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Upgrade Help...
Hello everyone,
I have a fairly old PC and have been kicking around the idea of dumping it in favor of something new with the likes of ESO and EQNext coming out in the future, but after reading a couple articles about how both games are being made so they are playable on older PCs (4-5 years old) as well, I am beginning to rethink my plan.
Here are the basics on my system:
Windows Vista Home Premium - 32bit
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.6 Ghz
3GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 9800GT
500GB HD
Considering I have only about $400 to play with, dumping and rebuilding would be all but impossible right now, so do any of you see places that it would be worth it to upgrade, or would I be best served saving the $$$ and going with what I have now?
Old school logic says upgrade the RAM, but I could swear I had someone tell me it would be a waste with Vista 32bit because it doesnt use more than the 3 GB I had or something like that. I could be wrong, but that was a while ago.
Any advice would be good, as if this is good as it is, I could use that $400 on something else 
Thanks!
_________________________________
Vic - "Androzzi here"
John - "Vic, your case just busted wide open."
Vic - "So close it for me!"
John - "Looks like your going to have to close it yourself, SHITTY!!!!"
Comments
Its not worth thinking about upgrading until you are committed to the idea, its also best not to plan a system around a game that won't even be out for another year. With tech waiting until the last possible minute is the best method for getting the best technology for the lowest price.
A $400 system will be comparable to the system you currently have. It will only consume less power. Realistically you are going to be looking at around $800 for a new system that would be worth upgrading from.
The best time to upgrade in the short-term is Q3/Q4 2014. Right now all the technology is exactly the same as last year but rebadged. In Q3/Q4 2014 or early 2015 new hardware rolls out. It would also be about the same time you can buy a system that will be comparable to the new console generation.
As far as ram on a gaming system, right now it does not matter. The first 64-bit exclusive game is just now releasing, that game won't even make use of the extra ram since its going to be a cross-platform game on the older consoles with some pathetic ram numbers. If the game is 32 bits, it can only access about 2GB ram. Some companies use methods to get up to 3GB ram. Vista 32-bit can only address 4GB of ram.
Thanks for posting. You said what I was thinking. Its good to know that for the time being my system is serviceable. I know by the time new hardware comes out I should be able to fully upgrade.
Much appreciated.
_________________________________
Vic - "Androzzi here"
John - "Vic, your case just busted wide open."
Vic - "So close it for me!"
John - "Looks like your going to have to close it yourself, SHITTY!!!!"
The system you have now:
There's a lot of specs missing, but you can get some bang for the buck in a few spot upgrades.
Your RAM is probably mismatched, which is less than ideal.
I don't know which motherboard you have. It's possible you could upgrade the CPU and get a decent upgrade right there. I can't say which CPU though, or how much faster it would be, because I don't know which motherboard. It is also somewhat possible that it won't be worthwhile upgrading the CPU without also upgrading the motherboard
Video card is an easy spot to gain a nice upgrade, but as it stands right now, without upgrading CPU with it, it won't do much for you.
SSD is also an easy spot upgrade to make to great effect, but your CPU will hold you back in current games (most are assuming quad core, and that older AMD will really struggle).
And given that your computer is that old, it may be time for a new power supply: I would hate to sink $400 into your rig and then have the power supply up and blow it all up (which is more common than you would like to think, even in power supplies that "have worked just fine").
Post your motherboard and powersupply models, so we can get an idea of that picture. And then we could get down to brass tacks. Up front, I'll say, if you end up needing a new motherboard, then you are pretty much getting an entire new computer, and $400 may not be enough to get you very far, but that very much depends on what motherboard you have now.
I don't really think you can pull off much of an improvement for $400 because you will probably end up bottlenecking somewhere that you couldnt afford to upgrade. If you upgrade the CPU you probably wont have enough for a decent GPU and vice versa.
You also didn't include the wattage on your power supply ,the frequency of your RAM, or your motherboard model.
In order to upgrade your processor to something more recent you will have to replace your mobo as well. This normally means you will need a copy of the OS you will want to install. If you don't have a copy of the OS you want to install you are looking at an additional $100.
You could probably skimp on upgrading the RAM and use the 400 to pick up a new mobo, os, cpu and gpu if you are dead set on upgrading now.
Personally I would probably wait to see if there are any good deals on black friday that let you get everything you need.
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
It's been patched and upgraded such that it's not really that much different than Windows 7 if you have it updated.
It just has a stigma associated with it that the uniformed love to stick with.
good call thats probably why microsoft openly announced that they only support the latest 2 operating systems, yet still supported xp despite vista and 7 being out, they know they botched it with that, they admit it, the ammount of resources it takes just for that to run is far above and beyond any other OS, and yes sticking band aids on things makes them go away right? everyone knows patching speeds things up and is preferred to a clean install of any other OS
Honestly OP probably needs to upgrade to a 64bit OS anyway to get rid of the 4GB RAM limit.
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
I honestly don't know why people say Vista was a failure. Does it have some technical flaws which make it inferior to XP? Also, Windows 8 is fine, aside from the Metro Start Menu which can be replaced with third-party programs like ClassicShell.
OP: You should move to a 64-bit operating system. I prefer Windows 7 for my home machine, but you might be able to obtain a 64-bit Vista disk from Microsoft by paying for shipping. Upgrading to a 64-bit system would allow you to address more than ~3GB of RAM, which is one of your main bottlenecks right now. Any decent gaming machine should have 8GB of RAM for modern games. You might be able to get by with 4GB, but the page file activity will lead to slow loading and likely hitching while the OS writes to your hard drive.
Your CPU is a socket AM2, which is too old to find a decent modern upgrade for. If you had a socket AM3, you could get something decent for a low cost. If you can't upgrade your CPU, there is no point in upgrading your GPU as most games will likely be limited by your CPU. You will need a completely new system. Next-gen games might run at the lowest settings, at barely playable framerates on your current system. You can't just throw upgrades in your current system and expect it to result in significant improvements in performance.
Try to fit a SSD in your budget for a new system. The difference it makes in loading the OS and the overall responsiveness of the system is amazing. If you have to wait a few months to get a decent budget together, you have time. EQ:N and ESO won't be releasing for at least a year.
I second basically everything that was said here. Basically hold out until you can by a new gaming system.
You should also maybe look into possibly getting pre-made system from Cyberpower or whomever. If you already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse, you can get some good deals and even I sometimes can't build similar system setups for the prices they are offering and you get a warranty to boot.
I would hesitate to buy a premade gaming system. They are most often overpriced quite a bit. The ones that seem to offer a cheap price tend to skimp out on important things like power supplies and motherboards.
Just scrolling down the list of Cyberpower PCs on newegg I'm seeing lots of skimpy power supplies. motherboards, and even old cpus that I would avoid. If you order from their site it seems that they are even more overpriced.
Just my 2 cents.
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
With money to spent upgrade at least to 64bit OS win7/8(i prefer 7 but thats another storie)
Vista was after 2 years at 64bit not bad but win7 after that was just alot better then vista no matter how you try look at it.Vista was alot worse then XP ALOT.
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
I think the below site is good for figuring out a starting point for those on a budget. I don't agree with all of the build choices and I would give more priority to certain things, but it can at least get you started on picking parts.
http://www.logicalincrements.com/
Save your money and upgrade when you have your target amount.
I would say save around $800 for a decent system, $1000 would get you something nice, $1200 would be real nice.
Not worth dumping any money you have into the pc you have, better to save it for a totally new system.
tbh you would be better off saving and then build close to launch of eqnext which will not be until next year .
not in usa so using your pcpartpicker there
here a reasonable rig to make and maybe you can budget towards it
amd fx-6300 $100
Asus
M5A78L-M LX PLUS $50
Crucial
BLE4G3D1608DE1TX0 4gb x 2 $75
R9 270x $200
corsair 500W builder series $30
if you need a case and really low on cash just go for a generic one as long as its not too slim for cooling and able to fit your graphics card maybe $30
can you re use your HDD if its not too old and slow then thats another $40 for a 500gb 7200rpm
want to upgrade windows maybe $80
so pretty much if you keep your case ,HDD and vista then it will be $450 so within your budget for a system that can run any game out there for at least medium setting if not better.however be warned your vista i believe is 32 bit meaning it will only recognize 4gb which is just about ok for now but in future games you be needing more ram for sure.
but 4gb will let you game easily for now but not in near future .so i suppose you could upgrade and when you get more cash simply upgrade to a 64 bit windows system.the hard ware upgrade will already be in place with 8gb ram.
here something to look at battlefield 4 is pretty much considered the benchmark for modern gaming and probably specs to aim at for both recommended and minimum for next year
"DICE has confirmed the minimum and recommended specs for upcoming shooter Battlefield 4.
You need at least 4GB of RAM and 512MB of graphics memory to run the game. DICE recommends you have 8GB of RAM and 3GB of graphics memory.
Minimum quality graphics cards are the AMD Radeon HD 3870 or the NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GT, but DICE recommends you have the HD 7870 or the GTX 660.
DICE also recommends you run Windows 8 64-bit, but BF4 will go as low as Windows Vista SP2 32-bit."
so as you can see with the upgrade you actually meet the recommended specs easily as you would have better then a HD7870 with a R 270x and the 8gb ram but the vista will bottleneck you to minimum spec on the RAM .
So yes people will pay build a rig for $1200 or whatever but tbh if you shop around and make comprimises you can make it for little over $400 but need to soon move on to windows 64 bit(there are ways to do it for real cheap but its something you need to look into yourself hehe).