Whats my next upgrade route

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Soldato
Joined
9 Apr 2004
Posts
2,694
Afternoon all,

I currently have the following spec but I am looking to make the next round of upgrades. I am however unsure as to where to go.

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2)
Zalman ZM500-HP Heatpipe Cooled 500W Modular PSU
Inno3D GeForce 9800 GTX 512Mb DDR3
Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 4000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache
Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter
Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 Aero Flower (Socket AM2/939/754) CPU Cooler
2 x GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC
Windows XP 32bit Service Pack 3

So thats what I have now I need to know whats going to give me the best bang for buck. I am happy with all my current peripherals and have all the storage that I need.

My main focus on upgrading would be gfx, mobo, ram, cpu - I am just unsure as to what would be the best combination. I need an upgrade that will last me 18 months at least.

In terms of computer use it is primarily office based work, one large enterprise modelling tool and gaming. Main game is CS:S but I also like to play the C&C games.

To aid I have a number of budgets I am playing with so what would be my best bet if spending:

£200
£300
£400

Any help appreciated.
 
I'd definatly say to go down the quad route if you want something with bang for buck. Mobo and CPU upgrade would give it a massive boost in performance.

Apart from anything, you're only getting 3.25GB of your RAM from running a 32 bit OS, if you were going to go for an upgrade I'd say to try 64 bit OS :)
 
This is only just over your £400 and would be a massive upgrade for you, just use your old PSU, HDD and DVD drive, enjoy
400core775.jpg
 
He already has decent RAM rifles, so no need for that.
I would just get new Mobo and CPU, C2D or C2Q depending on your uses, Dual for gaming, Quad for encoding and bits.

Then i would save up again, and go for a PSU and GFX!
 
He only has 2x1 gig though, which is not much use now let alone in future, and with price of DDR2 at moment its worth getting the 4 gig, leaves room to go to 8 in future if he decided. He also stated office as main use and listed modelling, hence the recomendation for quad core - Im a firm advocate of dual core normally, most people dont need or wont benefit from quad, but he prob will. I've included gfx card and his current PSU is very good make and more than adequate for his system
 
Thanks rifles and ginger - what mobo / cpu combination would be best.

Once I can justify it to myself what would be the next graphics card?

Finally - whats wrong with my current PSU or is 500W simply not enough these days?

edit - sorry my earlier post may not have been clear - I have 4Gb in 4 1Gb sticks - two lots of dual channel.
 
No your PSU is fine, you wont need anymore, look at my basket I did for you - just remove the RAM from that setup then (sry I misread), get that mobo, cpu + cooler and gfx card, it will see you right
 
yeah sry redzealot is right, i missed the 9800 too, must learn to read properly, you could stretch to a 4870 or 260 if you wanted, but tbh a 9800 would prob do you for now, depending on what res you game at?
 
windows xp 32bit can only read 4gb and if you have 512mb ram on graphics card it will take it down to 3.5gb so you dont need any more memory unless you want faster.
 
actually no, 32bit OS's no matter which brand can only see 3.5 gig, its got nothing to do with your gfx card, and theres nothing to stop him upgrading his OS to a 64 bit one in future anyway
 
95thrifles said:
actually no, 32bit OS's no matter which brand can only see 3.5 gig, its got nothing to do with your gfx card, and theres nothing to stop him upgrading his OS to a 64 bit one in future anyway
Click to expand...

The amount the OS can see is not related to the grfx, agreed, but the amount in the graphics card counts towards the 3.5-4GB odd the OS sees. So if a 512MB card will leave you with 3.25GB useable system RAM, a 1GB card will leave you with 2.75GB useable system RAM. That's how I understand it, anyway.
 
Thanks for the above. I have taken it into consideration and ended up with the following:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3R Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GE24GB800C4DC)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM
Akasa SATA-2 60cm Silver Data Cable

Total Price for the above is £480.63 delivered and including.

Is there a cheaper mobo / cpu combination? I have gone for the harddrive to give me a clean seperate OS drive which I do not have at the moment.

I avoided the gigabyte EP43 earlier due to bad comments I have heard - is this common or a unique complaint?

Also what ADM cpu / mobo combination would be suitable? As I already have a solid AM2 cpu cooler. Really trying to keep total cost under £400.

Cheers
 
Wel youre getting the wrong mobo there, thats a DDR3 based board, more expensive, and youve specced DDR2 RAM, you want the one I specced you, that'll save you £50 for starters, there isnt a cheaper quad core available no, you could get a dual core for cheaper, which would do you just as well in gaming, but your modelling app wouldnt be as quick, if you did want to look at this look at the E7400 would be a good choice for budget, save you another £55 and you could OC it
 
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