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Need advice on upgrading please

OverkillOverkill Member UncommonPosts: 29
in Hardware

I need to upgrade my system, I got it in 2008 and its been a great system but its starting to really show its age.

 

what I have is 

 

  • INTEL, Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 Quad-Core 2.83GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB (2 x 6MB) L2 Cache, 45nm, 95W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
  • XIGMATEK, HDT-S1283 CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink, Socket 775/754/939/940/AM2, 120mm Fan, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
  • ASUS, P5Q Deluxe, LGA775, Intel® P45, 1600MHz FSB, DDR2-1200 16GB /4, PCIe x16 CF /3, SATA 3.0 Gbit/s RAID 5 /8, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
  • G.SKILL, 8GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL4 (4-4-4-12) SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
  • AMD Radeon HD 6850 (this is the only real upgrade Ive made so far)
  • WESTERN DIGITAL, 320GB WD Caviar® SE16 (WD3200AAKS), SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 16MB cache
  • MITSUMI, Black Internal 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
  • SAMSUNG, Super-WriteMaster™ SH-S223 Black 22x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA, w/ Software, OEM
  • ANTEC, Performance One P182 Black Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU, Steel/Plastic
  • CORSAIR, CMPSU-620HX HX Series Modular Power Supply, 620W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Triple +12V, Multi-GPU Ready
 
The main thing that has me wanting to upgrade is I want to play Warhammer 40K and the FAQ has a recommended system settings and I know that it is early and a educated guess on their part but I know I need to upgrade a few parts to be able to play. The recommended from them is.
 
 
  • CPU: INTEL Core i5-750 / AMD Phenom II X6 1045T
  • GPU: NVidia GTX 660+ or similar video card
  • Memory: 8 GB DDR3
  • Hard Drive: 50GB Free Disc Space
  • OS: 64-bit Operating Systems (Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, SteamOS, MacOS X 10.9
I would like to keep my budget under 300$, the lower the better. Any help from the experts here would be most appreciated. Thank you.
 
 
edit: Can up my budget a bit if I have to.

Comments

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    Wait until the game comes out and you hit the first major patch.

    Then take a look at where you want to spend money on an upgrade. The the betas almost always run crappy on a good number of systems, the initial release usually runs crappy on a good number of systems, and the first big patch usually clears it up for most, and then you can tell if your system needs to be tweaked, or the game is gonna run good enough on what you already have.

    Never upgrade for a game before it's released. Doubly true if your on a budget. See how it runs before you upgrade anything. I know a lot of people are pissed right now that they upgraded for Wildstar, and it runs like crap after they threw a lot of money at it. Same thing happened for SWTOR, and for FFXIV, and for countless other games.

    Apart from the video card, which is still a serviceable card, your not really going to get an appreciably faster gaming system I don't think, and especially not for a $300 budget.

    Good grief I can't keep track of the different Warhammer games ><

  • Acidon.NumenAcidon.Numen Member Posts: 55

    You have the problem that I had a couple upgrades ago.  The problem is you need a new MB, CPU and RAM (and eventually a HD w / 64mb cache (6g/s)).  IMHO, it would be throwing money away to just upgrade the CPU or RAM at this point.

    This is the issue everyone runs into when it's time to upgrade up to another platform (chipset) - Depending on what chipset you're running.  Like my last upgrade, I jumped chipsets but was able to use my "old" 16g RAM - an example of an exception.

     

    Quizzical should be in here soon and will know the best route for you.  I've been building my own systems for more years than I care to admit, but I'm real hesitant to advise others.  Particularly in your situation with a small budget (I feel for you).

    Please Note: I'm done arguing with unreasonable people with an agenda and/or those that fail to see logic.

    Argue if you must, discount my post with anti-logic and/or Hyperbole. I won't be responding any longer.

  • Ezraiel92Ezraiel92 Member UncommonPosts: 13
    Just upgrade the video card, and overclock the cpu. Should be fine for a few more years.
  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237

    I may wait until the game comes out and see how it runs before I bought anything. And while you wait save up a bit more money to get a complete new system, or at least more than $300 worth of hardware.

    However if you wanted to buy today then look at this.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130637

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113287

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

    Motherboard, cpu, RAM & cpu cooler ( if the one you have wont fit this socket) for $295. Its an AMD Vishera build, which should do very well for what you need it for, especially on a budget.

    Again my advice would be to wait until launch of the game to see how your current PC runs. If your only reason to upgrade is in prep for the warhammer game, which has no release date yet, then for sure wait. If you want just a general upgrade for your system then maybe buy now. It is almost always a mistake to upgrade for a game before the game releases, especially if your on a small budget like what you posted.

  • fineflufffinefluff Member RarePosts: 561
    Look into getting an SSD if you want an upgrade right now. Wait on the rest.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,531
    If you need better performance, you should be thinking replacement rather than upgrade.  But you might not; as Ridelynn said, wait for the game to launch and then see how it runs rather than upgrading early.
  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414

    You do know your current specs pretty much clear the requirements right? Well maybe not the CPU requirements.

    Anyway you are going to be looking at upgrading the CPU, Mobo, and Memory. Its not really an upgrade once those are changed since it will change the heart of the system.

    The best parts to choose really depend on the game which will mean it must be released first. So you should definitely wait and see. More than likely you will be using an AMD FX processor. Its one of the few applications that processor typically wins over Intels. In heavily threaded strategy games.

    Also your HDD will more than likely need to be upgraded. That particular HDD is getting long in the tooth and its getting to the age where those drives begin failing.

  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,999

    Your processor might be fast enough. If you look at Passmark's performance chart, it gets better score than the recommended Intel processor even if it scores lower then the recommended AMD processor.  http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

    I'd recommend waiting how the game runs before doing any upgrades.

     
  • bhugbhug Member UncommonPosts: 944

    140711
    Within the next three months you will be looking at us$1000-1500 to rebuild your system for high end +27" display (two or three monitor adds another $600-1000.)

    The 22nm HaswellE 6 and 8c unlocked cpu should be out within three months (3q14) along with the x99 Wellsburg chipset mobo (motherboard). the LGA 2011-3 is not backward compatable with the 2011.

    data:
    Z97-oc able + Dynamic Storage Accelerator (DST); H97-no oc; (posted 1404) will get legacy support for PCI-Express M.2 storage, as PCI-Express M.2 has roughly 67% more bandwidth available opposed to SATA3 (6 Gbps); lga1150, single 16 slot gpu, 2 dimm/ch, 3 display, 6 sata3.

    x99 express wellsburg chipset 6.5W tdp, 22nm hi-k haswellE 6 & 8c unlocked, ddr4 ( <2133MHz, 4 dimm/ch, 16 thread, 288 pin, ?1.2v), lga 2011-3, 5 pci3 x16 (two 16slot gpu + one 8slot, 40 lane pcie gen3), 10 sata3 ports, 3q14, clarksville phy Gb ethernet 5Gtfer/s, realtec audio, 20MB L3 cache, hyper threading 16 logical cores, tdp 130-140W;
    not backward compatable with 2011 waimea bay platform (x79), ?no 14nm Broadwell sucession 3q14?, 4c no-gpu config dies gone.

    May have to get used to the 140W cpu vs my curent 30-40W amd 2c system... going to help to have a window unit AC near modern computers.

    image

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