What should I upgrade?

Predator6

Predator6

Predator6

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Hi guys, I only really play wow on low- medium setting but I want better, I would like full settings with a good frame rate...

I have a pc I built ages ago! This is the spec:

Asus A8n32-SLi Deluxe
2.5GB Ram (2GB Corsair XMS/512mb Corsair Pro)
2x 7300 GT (Running in SLi but one does not have the SLi connector so they are not connected:confused:)
AMD 64 x2 2.01Ghz
Jeantech 500w PSU

Can I upgrade this system to hit what I want or shall I just look into replacing it all?

If I can upgrade what should I do first?

I have the opportunity of a 9800GTX+ for £40...
 
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Predator6 said:
2x 7300 GT (Running in SLi but one does not have the SLi connector so they are not connected:confused:)
Click to expand...

If the card's arn't connected with an SLI cable, I don't think your running in SLI you just have 2 video card's installed in your computer.

Changing the display card might very well get you a performance boost in WoW, and maybe upgrading the RAM to 4GB.

If WoW is all you play and the machine is doing a reasonable job, probably not worth spending vast ammount upgrading it.

Maybe if that 9800GTX has an SLI connector and you get a cable you could run it SLI with the one 7300GT , I'm really not familiar with SLI though so hopefully someone who is will post to clarifiy.

*EDIT*
As Orcvader has pointed out below
Orcvader said:
It's impossible to SLi a 9800 with a 7300, for SLi they must be the same card.
Click to expand...
Told you I wasn't familiar with SLI.
Thx for that Orcvader :)

I'm sure others on here can offer up some more suggestions :)
 
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Everything to be honest. Socket 939 has been left miles behind these days and 7300's whether they are running in sli or not will be beaten by a modern low end card. Your cpu is going to hold back any decent modern card so i would save up and buy a new rig.
 
Building a new more upto date system is obviously the best idea to get full settings and a good framerate, but not everyone can afford that sort of upgrade.
Especially when the machine is a good few years old and that means pretty much replacing everything.
Although I'm sure its possible to spec up a reasonable system for maybe £200 - £300 that would improve WoW for a while.

Spending money trying too improve an old PC at the end of the day, can turn out to be only a tiny stop gap, b4 you end up desiding to take the full upgrade route.

It really depends on if that improvement is really worth it, just for one game and how much your willing or able to spend.
 
If you cannot afford the complete upgrade of your rig, (Reasonably expensive but cheaper than purchasing a full system) I suggest you could take the AMD route? Good performance and cheaper also.

But I love Intel :)
 
Take up that £40 9800GTX+.

I would consider changing the PSU first, seeing it's a Jeantech.

After that I would consider a CPU/Motherboard/RAM upgrade.

EDIT: It's impossible to SLi a 9800 with a 7300, for SLi they must be the same card.
 
Hmm ok guys...

I could build a new system, max of about £500...any ideas?

Could I salvage any parts from this pc such as PSU/optical drive/memory car reader/HDD (7200rpm) and get teh 9800GTX+?

I would upgrade to 4gb ram but I have a 32 bit operating system :(

My case is not bad...coolermaster centurion and I have around 5 case fans making the air flow well.

I saw some things on overclockers (Ready made bundles) for just under 400 would they be good? I would like i5 but I see AMD is a fair bit cheaper so this could be a route!

Cheers for all the advice
 
Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 Intel P55 - £99.99

Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz - £140.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - £46.99

Corsair CX 500W ATX Power Supply - £44.99

Win 7 Home Premium Retail - £124.54

Total: £457.50 + £40 for the 9800

The rest you can salvage off your current PC. You can sell the rest too to get some money back.
 
Argon Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle - MSI £199.99

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £117.49

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £82.24

Cooler Master GX 650W Power Supply £49.98

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £29.99

LiteOn IHAS124 - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA £11.74

Sub Total : £418.23
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £74.94
Total : £503.17

Id just use the fans & case, old HDD for storage.
 
I like Orcvader's build best out of them two, would it be worth saving my power supply and getting the sabortooth board? I have heard they are well recommended...

How about second hand? Could that be an option? Bit concerned that I wouldn't get any warrenty...
 
I recommend you do not keep that Jeantech PSU. Their PSUs are not really reliable, and they can blow up on you if you're not careful :eek:
 
An AMD build will work out cheaper, but WoW enjoys CPU power, hence I went with the i5 route. It doesn't matter what board you use really.
 
Lemin said:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, seems intel is the way to go by quite a step!

How about this:

Please bare in mind I can get windows 7 on an academic licence which is about £50. I also have 3 or 4 different hard drives I can choose between. And the 9800GTX+ for £40.

build.jpg


Puts me at around £462
 
If you don't plan to SLi/Crossfire in the future you can swap out the PSU with what I or Lemin suggested in the builds above, which will save you a bit more cash. You can also get a nice CPU cooler if you're ok with overclocking :).
 
I am a bit hit and miss with overclocking, sometimes it works, sometimes it fails badly (gone through 3 boards!), I would like this to last me a couple of years so would a better psu be best? I will probably aim to get a new graphics card later on next year or maybe run them SLi...
 
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