Is it worth upgrading this system and if so, with what?

[Guest]

Hello,

I was wanting to know how this system sounds,

Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz with hyperthreading tech,

Corsair 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2, 800Mhz (PC2-6400) CL5 (5-5-5-18) memory, (I only have four memory slots and I will get two more memory sticks when I upgrade from XP Pro as it wouldn't do any good until I get Win7 because XP can't "see" more than 4GB anyway, I think this mobo only supports a total of 8GB),

PNY Technologies NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX+, clock speed 738MHz, RAMDAC 400 MHz, vid mem installed 512MB, GDDR3 SDRAM 256-bit, mem clock speed 2.2GHz, (running a 42 inch HDTV, which suprizingly looks really good.)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound card,

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB, 32MB cache, 7200 rpm hard drive,

Linksys WMP600N Dual-Band Wireless-N PCI network adapter.

Some friends have stated that the 9800GTX+ was overkill for my system but know I don't know. Others have told me to keep it. I don't know if this system is upgradable any more than what I have, (without getting very costly and/or getting a new mobo). The only extra thing that has been recommended so far is an upgrade to a WD 2TB hard drive, which I have been considering anyway, not that I have had any problems with my old hd but the 500 GB is five years old right now.

I basically want to know if this will be a good system for the next couple of years and I wanted some thoughts about my current GPU. (I have an old GeForce 6800GT on hand also).

I also wanted to know how much more I could upgrade this system without replacing my motherboard because if it gets to exspensive, I'll just save up and buy a whole new computer.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks,
Ray

 

[roversjoost]

It kind of depends on your mobo really. Maybe it will support the core2duo with 800 fsb in which case you could probably go up to a e6600 or something similar.

Could you find out what mother board you currently have?

 

[michael_92]

hi,

well let's start off by asking the following question, What do you intend to do with this PC?
play games on it? video editing? or just use it as a casual home computer?
this will help me determine where your computer might need upgrading, but if you intend to use it as a casual computer it's more than enough.

hope this helped

 

[Guest]

Hi,

As far as the motherboard goes, LOL, it's a Dell. Sorry, this is all that I could find.

Link to where I could buy another one through Dell. And you can see a picture of it -

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Motherboards/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=DH688&mfgpid=167258&chassisid=8231

And a link to Dell's info on this motherboard, I had to edit this thing, it was way too long when I tried to just copy and paste the info -

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dimxpsg5/sm/specs0.htm#wp1052939

Thanks for responding. This computer is used mostly for gaming, but I also use it for watching Netflix, surfing the web, ect. It's only for recreational/home use.

(Sorry if these get so long)

 

[michael_92]

if it's just for casual gaming and/or home use, then i would suggest you update your memory to a faster module, prefferably 1333Mhz, (if your motherboard supports it though). otherwise it's perfectly fine for what you want to do with it.

 

[Guest]

A friend of mind has an Antec 900 case with an Ultra X3 1000W power supply and he said he would sell it to me for about $250. He also said that the 9800GTX+ was overkill because my processor couldn't "use" all of the potential of that GPU. He suggested that I sell the 9800, get his case w/psu and a second 6800GT and run them in SLI. (But I don't think my motherboard is capable of that, so I would have to buy another mobo.?) If that is the case and I would have to buy another mobo, (and people here say what I've got is fine), I'll just stick with what I've got, unless the upgrades are cheap.

 

[roversjoost]

Don't go for the 6800GT in SLI as I am fairly certain the 9800GTX+ is a better performer all alone. If you want to upgrade, you will need a new motherboard. Then it all depends on your budget to go either intell or amd.

 

[michael_92]

if you want to use both 6800gt in SLi i'd just forget it and buy a new pc. your mobo probably won't support it.
added to that, the cost of upgrading just isn't worth it.
also, if you want a budget PC get an AMD cpu, and ATI graphics card.
but it's up to you to decide that

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies.

The one friend that plays stuff like City of Heroes, The Battle for Middle Earth, Warhammer, The Witcher, Morrowind, he says my computer is fine/fast enough and to just keep what I've got.

The other friend, the one with the old Antec 900, plays newer stuff and games like Crysis, he's the one that says my computer is slow and I should upgrade it. (Which by the way, I decided to at least take him up on the Antec w/psu. I looked up that X3 and it's that exspensive all by itself, it's like getting a free case.)

Thanks all, I think I'll just keep my system as it is for now, I just wanted to make sure that it was ok for now and to see if I could upgrade it cheap. I have never tried to do anything to my computers before, I just used them how they came out of the box.

That Antec looks cool and it should make a good base when I do start to do my first computer build.

 

[singingigo]

Your graphics card, hard drive & memory are all fine. With that case/PSU, all you need is a decent motherboard & cpu. Take a look at this: AMD+Asus Combo. It's $132 plus shipping. That gets you a much faster triple-core processor and a decent motherboard.

 

[Guest]

LOL, being new to this I did't realize that you could buy parts that cheap. I always assumed that they were really exspensive. I guess I might be looking at that first build sooner than I thought!

As I stated, I had always bought complete systems and just used them how I got them, (I'm on my third computer. I used them till they got "slow" and then bought another.) Actually I didn't think this last one was that bad until my friend that plays Crysis showed me some stuff and told me to upgrade it. (I've still got my first computer, I kept it more for sentimental value than anything else. LOL, It's a Dell Optiplex G1, 333MGz Pentium processor, 128MB of ram, and a 4GB hard drive, It runs Windows 95 and uses IE 5.5, and it still works). Can't use it for much but my neices and nephews have something to tool around on the internet with when my computer, and my wifes, are being used. My wifes is more the Home Office computer whilst mine is used primarily for gaming, that's why I wanted to upgrade it.

If I would have realized that I could do it, and how cheap the parts were, I would have built my own system a long time ago!

Thanks.

 

[capt_taco]

Your graphics card, hard drive & memory are all fine. With that case/PSU, all you need is a decent motherboard & cpu. Take a look at this: AMD+Asus Combo. It's $132 plus shipping. That gets you a much faster triple-core processor and a decent motherboard.

More like $116 plus shipping after the rebate. Now THAT is a pretty amazing deal.

OP: If you want, for $50 more you could go to an AMD quad core, or $100 more for a Phenom II X4 ... but that right there is a pretty good find as well. The rest of your system is fine and a CPU upgrade basically leaves you good to go.