Worth Upgrading?

NickM

NickM

NickM

Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2003
Posts
2,588
Currently got a 4 year old system with a C2D E6600 (2.4 GHz), 4GB Ram, Nvidia 8800GTS.
Its been having problems for a while now and feels kinda slow (have tried clean installing Windows to no effect).

If I upgrade to say an i5 or i7 would I see a noticeable improvement in general day-to-day performance (program loading speed etc)?

Main thing I use my computer for is general stuff and watching HD video with a bit of gaming now and then, however, I'd like it to be able to handle whatever I throw at it as I don't want to be having to upgrade again in ~2 years. Any recommendations? What sort of price difference are there between i5 and i7 systems?
 
certainly no point going i7, massive overkill
tbh for general use and light gaming your system should be ok
a new system will be quicker no doubt
what sort of budget are you looking at?
 
Main system slow down is due to an over used Hard Drive Replace with a new one and fresh install windows, It should work better then.... Only a £30 - £40 fix....

Then save up for a new one will need around £400 - £500 for a awsome i5 Setup with good Video card or £500 - £700 for a i7 Rig
 
Like mentioned, it sounds like the hard drive is the bottleneck here rather than your E6600 or RAM. There both more than upto the job for general use.

Like said, a new hdd might be on the cards. What are you using just now?
 
My main drive failed about 18 months ago so I bought some new ones, I'm currently running: 2x WD Caviar Black in RAID-1 as my main and 1x WD Caviar Green + 1x fairly old Hitachi 400GB for storage.

Only £5-700 for a decent i7? I was expecting to pay closer to £1k!

Its not just slow its had other problems to including:
-My 2nd soundcard needs to be disabled and re-enabled every time I boot/resume windows.
-Some of the USB ports need to be disabled otherwise I keep getting messages about unknown devices.
-Bluescreens if I try and use MPC/VLC (only WMP and Winamp work) and some other programs.
-WMP freezing for a few seconds at a time when I try and do things in it.

I'm just getting sick of it so thought I'd upgrade since I can afford to now. It wasn't a custom build, it was from a small company (who don't exist any more) so the original parts (ie, mobo) probably are not of the best quality.

If I do get a new one is there much resale value on components like the E6600 or 8800GTS?
 
Last edited:
you can put a price check thing in the members market, for new build ideas look at the link in my sig, Id recomend middle Intel build, bout your budget and good bang/buck
 
Thanks, the middle one does look like a good starting point. I wish there was an easier way to view cases though, its annoying having to open up every single product page to see a decent sized image.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom