CPU

ok I have the AMD 4450e which is a athlon 64x2 at 2.3 ghz. and a Motherboard Name ECS MCP61PM-HM (Iris8). it has a pci x16 1.0, so Im asking should I upgrade it to a mother board that can handle a qaud core and pcix16 2.0? or does this machine have the muscle for what I need, the only game thats a lil slow is the GTA IV game everything else runs great. my specs are as above plus Zotac geforce 9800gt 512 mb ddr3 amped pci xpress x16 2.0, Antec Basiq BP500U 500W Continuous Power ATX12V Version 2.01 Active PFC Power Supply , ddr2 800 3 gig memory, 1.5 terrbyte hardrive total. lightscrub dvd dual layer, windows home premium 7. is this a good computer which is a compaq sr5710f. or should I get new power supply and motherboard/cpu

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Reply to travismontana

travismontana wrote :

ok I have the AMD 4450e which is a athlon 64x2 at 2.3 ghz. and a Motherboard Name ECS MCP61PM-HM (Iris8). it has a pci x16 1.0, so Im asking should I upgrade it to a mother board that can handle a qaud core and pcix16 2.0? or does this machine have the muscle for what I need, the only game thats a lil slow is the GTA IV game everything else runs great. my specs are as above plus Zotac geforce 9800gt 512 mb ddr3 amped pci xpress x16 2.0, Antec Basiq BP500U 500W Continuous Power ATX12V Version 2.01 Active PFC Power Supply , ddr2 800 3 gig memory, 1.5 terrbyte hardrive total. lightscrub dvd dual layer, windows home premium 7. is this a good computer which is a compaq sr5710f. or should I get new power supply and motherboard/cpu

also have the pci xfi xtreme fidelity sound card

Reply to travismontana

Your board does have one PCI-e 16x slot. That is where your 9800GT is. Upgrading to 2.0 version would provide no benefit.

GTA4 doesn't run that well because it is rather CPU Dependant. Now, as to if your motherboard will support a modern quad core is a gamble 50/50 shot. I recommend you buy the CPU that you want and put it in the board. If it doesn't boot or shows less than 4 cores in the bios or in windows, then upgrade your motherboard. As for your power supply, that depends on which CPU you decide on. A CPU upgrade would do a fair performance boost in all games but expecially in GTA4.

I can't help but notice you're asking us if your computer has the muscle for what you need or not however you have played those games on it and drawn conclusions. Only YOU can say if your computer is up to what you want or if you want better. This also applies to your last paragraph also.

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Reply to enzo matrix

love the computer she runs really fast, like I was asking I called Compaq and they told me the computer will only run up to athlon 64 II 4800+. and thats as high as it will go for the motherboard, so instead of getting a new rig I wanted to know should I increase to a qaud core for better performance, my zotac is great and runs all games at 100% except for GTA IV. she only runs about 35%. so with other games like star trek online and other games comming out, should I upgrade to a better motherboard or graphics card or for right now keep the computer as is.

Reply to travismontana

Alright. What I said before still stands. An addition of a new motherboard will add about $80.
A CPU upgrade to something like and Athlon IIx4 or Phenom IIx4 will boost performance by quite a bit in GTA4. And in other games it will make a modest improvement.

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Reply to enzo matrix

So in other words the computer I have gotten and upgraded should be fine for anything and its not worth the extra money just for GTA IV.... because later on I want to play star trek online and bioshock II and all. I am very happy with my rig but just dont want to behind on upgrades, even though every 3 mos something new comes out. I was told that the 2.0 pci express doesnt do much because they havent used the potentials of the 16 1.0 to its max yet anyways, but Like I said people told me here also about my graphics card unless I want to spend like 500 on a ATI HD5700 I wont see an approvement in graphics, In windows 7 performance I get a 6.9 in graphics and video, but I get a 4.9 in processor, and a 6.0 in memory and a 5.9 in disk. so I was woundering If I was bottleknecking at all as well. and I still cant find a way to overclock anything on my cpu and video card, but the zotac amed is overclocked already by the company. so please let me know your thoughts of what to do please, and thank you for your help.

Reply to travismontana

You have an OEM motherboard so overclocking is not possible as those options are disabled in the bios. Also windows experience index is bad. ignore it. Yes your gpu is being bottlenecked by your processor and that is why an upgrade would give you an improvement in all games but especially in GTA4 because GTA4 uses a lot of CPU power. I think you misunderstand what I mean by modest. modest means decent and noticeable.

Now this part is my own personal what I would do if I were in your shoes and it is more expensive.
I would purchase an AM3 socket board and 4GB of DDR3 ram and a Phenom 955 BE with a new power supply. I would keep the 9800GT until It wasnt good enough for me anymore. then I would upgrade it to something better.

Since you said your motherboard does not support anything past a 4800+, there is a 50/50 chance if you drop a new CPU in your board it would work. a less expensive route, I would get a phenom IIx4 955 BE and drop it in. if it doesnt work, get a new AM2+ motherboard. then down the road when you feel like graphics are slipping, you could upgrade to a better card.

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Reply to enzo matrix

I was looking at the I5 core and I7 also are these any better than the qauds? I just was asking because some computers with qauds are like 500 and if I do a motherboard combo itll be 300 if I can reuse the memory. looks like Im going to get a new compaq with a qaud core. thank you

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Reply to travismontana

also just to ask is my power supply large enough for what I have or should I get a larger one?

Reply to travismontana

travismontana wrote :

I was looking at the I5 core and I7 also are these any better than the qauds? I just was asking because some computers with qauds are like 500 and if I do a motherboard combo itll be 300 if I can reuse the memory. looks like Im going to get a new compaq with a qaud core. thank you

Yes. Very much better. Don't be fooled by the higher core 2 quad clock speeds, the i5 and i7 will perform better.

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Reply to enzo matrix

with those processors I5 and I7 cores, I would need a bigger power supply? the qaud core motherboard and I series are around the same price to buy Im looking into a I5 mobo system. Hate to go out of AMD love those chips, but I dont know anything about how those cpus are, ill have to read up on them to see how better they are against amd.

Reply to travismontana

A phenom II 955 BE 3.2GHz would be like a core 2 quad at 3.0GHz

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Reply to enzo matrix

I just want to get the most out of my computer without breaking the bank, cant really go over 300, some sites have a mother board combo and put it together with some extra cooling for 15 more and make sure it works and ships overnight for 6.97 so I may go with them for a qaud, the other site its 300 just for a I7 motherboard. also should I get a more powerful power supply, I have the antec basiq 500 watt 2.01 version.

Reply to travismontana

Your power supply should be fine.

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Reply to enzo matrix

enzo matrix wrote :

Alright. What I said before still stands. An addition of a new motherboard will add about $80.
A CPU upgrade to something like and Athlon IIx4 or Phenom IIx4 will boost performance by quite a bit in GTA4. And in other games it will make a modest improvement.

ps the phenom line is ,but its 3 level casha stinks it gives alot of flaws and abit buggy stay with the Athlon they are reasonable and work great the intel E7 or I7 What ever it is eats up the phenom dnt get me wrong i loved my pheom but i use a athalon x64 X2 4850e 2500 MHz over clocked to 2700 MHz and the on bord GPU over cocked as well and im happy for game id be on fire with that 9800 gt thats a good video card look for a black addition Athalon x64 X2 its fast and over clock able

Reply to coltnrg420

enzo matrix wrote :

Your board does have one PCI-e 16x slot. That is where your 9800GT is. Upgrading to 2.0 version would provide no benefit.

GTA4 doesn't run that well because it is rather CPU Dependant. Now, as to if your motherboard will support a modern quad core is a gamble 50/50 shot. I recommend you buy the CPU that you want and put it in the board. If it doesn't boot or shows less than 4 cores in the bios or in windows, then upgrade your motherboard. As for your power supply, that depends on which CPU you decide on. A CPU upgrade would do a fair performance boost in all games but expecially in GTA4.

I can't help but notice you're asking us if your computer has the muscle for what you need or not however you have played those games on it and drawn conclusions. Only YOU can say if your computer is up to what you want or if you want better. This also applies to your last paragraph also.

lol thats funny your right i have same computer as you its a good one but you need faster cpu

Reply to coltnrg420

travismontana wrote :

I was looking at the I5 core and I7 also are these any better than the qauds? I just was asking because some computers with qauds are like 500 and if I do a motherboard combo itll be 300 if I can reuse the memory. looks like Im going to get a new compaq with a qaud core. thank you

good if you are running sever 2008 or something like that thats a lot of cores kinda over kill in less your into vm os running or ato cad but for regular gaming ther would be no difference games are made to run but kinda get confuses when you add all them, and sever probably wont run games to well it do-sent like dx stuff to munch,stay with quad core or that intel 8 core that runes beautifully and is compatible with windows 7.so all them core is not good idea in less you wont to runn 5 vm os and play games on each one but then you will need like 120 gigs of ram lol

Reply to coltnrg420

" love the computer she runs really fast, like I was asking I called Compaq and they told me the computer will only run up to athlon 64 II 4800+. "

that's a lie.
but anyways upgrading to the i-series or phenom is always a good thing.

Reply to malmental