Upgrading a old gaming PC

[zeemee1]

Hello,
I'm a huge fan of this web site and have learned many things but I need help with this. My Overdrive PC is 5 years old and I would like to upgrade it but have been told that its not possible due to the cost of replacing everything within the PC by the folks at a certain company who now runs Overdrive. My CPU is the AMD Opteron 146 sledgehammer, my video card is the Radeon X800 agp. The mobo is Gigabyte, OS is Windows XP, all housed in a beautiful Lian Li mid tower case. I spent a great deal on this PC and have enjoyed it, and if I have to I will get another custom build but I really want to keep it and play the newer games such as Crysis, Far Cry, and the like. I'm a first person shooter gamer and I'm learning so I can one day build my own PC. Very soon I think...lol
Any helpful suggestions are appreciated

Thank you in advance

Zeemee1

 

[megamanx00]

Wow, old school as far as upgrading. Sadly socket 939 CPUs to upgrade to are in very short supply, especially dual core chips, as they haven't been made in some time. For that reason, socket 939 X2 4400+ and above chips cost much more than newer faster chips. Not only that but you got an AGP 939 board rather than a PCI-E one. A Radeon 3850 AGP would certainly go a long way to playing more recent games than you currently do, but generally even games made in the last two years would be more seriously handicapped by your CPU rather than the Radeon. Not only that, but it would cost about twice as much as it's PCI-E counterpart.

It's up to you. If you only have a modest budget then I would say get a good AM3 motherboard, a modest Athlon II X2 (like the 240), 4GB of DDR2, and either live with the integrated graphics or get a cheap, decent card that's still better than your old one like the 9500GT or Radeon 4650. Depending on your budget, you may want to go with a bigger AMD upgrade or even go with an Intel i5 based system.

 

[mark_k]

Tell us how much you want to spend.

If you want to spend 900 - 1,000 you will have a really nice gaming system.

 

[mi1ez]

Surely we can build a decent gaming rig for much less than that! I've seen half decent builds at $500/$600.

I'm assuming you mean USD as we have no idea where you or OP are from.

 

[mark_k]

lol.....

I'm in the USA.

I know you can build for much less but why.
lets build him a MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[azconnie]

Keep your case, and your OS.

P5N-D $90 (Xmas special)
Q9400 $170
2G DDR 6400- $60
250g SATA $80
Corsair 750w PSU $120
GTX $260 $220

Home built 1440x900 Crysis rig $750
Buying it pre-made ~$1000

If your budget allows you can swap the P5N-D for a 780i chipset. I think Nehalem has dropped to within $100 of that price point, though to be fair I do't follow the i7s that much. My machine has been a piece by piece endevor for 3 or so years now and I can't affort to restart all together to go I7/I5. All these prices are from memory, but should be within $20. If yoy live near a Microcenter you can get a Q9550 for $170. I reccomend ASUS, and EVGA.

 

[zeemee1]

Wow, old school as far as upgrading. Sadly socket 939 CPUs to upgrade to are in very short supply, especially dual core chips, as they haven't been made in some time. For that reason, socket 939 X2 4400+ and above chips cost much more than newer faster chips. Not only that but you got an AGP 939 board rather than a PCI-E one. A Radeon 3850 AGP would certainly go a long way to playing more recent games than you currently do, but generally even games made in the last two years would be more seriously handicapped by your CPU rather than the Radeon. Not only that, but it would cost about twice as much as it's PCI-E counterpart.

It's up to you. If you only have a modest budget then I would say get a good AM3 motherboard, a modest Athlon II X2 (like the 240), 4GB of DDR2, and either live with the integrated graphics or get a cheap, decent card that's still better than your old one like the 9500GT or Radeon 4650. Depending on your budget, you may want to go with a bigger AMD upgrade or even go with an Intel i5 based system.

I am willing to spend 1500 to 2000 for my gaming system and with help, willing to build it myself. My wife does some slight video and music editing. I love the Lian Li case and feel I need to upgrade to Vista

 

[azconnie]

I am willing to spend 1500 to 2000 for my gaming system and with help, willing to build it myself. My wife does some slight video and music editing. I love the Lian Li case and feel I need to upgrade to Vista

If you can drop $2k then go I7. Also, Windows 7 and Vista operate basically the same way, 7 just has alot of supurflouous crap turned off so the OS is more lean. They sell for the same, so suit yourself.

Gaming rig I would say I7 920 on an ASUS X58, with a GTX285. Same PSU I listed earlyer.

*Edit

Tom did a $1250 gaming rig comparison

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-2-overclock,2146-12.html

 

[zeemee1]

Tell us how much you want to spend.

If you want to spend 900 - 1,000 you will have a really nice gaming system.

I want to spend between 1500 and 2000, as stated previously, my wife does music and video editiing but I figure with a awesome game rig her needs will be fullfilled as well as mine

 

[zeemee1]

Wow, old school as far as upgrading. Sadly socket 939 CPUs to upgrade to are in very short supply, especially dual core chips, as they haven't been made in some time. For that reason, socket 939 X2 4400+ and above chips cost much more than newer faster chips. Not only that but you got an AGP 939 board rather than a PCI-E one. A Radeon 3850 AGP would certainly go a long way to playing more recent games than you currently do, but generally even games made in the last two years would be more seriously handicapped by your CPU rather than the Radeon. Not only that, but it would cost about twice as much as it's PCI-E counterpart.

It's up to you. If you only have a modest budget then I would say get a good AM3 motherboard, a modest Athlon II X2 (like the 240), 4GB of DDR2, and either live with the integrated graphics or get a cheap, decent card that's still better than your old one like the 9500GT or Radeon 4650. Depending on your budget, you may want to go with a bigger AMD upgrade or even go with an Intel i5 based system.

Having been out of the PC purchase market for around 5 years, I was amazed at the overall improvement and vast selection of components and multiple custom builders that are available. Having owned a very nice custom PC has set the bar high regarding performance. Being a relative newcomer to the "build it yourself" market I'm completely stunned with the options available. I play FPS games and my wife does video/music editing. I honestly don't know where to start other than the price range. DDR2 or DDR3, AMD or Intel, ATI or Nvidia? I'm considered an expert in my field but feel rather sheepish right about now....lol. I truly feel capable of building my own but finding the beginning is key for my future success.

 

[welshmousepk]

with that budgtet, go LGA1156 with a radeon 5xxx series card.

you can get brilliant performance.

 

[mark_k]

I am willing to spend 1500 to 2000 for my gaming system and with help, willing to build it myself. My wife does some slight video and music editing. I love the Lian Li case and feel I need to upgrade to Vista

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Let the games begin.

 

[mark_k]

I want to spend between 1500 and 2000, as stated previously, my wife does music and video editiing but I figure with a awesome game rig her needs will be fullfilled as well as mine

It's really easy its all plug and play now a days.

I built my first rig last xmas and now building a new this xmas.

I was lucky and had help from a member on this forum that I could call.
If you want you can call me and I will help over the phone also

Kind of like pay it forward........ you know the movie?

Good luck and it is a lot of fun.

 

[zeemee1]

It's really easy its all plug and play now a days.

I built my first rig last xmas and now building a new this xmas.

I was lucky and had help from a member on this forum that I could call.
If you want you can call me and I will help over the phone also

Kind of like pay it forward........ you know the movie?

Good luck and it is a lot of fun.

Thanks greatly. I appreciate all the suggestions and comments and I'm really getting excited about my first build

 

[megamanx00]

Good. Reading reviews about parts here on Toms is a good way to start. Newegg.com is the website most of us go too to select parts. Create a wish list there and use it to start a new thread. You'll get some useful comments and suggestions on it, and hopefully not too many useless ones .

 

[sonic-boom]

Check out this thread for ideas. At 1500-2k a i7920(if you want to upgrade in x years) build is definitely the way to go, or possible i7-860(if you are going to completely rebuild in x years get this)
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/273464-31-custom-gaming-budget-close-2000

 

[zeemee1]

after spending the last few days constantly researching, reading reviews and such I've decided to go with a
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Ultra durable Intel X58 SLI and Crossfire ready
I7 920 cpu
Corsiar XMS3 6GB 3X2GB triple channel DDR3 1333(PC3 10666) Low latency high performance Gaming Memory
Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB Sata 3.0 high Performance hard drive with 32mb
Rosewill rx 850-s-b 80plus certified psu
My Lian Li brushed aluminum mid tower case
ATI HD 5850 video card
dvd/cd multi player burner
decent card reader
windows 7 ultimate

what does everyone think?

 

[welshmousepk]

a very solid build.

personally, i would go LGA1156 over LGA1366 any day. its gaming performance is better, and thats what concerns me most.

but as far as pcs go, thats a very nice rig. balanced, and not too expensive.

the case seems very expensive though :S. get a lancool and upgrade your video card? lol

but yeah, solid build.

 

[welshmousepk]

sorry, just realised that you already own the lian-li. nevermind, you sure as hell want to keep it

 

[zeemee1]

sorry, just realised that you already own the lian-li. nevermind, you sure as hell want to keep it

Thanks for your input. I just love the Lian Li case. The only reason I went with the 1366 socket over the 1156 was immediate availablity and I had read some posts regarding the 1156 socket overheating after overclocking. i've also read just as many saying the 1156 is a fine socket. I just went with a combo deal I saw, so I got it. This will be my first solo build after owing custom pc's for years so I am fairly excited to get started

 

[zeemee1]

a very solid build.

personally, i would go LGA1156 over LGA1366 any day. its gaming performance is better, and thats what concerns me most.

but as far as pcs go, thats a very nice rig. balanced, and not too expensive.

the case seems very expensive though :S. get a lancool and upgrade your video card? lol

but yeah, solid build.

I am extremely interested in overclocking, as the science involved really gets to me, not so much for what the higher power will do, but just the fact that I can do it using care of course. I've read several posts regarding water/liquid cooling and have begun research on the subject. Being my Lian Li is a mid tower I expect to encounter some clearance issues with various cooling systems.

 

[zeemee1]

Good. Reading reviews about parts here on Toms is a good way to start. Newegg.com is the website most of us go too to select parts. Create a wish list there and use it to start a new thread. You'll get some useful comments and suggestions on it, and hopefully not too many useless ones .

Newegg has been awesome with me, great phone service and tech help with what to purchase and why. I never got the feeling they were just trying to sell me something. Thank you for your response and suggestions, very appreciated