Upgrade time

[dos1986]

Have €300 to spend what do I buy?

E2160 @ 3.0ghz
Gigabyte P31 Dsl3
Nvidia 7600gt
2gb ocz pc6400
16 x Dvd Rw
Corsair 450 watt
Gigabyte Triton 180
320gb hd
Vista Home Premium
22" Samsung

Want to play all the latest games at decent settings, and have decent speed for encoding videos...

Thinking

GeForce 9600 GT €120

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-008-PN&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=356

Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 €145

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-191-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793

Overclock the cpu to say 3.80ghz and overclock the 9600gt to the max...

Or

Dont get a new cpu and get a much more powerful graphics card

9800gtx for €240

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-067-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1009

8800gtx for €227

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-099-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=877

8800gt for €143

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-002-PN&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008

So many choices

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I'd say keep current cpu, add some memory and a a new graphics card, maybe the 8800gt, though the 9600gt and 8800 gs look good if you are on a budget. If your gaming and things of that nature, I think you'd see more benefit with a graphics card. Then you may be able to carry your newer memory and graphics card over to a new board/chip later on.

 

[dos1986]

Thinking the same...

Board takes the new 45nm cpu's, so could maybe get a Q9450 or similar when they drop in price in the summer..

Didnt give memory any thought!

It would help with encoding video too aswell as gaming?

Have Vista 32bit so not point getting 2gb more?

9600gt + 2gb ram for €158, looks good to me...

E2160 @ 3.0ghz bottleneck?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-066-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I don't know if the 2160 would be a bottleneck or not quite honestly, I'm running AMD myself, always used their stuff. But that seems like it should be fast enough. My 5200x2 runs at 2.6 ghz stock and is plenty for most things. I also am unsure as to how much 2 more gb of memory would help encoding and what not, but certainly shouldn't hurt. The more the merrier on memory, especially as cheap as it's been, then you'd have it if you do that CPU upgrade later. If you have a 64 bit OS you would be fine, but if you have a 32 bit OS your machine may not be able to use all of the memory as it wouldn't know how to assign it all.

But if your gaming, a new video card might make it feel like a whole other animal for that purpose then live with what you have until prices drop.

 

[dos1986]

Thanks man...

Got this

EVGA GeForce 8800GS 384MB GDDR3 €110

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=345164

Delivery with the other place is €30, only €12 with the 8800gs

 

[dos1986]

Oh yeah will I have to uninstall the nvidia drivers as I already have an nvidia card in the system?

Can I just put the card in?

Using driver 169.28

 

[Shadow703793]

8800GT or 9600. You probably wont be able to OC the E2160 past 3.25Ghz without huge voltage increases.

 

[dos1986]

Bought the 8800gs shadow...

E2160 can go to 3.30ghz with my arctic 7 pro fan...

 

[geofelt]

Just put the new card in, they use the same drivers. Consider adding 2gb, It is cheap, and there is no substitute if you can use it.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

Just put the new card in, they use the same drivers. Consider adding 2gb, It is cheap, and there is no substitute if you can use it.

You will NEED to unistall those drivers and get some new ones, or you will get a decrease in performance, bugs, and most likey crashes, could damage some components too. You must use a program to wipe away anything left form the previous drivers, reinstalling Winows would not be a bad idea.

 

[geofelt]

@The-blood-raven: The driver download for the 7000 and 8000 series cards are the same; why would you need to re-install? If the op does not have the latest nvidia drivers, then it wouuld be a good time to update it.

 

[rolli59]

Re installing windows after upgrading GPU???????????????????????. And then go for all the @#$$%^&* of reactivating.

 

[dos1986]

Nice, hate installing