Advice on Upgrading

[Poppinjay]

My computer specs (Gateway GM5474) are listed below:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+

2GB DDR2-5300 RAM

500 GB Hard Drive

NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

ELITEGROUP MCP61PM-AM 1.0 Motherboard

Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit

+12V Voltage : 11.75 V

I play mostly Team Fortress 2 on low-medium settings, but I would really like to increase my computer's performance with an upgrade or two. I was thinking of upgrading the RAM to 4GB and graphics card to an ATI 4670, but I would appreciate the opinions and suggestions of the community.

 

[aford10]

What's your budget?

 

[Poppinjay]

My budget for upgrading is ~200 USD. Budget gaming for the most part.

 

[aford10]

Considering your specs, I think that's a good upgrade.

What model is your hard drive? This is one of the faster hard drives available, but it would require reinstalling all your stuff.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-181-_-Product

You could also upgrade the RAM to DDR2 800. It depends on if you are tapping out the 2GB you already have.

 

[Poppinjay]

Can't really find the model name of my hard drive, all I know is that it's a 7200 RPM 500GB hard drive :/

Thanks for the opinion.

Another question: How much of a performance gain would I get by upgrading my graphics card to a HIS Radeon 4670 1GB card?

 

[aford10]

It's a significant upgrade. You should be able to play most games on medium settings. Here's a hierarchy chart.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2464-8.html?xtmc=graphics_hierarchy&xtcr=4

 

[Poppinjay]

Thank you very much for your help

 

[jsrudd]

You could get this ram for $85

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

and then this 4770 for $115.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150369

I'm not entirely sure about backwards compatibility, but from what I've read this ram should just down clock to to 533 and the video card should be backwards compatible to PCI 1.0. You will save a lot of money buying these newer parts that are backwards compatible then buying older parts. You should do some more research or get someone else to confirm this before you buy though.

 

[aford10]

The motherboard has a PCIe x16 slot, so the video card doesn't need to be backwards compatible.

The board also supports DDR2 800 natively. It doesn't need to downclock.

 

[jsrudd]

i found some specs that said it only had a PCI e 1.0 x16 and in my limited research I couldn't really tell the actual performance difference between PCI 1.0 x16 and PCI 2.0 x16. Glad to hear it should work though.

 

[batuchka]

For non CF/SLI PCIex16 gen 1.0/2.0 no diff

 

[batuchka]

How about this

GTS 250 $109
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261051&cm_re=GTS_250-_-14-261-051-_-Product

2GB PC2 5300 $38
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161240

500w/80+/Modular PSU $45 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016

 

[aford10]

This PSU, with batuchka's other 2 suggestions would be a nice upgrade for your $$.
OCZ 550w - $40 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022&cm_re=ocz_550w-_-17-341-022-_-Product