Looking for possible upgrade paths

D

distantstar

n00b
Joined
Jul 11, 2008
Messages
45
Hey all,

I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to do some upgrades to my existing system with my current budget or save up to build up again from the ground up.
Any input is appreciated. Here's some preliminary info:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc.

Primarily gaming: MW2, BC2, WoW, and soon SC2, D3

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

About $600 incl. tax and shipping.

3) Where do you live?

Southern California.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.

Highly dependent on what is recommended of course.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Here are my existing parts.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L

RAM: 6GB DDR2-800

Case: Antec Sonata III

PS: 500W Antec PSU Incl. w/ Sonata

Video Card: SAPPHIRE HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E

I'm also content with my current SATA Harddrive and DVD-RW Drives.

6) Will you be overclocking?

Preferably no, but I currently run my E7200 @ 3.0Ghz

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

I have a 22" Acer TN Panel @ 1680x1050

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Very near future.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

Onboard sound is about the only thing I truly require.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?

Yes.
 
I would say that you would benefit from a GPU upgrade, but at 1680x1050 you don't need anything extreme. I would say possibly grab a 5850 or lower and then also look into o/c'ing your cpu to over 3.2. The real question is do you feel like your system can't perform as you would want it to right now? You system should last for a little while long so I would say possibly find a good deal on a 5850 and then wait to do a full system overhaul.
 
At the very least, you can do a GPU upgrade. Something like the HD 5770 would be a good upgrade:
$160 - XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card

Do you happen to live near a Microcenter or a Fry's?
 
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I'm close to two Fry's locations. And the drive up to Microcenter wouldn't be all that bad either (About an hour). Hmm, a video card upgrade looks reasonable.

@Shadowssong: I have a cheap aftermarket cooler on my CPU and at 3.0GHZ it idles at about 50C... I wonder if this is a function of the cooler or the airflow within the case, I'll have to inspect this further.

EDIT: A main reason why I'd like to upgrade is due to poor framerates when playing WoW in large raid settings and Dalaran if anyone is familiar. It can drop down to 10-15fps if the traffic is busy enough. I'm not sure whether to attribute these factors to my video card or my cpu.
 
distantstar said:
I'm not sure whether to attribute these factors to my video card or my cpu.
Click to expand...

A bit of both.

EDIT: Ok, wait until this Friday before you upgrade anything besides the video card. Friday is usually when Fry's has decent CPU + mobo combo deals.
 
Possibly look for a used Q9***(I would suggest forgoing this and doing a full upgrade) and grab a 5850 or look to do a complete upgrade to a quad system (I would suggest AMD for sub $1k builds). Like Danny said, look for Fry's deals, they usually have some good ones. From what I have heard WoW is multithreaded if you change some setting so its possible that a quad would help a bit, but I believe the GPU would be the most significant. The thing about upgrading to the 5850 is that if you still feel your system is STILL lacking then you can always upgrade your mobo/cpu/ram and just keep the 5850 (It will be a great card for atleast the next year +).
 
What HSF do you have? Sounds like it sucks, or it isn't mounted properly.
 
Does the fan run at full speed when CPU is idle? What are your load temps when running Prime95, according to CoreTemp or RealTemp?
 
50ºC idle and 56ºC full load? with the fan full speed all the time, it should idle much lower than 50ºC. What program are you using to get the core temps?
 
CoreTemp.. One core stays at 40, the other is 50 D:... I've tried reseating it several times, this also happened with my old heatsink


I took a look at some of the microcenter combos and they sound freaking awesome. might keep the same video card and go i5/i7
 
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Hm... sounds like a defective TX3. When I had my TX3 on my E7200, it idled in the low 30's when OC'd to 3.2Ghz w/ stock voltage.

If you have a Fry's near you, they have an i3 530 + Gigabyte H55 S2H combo for $105, if it's still in stock (doubt it). They also had an X4 955 + 890GX board for $170, but thats most likely out of stock by now, too. Friday is almost here, you may want to wait for the new specials -- if you're near a Fry's.
 
I will definitely be waiting. Do you think that's a good idea though? That is, forgoing upgrading my HD4850 --> HD5850 and instead going for an i5 / i7 setup?

My main worry with the 5850 is the viability of my PSU (500W Antec Earthwatts).
 
Q9550 for 179.99 @ Microcenter sounds like a great way to go as well from what I've read. Especially since this machine's primary focus is gaming.
 
distantstar said:
Q9550 for 179.99 @ Microcenter sounds like a great way to go as well from what I've read. Especially since this machine's primary focus is gaming.
Click to expand...

distantstar said:
I will definitely be waiting. Do you think that's a good idea though? That is, forgoing upgrading my HD4850 --> HD5850 and instead going for an i5 / i7 setup?

My main worry with the 5850 is the viability of my PSU (500W Antec Earthwatts).
Click to expand...

The HD 5850 should work fine on the EA500. However for 1680x1050, the HD 5850 is a tad overkill. With that said, a HD 5850 upgrade and a Q9550 upgrade are still within your $600 budget. In addition, this week may see another Phenom II CPU + mobo combo deal at Fry's.
 
The only reason to worry about the EA500 powering an HD5850 and a Q9550 would be if you OC'd both the CPU and GPU rather high.
 
Barring any other deals that I might have not seen, I believe I'll be going up to my local microcenter and purchasing a Q9550 and order an HD5850 online. I think this will be good given I can reuse my 6GB of RAM! If there's some crazy deal that was released today that I've missed please let me know! Otherwise I'm going forward with the purchases by the end of today.
 
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