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Smartest upgrade for my PC?

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vizering   08-16-2007 at 05:20:14 AM

I'm looking to upgrade my PC for the upcoming year. Not a complete overhaul just something to last and keep me up to speed while playing current games.

I have a P4 3.0 Gig HT cpy clock, 1 gig ram and ATI Radeon x1600 PRO series 512 meg. What would the smartest upgrade be for me with my specs?

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finaldrive   08-16-2007 at 10:07:56 PM
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Judging by the listed specs, I don't see much you could do without an overhaul. Your videocard is ok, and RAM could be more, but I would not put any more money into that without upping that CPU. Which leads me to...

It appears you are running Socket 478, a 3.4 is the highest you could put in there, which is pricier than the 500/600 series P4. To get a faster CPU you are going to need a new MotherBoard. Then I will assume your RAM is DDR and not DDR2, so you will be needing new RAM with that. If your video is PCI Express you wont have to search for a MB that still has and AGP port or upgrade the videocard. I think you have topped out what you can do with that setup. I was in the same situation with my P4 2.53.

Or buy a good cooler and OC the heck out of it.

------------------------------ Asus P5Q/Intel C2Q Q6600/3GB DDR2-800/nvidia 9800GTX/X-Fi Titanium/Logitech Z-680/XP Pro SP3/Win 7 Ultimate

Shuttle K48/Intel C2D E6300/1GB DDR2-667/Logitech Z-680/XP Pro SP3

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vizering   08-17-2007 at 02:29:41 AM
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The game I've got my eyes are on Supreme Commander and of course none other than Hellgate: London.

My guess is Hellgate is more a cpu/gfx card game and SCommander a RAM game, correct?

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civilDis   08-17-2007 at 06:46:02 AM
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Agre with FinalDrive but would tend to go with more ram and a decent graphics card.
Read this piece comparing gpu and cpu's and youll notice what gives you the best buy
http://www.legionhardware.com/docu [...] d=672&p=14

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NCCReliant   08-22-2007 at 10:07:31 PM
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Agreed, you need to do a complete overhaul with that system. Single core processors are dead, and it's not always the speed of a processor that's important, it's the performace.

Cheap upgrade you can do would be get an AMD duo core for around 65 bucks, a cheapy motherboard for around 40-50, basic ddr2 ram for under 100, with rebates you can get decent ones for about 80 for 2 gigs, and an ATI 1950 vid card for 110, all over clockable. And you'd be set for about 2 yrs.

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Snail   08-23-2007 at 05:35:42 AM
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NCCReliant wrote :

Agreed, you need to do a complete overhaul with that system. Single core processors are dead, and it's not always the speed of a processor that's important, it's the performace.

Cheap upgrade you can do would be get an AMD duo core for around 65 bucks, a cheapy motherboard for around 40-50, basic ddr2 ram for under 100, with rebates you can get decent ones for about 80 for 2 gigs, and an ATI 1950 vid card for 110, all over clockable. And you'd be set for about 2 yrs.



Not quite correct. Most applications still only benefit from a single core. Sure new games are being released that utilise dual core, and most 3D apps will benefit from a dual core, but most people will not need the power of dual core for some time. The only reason I upped to dual core is because the processor was on special and I knew it would be of greater benefit than my older 3000+ due to the fact that I am a gamer and was looking forward to the latest games coming out.

Also, I would not recommend buying cheap. Spend medium. In other words, get parts which are latest but on special. Leaves you plenty of room to upgrade in future. Ie I purchased a AM2 mb when I last upg a while back and spent more on video and MB but less on CPU and ram. I am able to upg to AM3 procs and GTX video as well. Mind you I need to upg my video still. Its my only bottleneck.

------------------------------ Asus AM2 MB
AMD 6000+ X2
BFG 7600GT OC
2 gig RAM
Reply to Snail
spuddyt   08-26-2007 at 03:54:26 PM
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vizering wrote :

The game I've got my eyes are on Supreme Commander and of course none other than Hellgate: London.

My guess is Hellgate is more a cpu/gfx card game and SCommander a RAM game, correct?


not quite, SUPCOM is very CPU dependant as well (i noticed a BIG difference when I went dual core and it let me play with more than 500 units! yay!)

------------------------------ E2160 @ 3 ghz, 4 gb ddr2 800 (4-4-4-12) 2900 pro @XT (those are the important bits for FPS :P)
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