Basically I'm wanting to upgrade my PC but I don't know what to or with. Current specs are now hopelessly outdated but I have a limited budget of around £300 or so to work with; ultimately I would love to be capable of running Crysis as I love that game but doubt this is possible. I'm definitely installing some more RAM as 1GB no longer suits my needs but could do with help finding some deals/understanding what to buy. Heres current specs: MoBo: Acer 939Duel-SATA2 PCIe Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.2GHz RAM: 2x512Mb @ 2MHz GPU: nVidia GeForce 7300 GS 512mb Sound Card: Realtek AC97 Audio OS: Windows XP Personal Service Pack 2 Thanks for any help you can give.
Im assuming you ment this mobo http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2 If that is your mobo you can upgrade to an amd x2 cpu upgrade the ram to 2gb and a new vid card for around that price. How well it will run crysis and at what resoultion is a different story, xlink can help you more with this when he sees this thread
(this is still me btw, Big Shop of FREE, just got a new account as that was a spare one) To be honest I did not buy my motherboard so I can only hazard a guess that's correct from what I know and what Google can tell me. Either way thanks for the input
new card more RAM and that'd basically be it. I'm assuming you want it to game right?(if not neglect the card) http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quick...NavigationKey=0 http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quick...5&InMerch=1 do not that prices aren't the best possible I'm not THAT familiar with UK pricing. FYI would run crysis on high/vhigh at 720p no issues. EDIT: CPU is a bit low I guess I missed that saw 2.2Ghz and assumed it was a 4200+ or a 4400+ cheapest LGA775 board you can find Pentium Dual Core e2160 2GB cheepo DDR2 RAM then over clock the CPU a bit, stock clocks are 1.8GHz, 333FSB which is easy to get would set you to 3GHz and there you'de be set
Would it surely not be cheaper to just upgrade the CPU to a 64x2 rather than buy a whole new Mobo and move to Intel or is Dual Core that much better? Ultimately I really wasn't wanting to go for an upgrade on both GPU and CPU at this time, but choose one now and one later. Which would you recommend? I mean if I bought the 8800 now would it work given current set up and a bit more RAM and then later I could just buy a new mobo and an Intel chip and transfer across? I mean right now I guess I'm just looking for the cheapest upgrade with the biggest improvement... Either way thanks for the help with the memory
in this case it isn't $70CPU + $ 60 board +$30 DDR2 memory vs $150 CPU + $70 DDR1 memory socket 939 dual core CPUs are rather hard to find at that since they haven't been made in a long time. low supply + relatively high demand means higher prices. Same goes for DDR1 memory. THe computer industry is odd in that the prices of new products drop rather quickly in comparison to what was of comparable performance a while back an athlon FX57 cost $1000 around 2 years ago. Today a $35 chip is faster. Old parts get cheaper fast, but once they're out of production, they're not as "cheap" as newer stuff. in this case the intel route would net you around a 20-30% performance boost at the same price point(if you overclock) 44pounds(either or) http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quick...NavigationKey=0 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=CP-152-IN 57/55 pounds(I'll tell you which is better in a bit I'm not familiar with the MSI board and I was looking for cheep but really easy to tweek, the IP35 isa great value board but no RAID or firewire onboard, if you don't ened that then you're set however) http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quick...NavigationKey=0 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=MB-003-OK 30 pounds http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....&subcat=813 prices are a bit higher your side of the pond but yeh it's about the same priceswapping board RAM and CPU as it is just the CPU and RAM. Then factor in the ability to sell your old stuff and well... EDIT: go with the IP35
OK well it seems to me that right now the most logical thing to do is go with the processor route and just stick it out with current GPU for a few more months until the 8800 serious drops a bit in price. I would definitely be wanting to go Intel but what benefits do I lose by not having RAID or firewire. I've never been too sure what either does tbh, although I thought RAID was to do with running dual HDDs which I would be wanting to do pretty soon I imagine. Would this be a problem? Also through this route I still only end up with 1GB of RAM though I'd imagine it wouldn't cost too much more to boost that up; just to clarify I'd be looking for DDR2 memory? How about other aspects though. Presumably I can just swap the GFX card and sound card over to the new mobo but how do I know it will fit in my case. I know on the whole cases are inexpensive but all I've ever installed in the past is RAM and a DVD reader lol so just a tad worried of getting this all wrong For instance how about this RAM: http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quick...9&InMerch=1 Or even these: http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/931268/art...c-memory-4.html http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Team-Elite-2GB-DDR2-...oQQcmdZViewItem
if you want to buy a new videocard, and not too expensive, 8800GS would be good, its around the $150 but a decent card
the 8800s wont' be dropping in price much, the 9800 uses the same GPU and largely the same circuit board. think 5-10% drop at most. also, my bad on the RAM. in the us that kit is $30 and I thought it was the 2GB kit since.. well 1GB on that is a horrible deal here this link, the two were next to each other and I couldn't see a difference so i went with the cheaper one(it was 5AM) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....&subcat=813
OK thanks for help with the RAM Looks much better now The only thing worrying me is will the lack of RAID limit me to running one hard drive at any time? Like I said I don't fully grasp what RAID is but that is my understanding
RAID puts drives in an array and basically treats multiple drives as a single drive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID you can still use multiple drives as separate distinct drives and if need be you can always buy a cheep addon card. or you could shell out mroe and get a baord with native RAID support. Do note however that the onboard RAID is only really satisfactory for RAID0 RAID 1 and RAID 10 as it's software absed RAID and those mdoes are the simple modes.
OK well thanks for all the help. Frankly it seems to suit my needs and if it ever becomes a huge issue it would probably be time to upgrade again anyway lol. I'll shop around and see what the best deals I can get on those components are ^^ thanks again xlink!
