2007 system needs a facelift.

[Honelith]

Hi,

My system is as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3GHz Socket AM2 2MB L2 Cache,
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe,
Seagate ST3320620AS 320GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache,
OCZ 4x1Gb DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory ATI Crossfire Certified CL4(4-4-4-15) Unbuffered,
Force3D HD4870 Black Edition 512MB GDDR5.

I considered upgrading to:

Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 AMD 880G AM3 Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition Dual Core. (Or maybe a AMD CPU Phenom II 965 Black Quad Core instead at a push?)
And 2x2GB 1600 RAM, hadn't decided which one yet. Maybe Corsair?

I would then transfer over the rest of the parts, the HD4870 included and have myself a nice newer system, I mainly play first person shooters on this PC, Bad Company 2 and Black Ops, so I want to get the best performance out of both games. But I'm also considering keeping the PC parts, and simply upgrading the graphics card, while the 512MB on the 4870 is fast, I would much rather have a 1GB graphics card for todays games. I like the look of the overclocked GTX 460 range, the HD5870 is a little too much to pay and I don't trust the drivers are giving optimal performance yet, so I won't be getting that.

Would anyone recommend what I should do, upgrade the CPU/RAM/Motherboard or the graphics card? Would my CPU/RAM still do well for todays gaming with a newer graphics card, or do I ditch the CPU/RAM and keep my HD4870? Another glaring issue is that my motherboard isn't PCI-E 2.0 for todays cards, so not sure if that's an issue if I was to get a GTX 460 on this Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe.

Thankyou!

 

[Dangman]

You're missing a few key info:
- What's the max resoultion of your monitor?
- What PSU do you have?

Don't worry about the PCI-E 2.0 thing. It doesn't really matter. Don't bother with the X2 560 at all since BFBC2 runs faster with quad-cores.

 

[Honelith]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have a 17" 1280x1024 monitor, and a Coolermaster IGreen 600W PSU - 85% Efficiency.

 

[Dangman]

Hmm, your resolution is a bit small for a GPU upgrade to be worthwhile. Your CPU on the other hand is still a major limit/bottleneck. So yes a new CPU + mobo + RAM will be worthwhile than a new GPU in your case.

 

[Honelith]

You have a point, I'm not really pushing the GPU, I'll get the CPU/RAM/Motherboard upgrade and upgrade the graphics card at a later date, thanks for making my choice easier.

 

[Cmustang87]

You're definitely not pushing the GPU. I have a 512MB 4870 and power my 1680x1050 no problem.

 

[Lateralus]

I see no reason not to go with a quad core at this point. A GTX 460 would be great, but like Danny Bui said, it would be a waste of money to go beyond a 4870 until you upgrade your monitor.

 

[CKTurbo128]

With your current monitor and resolution, like everyone here else have said, the Radeon HD 4870 is more than enough for recent games. Perhaps a getting a new monitor would be a better option, although that may in turn force you to upgrade to a better GPU.

As far as CPU upgrade options, it looks like the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe is compatible with Phenom II X4 processors with the latest BIOS update, so rather than getting a full new motherboard, you could just do the BIOS upgrade and drop in a Phenom II X4 (see here: http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=0jMy2X8lKstYRvev). Some people over at Overclock.net were able to get a Phenom II X4 965 working on the M2N32-SLI Deluxe as well (http://www.overclock.net/amd-motherboards/366989-official-asus-m2n-sli-m2n32-sli.html).

 

[bastage]

Given the motherboard you have & already with 4gb ram I wouldn't change either.. You simply wont get enough of a performance increase to justify the cost.. Update your bios & spend the money on a faster phenom II x4. Looking at the supported CPU list it will support 95w AM3 CPU's..

Also what is your full budget? For about the cost of what you had listed above you can upgrade your CPU & Monitor.. That would make the GPU the bottleneck again, But that could then be the next upgrade..