I bought my computer 3 years ago, I hand picked each component, ive been pretty happy with it but its starting to show its age now and I basically just want it to be faster, I do A LOT of multitasking, work in photoshop mostly and play games too (Battlefield2142, DarkFall).
I would like to do the best upgrades i can with a budget of 250$ to 450$ max... not sure if buying a new cpu is worth it, i could overclock mine...
Here are my main specs :
Motherboard : ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 ( 2.13Ghz )
Ram : Kingston KVR667D2N5k2 2x1g DDR2 PC667/PC5300
Graphic Card : NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT (note : this was purchased 1.5 year ago, so not looking to upgrade this )
Hard Drives :
1 x WesterDigital WD2500JS ATA 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
1 x WesterDigital WD2500KS ATA 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
Power Supply : Antec Smart Power 2.0 SP500 ATX P4 500W 20/24Pin
Case : Antec NSK6500 Mid Tour
OS : Vista 32bit, but planning on upgrading to Windows 7 asap ( 22 october ? )
What would be the components to upgrade and with what should i replace them ?
Some of my thoughts/concerns :
1. Will my power supply be good enough for the upgrades ?
2. Since i have 2x1gig of PC667 memory, Is it better to REPLACE with 2x2gig PC800 or to ADD 2x2gig PC800 (6gig total but running at PC667)?
3. Does the Brand of memory matter much ? Do i need to look at that or just find the cheapest 2x2gig PC800 ram i can get ?
4. Will i need to get better cooling for my CPU/Case ?
5. Concerning the Video Card, i bought that one about 1.5 year ago or so, I was thinking i should keep it for now as i can still run games decently at 1680x1024, maybe in 1 year id be ready to upgrade that, unless you guys say its a must... Instead of a video card, i was thinking maybe to buy better hard drive, however it seems the better hard drives ( 10k RPM ) are too expensive for the amount of gigs they offer... perhaps i could just buy a third drive, and put my first 2 250gb drives in raid... ive never done that though so not sure how it works or if its worth it, but i need my data to be safe, this computer is for work mostly, but with a decent amount of game playing
I would like to do the best upgrades i can with a budget of 250$ to 450$ max... not sure if buying a new cpu is worth it, i could overclock mine...
Here are my main specs :
Motherboard : ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 ( 2.13Ghz )
Ram : Kingston KVR667D2N5k2 2x1g DDR2 PC667/PC5300
Graphic Card : NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT (note : this was purchased 1.5 year ago, so not looking to upgrade this )
Hard Drives :
1 x WesterDigital WD2500JS ATA 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
1 x WesterDigital WD2500KS ATA 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb
Power Supply : Antec Smart Power 2.0 SP500 ATX P4 500W 20/24Pin
Case : Antec NSK6500 Mid Tour
OS : Vista 32bit, but planning on upgrading to Windows 7 asap ( 22 october ? )
What would be the components to upgrade and with what should i replace them ?
Some of my thoughts/concerns :
1. Will my power supply be good enough for the upgrades ?
2. Since i have 2x1gig of PC667 memory, Is it better to REPLACE with 2x2gig PC800 or to ADD 2x2gig PC800 (6gig total but running at PC667)?
3. Does the Brand of memory matter much ? Do i need to look at that or just find the cheapest 2x2gig PC800 ram i can get ?
4. Will i need to get better cooling for my CPU/Case ?
5. Concerning the Video Card, i bought that one about 1.5 year ago or so, I was thinking i should keep it for now as i can still run games decently at 1680x1024, maybe in 1 year id be ready to upgrade that, unless you guys say its a must... Instead of a video card, i was thinking maybe to buy better hard drive, however it seems the better hard drives ( 10k RPM ) are too expensive for the amount of gigs they offer... perhaps i could just buy a third drive, and put my first 2 250gb drives in raid... ive never done that though so not sure how it works or if its worth it, but i need my data to be safe, this computer is for work mostly, but with a decent amount of game playing