upgraded older model PC need help what will bottleneck my new CPU

[sabinalbei]

Hello guys. So this is my first post and thread on tomshardware even though I follow this website regularly since a couple of years and I hope to call you my friends. So, here's the thing, I have a
MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 motherboard with 2GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM, a Radeon 6670 video card and a 3800+ X2 AMD processor. Now I bought a PHENOM II X2 550 3.1GHz. How about that, is it a bit improvement? I am considering upgrading to 8GB RAM, the maximum the mobo supports, and I don't know what to say about the video card. So if you could tell me , now that I already bought this Phenom II X2 550 is 8GB RAM overkill ? and what videocard is suited to it so the processor does not bottleneck the videocard or the videocard does not bottleneck the processor. I have Windows 7 64 bit and want to play World of Warcraft Warlords of Draenor and the upcoming expansion World of Warcraft : Legion .


Kind Regards,

Sabin.

 

[clutchc]

Yes, the dual core Phenom II will be a major improvement over the even older Athlon 64 dual core. And by all means upgrade the memory to 8GB of 800 MHz DDR2 since that is the fastest the board will handle with stability. Good luck finding DDR2 at a reasonable price. Since it is obsolete and stocks are drying up, you may have to pay a premium price for it. Check on ebay.

You really should list the make/model of your PSU before asking for a gfx card suggestion so that we don't recommend one that will cook your PSU. Right now, I'm thinking GT 740 as one that won't be bottle necked by the PhII X2 and will run on a 300W OEM PSU. I'd recommend the GTX 750 Ti, but with that old of a board, it may not be recognized by the board's BIOS. The GTX 750 Ti use a newer UEFI BIOS.

 

[sabinalbei]

oh I am so glad you answered , thank you so much for your input cluchc ! roger that will go for 8GB RAM maybe upgrade to 4 first and see how it goes, then go for 8, later today I will look at what PSU I have, that means power supply unit ? I think I have 450W

 

[sabinalbei]

Guys I can't find 4GB DDR2 800 modules, and even 2x2 GB are hard to find. Also there are a lot of high density modules , but I should buy low density because they are faster right ?

 

[clutchc]

Guys I can't find 4GB DDR2 800 modules, and even 2x2 GB are hard to find. Also there are a lot of high density modules , but I should buy low density because they are faster right ?

You want non-ECC memory. Usually low density. ECC memory like is used on registered servers is high density and won't work on your board.