Where to begin upgrading

Davechan

Davechan

Davechan

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Joined
31 Jul 2009
Posts
9
Hi everyone.

A few months back I bought a relatively cheap system from over-clockers knowing that it would need upgrading at some point. I now feel that I want to slowly begin this process, as I cannot do it all at once due to been but a poor student.

I was wondering if any of you may suggest where I may begin? I was thinking either buying some more RAM, or perhaps a processor.

At the time i bought this

"Titan Fusion"
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz @ 3.00GHz
4gb of DDR2 Ram
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Sorry that I do not know the exact make of the RAM, is there a way of finding this out?

Thank you for reading,

Dave
 
4GB RAM is fine.
4870 is fine.
You could overclock your CPU a bit more, but it's fine.

I see nothing wrong with your current system.
 
thanks for the quick response. Great to maybe see that I am ok. I was trying out Age of Conan today and the Direct X 10 mode ran pretty poorly at 23fps. I thought maybe it was a sign for me to upgrade, but perhaps not. I might see about over clocking my processor a little more though.
 
You could upgrade GPU.

There's some nice Vapor-X 5770s or the 5850 is an excellent card.
 
TBH is there any area in which you feel your pc lets you down?

If its noticable, then do something about it, if not then keep your cash for a little longer, save up a bit more and get a bigger upgrade.
 
Looks like you have a nice system there. 4GB of RAM should be plenty for the time being and adding more would be rather expensive with current RAM prices.

The "weakest" part of your system is the CPU, but from what I remember it is still about as powerful as an Intel E5400. So certainly not terrible. Depending on your motherboard, you may be able to slot in one of the new AMD chips in to get a nice boost in power, but first of all I would invest in a decent CPU cooler like this and overclock your current CPU as far as it will go.

But crucially, are you finding you need more power? As i'm sure you are aware, the longer you can stay happy with your current configuration, the better the upgrades your money will buy.

If you are happy with the performance generally, I suggest looking at the other hardware of your system. Perhaps a monitor upgrade is in order for more screen space or better viewing angles. Maybe you want to invest in better speakers and sound card to give you a better experience in music, films and games. Also, Input devices are sometimes overlooked - a nice keyboard and mouse can improve your computing experience more pound-for-pound than any other piece of hardware. Finally, what OS or you currently running?
 
Hmmm, your build isn't terrible, but it's not top spec either. I would wait it out a little longer, then maybe go for a whole new build in a few months when you have more cash, if the performance is still getting to you.
 
I'm in the same boat, just weighing up different paths of upgrading. I could swear though last week I had made a list and it totaled around £600 including OS, now it seems to be nearer £800-£1000 :eek: :mad:
 
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