My upgrade what do YOU think?

Well this is my first poet here on this forum(which just happens to be the best one in the interwebz)I have looked at post and talks for a few weeks and really enjoyed my reading here but i have a half assed machine

i have a........

Dual core1.6 over-clocked to 2.4ghz Vista rating 5.3

1 gb of 667mhz Ram vista rating 4.5

i have an Zotac 8400gs video card vista gaming rating 4.9

a "nonamed" hdd 160gb vista rating 5.6

and a 610i Matx mobo with one pci-ex16 slot and 3 normal pci slots

300Watt P-Supply

and some nasty stock Packerd bell case from years ago

to some this is not to bad of a pc but to me im not liking it,as im a HARDCORE GAMER

and that 8400gs just can't handle the games.What shocked into wanting to upgrade is i bought Crysis Warhead to add to my pc collection which is now in the 100s

and it is UNPLAyBLE at 800x600 everything on low i was quite shocked when this happened when Crysis i played through at 1280x1024 with a mix of low/med with a avg fps of 35.

So what you may sk do i hope to upgrade to

*****a Raidmax Ninja Gaming case

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=24980&sid=14&cid=122&scid=539

*****Sapphire HD4870 Videocard

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=24699&sid=14&cid=122&scid=315

*******Hiper 580watt HPU4M580

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=25102&sid=14&cid=122&scid=5315

*****another gig of 800 mhz ram

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=9474&sid=14&cid=122&scid=546

Can you see this rig working out ? Good

i have a 17in screen max rez of 1280x1024

and i love this screen so i will not buy i new one

Umm. It will work out, but really, not as well as it should. The processor and RAM will bottleneck the videocard, possibly to half the performance, the MicroATX motherboard is definately a no go if you plan on gaming. Unless its an AMD, who makes practically all of their boards mATX. I'd probably get a Gigabyte EP45-DS3L. Fresh off the line, P45 Chipset, PCI-E2.0, etc. Im not quite familiar with Euros, but NewEgg has it for about $105. It's FSB is 1600MHz, and its memory standard is 1200MHz, but of course, it accepts 800MHz as well. Overall. Look into the motherboard, the RAM (possibly GSkill 2x2GB sticks of PC6400 DDR2 800), and a better processsor. (E7200, E8400) If possible, try holding off for a while. Nehalem is literally just around the corner now, and that will for sure lower prices.

well, normally chicken you would be right about the bottlenecking, but he wont have to worry about that because his max resolution is 1280x1024, and bottleneck or not, 4870 will chew through that. in fact, i wouldn't even get a 4870 with a resolution like that, i would go cheaper and get either an 8800gt or a 4850

Yeah I was thinking that too. At those resolutions, you might be fine with an 8800GS...

honestly from the stuff your listing... build a new system, packard bell case? does that company even exist anymore? seriously though, get some fast ram, new fast HDD, a slow CPU (oc it) big ass card and a 500 psu put it all on a new mobo and transfer all your files to the new computer and your good to go my friend.


If your smart on newegg you can save alot of money with the right combo deals and free shipping

What he said. (or she)

Well tnx people,My cpu is overclocked to 2.4ghz i will be able to overclock it more when i get my new case Look at the pic there's a 120mm i think just above it(There are no fans in my case right now)My HDD is really fast,and about the ram i will be getting 2gigs of ocz 800mhz ram to add to my mobo then i will have 3 gigs,will vista 32bit support 3 gig's?it will be a beast lol,and about a getting a slower video card for my rez,i wont i looked at the specks online and crysis with the 9800gtx+ get's like 39fps avg and the 4870 even tho it's AMD gets 52fps and the card is only €50 more and it will still be in my budget so i should be ok.But ONE last Question will my 667hz ram work with 2 gigs of ocz 800mhz ram my mobo supports dual channel so i shouldn't hold back the faster ram will it?

dont mix and match ram, its just not worth while.

800mhz ram is not going to be a bottleneck, you say you have a 1.6ghz dual core so im guessing your fsb isnt that high(factory 800mhz maybe). but ya unless you are pushing a fsb past 1600mhz the ram is not going to seriously limit performance.


like others have said your cpu clock is probably a little low for a 4870, my guesstimate is that youd want around 2.8+ghz, so you might want a new one

i think it would still hold back the faster ram, dont mix and match. if anything, get the two gigs, then throw out the 1 gig of 667, and it will still run better.

Everytime i play a game like crysis my ram goes 100% and cpu like 60%

well of course your ram goes up to 100. i have 2 gigabytes of 800 mhz ram, and when i game it usually stays at about 1.5 or 1.6, you wont have any trouble with 2 gig, 3 gig is nice, but your ram will be wierd and messed up and different speeds. 2 gigs is enough.

B1U3P5YCH0, for the reviews and benchmarks you've seen, those cards are running in high end systems, with designated Nvidia SLI or ATi Crossfire Intel motherboards along with quad core or extreme proccessors. Not to mention some intense overclocking, high end RAM, and HDD speeds. So don't get your hopes up too much. Not everyone gets those framerates. Some do, but looking at your build right now, im seeing a lot of potential instability.

Ok..... hopefully not lol but i was also looking at the gigabyte 9800GTX+ !!!!!

What do you think?Heres the link

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=25071&sid=14&cid=122&scid=315

i hear what your saying chicken but i think i will get some good results maybe not as shown in the benchmarks but good enough even do the max rez on my screen is 1280x1024 i do play all my games at 1024x768 as it looks sharper to me....

Please also note that i will be getting a quad core early this year or maybe this year,see how the money goes