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Help: Upgrading System, need feedback.
Shroudednova
Member Posts: 29
in Hardware
My computer is six years old and in need of some upgrades. Presently I can’t afford to buy a new computer and I don’t feel that I need to because the one I have has served me well. I mean I can play RIFT in it, and a list of other games, without much trouble. But there is no going around the fact that I need to upgrade my system.
I don’t know much about computers that’s why I would like some feedback from those who do. I plan to buy the following items to improve performance.
1- CPU: Which should I get AMD or Intel, and should I go for Dual or Quad CPU? Also I understand that before I purchase a CPU I need to figure out how much WATT my computer handles, but I can’t seem to figure out how to get this information off my system?
2- RAM: Should I upgrade to 8GB or will 4GB bee enough? (My system has 4 slots for RAM)
3- Video Card: My system supports SLI and also GPU cards. What is the difference and what should I do here?
What I need help with is figuring out which brands are compatible with my system. My goal is to improve performance.
My system is:
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.101209-1647)
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2558MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS/XT
My budget is 200-300 dollars. All suggestions are appreciated. Tnx.
Comments
Hey Man,
I've been building for over 15 years, If your budget is $300.00 you should really just save up till you get around 350-400 and build a brand new Comp imo, I know you said you don't think you need one and just want to upgrade but there is no point in putting new money into old tech.
You can go down to your local mom and pop computer shop to install the core if you don't feel you have the experience to do it or are not comfortable doing it alone for the first time, after you watch and learn you can do it yourself. Takes just a sec to install the core and HS. Getting the board in the case and the OS is going to be the most time consuming.
I just built a new Comp for myself,came out to $500.00 I can show you how to build a nice new one for arounnd 350-400 only thing you need is a new power supply or maybe your old dell one might work for a whille till you get more money and you should be good to go. As for your HD you can just switch it into the new case, will need to format and reintall OS.
Now I assume you just want the comp that works and plays games so overclocking is not a big deal and its just about having good performace and a good price.
Case-Antec
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
Memory -1333 Crucial 4 Gigs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148346
Mobo-P67 3 year Warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138296
CPU 3 year Warranty 3.4 Quad
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074
With shipping its $402.25 before shipping its $392.92, Its a ton better then your Dell and its built by you so you can tweak it to your liking. You can't get a better deal with more features, I've been shoping for the last 3 days non-stop to build my comp. You don't need 8 gigs at them moment for your usage its overkill/
Hope this helps, I can't in good faith tell you to upgrade old tech.
ImageShack.us
Cool, tnx for the sensible advice. Originally I had 500.00 but had to purchase a new monitor because my old one died and that set me back 200 bucks. But I can go for a new gaming system for 500.00 (once I save up the money again). Would you mind sharing what you build so that I can get an idea? I can always order some parts now and get the rest once I have the money available. Tnx again!
No problem man,
This is what I just bought, keep in mind if your not an MSI fan or are worried about Boot Loop you can always go Asus I guess there failure rate(with some ram) is less. I just like MSI and I wanted that board at that price with those features.
Case-Antec
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
Memory-1600 Corsair Veng 9-9-9-24
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145343
Mobo-MSI P67 B3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130574
CPU- I5 2500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
This setup was $509.92 and $517.55 with shiping.
I went with the i5 2500k for two reasons, One being that its unlocked and can overclock with ease and Two that its the best Price to Preformace ratio. Only need 4gigs and choose Corsair becuase on the MSI forums they said it was the one of the best brands to use. I like the P67 highend mobo cause of the extra features now you could go with a lower version like:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130571 for $124.99
Goodluck!
ImageShack.us
You need a new computer. It's about that simple. A modern processor will require a modern processor socket, which means a new motherboard. It will also take DDR3 memory, so you'll need new memory. You'll need a new video card as well, and then probably a new power supply to power it all, and a new case to get adequate airflow. Your hard drive is probably old enough that it should be replaced before it dies. Replacing everything like that means you need a new OS license, too.
The good news is that if you're willing to assemble parts yourself, you can get something decent for $600, excluding peripherals. The parts that others are linking are really the wrong class of parts to be looking at, though; they're trying to give you about half of a $1000 build, excluding peripherals.
If you need time to save money, then what's reasonable to get by the time you've got the money might be different from today, so it's probably better to just come back then.
He didn't say if the 6800 was PCI-E or AGP, even though its old its not so old that it can't still be used, not that he can't go out and get a cheap 50-75 card that will give him better performace then the 6800. Also the power supply as long as its 24 pin and over 450W its good too and for the HD don't fix what ant broken. He don't need to upgrade everything and spend $800-900. To most people $800-900 is alot of money....
Don't try and make him buy more then he needs, as far as the parts I linked that subjective and to each his own its the best parts and the best price, so if you can beat that plz do tell.... Best Price/Preformace ratio on everything.
He can get an OEM win7 for $99 and maybe he already bought win7 (prob not full version)for his dell....He can always get a cheap XP lisence or even Vista. Whatever he does he dosen't need to have someone else build it for him or go for another build that has lesser quality parts.
You do not need $1000.00 for a good build, and there are other ways around to get the parts/software you need a a better price or even free.
Edit: The i5 2500k has an IGP That he should be albe to manage with for a few weeks or even a few months till he can get a cheap card off of e-bay or craigslist or even buy a new one, if your not playing in 1920x1080 then you don't need top of the line video card or even close..
ImageShack.us
You don't need $1000 for a decent gaming build. You do need around $1000 for a Core i5 2500K to make sense.
How big of an upgrade is it if you're going to keep a video card that is only roughly competitive with modern integrated graphics and not upgrade that, too?
Power supplies have changed since the Pentium 4 era. Now, nearly all of the power drawn from them is on the +12 V rail. Even if what he has would have been a good 450 W power supply when the computer was new (which is unlikely on both the "good" and "450 W" counts), it's not going to offer anywhere near that on the +12 V rail, and won't be safe for a modern gaming computer.
Yeah, I agree. Your going to end up upgrading nearly everything inside of that computer. Motherboard, RAM, CPU, Video, and Power Supply at a minimum.
You could keep the hard drive, optical drive, and case, but the hard drive has XXX hours on it already and that much closer to failure and the case may not fit newer CPU heatsinks and video cards, as well as have some air flow issues with newer components. It would, however, save a chunk of cash ($150 or so total) as long as your careful with the ventilation in the case.
As far as AMD versus Intel:
I wouldn't worry too much about how many cores your system has. Almost all CPU's out today are at least dual core, and most are quad core. Video games in particular have a very hard time using all the cores that are out there, and you won't see a whole lot of difference gaming-wise as you add more cores to a CPU. For future-proofing, I would recommend a quad core, but realize that almost nothing today can actually use all 4 cores
Right now there are really only two systems I consider for gaming rigs: The Intel Sandy Bridge K series (2500k/2600k), and the AMD Deneb line (Phenom II X4 series in particular). There are other processor lines available, but for gaming, you trade a lot off on the price for performance, and these seem to be the two sweet spots available today.
The Intel system will cost more and there are only a few motherboards out there right now to choose from (this should change as the CPU becomes more popular), but but give you higher benchmarks, and marginal FPS increases. A CPU + Motherboard will start at around $400 and work it's way up.
The AMD system will be a lot cheaper, has a lot larger motherboard selection, and for gaming will perform more than adequately. A CPU + Motherboard can be found as low as $200 and work it's way up.
They both will run Windows and games just fine, no compatibility issues at all. You'd likely never know the difference between the two unless someone told you just playing on them. Benchmarks will be radically different, but real world gaming won't be that far apart.
RAM:
For all intents and purposes, 4G is plenty. Vista/Win7 use around 2G just for the OS, and then most all games are still 32-bit, which means they can't use more than 2G themselves. As long as your just playing one game at a time, you'll rarely (if ever) run out of RAM on a 4G system. Now, if you multibox, or are a heavy multitasker, 8G of RAM is a relatively cheap investment and will ensure you won't run out of RAM. Once you run out of RAM, your system will perform very badly, but there is no such penalty for having too much RAM.
SLI/GPU:
GPU is just a fancy way of saying Video card. About 3 years ago, AMD and nVidia decided to start calling them Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) and marketing them as doing things other than Video. nVidia can do physics calculations on their GPU (PhysX), both brands can run general purpose computations (CUDA/OpenCL/DirectCompute), if the program specifically allows for it. This is only supported on newer video card lines - I think the AMD 2000HD+, and the nVidia 8000+ series.
SLI/Crossfire is a way to take two (and up to four) video cards, and use them as a single faster video card. SLI is nVidia's brand name, Crossfire is AMD's, they do about the same thing. You don't get exactly double the performance, but it's close. In general, unless you are working with high end video cards, it's better off to just get a single faster video card than try to chain together slower or older video cards using SLI or Crossfire.
This old i can only say try get xp 64 bit edition get ddr2 1033 mhz ram and try get a nvidia 8800gt if posible on this mother board try sli i doub that 8800gt is expensive maybe 35bucks each.
But on this old system best is upgrade to 64bit and get better ram and maybe if still avaible somewhere 8800gt.
Going with better parts is realy waste on such old pc.
Dont go for vista on this system then you regret for rest of your life if posible get win7 lighter and faster OS alot better also then xp.
Dont listend to most replys here there just e-peen how they know whats on market and how to build a pc rig but you have limited budget so there advice is useless.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Thanks everyone for your feedback and advice, I appreciate them.
My comp is definitely on its last days. A few days ago my system kept shutting down on me, eventually the monitor died and I had to replace it. I thought that would be the end of it but last night my system shut down after a shrieking whistle, which I believe is its own way of notifying me that the system is too hot. I took the fans out and cleaned them up, including the video card, and have left the case open since, it seems to be working fine but I fear this is just the beginning of the end. I won't be updating this system after all and plan to build my own.
I found this website with information on how to build a custom gaming computer. One of the suggested systems, which fall within my budget, is "The Budget Gaming Desktop Computer". I'm wondering if this build is a good investment?
Motherboard: Biostar A880GU3 AMD Motherboard (89.99)
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Quad Core Processor - 3.00GHz
($100)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 RAM
($48)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 5670 1024MB
($100)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB
($55)
Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower Case
($50)
Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 (79.99)
TOTAL COST: $523 (USD)
That might well have been a decent value when he picked it out, but prices bounce around so much that trying to grab an off-the-shelf parts list like that is a bad idea. That build also lacks an OS license, and that's an extra $100 right there. The video card is overpriced, but the rest of the parts look like they might have been a decent value.
If you want a modern budget gaming computer, then try this:
Motherboard: $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128443
Actually a pretty good motherboard, and not at all of the cheap junk variety.
Processor: $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886
Should be plenty for nearly all modern games. You can upgrade the processor later if you end up with a bigger budget and decide you need something better.
Memory: $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396
4 GB is plenty.
Video card: $130, before a $30 mail-in rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161338
Pretty nice video card for the money if you're willing to do rebates, as you should be on a tight budget. You could save some money on a video card here if you really needed to.
Hard drive: $55 with promo code
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319
You can get cheaper hard drives, but they're also slower, so don't.
Optical drive: $18
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289
Case: $55, before a $10-mail in rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
Free shipping is a big deal for computer cases, too.
Power supply: $36 with promo code
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033
It's a good quality power supply for a low power system, and it's cheap. It doesn't come with a power cord, so you'll have to re-use what you already have.
Operating system: $95 if in a combo deal with the power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.591057
That comes to $604, including shipping, before $40 in rebates. That makes it $24 cheaper than the claimed price on the build you found (and prices on parts have since changed), for a better computer. And this would be a passable modern gaming computer, without severely cut corners anywhere.
This leads me to the main problem with building home computers and it's what I call the Where/What Syndrome. Where should I go and what should I buy. Newegg is the first place you should go when buying computer components online, excellent service and very quick shipping in my experience, but TigerDirect is not a bad choice either. What to buy is a harder question to answer. When you pick out and item, whether you pick it out yourself or one suggested by someone else, read ALL the feedback on it.
Here's a tip; Join the EggXpert forums, which is Newegg's 'official' forums' and a lot of accomplished builders frequent them. It's not a slight to this forum or the ones who post in it, but you'd want to go to a specialist site to get deep info on building computers. BTW, there's a cool thread over there where someone posted several computer builds startiing at 400$ up to 1200$ and he updates it frequently. I can't recall the thread title but it is stickied under the computer builds forum