Which one should I upgrade????

September 1, 2012 2:02:03 PM

Hi everyone,

So now I have some sort of dilemma on deciding which one of my PC components should I upgrade? The processor or the graphic card?

So here's my PC specs:
Intel Pentium 4 524 3.06Ghz with HT
Intel X4500 on-board graphics
ASRock G41T-VS3 motherboard
4GB RAM DDR3 FSB 1333MHz (bcoz of my proccy it becomes 533MHz)
320GB SATA HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

Mostly I use this PC for gaming, as well as other stuffs too like internet, downloading stuffs, office works...

I would appreciate any suggestions as long as it is less than or equal to $95. (<- That's my budget.

)

Thank you,

spikypotato

More about : upgrade

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Uther39

September 1, 2012 2:04:34 PM

spikypotato said:

Hi everyone,

So now I have some sort of dilemma on deciding which one of my PC components should I upgrade? The processor or the graphic card?

So here's my PC specs:
Intel Pentium 4 524 3.06Ghz with HT
Intel X4500 on-board graphics
ASRock G41T-VS3 motherboard
4GB RAM DDR3 FSB 1333MHz (bcoz of my proccy it becomes 533MHz)
320GB SATA HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

Mostly I use this PC for gaming, as well as other stuffs too like internet, downloading stuffs, office works...

I would appreciate any suggestions as long as it is less than or equal to $95. (<- That's my budget.

)

Thank you,

spikypotato

For that money you cant do much, and certainly no CPU upgrade as you would have to upgrade the mobo , the only thing i can recc is a GPU upgrade to something like this...

XFX HD-675X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

This will better your gaming performance, but im not even sure if you have the required power for it, as you have not told us what your power supply is?

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nocteratus

September 1, 2012 2:19:46 PM

I can't find any info for the motherboard.

The first thing will be to upgrade the CPU but they don't sell them anymore so you'll need a new motherboard and CPU, the RAM should fit in the new motherboard since it's DDR3.
Also you need a new video card depending on the PSU.
With that budget, all you can really do is to get a low-end GPU, it should increase your gaming since you're using the onboard video.

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spikypotato

September 1, 2012 2:27:49 PM

Uther39 said:

For that money you cant do much, and certainly no CPU upgrade as you would have to upgrade the mobo , the only thing i can recc is a GPU upgrade to something like this...

XFX HD-675X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-150-602-TS?$S300W$

This will better your gaming performance, but im not even sure if you have the required power for it, as you have not told us what your power supply is?

Probably a basic 450W power supply... :??:

But now I am confused.. :heink:

Actually, which components are important in gaming? The processor or the graphic card? Because in today's minimum requirements of PC games, most of them MUST require at least a dual-core processor..

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spikypotato

September 1, 2012 2:30:51 PM

nocteratus said:

I can't find any info for the motherboard.

The first thing will be to upgrade the CPU but they don't sell them anymore so you'll need a new motherboard and CPU, the RAM should fit in the new motherboard since it's DDR3.
Also you need a new video card depending on the PSU.
With that budget, all you can really do is to get a low-end GPU, it should increase your gaming since you're using the onboard video.

OHHHHHH wait.. it's ASRock G41M-VS3 .....I've misspelled it. :pt1cable:

About the CPU, in my country (Malaysia), there are shops that still sells 775 CPUs.... most of them are Pentium & Celeron Dual-Cores. Are they good? (e.g E3400, E5700..)

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whatsthatnoise

September 2, 2012 1:06:43 AM

As suggested, a GPU should be the best you can do for that system, given your budget.

Your board supports a wide range of more powerful CPUs. Which would be a good idea to upgrade as soon as possible after the GPU. A Core 2 Duo or even a Core 2 Quad.

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spikypotato

September 6, 2012 2:10:26 PM

Best answer selected by spikypotato.

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spikypotato

September 9, 2012 9:38:51 AM

nocteratus said:

It depend on the game, most of them don't need a very powerful CPU but needs very good GPU, others might not need as much GPU power but will need more CPU.

Here's some Hierarchy charts from TomsHardware:

CPU: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-o...
GPU: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-car...

You can use this list to compare the CPU available and do the same for the GPU.

To get a better gaming experience you'll need a better GPU first and latter get a better CPU.
What you're using is the integrate GPU that came with the motherboard and it's not very powerful, you can look yourself in the GPU chart above, look in the right column at the bottom of the chart.

Thanks for your suggestions and links..

I've upgraded both of my CPU and GPU with E5700 Pentium Dual-Core and AMD/ATI Radeon 5570 1GB DDR3

TOTAL: +/- $90 / MYR290

Now my PC runs quite decent game such as PES 2012 and the CPU-intensive FIFA 11 at High and Medium detail smoothly even on full resolution (1280x1024)

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