so I couldn't get it stable (that and I have a crappy cooler anyway, so 3.6 "will do" :P)
Very few games really bottleneck it (Dragon Age maybe... but I've never been sure if that's a bug, or it just uses your processor a lot!). I've got it with a 4870, and there's a few games that run the GPU and CPU at around 100% at the same time, so I'm thinking a 5770* would be a good partner for a E7500 at 3.6.

And if you slap a good cooler on it, you've still possibly 400-600mhz still in the bank when it gets too slow ;)

*And the 5770s can be OC'd a lot too!!

Edit: Wouldn't advise you buy a quad on your current mobo. Stupidly overpriced (unless you go second hand), and the i5 750 is just too cheap... :P
 
reiyushin said:
At that res a 5770 will be a great upgrade, I'd be weary about throwing a 5850 in with a lacklustre PSU but if you can afford it, it'd be a brilliant upgrade.

My money:
5770 (4890 if you don't care for DX11) ~£120
CPU cooler ~£30

Which leaves ~£50 to be used to improve case airflow if needed :) or to buy some games and a nummy pizza :)
Click to expand...

So 5770 will be worth it, or should i just pay extra for the 5850?

I already have the Freezer Pro 7, so dont need a CPU cooler, but i do need more case fans, and probably a new case
 
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