Computer Upgrade - calling all tech-heads!

[Phenom]

Hey folks...

Anyway I'm lookn for a decent upgrade from my current rig, I've got $200 to work with right now and would like some suggestions.

First off I'm the type of PC user who has 30 Firefox windows open while I'm recording a Quake demo for video editing probably with photoshop open.

(I know this is a tall order for only a $200 upgrade but my current rig handles it I just want it to do it better faster!).

I'm pretty sure my CPU is bottle-necking aginst my video card a bit and the 500GB "green" harddrive acts like a 5500RPM harddrive instead of a 7200 RPM HD :/ Thats not abig deal I have other harddrives just not 500GB

Here's my system specs.

Motherboard:
NF6G-VSTA

Video:
Nvidia Geforce 7800 GT (256MB?)
500GB "Green" Hardddrive (ripped from an external SATA harddrive its slow but its 500GB or 30GB!)

Memory:
3GB of whatever my motherboard can handle not sure the ram types anymore.

CPU:
Athlon 64 3800+ Sempron (Please don't laugh at me lol


I'm not looking for anything real fancy, I've prefer practical over flashy as I'm done with the PC modding scene.

I'd like to be able to play the latest games with more FPs then my current video card can handle (about 20 FPS with hi detail in Doom 3)

Really I'd like it to be more for gaming and power using.

Lets hear it!

Thanks guys,

[Roy Batty]

Get an SSD, seems the only thing that's really gonna help that system out speed wise without a serious amount of cash to buy a new rig.

[Phenom]

I'm not to worried about the harddrive and I'm not dumping $500 for an 80GB SSD.

Thanks for the info though, I'll look into a SSD once the price significantly drops.

[R00k]

I'd suggest just saving your cash. If you get around $600 saved up then you can at least replace the mobo+mem+cpu with something in the current mid-range specs. Then if you want you can either use your current system as a second rig for multi-computer multi-tasking. This is what I have done in the last 8 years. I went from a
1.5gib DDR 184pin Ram
Asus A7N8X-e Socket 462 (circa 2003)
AMD Sempron 1.8ghz
40gb hd WD SATA
160gb HD WesterDigital SATA
eVGA GeForce 6600gt AGP 256Mb
Antec case (white) with 300w ps
Sony DVD

ViewSonic flatpanel(1440x900) monitor

to a (now 3 years old)

Asus P5N-D
Intel Core2 Duo 3.2ghz
4GiB DDR2 Ram
320Gib Western Digital SATA
eVGA Geforce 8800GT PCIe 512MB
Pioneer DVD
Antec case (black) with 600w Ps

ViewSonic 1920x1080

It's always more fun to build a whole new system. Otherwise, you will just keep doing small half ass upgrades and end up buying pieces of hardware that will become non standard in the next 3-5 years like AGP or memory with odd pin configurations. Basically all the stuff that goes on that motherboard will be outdated in that time, so its best to build an entire machine around your mobo/cpu choice.

Oh and my computers are name BLACKNIGHT and WHITEWIZARD just for fun.

[Phenom]

I'd suggest just saving your cash. If you get around $600 saved up then you can at least replace the mobo+mem+cpu with something in the current mid-range specs.

So you're saying I'm way out of the PC hardware loop?

I was looking at mobo-cpu combo's on tigerdirect and found these:
MSI 870A-G54 Motherboard and AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor Bundle at TigerDirect.com

Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H Socket AM3 Motherboard and AMD Athlon II X4 640 Quad Core Processor Bundle at TigerDirect.com

Both right in my price range,

I have a 450PSU (power s upply)

BTW I consider new games to be "Doom3/Quake4 & Crysis 1 (Playing Crysis 2 on high everything sounds good but forking out $1,000 just to play it smoother makes me kinda sick.

Gaming is now a "kill-the-time-hobby" for me so It doesn't have to be top of the line hardware

[R00k]

You will also want new memory for that mobo's DDR3. I'd suggest still holding back. As you are really wanting more performance, you cant use your current gfx card on that mobo. So, saving for another $200 gfxcard might give you time for that combo to drop or something better to fall into that $200 range. Personally, i buy the $1500 computer but end up building it myself, just for fun, and end up only spending like $800 cause I use my existing kb, mouse, monitor.

(oh btw I have a CAx update for you...)

[Phenom]

You will also want new memory for that mobo's DDR3. I'd suggest still holding back. As you are really wanting more performance, you cant use your current gfx card on that mobo. So, saving for another $200 gfxcard might give you time for that combo to drop or something better to fall into that $200 range. Personally, i buy the $1500 computer but end up building it myself, just for fun, and end up only spending like $800 cause I use my existing kb, mouse, monitor.

Dang this is more frustrating then when I first got into computers

(I build my own too)

So for instance lets say I wanted to "max" this PC's cpu out what would be the best CPU to throw in it

This PC was given to me when my last home-made PC crashed "literally"

(oh btw I have a CAx update for you...)

Thank you kindly sir!

[R00k]

ASRock > Products > ALiveNF6G-VSTA
Support for Socket AM2+* / AM2 processors: AMD Phenom™ FX / Phenom / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core / Athlon X2 Dual-Core / Athlon 64 / Sempron processor
if that's what you have then you could by a new GFX card and still be able to use it in the future.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

Onboard video, and Black Edition = unlocked multipler, which leaves room for aftermarket easy overclocking later, just raise the multiplier.

Going with that motherboard, it later leaves you availible for further AM3 socket upgrades, like these six cores ....



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&name=Six-Core

[Phenom]

Thanks Mindz that looks like a nice combo!!

But i noticed the mobo is micro-atx?

I have an ATX case will it still work?

[MH]

Motherboard: No idea. So long as it can take the peripherals and components you use then I guess it's fine.

CPU: The days of big beasts of single core CPUs with ultra-high clock speeds are over. Modern applications scale out rather than up, and you get far more efficiency going for multiple cores at a lower speed. With a multithreaded program your operating system's thread-scheduler is going to be a surprising bottleneck.

Memory: Don't even bother getting more unless you already have, or are planning to get, a 64-bit OS.

GPU: It's old, but still reasonably capable. From what I've read you'll even be able to run Rage if you just went up a generation to a GeForce 8800-series.

HD: Try defragging or clearing out crap before investing in an upgrade.

OS: You didn't mention OS, but a modern OS can make more efficicent use of recent-ish hardware (and conversely an older OS runs faster on older hardware - it's when you try to mix the two that you get trouble). Windows 7 runs smooth as silk on some machines that XP chugs to death on, despite the fact that it might appear to be using more resources.

OK, I'd upgrade two, maybe three, maybe four components here. The OS: if you're a Windows user and still on XP I'd go for 64-bit Windows 7. XP was really never made for making best use of that amount of memory, and is having trouble with it. The CPU: a more recent multi-core model if you can find one reasonably priced. I'd prefer four-core over two. The GPU: but only if you want to run Rage or have higher-level (DX10/11) capabilities. The HD: If and only if other tidying up doesn't resolve anything.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

AM2+ is risky to hang around imho.
When upgrading, as long as you keep FOCUS on the future (Socket AM3 and its upgradability,you can replace the 555BE later,easy upgrade using AM3)...

You can't beat the Phenom II 555BECombo ,considering it leaves around 40$ headroom for some cheap ram that you'll probably definately be needing.

The onboard video (HD4250) that it comes with is pretty decent too!

Crysis on Radeon HD 4250! [HD] - YouTube <- 4250 running Crysis on mixed settings.

Just being able to run Crysis period is a COA. I know of zero games that require quad core's.... Back to quake

[Roy Batty]

Games like Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, Metro 2033, Grand Theft Auto 4, and games which are basically console ports make better use of a quad or hex core than other games. It all depends on what you want to play. Crysis is still the most heavy game on any system, much more so than Crysis 2. I wouldn't bother with AMD myself, the times when AMD ruled are over. You can get an i2500/mb/6gb ram/650 watt power supply for under $800 and be able to overclock it quite well with just a decent aftermarket air cooler and run rings around any AMD platform. NVidia and ATI both have good cards in the 250-300 range that really run most stuff very well. I agree with r00k that you should probably upgrade your OS if you decide to move to a more modern platform, XP just isn't capable of using the hardware to it's full potential, and Vista isn't either. Windows 7 is the way to go there, Professional is the one I would go with. However don't expect a modern platform to work very well with older IDE hard drives either, it's gonna be a trade off I think depending on how much you want to spend, and how you want to space out any upgrades you would want to do.

[Phenom]

looking for a $200 upgrade...

[megalodon]

Games like Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, Metro 2033, Grand Theft Auto 4, and games which are basically console ports make better use of a quad or hex core than other games. It all depends on what you want to play. Crysis is still the most heavy game on any system, much more so than Crysis 2. I wouldn't bother with AMD myself, the times when AMD ruled are over. You can get an i2500/mb/6gb ram/650 watt power supply for under $800 and be able to overclock it quite well with just a decent aftermarket air cooler and run rings around any AMD platform. NVidia and ATI both have good cards in the 250-300 range that really run most stuff very well. I agree with r00k that you should probably upgrade your OS if you decide to move to a more modern platform, XP just isn't capable of using the hardware to it's full potential, and Vista isn't either. Windows 7 is the way to go there, Professional is the one I would go with. However don't expect a modern platform to work very well with older IDE hard drives either, it's gonna be a trade off I think depending on how much you want to spend, and how you want to space out any upgrades you would want to do.

In the budget range, AMD is still king. I plan to build a new rig myself and it will be an AMD rig again with a second hand GF9600GT in it that will be perfect for Doom3/Quake4 etc. And otherwise you can take a GF 2xx serie card, which are supposed to be great for OpenGL games as well.


To the topic starter:

I'm a member of a Dutch computer site, called Tweakers.net. They just released their new Best Buy Guides for Holland, but I'm sure it could be of interest to you as well. Look at the current BudgetGameSystem here:
Tweakers.net Best Buy Guide: editie september 2011 | Budget-gamesysteem en gamesysteem | Core | Tweakers.net Reviews

If you just want to upgrade your current system, check on the manufacturer's website which is the fastest CPU supported for your board which BIOS version is required for that. Basicly, learn to search for info It's really not that hard to find out this stuff if you can read.

Also: your video card in itself should perfectly be able to handle D3/Q4, even at high settings. But if it's AGP, you can't put it in a new rig of course...

BTW: this is a budget PC I have in my own wish list:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500413AS, 500GB

Sony Optiarc AD-7260S Zwart

Cooler Master Elite 333

AMD Athlon II X2 260 Boxed

Corsair Builder CX430 V2

Kingston ValueRAM KVR1333D3N9K2/4G

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3

€ 241,91

Keep in mind I already got a video card, so that's not in the list. And I might replace the DualCore with the TripleCore from the BBG...not sure yet.