~What to upgrade need life back into my rig~

[Vinious]

Hello well Tax time is here and I have a bit of extra money to play with...about 250 bucks and i wanna upgrade something in my old gamer to get about one more year of life out of it before i just build a new system all together. so i was looking for some advise on what I should upgrade. so here are my specs;

~ Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775

~ ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

~ Diamond ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB GDDR5 850mhz

~ G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
2 x Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066

~ CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS

~ 2 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

Any help on what to upgrade would be great thanks again!!

 

[Wolfshadw]

Your current system is pretty good as it is and $250 isn't enough for a full system rebuild. What you want to look at is something that you can bring forward into a new complete build when you're ready to do that. Recommendations would include a new case and/or power supply.

-Wolf sends

 

[boiler1990]

Yeah, you won't see any major improvements for $250; you'd probably be able to get the same performance with a new system base (CPU/mobo/RAM). I would just save the money and rebuild when you have the funds.

 

[Vinious]

ah ok I was thinking about getting a new vid card like a 6950 or something. but I was not sure if I would get that much of a boost or if I would just be bottle necking the card I got a new case last night (Cooler Master HAF 932 High Air Flow Case). But im thinking most of my problem is just Black ops but I was just seeking a fresh look at what I had in hopes I may be over looking something.

 

[dalauder]

Pull out the 2x1GB sticks of DDR2 and only use the matching 2GB sticks for faster dual channel. Run Memtest86+ to see your RAM throughput if you don't believe me.

Overclock your CPU. The 8300 should do 3.0GHz on stock cooling. Keep an eye on temps and you'll have to decrease your RAM divider or the RAM will crash on OC. Thermal throttling might kick in on benchmarking the CPU (LinX/Prime95), but no where else.

Get an 850W quality PSU (the XFX is a good deal right now). That's $110 or so. You already spent $120 on your case, so I guess that's your $250. So overclock the 5770 for better performance. OC'ing graphics is faster than computers--basically, increase clocks and if it's not too hot and doesn't crash you're good. Voltage tweaking isn't nearly as necessary.

If your mobo has enough slots, get a second 5770 down the line and crossfire or sell your 5770 and get a single 5870 or 6950. A Q8300 will last you at least one more year if you OC it.

Edit: I looked up your mobo and it lacks the slots for crossfireX. But it should overclock nicely. Don't for get to put your 2x2GB DDR2 sticks in slots of the same color.