Prioritizing Upgrades

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Anomalyx

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Apr 2, 2010
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My current homebuilt system has treated me well, but while games keep getting better, my computer will begin to fall behind rather soon (I'm starting to miss out on max settings in some of my games). Since I don't want to spend a ton all at once, I am looking for advice on which part of my system would get me the greatest performance increase to price ratio if I were to upgrade it.

I apologize for lack of extreme specifics, I'm doing this from memory at the moment.
Current specs:
Athlon 64 x2 6000+ 3.0ghz AM2
2 GB DDR2 800 RAM - Kingston HyperX
Radeon HD 4830 - Sapphire
Antec 550W PSU
WD Black 750 GB
Samsung 17" 1440x900 2ms monitor
Win 7 Pro 64bit

My initial thoughts are to get myself 4GB of RAM, although I've heard that going from DDR2 800 to DDR3 1600 is a noticeable difference and was wondering if it would be better to save up for one big upgrade to the AM3 platform so I would be able to go beyond DDR2 800 speeds.
My other thought is an HD 5850. A bit more expensive than the RAM upgrade, but in the debate between 5850 and 5770, I'd rather future-proof it with the 5850 rather than have to xfire another 5770 (which would require upgrading from my mAtx, single pcie slot mobo. and probably a higher-rated PSU as well)

Thoughts?
 
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Anomalyx

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I can't remember the board's model number, but I do know that it can accept AM3. Of course, this means that since it's an AM2/AM2+/AM3 board, it can only accept DDR2 RAM. Would a Phenom II or other newer CPU bring more performance than going from 2GB to 4GB of RAM?
 
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whereiswaldo

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In my opinion I would upgrade your RAM first. It should make everything feel more snappy inside windows 7. Once you have upgraded your RAM, then you can start thinking about a video card upgrade. I would guess you will be pleased with the speed boost with just the RAM upgrade.l
 
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Anomalyx

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Would it be worth it to wait 6 months or so and upgrade mobo+cpu+ram to get to an AM3/DDR3 1600 speed, or would it be better to just get 4GB of DDR2 800 now? I'm trying to get the best of both worlds, if possible, with the two worlds being cheap and effective performance, and future-proofing.

Basically my question is: is the difference between DDR2 800 and DDR3 1600 speeds significant enough to spend money on an entire AM3-only platform, when my AM2 platform seems to be serving me well?
 
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Anomalyx

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RAM it is then. I was thinking this set, as I've always been a fan of the brand, and not once in 15 years of building computers have I had one fail on me

I did consider a monitor upgrade, and Newegg had a very nicely priced 1680x1050 monitor as Shell Shocker yesterday, but I planned on waiting a bit longer for prices to drop just a bit more (if then even do) and get myself a nice 1920x1080 2 or 3 ms monitor. Until then, maybe I'll just move my computer out to the living room and HDMI it to our 46" 1080p tv :)
may need to get my video card upgrade sooner than I thought, if I'm unsatisfied with performance at 1440x900. 1920x1080 has a good 3/4 million more pixels than 1440x900
 
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mosox

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No, you already have 2 Gigs, no need for 4 more, a total of 4G of ram is enough. Get 2G of the same RAM if possible, same brand, but most of all, same voltage. Or you have only 2 memory slots on your mobo and both are taken by your RAM?
 
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Anomalyx

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yep, only having 2 slots (filled by 2x 1GB) is my problem. Bought a nice motherboard several years ago with all the bells and whistles, but it died out of warranty, and I went with a $50 replacement just to get my computer back up and running (didn't have a job at that time a few months ago, so price was the only factor I could really consider) which takes me down to only 2 DDR2 slots and chucks xfire-ability (mATX single-pcie). On the plus side, it's AM2/AM2+/AM3 rather than just AM2, should I feel the need for more cores without upgrading my whole mobo too.

And for reference, my mobo is Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2H
 
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Anomalyx

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hmm.. wasn't even aware there was a standard RAM voltage. I only thought that the i7's required lower voltage ram, and other than that it wouldn't matter. I'll take voltage into more consideration than I have in the past

I did notice there aren't any CAS latency 4 RAM that is at standard 1.8v. Is this because the CAS 4 is only achieved by over-clock/volt-ing?

You'll have to forgive me, but I'm nervous about buying anything other than Kingston, since it has not once failed me in 15 years of system building, but if they're just as robust, I'll save $10 with one of those you posted.
 
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