What would be ideal to upgrade in my system?

Hi again Tomshardware!

With the release of Windows 7 being around the corner, I decided it was a good idea to switch from XP 32 bit to Win7 64 bit. I have already paid for the preorder of Win7 (with should include both a 32 and a 64 bit disc as far as I know), so I'm sitting here with 4000 DKK available, and I thought it would be a great time to upgrade some of my hardware aswell Oh, and I am not interested in upgrading my graphics card nor overclocking any components in my system.

4000 Danish kroner = 472.027542 British pounds
4000 Danish kroner = 767.8 U.S. dollars
4000 Danish kroner = 537.449251 Euros


My system is:
nVidia 260 GTX 896 MB
Intel Q9300 Core 2 Quad
3 Gigs of Ram
Corsair 520 HX PSU
2x 500 GB Harddrives @ 7200 RPM
An old Acer case
Oh, and I am also running a dual monitor setup in case that matters.

I am mainly a gamer, but I do graphical work a lot aswell. With my current setup I can easily play Crysis, without performance tweak configs and patches, with about 25-40 fps (I dont have directx 10 because of XP, so I cannot tell about how it runs on very high, but I assume it won't cut it).

What would be ideal to upgrade?

Sorry about a wall of text.

Thanks!

You haven't mentioned anything your system fails to do for you, so the simple answer is "nothing".

You don't mention your monitor(s) size and resolution, because one can always argue that gaming on a 24" at 1920 is better than on a 19".

You don't mention whether after spending the 4000 DK on computer stuff you'd still have enough money for xtreme dating.

I think what was being asked is, what do you want from your computer? You don't want to upgrade your vid-card, so what is your primary goal of "upgrading"? Are you looking for more speed? Are you looking for a sleaker case? Do you have no clue?

Basically you have this money, and you don't know what to do with it? Just from quick glance, things to look at changing: Ram (might want more than 3gb if going 64-bit), CPU, MB as you mentioned (get a newer chipset).

Your PSU looks fine, if not upgrading vid-card and not going SLI.

OK, those are almost large enough so probably not worth upgrading.

If you want to fix this, you need to add another 260 or replace the 260 with a 275. but you don't want to do this, and I agree. I wouldn't waste my money for a Crysis tweak when new vid cards will come in a few months.

Since you obviously do not need to upgrade your PC, I was suggesting you spend the money on a good time with a *very* good friend

^ And, for the most part, he will notice no change in performance.

Hi, thanks for all of your replies so far.

Perhaps I will not notice a big performance difference, but getting a new case and a motherboard is defintely something I would do. Getting 6 gigs of ram aswell then.
Here is a noobie question: Can I use RAM made by different companies at once? For example, 2 sticks of corsair ram and 4 sticks of something else?

Thanks

I thought DDR3 only made a noticeable increase in performance when with an i7?

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Subtotal: $509.91


This is what i would do if i hade the money

Put the 2 HDD in raid 0 you have a nice mobo and case now and 8 GB of ram for your ( graphical work )

my 2 cents PS OC that CPU

I used newegg just as a referance to parts

And you might need this cable http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6812706004

I am guessing it will use 1.8 to 2.1 more volts to push the ram because you are going to use all 4 slots

from what i have read i am going to say you will use about 3w per stick of ram so this is 12w

your PSU will be fine for 2 HDD dvd that 260 and ram and you could even OC the CPU and GPU < per Corsair website