Where do I go from here?

[Boombanguk]

Hi,

First time posting here, so here goes.

I've currently got a AMD Athlon 64 Processor 4000+ 2.41Ghz, 1 GB ram, 2 (using SLI) NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT graphics cards. Sorry don't know what the motherboard is, or how to find out.

Basically I want to know what does everyone think my best upgrade options are? or should I just start from scratch with a new system? I would want something that can handle games/graphics/video editing easily for the next few years.

thanks for any advice.
boombanguk

[Freakitchen]

Welcome to the forums!

It would help if you could find out what motherboard you have. Is this a custom built or a name brand system?

Download and install Everest Home edition - a system analysis tool that should tell you what motherboard you have

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/Everest-Home-Edition.shtml

There could be some decent upgrade options available here - do you have a budget in mind for an upgrade / new build?

[Boombanguk]

Welcome to the forums!

It would help if you could find out what motherboard you have. Is this a custom built or a name brand system?

Download and install Everest Home edition - a system analysis tool that should tell you what motherboard you have

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/Everest-Home-Edition.shtml

There could be some decent upgrade options available here - do you have a budget in mind for an upgrade / new build?

Thanks for that link. It says the motherboard I have is a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

The budget would probably something like £700 ($1400) without including a graphics card, which I know will probably end up being the pricest part of the whole thing. Maybe a bit more if I'm building from scratch.

I've always wanted to build a new PC from scratch but never got around to it. It would be nice to have something which is going to cover me for the next 3 years (upgrade or new build)

[Freakitchen]

Ok, that means you have a socket 939 system. Since you're looking for increased gaming performance, I'd first look at increasing your RAM to 2GB. Assuming that you have 2x512MB sticks at the moment, you should be able to add the same again. Here's a matched pair of Corsair:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/54472

Then you should look at a video card upgrade. I'd replace those two 6600s with one high performing card, like this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-039-BG&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=877

The only caveat here is your power supply - what brand and wattage do you currently have? A card like the above needs a high quality ATX2 unit with around 500w.

[Boombanguk]

Ok, that means you have a socket 939 system. Since you're looking for increased gaming performance, I'd first look at increasing your RAM to 2GB. Assuming that you have 2x512MB sticks at the moment, you should be able to add the same again. Here's a matched pair of Corsair:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/54472

Then you should look at a video card upgrade. I'd replace those two 6600s with one high performing card, like this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-039-BG&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=877

The only caveat here is your power supply - what brand and wattage do you currently have? A card like the above needs a high quality ATX2 unit with around 500w.

thanks, would that cover me for the next few years though? I don't need a new Intel Core 2 Duo processor or something similar?

[Freakitchen]

Of course, the downside with the upgrade is the lack of a dual core processor. At the moment, most games are single threaded (they only take advantage of one processor core), but multi core is definitely the future of software. Dual cores also help significantly with multi tasking.

What I'd do, is keep those upgrade options in mind, but also price yourself a new Intel Core 2 Duo system and look at the price difference between them. I'd build a system around an ASUS P5B motherboard, with an Intel C2D E6420 and 2GB of Corsair DDR2-667 RAM. Add a Corsair 520w Power supply and the video card I linked to above (you should be able to find all these parts from overclockers.co.uk) You'll also need SATA hard drives for a system like this - IDE support is on its way out.

[pam123]

It's a long shot but he can put a socket 939 dual core amd processor into that board, if he can find one, and an X4800 would see him through the next few years.

[Freakitchen]

That's true Pam, though I've pretty much stopped suggesting 939 Dual Cores to Uk-ers because of lack of availability. This is the best I can do without resorting to ebay

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?AMD-X242O

[Alaron]

Ebuyer has a dual core 3800+ for a bit less if your budget is tight: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/112959/rb/27971677896

Just throwing out another option.

[pam123]

It's hard to recommend ebay these days, to anyone, but if he's willing to spend a week or so keeping track or prices and seller ratings he might be able to get one.
If not then he's looking at a full switch to Intel or AMD X2.

[Boombanguk]

thats for the advice everyone. So that 939 dual core is a lot faster then my current processor? Someone I knew upgraded their graphics card to a much faster one recently only to run into problems because they had an old processor, so would it be right to say that no matter what I should upgrade my processor?

[LeftyAce]

I'd upgrade to 2GB of ram and possibly 1 better video card, possibly a 7900 or ATI X1950 (skip the SLI).

My computer is almost exactly the same as yours (see signature) and the only game I can't quite max out is FEAR. (I can play HL2, BF2, Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes all on maximum settings).

That will cost you around 200 pounds. Save the rest and plan to upgrade in a year or so once the successor to the C2D comes out. In the mean time, you'll be able to handle almost anything just fine.

[pam123]

Not quite.
Your set up is still good for awhile with the addition of more ram and a better video card.
If you can get one of the socket 939 processors X4800 you'll be able to tack on another year or two.
So let's say you do that and get all three, video card ( DX10 mid-range ), more ram, and get a new processor ( you're going to have to spring for a copy of Vista as well so we add that in to your budget and bring the total to 4 new parts).
Roughly $800 USD .
Life span for gaming, is now about 3 years.
At that point you'll be starting from scratch since it's unlikely that any of your current parts can be carried over.
That's a good upgrade for a gaming rig.

If you can't get the X4800 then your future shortens.
If that happens another stick or ram and a new card and put the rest of your money in the bank to collect interest so you can rebuild when the pressure from the DX 10 games is greater in another year or so.

[Boombanguk]

Not quite.
Your set up is still good for awhile with the addition of more ram and a better video card.
If you can get one of the socket 939 processors X4800 you'll be able to tack on another year or two.
So let's say you do that and get all three, video card ( DX10 mid-range ), more ram, and get a new processor ( you're going to have to spring for a copy of Vista as well so we add that in to your budget and bring the total to 4 new parts).
Roughly $800 USD .
Life span for gaming, is now about 3 years.
At that point you'll be starting from scratch since it's unlikely that any of your current parts can be carried over.
That's a good upgrade for a gaming rig.

If you can't get the X4800 then your future shortens.
If that happens another stick or ram and a new card and put the rest of your money in the bank to collect interest so you can rebuild when the pressure from the DX 10 games is greater in another year or so.

why do i need vista? :)

[pam123]

why do i need vista? :)

You don't need it now but, as a gamer, you will need it later.
DX 10 doesn't run on anything else.

[kmillerusaf]

You don't exactly need it "right now" but the newer games coming out in the future are going to start using the DX10 technology which is supposedly only available through Windows Vista. I have seen a article here and there about being able to port DX10 to XP but that's nothing concrete yet. I know Starcraft 2 is supposed to work for both XP/Vista. But games like Crysis are expected to be on Vista only. I would hold off for now until they get Vista bugs out and the games start to come out, but that's just my opinion.