Help needed to upgrade old gaming PC

[ulsterbrit]

Hi all i have a new pc on pre order it is coming on the 26th march.
So i am handing my old one down to my Brother, What i need to know is what should he upgrade as this machine is now over 3years old. Though there still is not a single game i have played what makes it lag.
I told him g/card would probably be best bet and maybe a new processor And a 64bit windows7. Though im not sure if it would accommodate the new g/cards and processors,Any help would be greatly appreciated.
His limit is about £300 so he might have to just upgrade 1 part at a time.

windows vista 32bit

inter(r) core(tm)2 cpu 6700 @ 2.66ghz

p5n32-e sli plus <-------does this support i5 or i7 if not what is the best intel chip it can handle.

4 gig of ram 800mhz

2x gtx8800 sli

 

[lindley010]

Hi all i have a new pc on pre order it is coming on the 26th march.
So i am handing my old one down to my Brother, What i need to know is what should he upgrade as this machine is now over 3years old. Though there still is not a single game i have played what makes it lag.
I told him g/card would probably be best bet and maybe a new processor And a 64bit windows7. Though im not sure if it would accommodate the new g/cards and processors,Any help would be greatly appreciated.
His limit is about £300 so he might have to just upgrade 1 part at a time.

windows vista 32bit

inter(r) core(tm)2 cpu 6700 @ 2.66ghz

p5n32-e sli plus <-------does this support i5 or i7 if not what is the best intel chip it can handle.

4 gig of ram 800mhz

2x gtx8800 sli

This seems like a joke to me, You dont need to upgrade anything.

How can a intel 775 socket motherboard support a intel 1366 socket or a 1156 socket? You would need to replace the motherboard, £100, replace the cpu £200. Then you would need to replace the ram as the new mobo wont support the ddr2 ram. another £100. Thats without even touching the gpu.

Best Bet. Leave it as it is because you will be basically changing every component.

P.S Get rid of that awful operating system and put windows 7 on. Only change that is needed.

pps. you cant get 1 part at a time when it comes to mobo/cpu/ram.

 

[hunter315]

Though there still is not a single game i have played what makes it lag.

That one line tells you the answer to the question, if there arent any games that it lags during dont waste money and upgrade it, you have a solid system, it will actually be pretty expensive to find anything that will best 2 GTX8800 in SLI, a 5850 or 5870 would probably do a bit better but not enough to justified it when your current setup doesnt lag. Upgrading because stuff is old isnt smart if it still does what you need. Have him save those 300 for now and if in a few years he finds that it doesnt quite do what he needs any more those 300 will buy him significantly more performance.

 

[ulsterbrit]

ok ill tell him to buy windows7 64bit that is all whats needed?
would a new g/card not benefit it atall then?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Given the system's age, I wouldn't upgrade the hardware or the OS.....seems a waste to buy an OEM license of Windows 7 and have it tied to that old hardware....and a retail version is just too much to spend on an old PC. If Vista's giving you issues, you might try seeing if you could get a free downgrade to XP as many vendors had such an offer.

 

[lindley010]

ok ill tell him to buy windows7 64bit that is all whats needed?
would a new g/card not benefit it atall then?

Would only be minor (having dx11) But spending over £100 for a single DX11 card is definitely not worth it.

You'd be better waiting at least a year before upgrading, as prices will have fallen so you'll get more for the same amount of cash. Im not so such you need a 64bit, but there's no harm in it.

 

[lindley010]

Given the system's age, I wouldn't upgrade the hardware or the OS.....seems a waste to buy an OEM license of Windows 7 and have it tied to that old hardware....and a retail version is just too much to spend on an old PC. If Vista's giving you issues, you might try seeing if you could get a free downgrade to XP as many vendors had such an offer.

Vista isnt giving him issues, but the windows 7 disk can be used for future builds, Xp is old, Vista is pathetic.

Yeah it is very expensive & they wonder why so many people pirate it :/...