PC Upgrading Discussion

Update on my PC build here http://forum.racedepartment.com/hardware-software/16210-pc-upgrading-discussion-17.html#post175471

New Case(Still working on my cable management skills )




Jarrod building it yourself is great fun m8.

Components have been purchased with the exact loadout that you suggested on prior page of this thread including the 6gb upgrade on ram. Thanks guys. I'll let you know how it goes. PS abdul... not building it myself. I'm not that brave.

Bought and assembled!!! This computer is the boss. Thanks guys.

you're welcome
have fun with it

I would like to know if my PC is still good enough or that it is time to upgrade.
If I have to upgrade, I want it to be an upgrade that will last long and I would like to know what it would approximately cost.
It is used for gaming and also for school work.
Games that I play on it are racing games and soccer games.

This is my current PC:

Intel Dual core E2220 2,4 GHZ
Asus EN 9800 GT 1 GB DDR3
250 + 500 GB Harddisk
3 GB DDR2 (or 4GB, I am not sure, I use XP, so it only recognizes 3GB)
The motherboard is from Foxconn, it is not a good one, so that needs to be replaced. I don't know which Foxconn it is.

Thanks in advance.

Peter, how much are you looking to spend?

Maybe look for something like this:

Intel i5 750
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3R
4GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 ECO Series
Either keep your 9800GT or get a ATi 5770
Keep your current HDD's and reformat to Windows 7 64bit.
Corsair TX650W
Not sure what case you have - could get a new one like an Antec 300
Prolimatech Megahalems Cpu cooler

If that costs too much, you could either go i3 + H55 Gigabyte mobo and keep your 9800GT or get a socket 775 quad core and a new mobo.

will get on this late at night peter
That processor is a bit bottleneck

If it's just for games then I would just upgrade the 9800GT to something like a 5850 and get a SDD or new HDD like a Samsung F3. This will boost your performance in games by a big amount with the GPU and also boost general performance with the new SDD/HDD. After upgrading these two components you can see how much you like the new performance, and then evaluate if you still want more performance, however I doubt you would need any more performance with a GPU upgrade unless your doing some really CPU intensive work where you need 4+ cores and high clock speeds.

Your CPU will still do the job fine for games and you have enough ram. But you could upgrade to windows 7 and utilize the full 4gb with 64bit.

@ James : I don't really have a price to spend in mind yet, I first would like to know what a good upgrade would approximately cost.
@ Chris: I already thought the processor would be the biggest problem, thanks in advance for your help.

As my post above unless your doing some intensive CPU work? Then a GPU upgrade will give you a better upgrade in performance for games. (With a new PSU to power it) A new HDD or an SDD makes allot of difference to your general performance also, so you would notice a big improvement there. Then add Windows 7 x64 if possible.

What monitor do you have and what resolution you use?

No point in going up to a 5850 when the CPU will bottleneck it like crazy. If you are going to a card like that you'll either want to overclock your current CPU way past 3Ghz or just get an i5 and be done with it.

Damian, I have a Hanns-G monitor, 19" and a resolution of 1440x900.

At that resolution you won't notice any CPU bottleneck with whatever card you upgrade to. A HD5770 is a better one to go for at that res as the 5850 is overkill for a 19" monitor and the E2220 will do the job fine at that res.

Peter
right now for you there are 2 options
1 is to do a cheap upgrade (just maybe motherboard, quad core processor and powersupply)....might go long

or do a major upgrade
that is motherboard, processor, ram card, graphics card, powersupply & possibly new pc case...depending on what you have right now and what you want

Or 3rd option

Get a SSD.
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/43016/Kingston-64GB-SSDNow-V-Series-Solid-State-Drive
(Rebadged Intel)
HD5770
New PSU

The SSD will improve your general performance more then any CPU can. Ask some of the SSD users here how much it improved their general performance, it's probably the best overall upgrade you can buy, it makes everything fly.


http://www.racedepartment.com/hardware-software/28588-24-256gb-samsung-mlc-ssds.html

The 5770 will give you the needed boost in games and at that resolution I would not worry about CPU bottlenecks. The CPU you have is still a fine chip for general gaming (I use one similar to it)
After you upgraded those parts you will see a massive improvement in general windows performance and games. But if you would want more speed after (which I doubt) I would upgrade the rest of the system as suggested by Chris etc.

So a SSD would be a real improvement for the PC I have?
And would it also work on a laptop?
And would this one be a good option:

http://www.informatique.nl/131532/intel-x18-m-ssd-80gb.html

The Intel SSD's are the best ones pretty much. And it's 1.8" , which I believe will fit in your laptop. But to fit in your PC you need an adapter like these
http://www.techstore.co.uk/browse.php?a=p&prodLineID=134163

There's some other good information about SSD's on this thread to:
http://www.racedepartment.com/hardware-software/26939-ssd-buy-2.html

I have one question:
Does a SSD only improve the start times of the PC and the loading of programs, or does it also improve the performance in games?

It improves general windows performance, windows loading times, loading applications, moving files, compressing them etc etc. It will load windows in 10 or so seconds.

It can load the games fast but it won't improve the performance in the games much if any.

You need a new GPU to get a decent amount of more performance in games.

Would the 5770 be a real improvement that will last long or can I better wait till the 5850 gets cheaper?
Also seeing the title of this thread makes me worry: http://www.racedepartment.com/hardware-software/27326-ati-5770-biggest-mistake-ive-made.html
And the monitor will maybe be soon replaced, so that is not the issue.
Would this be a good one: http://www.4launch.nl/shop/#p-4-productid-075975