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low budget upgrade...

S

Sumax

n00b
Joined
Apr 19, 2004
Messages
37
I am on a fairly tight budget and have been scraping for awhile, and i am finally ready to upgrade my system.

current system: don't laugh ...
Abit AN8-SLI Fatal1ty
AMD 64 x2 4800+
2 Gig DDR400(pc3200)
2 WD 160gig hard drives in raid 0
BFG 9800 gtx+ 512mb
Windows XP Pro

Looking for the most bang for my buck.. of course budget is about $300. Found the wrapper for a capacitor stuck in the fan of my PSU so I know I need to replace that before something bad happens. which will leave around $200 (want a quality PSU thinking Corsair)

Want to do the video card, need a happy place between CPU bottle-neck , end of life GPU and future expansion. :confused: Thinking GTX 570 Ebay'd

Any other ideas are welcome... So far I haven't had any problems playing anything just had to scale back the video settings, but as mentioned above. Budget keeps me from running out and grabbing latest titles.
 
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Upgrading your video card while running that processor would be a complete waste, as it will cause a substantial bottle neck.

Bite the bullet and either buy a AM3+ mobo/Phenom II X4 chip used from these forums, or see if you can make it down to a micro center and pick up a i3/mobo combo, or even one of the Trinity APUs.
 
not only is that cpu is a massive bottleneck for any decent card, it is a general limitation for most games made in the last few years. in fact it will not even meet minimum requirements to play some modern games. I would not spend more than 100 bucks on a card and even that will be a waste for newer games with your setup.
 
Unfortunately I wouldn't even upgrade until you have more money. You'd honestly be better off buying a PS3 or 360.

But if you are dead set on upgrading, get this stuff:

$30-6 Antec Neo Eco 620w PSU, keep your current PSU cord you'll need it. Or a used PSU
$100- Find a used core i3, Q6600 or better, or phenom quad core bundled with a mobo
$30- Used 8gb DDR3 ram
$60-100 GTX 460, ATI 5770, etc

But then you'd need to get a 64bit version of windows to even take advantage of ram and most new games don't work with XP
 
Honestly I'd pitch a tent at Slick deals and starting picking off pieces slowly. There was a PII 965 for $70 the other day, ram is always on there, the Antec may still be available, a cheap MB that will work with which ever CPU you find, and then see how much you have left for a vid card.

I built an i3 z68 system with 5770 for under $200 including EVERYTHING just by luck finds and someone giving me a free HD and OS. It's the very best bang for buck comp I've ever built and I tried to sell it to a friend for I had in it, $185, and he refused to give me less then $200
 
If it were me I would get a 7770 for around $100. Then drop the rest on a new system, you could do a good system for around $300. Buy a cheap sandy bridge and motherboard for around a $100 total and memory for under $50. Just reuse the hard drive and case. $50 under budget so you could get an ivy bridge CPU or spend the $50 elsewhere.
 
Thanks guys you've given me a lot to think about. I was Proud of my system When I put it together 6+ years ago was the best of what was available have had a couple of small upgrades 1 to 2 g ram and moved up to the fastest non FX processor in the line. guess i was just hoping to hold back the inevitable.
 
This is where you should start:

New CPU + Mobo + RAM + Win7

You'd be wasting time and money buying anything else to slap in your current system.
If you live close to Microcenter, they have some kickass deals on mobo/CPU bundles.
 
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