Upgrade Advice

[Kallum765]

Hi, I'm planning on upgrading my system to improve it's performance, as it struggles to run the latest games. My current system specs are:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz (stock)
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3
4 x 512MB GeIL PC2-5300
HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB
Akasa 400W PSU
Silverstone Temjin TJ06 case
Samsung SM226BW (1680 x 1050)
Windows XP Home

I built this system nearly two years ago, and as a result I'm a bit out of the the loop when it comes to the latest hardware. The main components that I'd like to upgrade are the motherboard, graphics card, PSU and case. I'm planning on overclocking my CPU (I'll also need a decent CPU cooler), but I'm unsure about which board and chipset combo is best (P35,P45,X38,X48???).

As for graphics, I was planning on going with an ATI Radeon HD 4870, but I've noticed that the GeForce GTX 260 and 9800 GX2 have come down in price a lot recently, so which one would you recommend? BTW I'll be gaming at a resolution of 1680 x 1050.

For a case I'd like something smaller than my Silverstone full tower case. I like the look of the Antec P182. Any other suggestions?

I'm also planning on upgrading to Vista Home Premium, the 64-Bit version, so that I'll be able to upgrade to 4GB of memory in the future.

Thanks for the help and sorry for the long post,
Kallum.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Upgrade Advice

As for graphics, I was planning on going with an ATI Radeon HD 4870, but I've noticed that the GeForce GTX 260 and 9800 GX2 have come down in price a lot recently, so which one would you recommend? BTW I'll be gaming at a resolution of 1680 x 1050.

there's a reason why there's currently a firesale on nVidia parts, and it may have something to do with:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/12/nvidia-g92s-g94-reportedly

now, take these guys with a grain of salt--some of them are notorious ati fanbois. the notion that they're just making this stuff up, however, is implausible as the nVidia solution provided to vendors (HP) to avoiding the failures is indeed cranking up the fan to 100% all the time and hoping the parts last until the warranty is up. seriously. that's the "fix"--running your fan to cool your defectively fragile chippery at 100% while you're looking at an excel spreadsheet, lol.

ati (hd 4870) has a heat problem too, but their problem is that the fan rarely goes above 30%, even during 3d gaming--something easily fixed with a fan profile change. you can get an hd3870 dirt cheap these days. it's not the fastest thing on the planet, and AA is still borked, but @ 1600x1200, i can live with only 2xAA, or turned off if necessary.

as for the rest, i moved my e6600 recently from an asus P5b-e (965) to a P5E (X38) and i couldn't be happier with the overclocking results. i've gotten my processor up to 3.6 on air (thermalright si-128 + quiet 120mm fan doing the cooling), and then i got nervous and backed off to 3.2 :)

there's some new stuff coming down the pipes though, so you may be able to catch some of this stuff cheap in a few more months.

i like the p180 series (own a p180 rev 2), but beware that they're huge, heavy, and you need long psu cables in order to reach from the bottom all the way to the to where your cpu pwr, mobo pwr, and possibly your optical drives will be. i found that it's also easier on my ears to rip out all of the antec fans and replace them with either vantec stealth 120's (front) or arctic cooling directional 120mm fans.

http://www.svc.com/acf12l.html

i've got 3 of these ^^, two for the exhaust and one on my heatsink. lubberly on the ears!!

as for a psu, i owned an antec 380W that ran for two years for me and is still running in a pc i built for someone else 3 years later, and i own an antec 650W trio that has been running my stuff like a champ over the past three years. i confess that i can't give you an unbiased opinion on the matter

[=)BiT(= Evant3k]

Re: Upgrade Advice

there's a reason why there's currently a firesale on nVidia parts, and it may have something to do with:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/12/nvidia-g92s-g94-reportedly

now, take these guys with a grain of salt--some of them are notorious ati fanbois. the notion that they're just making this stuff up, however, is implausible as the nVidia solution provided to vendors (HP) to avoiding the failures is indeed cranking up the fan to 100% all the time and hoping the parts last until the warranty is up. seriously. that's the "fix"--running your fan to cool your defectively fragile chippery at 100% while you're looking at an excel spreadsheet, lol.

Thats terrible for those that bought the new Nvidia cards hope they fix it, and replace the faulty cards.

[signa]

Re: Upgrade Advice

Hi, I'm planning on upgrading my system to improve it's performance, as it struggles to run the latest games. My current system specs are:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz (stock)
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3
4 x 512MB GeIL PC2-5300
HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB
Akasa 400W PSU
Silverstone Temjin TJ06 case
Samsung SM226BW (1680 x 1050)
Windows XP Home

I built this system nearly two years ago, and as a result I'm a bit out of the the loop when it comes to the latest hardware. The main components that I'd like to upgrade are the motherboard, graphics card, PSU and case. I'm planning on overclocking my CPU (I'll also need a decent CPU cooler), but I'm unsure about which board and chipset combo is best (P35,P45,X38,X48???).

As for graphics, I was planning on going with an ATI Radeon HD 4870, but I've noticed that the GeForce GTX 260 and 9800 GX2 have come down in price a lot recently, so which one would you recommend? BTW I'll be gaming at a resolution of 1680 x 1050.

For a case I'd like something smaller than my Silverstone full tower case. I like the look of the Antec P182. Any other suggestions?

I'm also planning on upgrading to Vista Home Premium, the 64-Bit version, so that I'll be able to upgrade to 4GB of memory in the future.

Thanks for the help and sorry for the long post,
Kallum.

You didn't say how much money you have to spend on upgrades, but what you have now is somewhat decent, and that mobo says it supports new cpus. If it were me I would:

upgrade cpu to E8400 (or higher) -or- Q9450.
after market heatsink: Xigmatek or thermalright ultra 120.
upgrade psu to quality 650w.
graphics upgrade to ati 4870
upgrade ram to 4gb
upgrade OS - vista x64
consider faster hdd or raid.

[AlecJ32]

Re: Upgrade Advice

I'd probably look at upgrading either your CPU or your GPU. Those two things are what are holding you back. The rest of your specs are fine. The Core 2 Duo E8400 is a pretty popular offering, and the Q6600 is also a VERY nice choice.

On the GPU side of things, there are PLENTY of things to pick from. The 4870 and 4850 seem to be pretty nice GPUs.

[Eagle101]

Re: Upgrade Advice

Agreed, the E8400 are cheap and good! as for the GPU the 4870 seems to satisfy most of the community both in performance and price tag :)

[=98=]

Re: Upgrade Advice

Hi Kallum, may i first recommend you buy your parts from www.Ebuyer.com. It's the cheapest UK site and offers free postage. With that out of the way, lets see what we can do.

First, the case is important. I see you want to overclock which makes me slightly against using the Antec P182. Whilst a nice case, the cooling features are somewhat dated and thus preventing overheating in high end parts can be difficult, especially when tampering with voltages during overclocking. Therefore, i'd like to recommend a performance based case, the Coolermaster Cosmos S. It has a "performance" look about it without being over the top in lights and windows (or in this case, a lack of window).



Granted, it is quite expensive, however i always feel a good PSU and case is a necessity as it won't hinder further expansion or upgrades. This will have enough cooling for anything you can throw at it, especially the 250mm fan blowing directly onto the graphics cards. It's £159.99 at Ebuyer

Secondly, PSU. I'm going to go for power over modular cables I think the Corsair 750W TX for £76. You'll have to do a bit of wire management, put it'll provide enough power in case you feel the need for Crossfire.

As for graphics, there is no other way but to go Radeon HD4870. It's the best value out there, even with Nvidia's price drops.

For motherboards, i don't think the "X" versions such as the X38 or X48 are worth the extra cash. Get an Asus P5K Premium (costs less) or P5Q Premium (costs more). They both cost either side of £100.

As for memory, i would get 4gb of OCZ Reaper for £59. It consists of 2x2gb DIMM's so even more memory is possible in the future. It is 800mhz DDR2 but overclocks like crazy should you be going for some crazy FSB speeds.

Finally, for the CPU cooler, i just purchased a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 with a bolt through kit. This is an excellent knock off the expensive Thermalright Ultra Extreme. It'll work great on either dual or quad core. You might need to buy that off www.scan.co.uk though as Ebuyer do not stock it.

And, Vista Home Premium 64bit is a given :p

Anything more you need to know?

[Eagle101]

Re: Upgrade Advice

Whoa, Alex's explanation is quite good, mouthwaering for meh :P that case is awesome (although i prefer window and lights :P)

Here is what i would go with:

E8400 (C2D Dual Core=Good 4 Gaming)

ATiHD4870 To me imho is the best high end card for the price, i am thinking of getting what ATi has to offer after the 4series!

The ram Alex layed out as well as the PSU are good to go! However on the topic of Overclocking i would listen wisely to Alex, as well as there is a guide on OCing in the Guides section iirc.

[=98=]

Re: Upgrade Advice

The case has a lot of red LED fans so it has light, but it's not over the top. It is also great for watercooling, you can mount a triple radiator internally in the roof :|:

[Kallum765]

Re: Upgrade Advice

Thanks a lot for the suggestions!

Alex, that case you recommended does look great, but its a bit on the expensive side (looking to spend around the £100 mark) and is also even larger than my current case! What are your opininons on the Akasa Omega? Do you have any other recommendations at this price point? Having said that, I'm still not decided on whether a large case is a problem (planning on taking PC to Uni), and I'm not too bothered about spending a bit more on a quality case, seeing as they are one of the few PC components that can be considered an investment.

Everyone seems to be recommending the HD 4870, but I've found some very good deals on Nvidia cards:

GTX 260: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...)%20-%20Retail
9800 GX2: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...)%20-%20Retail

Would you still recommend the ATI over these? (BTW Alex I know you don't like Overclockers but I've always bought my hardware through them and never had a problem, so I'm happy to buy from them again).

A lot of people are recommending I upgrade my CPU, but I'm not sure this is a good idea, as my current CPU should overclock to 2.8GHz with a good board, and aren't most modern games GPU limited anyway?

Also, could anyone explain the differences between all the different Asus P5Q series boards. People on other forums seem to be recommending the P5Q Pro which is one of the cheaper models. Would I miss out on any essential features if I went for this board?

Finally, would you consider upgrading to 4GB of RAM essential for decent gaming performance in Vista, or is it someting that could be put off for a while?

Thanks again for the help,
Kallum.

[AvalancheDiode]

Re: Upgrade Advice

Some GTX 260 deals are not bad, and they are just as good as 4870 with slight overclocking. They are now produced with 65nm process, while AMD uses 55nm on their GPUs since 38xx.

However, some rumor says that NVIDIA will introduce some other things using 55nm process later this month. It will allow less power consumption and higher clock speed, which, unlike G92->G92b, will significantly increase GPU performance per die.

Nevertheless, you can't go wrong with 4870 and 260, though I reserve some opinion toward GX2.

[imported_Field]

Re: Upgrade Advice

yeah i got a 4870 for this comp that i just put together a week ago and it runs anything full gfx with nice smooth frames i was pretty impressed but then again i had a 7900gs before.

theres a little fan thing that you can do for the 4870 to turn up the fan speed a bit and majorly drop its temperature. stock the fan runs at like 13% @ around 78-80C i turned the speed up to around 35% and its not even super loud and temps are more in the 50C range.

i know a few people that have ((((2)))) of these in their computer i dont really see the point the 4870 is a bEEAASSt

as far as most games being GPU limited this isnt always the case. me i play bf2142 alot and with my old cpu (pentium D 805 2.66Ghz) i tried putting in an 8800GT and i could run the game at higher gfx but with the same badish framerate some games need a good cpu for you to have good fps

i bought a E8500 for $200 on newegg and i have no complaints this new build is so much faster and powerful than what i had before it has made me happy and i had high expectations

i mean you could get either a quad core or a 2core and they are both going to completely pwn it doesnt matter what you do you will be happy seriously this is the first REAL computer ive ever owned and i love it.

[Hellsent 2.0]

Re: Upgrade Advice

Coolermaster 690 case...great cooling, mid tower with awesome cable management options...

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: Upgrade Advice

E8400 + 4850 really seems to be the best bang for the buck right now, but it seems weaker than everyone else's gfx suggestions, so if you have more $$$, then a 4870 should be fine. (4870 perfroms about the same as a GTX 260 I think.)

[AvalancheDiode]

Re: Upgrade Advice

i mean you could get either a quad core or a 2core and they are both going to completely pwn it doesnt matter what you do you will be happy seriously this is the first REAL computer ive ever owned and i love it.

I'm glad to hear that. Now go ahead and make some more frag video in high resolution and high detail to entertain us.