Hey everyone, I'm looking to upgrade my pc. Its pretty old but can still run all the latest games, just at a pretty slow fps - was great when i bought it....
So what I need from you guys is for you to let me know what I can keep from my rig and what i'll need to upgrade.
I'm running an amd dual core 2.6mhz with 4gb ram, xfx 9800gt, I've got a couple of standard mechanical hdd and my psu is only a few months old so that wont need upgrading. I think what I'm looking at is upgrading the ram, cpu and mobo and probably the gpu. I have about £200 to spend atm but would like recommendations on all parts if possible and I'll save up for the gpu on the future.
As you can tell I'm a little out of touch with my hardware it was about 7 years ago i bought it all!
im not sure on the ram speed tbh, i'll have a look, i could probably afford to get a new card and upgrade the ram. Any gpu you wouod recommend for around 200 and i can get a cpuple pf 4gb sticks if my mobo supports it
Grab CPU-z, and under memory tab check the DRAM frequency. Double it, and that's usually your effective memory speed. So, if your DRAM frequency is 400MHz, your effective speed will be 800MHz. Also, 4GB is plenty. Like I said, if it's 800MHz, you should be fine for a little while longer.
My biggest concern is the CPU, but that small budget doesn't allow much in terms of upgrade. It's an either or, and that 9800GT is pretty old.
The three things that I'd always consider upgrading are storage (in the form of a boot ssd) gpu, cpu, and ram. You're set for ram. Chances are your computer may be experiencing a bottleneck from any of the other three. You can get a cheap ssd (less than $100) that will work well for a boot drive and you may see overall improvement.
I'll grab a dxdiag soon and let you know, like I said, I'm so out of touch on these things and no idea whats what other than what I've seen the Tek guys talk about
I can still build a machine fine, its not putting it together that's the issue, just knowing what to put together.
I could afford that, yes and sell some of my older parts. I have like 5tb of storage already so that's not an issue and I bought a decent PSU not too long ago. Case and blu-ray drive was fine.
All in all I have plenty of mechanical HDD, a decent PSU 4 1gb ram sticks (will get the proper specs shortly) a 9800gt, a 2.6mhz CPU and mobo. Case is fine and so are my drives. I have about £200 aside for this, but I can put more in and sell other parts to make up for it. I have the os all sorted so that's no issue also.
I just want a decent machine that I can play top end games on average graphics (30fps or so) that I can keep for about 2 years without having to do much to, not got the time to keep messing plus don't spend nearly enough time on it for it to be worthwhile
Well, I looked up the motherboard and you are going to need a system upgrade since the motherboard is on an AM2 socket. If it was an AM2+ socket, you would've been able to drop in a Phenom II and be good for a while. As for the system you pointed out, it's not worth it. Tom's Hardware pegs the 9800GT in the same league as the 6670 GDDR5, though I believe most 6670's are DDR3, and there is a considerable difference between the two.
Again, my vote is dump everything into a 7870 Tahiti LE and save up for new CPU/Mobo/RAM. Again, in the mean while, see what kind of OC you can get with that Athlon. If you can get 3GHz, you whould ok until you can upgrade again.
Keeping in mind a reasonable budget (unless you really want the best), I'd go for the ASUS M5A97 (~67 GBP), paired with an FX-8320 and a nice little cooler like the Zalman CNPS10x and give a bit of an OC. The ASUS board has more less everything you could want: USB3, SATA3, VRM cooling, and support for CrossFire (though limited PCI-e bandwidth).
If you want something a bit better without breaking the bank, there is also the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 (~99GBP). There is also the FX-8350, or you can wait for Steamroller. For better cooling, NZXT Havik 140
As for RAM, get yourself an 8GB dual-channel kit of either 1600MHz, or 1866MHz. I think this kit looks promising
That's not too bad actually, so its about £180 for the card, which I will pick up soon, then I'll go for the gigabyte board with the fx 8350 for an extra £250 plus the ram, so I'm looking at about £450 in total which isn't too bad, then I've got the option to either make a second computer with my old parts or sell them on, not too bad for a much better machine - the last thing will be an SSD, but I'll wait till them come down in price - not so worried about slow loading, just so long as I can play my games at around 30fps or so :)
One last thing - I'm looking at all the 7870 cards and having trouble working out the main difference. They have slightly different core/memory clock speeds. Is it worth me paying a few extra £ to get the slightly better cards or should I stick with the cheaper VTX/MSI model. I was looking at this one as I've had a good experience with XFX but if its not worth the extra few £ I'll just get ram instead http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/amdhd7870series/fx-787a-cdbc.html
altough the tahiti le is specd to have 1536 stream prcocesors, the one iv refrenced seems to be labled to have 1280 streams. which i would assume is a typo, but i would ask aria if you want get the card iv refrenced. after all if it say's tahiti le on the tin,so it better damn well be one.