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Help With Upgrading My Computer Please
Ok, i've built my computer roughly around 2 years ago and i think it's time to tweak up my computer a little so it can function on par with the decent gaming computers, but not go overboard with the price.
at the moment i have:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+ MMX, 3D Now, 2Ghz
2048MB RAM
Motherboard: Asus K8N4-3 Deluxe
Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS
40 gig hard-drive (from previous pc owned)
SB Audigy 4 (AU400) (sound card)
ok my first thought is to get a new graphics card cuz my main use of computer is probably going to be game orientated...........and i also realised at the moment i have a 350W power supply which gets over-worked and lacks sufficient power to run even current gfx card, so i be upgrading those 2 for definate.
the main thing im thinking is should i upgrade my hard-drive......i know it can be alot more beneficial in terms of space, but in terms of speed and performance, does it make that much of a difference?
one other thing that confuses myself is the power suppy and gfx card, do they need to be compatible with the motherboard?
these are the 2 products im thinking of buying...........
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142228 (graphics card)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129282 (power supply)
possible for hard drive upgrade : http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130454
IF these items are not compatible will anyone please refer to what items i should be looking out for which may be compatible with my computer thank you.
Greatly Appreciated
Comments
i think that board has an AGP slot rather than pci-e. you might wanna check that.
____________________________
TheCore
I can help you out on this... i'm passing for the same thing (similar config). You can send me an email using my ID in here so we can talk better.
What is your main goal on this upgrade? Games, work, internet, video edition... many many options.
My guess would be to get a AMD X2 Duo core, 4 Gig ram, a mother board that supports more memory, HD with 500Gigs at leasgt (or 1 Tera), Video card will depends on your final goal for the puter... Power source, I love my Zalman, really attends to my needs (4 SATAII HDs, DVD+3 IDE HDs)... not very usual... hehe
About this, the new power sources has some connectors for either SATAII and PCI-E video cards, so no worries about it.
Here's the offer, if you want a hand finding out what is the best config for your needs, send me a private msg or an email... I'll help you out!
but are they compatible though? the motherboard is a PCI slot not AGP, and does getting hard-drive that does like 32MB cache for 7200 RPM improve my performance or is it irrelevant.
thanks.
You want to see if it is a pci-e slot which I dont think it is,pci-e is not the same as pci.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
I'm also pretty sure that's an AGP board.
If you have to keep that board instead of upgrading, look into an ATI Sapphire AGP card. Pretty nice, and they run games like EQII, WoW and even Vanguard on most the highest levels.
But in my personal opinion, save us some scratch for a whole new system.
Aye,
If he can afford to, he can canabalize whatever parts he can, and grab newer parts to at least get ahead of the curve a bit.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Tbh m8 I would say save up and buy yourself a new system,yes ppl can say to buy this and that but tbh you need a whole new unit and maybe now is the time.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Agreed.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
I agree...a month ago i decided to build a whole new system and i love it. spend a little over a grand and now have a computer that runs almost everything on high settings. This is what i went with in mine...
Mobo...evga nvidia 780i
CPU...intel quad 6600
Running 2 Evga 8800GTS in sli...fixing to upgrade to 3 9800gtx
1000w gamerxtreme psu
4 gigs of sli memory
ok, due to all the advice and recommendations i had through people that are quite genuinely to help
my first concern was the price factor, thinking that instead of 2 items getting like 6-7 (basically buying all the parts) would cost like £1000 to get a mediocre spec PC, but i filtered through some stuff and found these parts that i think are all compatible. so would liek peoples opininon on my 'new' pc.
Case:
Casecom Black Mid Tower Case - Front Blue LED 120mm Fan - With Side Window
PSU:
Hi-Power Black 1000W Modular 13.5cm Fan PSU - 4x PCI-E, 20+4pin, 6x SATA
Motherboard :
Gigabyte GA M57SLI-S4 SKT AM2 Nvidia MCP55P PCI-E 8Channel audio ATX
Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (3GHz) Socket AM2 L2 2MB (2 x 1MB) Cache OEM Processor
Memory:
Kingston 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ecc CL5 Unbuffered 1.8V
GFX Card:
Inno3D 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 Wind Edition Cooler Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Sound Card:
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-Express - OEM
Hard Drive:
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM
Disk Drive:
Optiarc AD-7200S 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM Internal SATA Bare Black Drive - OEM
Cooling Fan:
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler
TOTAL PRICE: £465.93!! ONLY
if there are any mis-matches concerning compatiblity issues, or maybe case doesn't fit the equipment due to size etc, please tell me i'll try my best to find ones within the right specification. i'm intending to buy them from www.ebuyer.co.uk so the specific details about each item can be found there.
thank you, greatly appreciated for everyones help.
I would REALLY get a Maxtor raptor Enterprise 10k rpm Drive and set it as C drive with windows and apps loaded onto it. Loading games and everything else is faster on that drive.
I would keep the 500GB drive as D drive and store all music, vids, docs, etc on that so if your operating system gets corrupted or messed up, at least your data is on a different drive.
What you have there is absulutely fine and will run all the games out there but having that 10k rpm drive will make that difference in loading, reading, writting, rendering, etc. I found those 10k rpm drives to work wonders for me so i try to recommend it to everyeone. My setup is 2x 150gb 10rpm drives on RAID 0 setup.
Here is What I suggest you get:
Change your processor to a Intel Quad Core (Approx £176) eg: Here
Motherboard to an Asus board (3 years warrenty from Asus standard) eg: Here
An Asus Graphics card (again 3 years warrenty) eg: Here
Here is the soft hard Disk i was talking about (can be changed anytime) eg: Here
My point of view is that since you are making a new system you might as well stick to it for at least arround 2 years. Asus giving 3 years warrenty means you will have the system for arround 3 years. You REALLY need to go for quad core if you intend to future proof your PC a little bit better.
PS: Is that Creative Audigy sound card really needed? I mean your motherboard has a 8 channel HD Audio built into it. Why spend more unless you have a SPECIFIC need for it. If you are gong to use the PC for gaming and general use then scrap the Audigy i would say.
Goodluck with whichever you decide to go with.
Edit: My post is directed at the post above mine. Yes, better to start a fresh system with decent core components.
your pc cannot be upgrade. everything need to change..!!
dont waste money on upgrade your system..
If you lazy to build & want to save some $$.. buy the Dell, i bought the Inspiron 530 Quad 6600 2.4ghz, 1gb ddr, 250gb, & a 24inch widescreen lcd for $680(everything included tax). Then i plug in a 2gb ddr($30) & a 8800GT ($160) And i can play Age of Conan in high quality.
Dell PC
1. Go to http://configure.us.Dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?CS=19&kc=6VAFF&oc=DDCWDA2&dgc=CJ&cid=24471&lid=566643
2. choose "Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)"
3. choose "24 inch E248WFP Entry Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor"
4. apply coupon code "CJ?Z2DQDSJ0L0N"
$699 with free shipping
hey greatly appreciated with the idea's and advice you have given me but i think i'll pass on the processor and the motherboard, as in my im only intending to probably have this PC for 3 years, before 'Properly' upgrade to quad cores, when i get a job and money so like i say i try to keep the price not exceeding something like £500 in total.
the graphics card i'll definately consider because it's a really good card indeed, but it would make it easier if purchased from the same site such as ebuyer, but i'll consider it thank you for that advice.
i've decided to scrap the sound card, because i thought on-board sound cards are usually basic and are no competition with the seperately bought ones, but thank you for this advice.
(save myself £30)
and i know no-one mentioned it, but the artic cooler, i really want to know is it really needed aswell? cause if there are some unneccessary items that i MAY be can not get i can try aim for a :
Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 Dual DVI PCI-E Graphics Card OEM
as a graphics card. (only extra £50) so it works out to be the price of sound card + cooler together, so i can afford it.
so is this GFX card way better than the one i planning to buy?
one last question that i keep over-hearing in forums and talks about computer is the term 'overclocking' but i have no idea what it stands for........so if anyone can help shed some light i would be thankful
i'm not real crazy about the motherboard & processor choice but if your heart is set on an amd rig, so be it.
basic overclocking..
it's generally considered running components above their preset limits. there's alot to consider before purchasing components with the intent to overclock being some components overclock better than others. more heat is generated from the cpu/chipset/gpu and additional cooling is required via larger/faster heatsinks and fans or liquid cooling. as a quick basic.. you can usually get about an additional 20%ish out of a cpu, around 15ish% from a gpu. there's MUCH more to it than that tho.
____________________________
TheCore
Hey man, great config.... only would change the memory.... use a single slot with 2GB on it... will let you get more if you want to.... bessides that, looks awesome with a great price.
Let me know...
Best not to get into over-cloaking UNLESS you have no other choice. Those enhanced coolers such as Arctic cooler are needed if you over-cloak a component in your system which requires more coolong than standard.
If you stay away from over-cloaking:
1) You will not burn out anything any sooner than natural cause
2) Warrenty is not in question
3) More system stability
4) Less stress
5) Less Heat
I can say from my own experience that it's not worth risking a perfectly working system for slight performance increase which we can't even notice in real time (a lot of the time).
Every Graphics card comes equiped with recommended cooling from manufacturer (some with heat sink and some with fan). The 768MB Graphics card IS better than previous ones we mentioned but you have to ask yourself "Is this card going to make my games/apps run/load any faster?" (512MB is more than plenty for what the market offers right now and once next gen graphics card come in market these cards will be dirt cheap to buy). Personally I think 512 is more than enough.
ok thanks to everyones advices, and recommendation and tips and knowledge i manage to clear out a lot of things about what makes a good 'part' etc and for that i am really thankful to all those who helped and attempted
i managed to filter through price and everything to make my new computer.........and here are the parts i be getting...........the one thing im not sure is it ALL compatible.........that would be my FINAL request.
heres the link that will show you the parts i will be getting.
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/2835/computerpartsnewbu8.jpg
my main concern is the motherboard................and the Power supply, and obviously power supply to other areas.
thank you all
