Looking to upgrade my build

C

ChowdahMan

n00b
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
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In 2006 in ordered a computer from Velocity Micro. The specs are:

- Asus® A8N SLI - NVIDIA® nForce 4 SLI MCP, PCI Express Motherboard with DDR
- AMD® Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Processor with Dual Core Technology, socket 939
- 2048MB Mushkin PC3200 DDR400 CL2.5
- 250GB Western Digital WD2500JD 7200rpm SATA/150, 8MB Cache
- 500 Watt Velocity Micro™ Power Supply
- NVIDIA Geforce 8600 GT 256mb

I use the system mostly for gaming and was looking to upgrade the video card, but I don't know how much of an upgrade my system could handle before bottlenecking the card. I am trying to decide if I could get away with just a new video card, or if I will need to upgrade the motherboard, cpu, ram, and video card if i want an increase in performance (I'm also wondering if i would need to upgrade my PSU in this scenerio). I was looking at the i5-750 and a gtx 460.
 
Double your RAM for cheap by buying 2 more gigs off the FS/T section here.

Buy an ATI 4850 512mb Sapphire off newegg for $80 after MIR.

Thats the most I would do, should cost you around $120 or so hopefully. Any more $ spent should go into a new system.

(Seriously, doubling your RAM and spending 80-100 bucks on a video card will make a HUGE difference though. - I used to run a 4400+ X2 939, 4gigs ddr400, and an ati 3850. I'd still be using it today but the motherboard died. :( )

EDIT: speaking of, I still have that 4gigs on my workbench. PM me if interested. The 3850 I have is AGP tho, so I'm guessing that's no good.
 
You're looking at whole new build man:
- The X2 4200+ will pretty much bottleneck any gaming card out now. Including the old HD 4850 and 9800GT cards. At best, the 9800GT 512MB should perform nicely without that bad of a bottleneck.
- You're also gonna have to replace the PSU as well since there's no info whatsoever about that VM PSU's true output capability, the manufacturer, the amount of amperage on the +12V rail, what temps it was rated at, whether it was rated at peak or continuous load, etc, etc.
- The PC is only as fast as the slowest part of the PC. Even if you did a CPU, mobo, RAM, GPU, and PSU upgrade, the performance of the PC would still be limited by that slow and old WD 250GB drive.

So yeah, you're pretty much looking at a brand new PC. You could probably reuse the case though.

BTW the Sapphire HD 4850 that horrowshow recommended is current OOS.
 
Still, doubling his RAM and adding a 9800GT/4850 for under $150 is a legitimate upgrade.

Seriously.... I've been where he's at. It will add new life to his machine.

He asked for an upgrade, not a rebuild etc.
 
horrorshow said:
Still, doubling his RAM and adding a 9800GT/4850 for under $150 is a legitimate upgrade.

Seriously.... I've been where he's at. It will add new life to his machine.

He asked for an upgrade, not a rebuild etc.
Click to expand...

He asked for advice. I gave it to him.

The GPU upgrade I can agree with if he keeps the GPU costs under $90. The RAM upgrade I cannot as that'll be the part that won't be reusable in a new PC.
 
ChowdahMan said:
How much of an upgrade would i see if I added 2 more gigs of ram and a 4850?
Click to expand...

Compared to an 8600GT and 2GB?

I'd say.... 50-60 percent increase.

Def worth it IMO.

You'll be able to game again without shame heh.
 
Danny Bui said:
He asked for advice. I gave it to him.

The GPU upgrade I can agree with if he keeps the GPU costs under $90. The RAM upgrade I cannot as that'll be the part that won't be reusable in a new PC.
Click to expand...

*tips hat

Just learning man.... Just learning....
 
A couple of things. If i were to go up to 4 gigs of ram could I use the RAM i already have or would i have to buy 4 new gigs. Also, I could get a 5770 for about $20-$30 more then the 4850, would i see an increase in performance between that and the 4850 or would my CPU be too much of a bottleneck?
 
4850 is the highest anyone here would ever recommend.

As for the 2gigs, how many slots do you have left??

Preferably two...? 1 gig sticks are reasonable.
 
ChowdahMan said:
Also, I could get a 5770 for about $20-$30 more then the 4850, would i see an increase in performance between that and the 4850 or would my CPU be too much of a bottleneck?
Click to expand...

The CPU is already a big bottleneck for the HD 4850. So yeah it would be a bad bottleneck for the faster HD 5770.
 
No good.

And, get the 4850 and wait.

Stay on Win XP - 32 bit for now and just use the 2gigs you got.

Otherwise, this thread is taking a dangerous turn heh

*leaves it to Danny

-ninja vanish-
 
The CPU + PSU is not a good choice since the CPU is overpriced IMO and the PSU is meh.

The RAM and mobo are ok.
 
ChowdahMan said:
Thanks for your help. I think I'm just gonna get the 4850, another gig of ram, and call it a day. Last question, will I experience any compatibility issues if i get 1 gig of this ram and add it to the 2 gigs I already have? (I have 2 slots open).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146326

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't have any compatibility issues. However $40 for 1GB of RAM is kind of a rip off. I usually see them for $20 to $25 in the For Sale For Trade subforum.
 
Ideally, you'd prefer to run 4, 1 gig sticks in dual-channel.

But, in your situation, throwing in one more stick will definitely be beneficial.

Go for the 4850 and the extra gig. Enjoy.
 
ChowdahMan said:
Thanks for your help. I think I'm just gonna get the 4850, another gig of ram, and call it a day. Last question, will I experience any compatibility issues if i get 1 gig of this ram and add it to the 2 gigs I already have? (I have 2 slots open).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146326

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

thats a big Negative for 40 bucks.. But if you send me 20 bucks via paypal & your address I will send you 2x 512mb sticks of Samsung pc3200 that I have sitting on my desk. that will give you better performance then what you linked because you will be able to run dual channel, Cost you half as much, & get shit off my overly crowded desk which makes my wife happy.

As for as the video card goes the 4850 is a good buy & the 5770 will probably not give you any performance gain, But if you plan to build a new system in the next year or so then I would probably get the 5770 for the small premium as it would give you more mileage in the future.
 
bastage said:
thats a big Negative for 40 bucks.. But if you send me 20 bucks via paypal & your address I will send you 2x 512mb sticks of Samsung pc3200 that I have sitting on my desk. that will give you better performance then what you linked because you will be able to run dual channel, Cost you half as much, & get shit off my overly crowded desk which makes my wife happy.
.
Click to expand...

DO THIS.

+ 4850
 
ChowdahMan said:
I'd rather buy off newegg, no offense or anything, just more comfortable with it. I didn't realize about the dual channel problem, would i be better getting this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231030

over:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146326
Click to expand...

Yes you would be.. & honestly going to 4gb wouldn't benefit you any more then going to 3 would be since you are running a 32 bit OS & the video memory is gonna take away from the system memory if anything more since you can see a max of 4gb..

& No offence taken. I Was just trying to be helpfull since ultimately 40 bucks for a gb of ram is quite high.
 
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