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Upgrade Recommendation
darkcircuit
Member Posts: 211
Hey all,
Been a member for a while now and it feels like everytime I post all I ask for is help in making upgrade decisions about my rig so for that reason I'll start with an apology...Sorry 
Now thats over with let me ask for more upgrade advice 
My PC is a few years old now and although it was a beast a while back now its starting to lag behind my GF's PC which was a budget special eekkkk! Games load slower and it seem to have a bit of computational lag when playing AION (right click on an NPC and the quest dialog doesnt display for a few seconds).
My current spec is:
- M/B: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
- Graphics: EVGA 8800GTX 768MB
- P/S: Hypex Modular
- Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 20.1"
- Memory: Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C4DHX TwinX
- H/D: Samsung Spin-T 320gb
- Internet connection: 25mb/s
Can anyone recommend what I should look at upgrading thats going to give me the biggest performance boost? I'm pretty sure its the CPU thats causing me to lag behind but I would love a second....third...forth....and so on opinion.
Cheers,
Dave
Comments
Your PC looks pretty decen to me, yeah it's an older CPU but it shouldn't be having much trouble with any games. First thing I'd do is open the case, get a paint brush (a small one like Van Gouh used!) or a shaving brush. Clean out all the dust on the heatsink, especially the stuff behing the heat sink fan. Use a hoover to suck out the dust as you dust it with the brush. I do this every few months and with lower end systems it helps alot if you're using it alot. Now try your comp afterwards and see if there's a noticeable difference.
If you're comp is clean and it makes no difference then I'd consider getting a better CPU an Intel (spit) E8400 3.0GHZ would be a cheap but excellent upgrade. How many Watts does your PSU have? Also which hard disk do you use, and which OS?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
I'll give the blowout a go, thanks for the advice
Regarding the H/D its a Samsung Spin-T 320gb and I'm running Vista X64 Ultimate.
Ye Intel E8400 would be the right investment for that comp imo.
Currently playing: N/A
Retired from: GW, WAR, Aion, LOTRO, Rift, SW:TOR, Vinductus
Yep...The E8400 (Ive been using for over a year now) would be a good pick. It's an overclockers dream of a chip! However I will be upgrading to the Q9650 twords the end of this year, due to more games coming out that support Quad Cores. The Q9650 is twice the price of the E8400 WITH TWICE THE CORES.
Also update:
MB bios
chipset drivers
sound drivers
display drivers
ECT...
Thanks the advice guys, so currently there is no real advantage to upgrading to quad core? I was looking at quad cores but if I'm more likely to get better performance from a dual core than a quad core of a comparable price then I'll stick with a duo.
And how much money do you have to upgrade? As said above update those drivers and look at the Bios, I find older rigs are extremely sensitive to heat and slow down visualy when fans loose efficency due to dust or drivers often on the GPU fan under performing.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
All drivers are totally up to date including the bios and I will give the fan a blowout when I get home. I have a seriously massive heatsink on the CPU (Thermalright) with a gianormous fan on it shifting a ton of air, lots of case fans and a fairly empty case. Judging by the CPU temperature monitor its not getting that hot so I doubt overheating is going to be an issue.
Regarding money to spend, really dont want to spend more than £200 on it, if your not in the UK then to give u an idea of cost I can get a E8400 for £140.
Dave
Well with the E8400 and the q9650 have the same clock speed of 3.0ghz. and they both will hit 4.0ghz (the q9650 at 4.2 easy). The two will perform the same when using dual core supported games or programs. At some point everything will support Q-cores and you will be replacing the Dual core for a Q-core!
Excellent, thanks for all the excellent advice guys. Think I'll grab a E8400 ASAP
Thanks again,
Dave
Well I'm not so knowledgable about Intel but for no more than £200 a Q9450 for £192 (look in the price list). I'm not sure if this is a good quad core for the price but it seems to be the highest performer below £200. You'll have to ask sir drip.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Well I'm not so knowledgable about Intel but for no more than £200 a Q9450 for £192 (look in the price list). I'm not sure if this is a good quad core for the price but it seems to be the highest performer below £200. You'll have to ask sir drip.
The e8400 @3.0ghz and q9450 @ 2.66ghz, The e8400 is faster when using dual core supported games and programs! However if you were to overclock the q9450 to 3.2ghz the q9450 would be faster and would cover all q-core supported games and programs ect...
Based on the fact that there are so few games (currently) that support quad cores and I'm sure I'll probably end up upgrading when more come out, I'll probably stick with getting a dual core but thanks for looking into it for me, knew MMORPG was the best place to ask this question, so many helpful people
Baring in mind that Im now looking at a E8400 I have one last question...What CPU fan would you guys recommend? The one I have at the moment is a Thermalright XP-120 and its pretty massive (taking up a fair bit of case room), so I would like to downgrade to something a bit smaller (better airflow) but not compromise on cooling ability.
Im using the AC freezer 7 pro. That chip OCed to 4.0 and have yet to see 55 deg C under full load. Also I lapped the heatsinc's suface.
Im using the AC freezer 7 pro. That chip OCed to 4.0 and have yet to see 55 deg C under full load. Also I lapped the heatsinc's suface.
Lapped the heatsink's surface?
Lapping is sort of like sanding the contact surfaces where the heatsink meets the CPU, to get rid of grooves that traps air. I think you need some special sand and stuff to do it.
This might help click kind of makes me nervous just looking at it, but it helps with cooling that CPU though I've never had the balls to do it!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Im using the AC freezer 7 pro. That chip OCed to 4.0 and have yet to see 55 deg C under full load. Also I lapped the heatsinc's suface.
Lapped the heatsink's surface?
You can google it. More importantly 2 things it dose is: Makes the surface flat and smooth. And when your done you should see your reflection on that suface! It removes imperfections causing air gaps and can drop temps by 10 deg C or more under load!
Though I would never do the CPU...But the heatsink is less stressfull and worth doing!
but does sanding down your processor void your warranty I wonder? maybe best left to the finatics.
My blog:
Yeah, the E8400 is probably the best choice as Drip has said, but that 8800GTX might be lagging your system down. There has been a monumental increase in GPU technology in the last 17 months. You might want to replace that power hungry pig (8800gtx) with a HD4770 $99 (or a few bucks more the HD4850 $140).
That will work well wih the new CPU in speeding up AION, plus allow you to turn more in-game features on. With less heat and added performance for minimal cost.
Though, the E8400 should help out quite a bit. Any idea what your memory timings are ..? And what OS are you running?
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- Knowledge is power, ive been in school for 28 years!