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What should I upgrade first?

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Hey guys, i'm new and wasn't sure which category this would fit in, so i'm sorry in advance.

I use my PC mainly for gaming, apart from surfing the internet and listening to music etc.
Since Portal 2 was released I soon realized that I really did lack a bit in performance in my system.

I have my eye on these two upgrades and I am not sure which one I would benefit from the most:

CPU
Current - Intel Pentium D 920 @2.80 GHz
Potential upgrade - Intel i5-2400 @ 3GHz ~ £120

Graphics Card
Current - ATI Radeon HD 5450
Potential upgrade - ATI Radeon HD 5670 ~ £65 (for 1GB version)

I also run Windows XP Media Center (32-bit), and i am curious. Would there be a big margin for performance between this and Windows 7 (64-bit) ?

Thanks in advance,
Graeme :sol: 

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I'd go with the cpu upgrade. It would help your games a tiny bit, but it would help everything else alot. The gpu will only help your games.
If you only do gaming, go with the gpu.

Also, if possible, get win 7. Win 7 will improve your start-up time and look really cool.

smithy087 said:
Hey guys, i'm new and wasn't sure which category this would fit in, so i'm sorry in advance.

I use my PC mainly for gaming, apart from surfing the internet and listening to music etc.
Since Portal 2 was released I soon realized that I really did lack a bit in performance in my system.

I have my eye on these two upgrades and I am not sure which one I would benefit from the most:

CPU
Current - Intel Pentium D 920 @2.80 GHz
Potential upgrade{/i] - Intel i5-2400 @ 3GHz ~ £120

Graphics Card
Current - ATI Radeon HD 5450
Potential upgrade - ATI Radeon HD 5670 ~ £65 (for 1GB version)

I also run Windows XP Media Center (32-bit), and i am curious. Would there be a big margin for performance between this and Windows 7 (64-bit) ?

Thanks in advance,
Graeme :sol: 

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/windows_7_revi...
Most reviews say that win xp wins over win 7.Read the link above.
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Oops, my bad
zulfadhli is right. unless you want to build a new system, go with the graphics card.

i still maintain that you should get win 7. if you read his link you'll see that maximum pc gave win 7 a "9/10 kickass" rating.

" Posted 10/19/2009 at 12:00pm "

i sure hope you saw that the maximumpc article was posted over nearly a year and a half ago and that a lot of patches and fixes have came out for windows 7 since then...

And to the OP.

Get the GPU first as that is the most obvious weak point in your PC.
After that, get a complete upgrade for your system when you have the money for it.

Meaning you need to save up for a Z68 mobo (when they release it), i5-2500k, the DDR3 memory and Windows 7 and maybe a new HDD. Works out better in the long run....


Oh and portal 2 isnt that demanding.......

Thanks for the replies guys, really helps me out :) 

Yeah I know Portal 2 isn't that demanding, i'm just more into my older games like CS:Source, TF2 and things from that generation so i never noticed the lag as much :p 

I think i'll go with the GPU as I do mostly use my pc for gaming.
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