Upgrade CPU for gaming?

[King robot]

My system:

ASROCK P43DE P43 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Intel e7400
ATI Radon HD5830

I want to upgrade this system as cheaply as pos (less than £100)in order to improve performance on guildwars 2.

I was thinking of buying a second hand Q9550 off eBay, though I'm not 100% sure it would fit?

Any suggestions?

 

[o1die]

Overclock your e7400; if the default cpu fsb setting in the bios is 200, try 240 (20% boost) in manual mode. Then ask for video card options for your particular games. Hopefully, my response will draw more responses. I'm not a gamer. According to the cpu support list for your motherboard, the 9550 will work without a bios update: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/P43DE/?cat=CPU. I would try the overclocking first then price some better video cards. You can sell your old card to help pay for the new one.

 

[Ballantin]

Take extreme care when OC'ing this CPU. If it is an old system probably your CPU cooler is not working as good as new, and you will be overheating it.

GPUs are so cheap right now, and I think you can get something pretty decent with this budget. The problem can be your PSU not having additional PCI-E 6 pins connectors.
Someting like a Radeon HD 7750 or 7770 is still into this budget, should improve your performance a significant amount, and don't need extra power.
Also Nvidia GT 640 will provide you similar results (my sister can play perfectly GW2 with this card).

 

[King robot]

I like the idea of over clocking the CPU (it's free!) but you're suggesting it could cause overheating.

Do you think then my best bet us to upgrade the graphics card?

 

[ASHISH65]

I like the idea of over clocking the CPU (it's free!) but you're suggesting it could cause overheating.

Do you think then my best bet us to upgrade the graphics card?

yes it is best to upgrade gpu like hd 7770 as that cpu is old but it can run most games just fine + oc will booost more performance

 

[guanyu210379]

My suggestion first only to get better GPU (HD7770 or HD7850) and see how your system has improved.
You could also try to get second handed HD6850 from ebay. I saw several on ebay for about €50-60. (I do not live in UK)

If it is not enough, OC your proc first.
I would recommend to go at least HD7850 except if you really can not afford it. (HD7850 is about 50% more expensive than your planned budget but also a lot better)

If it is still not enough, than you have 2 options from here:
1. Get Q6600, Q8200 or Q9550 as second handed from e-bay and OC it if you want. (cheap, half effective)
2. Directly jump to Hasswell or Sandybridge, if you do not want to wait. This means however to replae mobo, proc and RAM. (expensive, very effective)

 

[o1die]

Heat wise, you should be ok with a 20% overclock; just don't get greedy without a good heatsink.

 

[King robot]

I've seen a HD 7750 for £89 but I'm not sure if thats going to be a significant jump up from my hd5830?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sapphire-amd-radeon-hd-7750-pci-e-graphics-card-1-gb-14732471-pdt.html

 

[King robot]

bump

 

[ASHISH65]

bump

donot bump!

read - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283384-33-read-first

 

[ASHISH65]

hd 5830 to hd 7750 is not at all worthwile.they both perform same

use it - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[King robot]

okay sorry about the bump, my bad.

So how about a hd7770 would that be aworthwhile step up?

 

[ASHISH65]

no.atleast gtx 650ti minimum.save up more and then get gtx 650ti 1gb@140$