Help me upgrade my computer's bottleneck please

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daveyjwin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 2, 2007
Messages
198
So, I am a gamer on a fairly tight budget, and my system is home built and a couple years old, though it has been serviceable enough I suppose. Yesterday I tried installing GTA4 though, and I ran into my first serious bottleneck problem, as I was only getting 9fps with everything on low, and using 100% of my processor. FO3 has also been running kinda chunky, so, I think it's time for an upgrade. My computer is below.
Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 3
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name DAVEYJWINPC
User Name Dave

Motherboard:
CPU Type DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2233 MHz (11 x 203) 4200+
Motherboard Name Asus A8N-SLI Premium (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x4, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
System Memory 3072 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (10/21/05)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS (640 MB)
Monitor NEC MultiSync LCD1760V [17" LCD] (3X404175TA)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter nVIDIA MCP04 - Audio Codec Interface

Storage:
Disk Drive Maxtor 6L200P0 (200 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive Maxtor 6Y160P0 (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive WD 5000AAJ External USB Device (465 GB, USB)
Disk Drive WD 6400AAC External USB Device (596 GB, USB)
Disk Drive USB DISK 2.0 USB Device (1937 MB, USB)
Optical Drive PLEXTOR DVDR PX-740A (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Click to expand...

I'm trying to get by with upgrading the least amount, but to make it serviceable for at least another 18 months (i.e. until I graduate and get a paying job). Now, I'm not a big graphics junkie or anything, and my resolution only needs to go up to 1280x1024, so I don't think the graphics are the problem. Problem is in order to upgrade my processor, I need a new motherboard, and if I get a new motherboard, I will need new RAM. And I think my hard drives are both IDE, not SATA, so hopefully that won't be an issue. Anyway, I'm trying to upgrade it for <$300, and was thinking a new Mobo, Processor, and RAM would do the trick, and I could recycle everything else.

Any advice, suggestions, insight, questions, or comments would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
damn....i've pretty much the same system as yours except for the vid card and i'm stoked about my system ever since i upgraded to a 9800gt.....hehe.

good luck with your upgrade.
 
A few more questions:
- Are you willing to overclock?
- What PSU do you have?

Do note that most mobos these days only have one IDE port. So you will either have to:
A) ditch the CD/DVD drive
B) ditch one of the hard drives
C) get a PCI IDE controller
D) get a new SATA DVD drive

Also note that you will have to do a fresh reinstall since you're essentially building a new PC. Rarely does moving one Windows OS install from one system to a different system works well.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. My power supply is a 600W OCZ something or other. As for overclocking, I guess I'm okay with it, I've done it before, but doing too much makes me uncomfortable and paranoid about my computer's stability, since I've damaged components by OCing too much in the past. I prefer to avoid if possible. And when I had a quick look at my HDDs, I think that I just ave them plugged with IDE, but I think they have SATA hookups (but I'm lacking the cords I think), so I may be able to work around that. And worse case scenario, I can just spend an extra $50 and get a new one. I was planning on doing a wipe with Windows and starting anew on the new computer.

Any suggestions on specific hardware, AMD vs Intel, etc?
 
for $300 your stuck on that mobo.

theres great variation in OCZ something or other. Some of OCZ's power supplies are steller, some... not so much. We really need the specific name.

I'm gonna make an un-orthodox suggestion...

new HDD (320 or 640gb Sata), 2X2GB kit of ram, new OS, and, if it fits the budget, a 2nd 8800GTS 640MB edit: or more conventionally you could sell your 8800GTS and get an HD4850.

A faster hard drives gives a bump to pretty well every application out there. I say 320* or 640GB because currently those are the fastest drives on the market, due to their high density (320GB) platters. The WD 640GB was the old standby, but there are a couple of other 640GB drives which all keep up. *the old 320GB drives use a 2X 160GB platter config, which is very slow in comparison to a single 320GB platter. If you go the 320GB route, get one with a single platter.

4 gigs and vista is just flat out nice. Yes its a resource hog so rather than complain about it taking up too much ram why not just give it all the ram it wants. Vista 64 + 4GB ram means you can minimize from any game to your desktop without any delay of anykind. Dont believe this fud about vista, I've been using Vista 64 since before launch, and at this point, its a great OS. Printers are your only concern.

Currently the 8800GTS 640MB is tied with the 9600GT at settings where the 256bit bus and the low 24TMU count arn't constrictions (IE, crank the AA, the 8800 pulls ahead, crank the texture density, the 9600GT pulls ahead, until the point is memory bus becomes saturated). 2 of them is nothing to cough at, and will probably outrun any single card configuration in the same price range, but of course you have to deal with SLI which isnt always as friendly as you'd want it to be. edit: selling your 8800 for $80 or $90 would probably allow you to get an HD4850 without going too far over budget, that would probably outrun two 8800GTS's in SLI. If your going to go the HD4850 route, wait until CES where i suspect we'll see XFX with a couple of ATI cards on display.
 
It's an OCZ Powerstream 600W to be more specific. Why do you say I would have to stick with this mobo for $300. I was thinking getting a combination setup, like mobo + processor, for around $250, maybe something like this or this. Stick $50 worth of RAM in there, and that's $300, and (at least to my untrained eye) a much better setup than my current system. Side note, how do I know if my current fan will fit my new processor? Do most processor fans fit cross platform, like would nice big fan on my AMD fit on an intel chip? And I'm also planning on sticking with XP for the time being, simply because I have Vista on my Laptop, and hate it quite frequently. At least I can make XP do what I want most of the time.
 
What is this nice big fan you speak of? Also, I'm blowing your budget up a little, sorry. :(

$105AR GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
A good, solid motherboard that gives you RAID options, good chipset cooling, and excellent overclock potential at a great price.

$165 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
Mine's @ 4.0Ghz and never goes over 50 C load w/ a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and a quiet fan, but I'm sure you can hit 3.4Ghz nicely on the stock cooler if your current big fan doesn't fit.

$190 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
If you're hell bent on playing GTA4, it might do you better to pick up a quad core instead.

$50 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Sure you could go w/ cheaper 800Mhz ram, but that would limit your overclock, which as we all know is how bottlenecks are broken.
 
I'm not sure of the exact type of fan it is, but it's about the size of a small fist, made of metal, kinda of rounded. Would the mobos and processor units specified above be acceptable for gaming? And would it be worthwhile to go with a quad core over a dual core processor for the extra $$, or should I stick with the dual core? With the upgrades you suggested, that puts the total to around $350 for the quad core. Is there any reasonable way to bring this down to $300?

Thanks!
 
Yes, go for a quad core. Duals are just for office secretaries and elementary school computers now.
 
Intel Core 2 Quad, or if you have the money an i7 chip.

GTA4 specifically needs a good CPU, at least a fast dual core but preferably a quad, this is the start of a trend which will continue so it's good to be ready for it.
 
Jodiuh said:
What is this nice big fan you speak of? Also, I'm blowing your budget up a little, sorry. :(

$105AR GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
A good, solid motherboard that gives you RAID options, good chipset cooling, and excellent overclock potential at a great price.

$165 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
Mine's @ 4.0Ghz and never goes over 50 C load w/ a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and a quiet fan, but I'm sure you can hit 3.4Ghz nicely on the stock cooler if your current big fan doesn't fit.

$190 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
If you're hell bent on playing GTA4, it might do you better to pick up a quad core instead.

$50 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Sure you could go w/ cheaper 800Mhz ram, but that would limit your overclock, which as we all know is how bottlenecks are broken.
Click to expand...

It's slightly over my budget (about $50), but I was thinking that if I am able to sell my old components, it would about even out, and likely end up below $300. Any experience with these components? Compatability, etc?

Also, when I do the upgrade, I'm planning on just wiping my XP drive and reinstalling it all. Now, I have limited experience with Vista (mostly a hateful one via my laptop) and was planning on sticking with XP because it does what I want most of the time, but is there any foreseeable reason why I should upgrade to Vista, assuming it's the last upgrade I do for a couple years?
 
Looks great, got a similar rig in my sig but I lucked out on my q6600 so ymmw if you go down that upgrade path.
 
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