My Upgrade Dilema

[chronius]

I don't pretend to know a lot about computers, that's why I came here. Maybe someone can help me decide to do what's best.

I recently purchased Rainbow 6 Las Vegas. Apart from being a very cool game, it pillages my computer like no other. Given my system is almost 2 years old I was wondering if someone could tell me what would be best.

Current system:
Asus A8N SLI deluxe socket 939 mobo
Leadtek 6800 GP
1gig ram
200gig 7200 rpm HD
3000+ AMD proc

Now, I was wondering... What would be most beneficial to me at this point?

A new proc? I was thinking I would probably go with a X2 4600+ or 4800+. Unless someone can suggest something better

OR

Do I get a new graphics card? I know mine is old, but I would assume that the tiny 3000+ proc should be my first concern.

Am I right?

 

[chronius]

Wrong forum?

Or does nobody like me

 

[ajfink]

I don't pretend to know a lot about computers, that's why I came here. Maybe someone can help me decide to do what's best.

I recently purchased Rainbow 6 Las Vegas. Apart from being a very cool game, it pillages my computer like no other. Given my system is almost 2 years old I was wondering if someone could tell me what would be best.

Current system:
Asus A8N SLI deluxe socket 939 mobo
Leadtek 6800 GP
1gig ram
200gig 7200 rpm HD
3000+ AMD proc

Now, I was wondering... What would be most beneficial to me at this point?

A new proc? I was thinking I would probably go with a X2 4600+ or 4800+. Unless someone can suggest something better

OR

Do I get a new graphics card? I know mine is old, but I would assume that the tiny 3000+ proc should be my first concern.

Am I right?

Honestly I think getting a 4600+ or a 4800+ would increase your system performance like you would not believe. Many games aren't very CPU dependent (compared to GPU performance dependence), so it might also aid you to get a new GPU instead. I'd say a new CPU would be better in this case. A 3000+ was a good CPU two years ago, and if you had something like a 3500+ or 3800+ I would tell you GPU, hands-down, but...go for the new CPU.

 

[chronius]

Thank you for your help!

I figured that's what I should do.

Unless someone says otherwise, I know what I'm doing when I get off work 8)

 

[ajfink]

P.S. - 2 GB of RAM + new CPU = 8)

 

[chronius]

Really? I was always told that there isn't much performance boost between 1gig and 2 gigs of ram. Should upgrade all my ram? the ram I have is two years old... are there specific ram I should look for?

 

[ajfink]

You'd have to check benchmarks for that specific game, but a lot of the newer games hog RAM. Your system wouldn't use it really otherwise, and honestly you can probably get along perfectly fine without it, but it was just a thought. Disregard it if you want.

 

[chronius]

I'll have to see, If the ram at the shop is cheap, I may as well. I just hope I can find a decent graphics card for $200-$300.

 

[ajfink]

If you're thinking about dropping several hundreds of dollars into your rig, you should also open up to the possibility of selling your current rig and building something new.

Get the new CPU if you don't want to build something new. See how that works for you before you go even further. If nothing else, GPU and RAM prices will only go down.

 

[chronius]

Hmm.. I've never sold a computer before. I paid around $1400 new, where could I sell it? what do you think it would be worth now?

 

[ajfink]

Hmm.. I've never sold a computer before. I paid around $1400 new, where could I sell it? what do you think it would be worth now?

Honestly, simply buying a new CPU and -maybe- a GPU would probably give you a system capable of playing any upcoming games until DX10 gets big. You don't need to replace everything.

 

[chronius]

Hmm.. I've never sold a computer before. I paid around $1400 new, where could I sell it? what do you think it would be worth now?

Honestly, simply buying a new CPU and -maybe- a GPU would probably give you a system capable of playing any upcoming games until DX10 gets big. You don't need to replace everything.

Coooool. Once I find out what DX10 is i'm sure this will make me feel better about just sticking with the proc and GP

 

[ajfink]

Hmm.. I've never sold a computer before. I paid around $1400 new, where could I sell it? what do you think it would be worth now?

Honestly, simply buying a new CPU and -maybe- a GPU would probably give you a system capable of playing any upcoming games until DX10 gets big. You don't need to replace everything.

Coooool. Once I find out what DX10 is i'm sure this will make me feel better about just sticking with the proc and GP

DirectX 10. The current version is DirectX 9c, DirectX 10 requires newer video cards (currently only the nvidia 8800 series cards will support DirectX 10) and has a number of enhancements to increase the future performance of games. DirectX 10 won't be widespread for many months to come, though.

 

[chronius]

oooo fancy.

I hope this guy at the shop doesn't rip me off. He's charging $309 (canadian) for a amd x2 4600 socket 939. does that sound about right?

 

[AdamBomb42]

I recently upgraded to 2 Gigs and was not expecting much of a boost. Boy was I wrong, it made quite the difference in my performance. I would say make the processor upgrade the least of your concern and upgraded your memory, get another 6800 to put in sli or go for an 8800 if you can afford it (I know I can't). As far as the processor goes, I'd say to overclock it. Very few games today utilize multithreads, but that is changing so do keep a dual-core in mind.

And what the hell is a 6800 GP, was that suppose to be GT or GS?

 

[BigL]

Hey, I just ordered new parts for my computer and my old system was similar. I had a 9800pro which died, xp2700+ and 1gig ddr2700 ram. I went over all my options and the truth is you really need to just bite the bullet and get a new system. The 6800GT does pretty well on tomshardware vga charts but what I did was order these parts:

athlon 64 x2 3800+ 2ghz - $130 (US)
BFG 7600GT PCI-E video card - $80 after rebate - the BEST bang for the buck atm
2gigs of DDR2800 pc6400 ram - $200 after rebate
ECS nforce4 motherboard - $45 after rebate

I don't like to overclock really so I bought this board. But make sure you look at tomshardware cpu charts before you decide on that expensive 4600/4800 x2 processor... I bought the lowest 3800 because it does really well compared to the 4600 and 4800. You can sell your 6800 video card for $80 or more on ebay making the 7600 free, or just get a better card than the 7600gt.

I bought this stuff because I really like AMD, the cpu and motherboard were a bit cheaper than getting a core2duo combo, the performance between this and an e6300 are quite similar, and I don't really like to overclock and won't need to with this system. But before you spend $309 canadian on that cpu, make sure you like the performance gains it gives over the x2 3800. You can almost get the 3800+ and 2gigs ddr2 ram for the price of just the 4800+.

So I spent $450 total and can sell my old cpu for around $35 I think, the motherboard for about $20, and the ram for maybe around $60-70, so I'll be making at least a hundred back.

 

[chronius]

Hey, I just ordered new parts for my computer and my old system was similar. I had a 9800pro which died, xp2700+ and 1gig ddr2700 ram. I went over all my options and the truth is you really need to just bite the bullet and get a new system. The 6800GT does pretty well on tomshardware vga charts but what I did was order these parts:

athlon 64 x2 3800+ 2ghz - $130 (US)
BFG 7600GT PCI-E video card - $80 after rebate - the BEST bang for the buck atm
2gigs of DDR2800 pc6400 ram - $200 after rebate
ECS nforce4 motherboard - $45 after rebate

I don't like to overclock really so I bought this board. But make sure you look at tomshardware cpu charts before you decide on that expensive 4600/4800 x2 processor... I bought the lowest 3800 because it does really well compared to the 4600 and 4800. You can sell your 6800 video card for $80 or more on ebay making the 7600 free, or just get a better card than the 7600gt.

I bought this stuff because I really like AMD, the cpu and motherboard were a bit cheaper than getting a core2duo combo, the performance between this and an e6300 are quite similar, and I don't really like to overclock and won't need to with this system. But before you spend $309 canadian on that cpu, make sure you like the performance gains it gives over the x2 3800. You can almost get the 3800+ and 2gigs ddr2 ram for the price of just the 4800+.

So I spent $450 total and can sell my old cpu for around $35 I think, the motherboard for about $20, and the ram for maybe around $60-70, so I'll be making at least a hundred back.

Hmm. I'll have to see what options I have when I go to this store. I know the only reason I was going for the X2 is because for my socket 939 it is the best. I don't quite want to go for a whole new system yet, I still want to see if I can get some more life out of this mother board I'm thinking about maybe getting a video card first, seeing if that does what i'm looking for and if not getting a new proc. Because I know now that my 3000+ falls under the required catagory for R6LV but not under the recommended.

Thanks for your Opinions

 

[chronius]

I recently upgraded to 2 Gigs and was not expecting much of a boost. Boy was I wrong, it made quite the difference in my performance. I would say make the processor upgrade the least of your concern and upgraded your memory, get another 6800 to put in sli or go for an 8800 if you can afford it (I know I can't). As far as the processor goes, I'd say to overclock it. Very few games today utilize multithreads, but that is changing so do keep a dual-core in mind.

And what the hell is a 6800 GP, was that suppose to be GT or GS?

Sorry, by GP i just meant Graphic Processor. I sometimes say things that I don't need to say

 

[BigL]

Yeah it looks like you could upgrade your processor and get another gig or 512 ram and be lookin' pretty good. Maybe even get another 6800 and run SLI. You must have pc3200 ddr ram, I was thinking of getting a socket 939 to keep my pc2700 with but was told to just bite the bullet because I'd be losing a bit of performance.

 

[m25]

There are some interesting S939 4400+ and 4600+ on newegg around $200 but if you'd like to overclock a bit, the Opteron 170 is just a price/performance killer.

 

[croc]

There was another topic on this same issue very recently.

Cleeve was of the opinion that a new GPU would be the best option for a system such as yours, as most games are GPU intensive, and only one or two might gain a litle from more than 1 GB ram. Someday you will upgrade your MB, and your ram will be useless, but your GPU will not.

I'd trust Cleeve, as he wrote the GPU guide...

 

[Dougbert]

I'm constantly building/rebuilding systems for friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, their friends, their friends' friends, etc.

Assuming that this is a PCI-Express system, my first recommendation would be to upgrade the video card. I'm also assuming you don't want to drop a lot of cash and you kinda want a no-drama upgrade, so look at the online vendors like zipzoomfly or newegg and get the best video card you can get for $150 or less. A 7600GT is the card I've been recommending and putting in quite a few systems. There are always deals after mail-in rebate. I just saw a BFG 7600GT for $79 after $65 mail-in rebate on newegg.

That would be my first recommendation before anything else.

You will also get a boost from one of the X2 dual-core processors. However, that is not a no-drama upgrade. It sounds easy enought. Just pop one processor out, pop the new one in, maybe do a BIOS upgrade for compatability first, and you're good to go. Wrong! Because you're going from one core to a dual-core, you're pretty much going to want to reinstall Windows in order for it to recognize the second processor. Sometimes you can get away with uninstalling the CPU drivers, doing a registry clean, and a few other tricky things; but, for me, it's usually just easier to do a clean install of Windows (accompanied by the pain of re-installing all your software and games again too).

Only after those two upgrades, would I even consider going to more than 1GB of RAM. And if you are looking at upgrading video, CPU, AND RAM, you really should be looking at selling your motherboard, CPU, RAM, and video card on EBay and rebuilding your core system (assuming you have a big enough power supply also). I'm constantly reusing old cases and just putting in new core parts and power supplies.

Blah! I think I might've gotten carried away here! Sorry about that. Stick with the video card upgrade first and see how much happier you are with your games.

 

[big_tuna]

if i had your system i would try to add a new graphics card like a 7600 gt or better and see how it works out. then try overclocking the 3000 cpu. i have heard of guys getting those running in the 2.4-2.6 ghz range.just start off slow and try the game,i bet the card and a small overclock make a big difference

 

[hella-d]

Get 2GB Of The Fastest DDR You Can Afford (Id Reccomend Some DDR466 - DDR500) With Good Timings, And A New Video-Card Im Fairly Sure The 3000+ Is Plenty Powerfull Otherwise But It Woulnt Hurt To Grab An X2 In The 3800+ - 4200+ Range Or An Opty (Opteron) A 170 Or A 175 Like Mine

My system Will Handle Anything On The Shelf At High Resolutions With High AA And AF (My System Specs Are In My Sig)