'Ol School Budget Upgrade

[CoppermineComprehension]

Well, put simply, I have a computer I want to upgrade.

Parts are as follows:

Intel 'Pentium' E2140 Oc'd to 3ghz (375x8 @ 1.4v)

Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L

2gb of Kingston DDR2-800 RAM

Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 1GB oc'd to 700/900 (core/memory)

450watt PSU.

My aims are to keep a small budget but still get a semi-decent rig out of it.

What are your suggestions?

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

No dont upgrade.The i7 2600k is amazing.Save your money for it.

 

[diellur]

No dont upgrade.The i7 2600k is amazing.Save your money for it.

What?

To the OP:

Those parts are a little dated now...we also need an idea of what budget you have. You can salvage some parts from your current build (case, optical drive, HDD, mouse, keyboard, monitor etc) but for a rig that can play newer games you'll want a motherboard-CPU-RAM-GPU upgrade. The GPU upgrade is dependent on the games you want to play, so let us know what you're aiming for.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

my suggestion would be to ditch the lot and start over.
but if you have to http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2693 < there is the CPU support list, looks like you can use any core 2 cpu as long as your BIOS is updated. Since your into OC'ing, go to ebay and snap yourself up a cheap core 2 Q6600 or similar cpu., the Q6600 is the most popular, they are always on ebay. OC that to 3ghz, maybe more with a good cooler. Upgrade your ram to at least 4gb. get yourself an amd 5770/6770, but if your budget allows, go for a 6850. But really, what is your budget?

 

[CoppermineComprehension]

Budget wise, as cheap as possible. maybe AU$500 tops.

I was thinking of a new GPU, but that confused me as I didn't know if I had to get a new PSU as well.

A 5770/6770 was mostly what I was aiming for.

As for the C2Q, I don't know if that would blow my budget. It was either that or pushing the E2140 further, for which I would assume a new mobo and ddr3 ram.

Games: Minecraft, Crysis, JC2, Dirt 1 and 2, GTA IV.

 

[diellur]

A new GPU would give you a bit more life, although the PCIe slot on your mobo isn't 2.0 which means the data transfer rate for this slot is slower than on newer systems. What this means is that the mobo will bottleneck the performance of a new GPU to some extent. Your rig is at the point now where it can't really be pushed that much further, although you'll still get a bit of life out of it with those games. If you're on a tight budget, I'd get a decent GPU now but buy it with one eye towards using it in a new system a few months down the line. Meanwhile, start saving.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

your best bet is to get the q6600 from ebay and OC it to 3ghz, get more ram and get a better gfx card. But for less than $500 AU you could get a new AM3+ motherboard, Phenom II 955 quad core cpu, a 6850 vid card and 8gb ddr3 ram. Alternatively you could go for the same thing but with an intel z68 motherboard and i3 2100 CPU. At this stage i would go with the z68 motherboard for upgradeability. AMD gives you nothing to upgrade to, as bulldozer is worse than a phenom II and is a downgrade for gaming. http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf < from here you can get the i3 2100, Asrock z68 crossfire capable motherboard, 8gb ddr3 ram and ati 6850 gpu for $453. You could go with a cheaper motherboard if you dont care about crossfire or go with the AMD phenom build and cheaper motherboard.