Upgrading a socket 775 65nm desktop

scigeek1

Honorable
Jun 24, 2012
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I have an older Gateway desktop with these specs:
Intel® 975X (Big-Arm) mobo,
1066 fsb, 65nm, socket 775,
Core2 Duo Processor E6400 (2.13 GHz)
700 watt Grantsdale extended ATX pwr
and NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS video card

So the question is if I have a $400 budget, is it worthwhile upgrading this sytem with a new chip and videocard? Better to start from scratch?
I would appreciate any recommendations on specific chipsets and/or cards.
Thanks

P.S.

I tried to upgrade the card once but had trouble fitting the new card into the case. I will need a card that only occupies one mounting slot at the rear of the case AND does not use a full length cooling duct for the chip fan.
 

$hawn

Distinguished
Oct 28, 2009
854
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19,060
Sell ur old rig off, and build urself a brand new LGA 1155 socket based one......even a cheap Pentium G630 will be MUCH faster than ur E6400 :)

$600 looks like a good amount to build a decent rig :) cheers:)
 

crisan_tiberiu

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Nov 22, 2010
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19,660
Amd rig
- FX 4170 (quad core) / FX 6100 (six core) - 139$
- MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128510 - 130$
- video card - 130$ - you can get a GTX 460 1GB/256 bit, Radeon 7750, radeon 6850 or radeon 7770 :) (personaly i would go with the gtx 460 or radeon 6850)
Intel rig
- core i3 2120 - 124$
- an 130$ MB :)
- and for 146$ - you get the same video car as for the AMD rig ...

Pro's and cons
- with the AMD rig you get the benefit of higher performance in multithreading apps
- with the intel rig you get better perfomance in games (single core performance is arround 30% higher then AMD) and lower power consumtion sand lower CPU temps with the stock cooler.
Thats about it :0
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116406 Pentium G 630 Sandy bridge

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128539 Gigabyte H61

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313072 4GB DDR3 1333

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026 Corsair CX430

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161405 His IceQ HD7850 2GB

$442 - $30 mail in rebates = $412 +1 Free game

Reuse your case, hd and optical drive and you got a bad azz gaming machine my man. I'd recommend spending another $16 for a 8GB (2x4GB) memory kit cause the mobo only has 2 slots.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231424

You could upgrade this to a Ivy Bridge quad at some point in the future.

If want, go with a HD7770 and knock off $100 if you want to go cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127664