Upgrade question

[purebrawn]

Hey all,

My system is about 2 years old, and with the newest batch of games coming out (Bad Company 2, C&C 4, Starcraft), I want to upgrade.

My current setup is this:

Vista Home 32bit
Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 2.53Ghz
4GB DDR2
Geforce 9600GT
460Watt PSU


My question is, would a better video card be the wisest first upgrade? I was looking at a GTS 250 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130538), but I didn't know if that was the best way to spend my money.

Will my processor bottleneck it, or should my RAM be upgraded first?... I just don't know enough about these things to decide. Or is there something else I should get to make performace better? I'm trying to spend $200 dollars or less.... where can I get the most bang for my buck? Thanks

 

[JDV28]

I think that you should upgrade your motherboard and cpu as the first step. Newegg has some great combo deals.

 

[Confused Stu]

I wouldn't worry too much about upgrading your motherboard just yet - there's still plenty of life left in a 775 system if ou already own one.

RAM - 4GB is fine for gaming, you won't notice any difference if you add more (I noticed only 1 difference going 4GB to 8GB and that's GTA4 was 1 second quicker quitting to desktop after a game!)

CPU - a dual is fine for MOST games these days but your one is crying out for an overclock. Simply go into your BIOS and change the "FSB" figure from Auto/266 to 333 and you'll be running 3.17GHz with no problem. If will clock higher (some E7200's go above 4GHz), but then you'll need a better cooler and lots of time. This small overclock is free and should mean your CPU isn't the limiting factor for most games.

GPU - if you're looking to improve your gaming performance, this is where I'd look. The GTS 250 should be a nice improvement over your current 9600GT - check Tom's latest chart http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-gaming-graphics-card,review-31807-7.html and you'll see this would be a 3 level step up, nice! The GTS you've listed shows as $140, could you possibly stretch another $5 to get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131328 ? That is more powerful than the GTS and support DX11 so might mean longer until you next need to upgrade.

Happy hunting, and don't forget to post what you decide to do and how it works out for you.

 

[purebrawn]

I wouldn't worry too much about upgrading your motherboard just yet - there's still plenty of life left in a 775 system if ou already own one.

RAM - 4GB is fine for gaming, you won't notice any difference if you add more (I noticed only 1 difference going 4GB to 8GB and that's GTA4 was 1 second quicker quitting to desktop after a game!)

CPU - a dual is fine for MOST games these days but your one is crying out for an overclock. Simply go into your BIOS and change the "FSB" figure from Auto/266 to 333 and you'll be running 3.17GHz with no problem. If will clock higher (some E7200's go above 4GHz), but then you'll need a better cooler and lots of time. This small overclock is free and should mean your CPU isn't the limiting factor for most games.

GPU - if you're looking to improve your gaming performance, this is where I'd look. The GTS 250 should be a nice improvement over your current 9600GT - check Tom's latest chart http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-gaming-graphics-card,review-31807-7.html and you'll see this would be a 3 level step up, nice! The GTS you've listed shows as $140, could you possibly stretch another $5 to get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131328 ? That is more powerful than the GTS and support DX11 so might mean longer until you next need to upgrade.

Happy hunting, and don't forget to post what you decide to do and how it works out for you.

Great, thanks a bunch for the advice! Somone else recommended the 5770 as well so I think I will go with that.

I do have one more question about power consumption if you don't mind.... I know that my 460Watt meets the overall power requirements... but I saw something saying "Make sure you have adequate rails and amps" or something to that nature. How do I check that? Do you think I should be fine or is this something I should look into. Thanks again.

 

[Confused Stu]

They're right about making sure your PSU is up to it. It needs to have at least one 6-pin PCI-E power plug and be able to supply enough amps on the 12v rail to power the card. There should be a sticker on the side of the PSU that lists how much power it supplies on each voltage - 3.3v, 5v, 12v, etc. The graphics card uses the 12v one hence that's the number some might ask for. Sadly, just knowing it's a 460w doesn't mean much as each company uses a different measure - good quality manufacturers mean it can supply 460w all day every day with no problem, cheaper manufacturers mean 460w is OK very occasionally, but 461w will blow it!

All of that aside, the 5770 pulls roughly the same power and needs the same number of connectors as a 9600GT so if your PSU ran your current card it should be fine with the 5770, that's one of the reasons I would recommend it.

 

[purebrawn]

Awesome thanks for the help!