Minimal system upgrade suggestions

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westsrides

n00b
Joined
Dec 3, 2007
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Folks,

My poor ol' lass just can't cut the Stalker: Clear Sky mustard. She's a 3.0Ghz P4 on an ECS PF4 (Socket 775) w/ a PCI-E 256MB Radeon 1950 & 2GB of RAM. I only have $200, maybe $300 to blow at this (f*ing economy...), so Bang for the Buck is very important.

I'm not sure what my weakest link is, nor do I know if only buying a new vid card or a new processor will solve the problem. I suspect both are needed, but I'd like some reassurance. Is there a program I can download to test my machine and tell me where the bottleneck is?

I don't think my Mobo can support these new fangled dual- and quad-core processors, so I think the 3.6Ghz P4 660 or 661 (why is the 661 so much cheaper, according to pricewatch?) is the only reasonable CPU upgrade.

Since my Mobo isn't SLI, I was thinking of following arstechnica's recommendation of a Geforce 8850.

What do ya'll think?
 
You didn't mention what res you play at but lets asume 1280X1024. You will probably have to spend ~$300 to get a significant improvement as I think you will need a new CPU. Since price is a priority AMD is a good bet, and regardless of the Core2/AMD debate either will smoke a P4.

$59.99 AMD CPU on newegg: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

$75.99 motherboard that isn't to expensive but has the SB700 chip on it from newegg:
ASUS M3A78-CM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780V Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

$63.99 Memory with $25 MIR at newegg:
OCZ Reaper HPC 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail


$99.99 ATI 3870 video card at newegg:
SAPPHIRE 100225DDR3L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

That is $299.96 before the mail in rebate. You can overclock that CPU as well.
 
Id agree at $300 being the breaking point. Although I might suggest intel, not AMD.
foxconn has a microATX board at $50 (I used it in my server upgrade), CPU for $80, and throw in $40 of the cheapest ram (2GB).
At $150 you have a decent selection of GPUs, I think the 4850 is at that price point. That would destroy your current machine and be decent for a long time.

Actually, thats a pretty damn nice build, if you have the PSU for it already. I think that totals around $330, after shipping.
 
With money being tight, I would think $150 on just the graphics card would be a good first step. See how it runs, maybe the P4 3.0ghz is good enough for games once you get an HD4850 in the box.
 
Mackowitz said:
With money being tight, I would think $150 on just the graphics card would be a good first step. See how it runs, maybe the P4 3.0ghz is good enough for games once you get an HD4850 in the box.
Click to expand...

Unlikely considering my 2.8 P4 years ago couldn't even run BF2 decently
 
GLSauron said:
Id agree at $300 being the breaking point. Although I might suggest intel, not AMD.
foxconn has a microATX board at $50 (I used it in my server upgrade), CPU for $80, and throw in $40 of the cheapest ram (2GB).
At $150 you have a decent selection of GPUs, I think the 4850 is at that price point. That would destroy your current machine and be decent for a long time.

Actually, thats a pretty damn nice build, if you have the PSU for it already. I think that totals around $330, after shipping.
Click to expand...

I'd change the CPU to a cheaper e2XX0, e2180 @ $70. GPU doesn't need to be anything more than an 8800GT/9800GT/9600GT. That puts it (along with your selection) at a more doable $260. Tone it down to a 9600GSO and you're looking at another $30-$40 off = $220-$230

GSOs, an ASUS for $65 AR, just don't look @ the crappy one for $60AR (got my 2 4850 rebates from them. dumped them cuz pictures looked crappy)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=9600gso&bop=And&Order=PRICE

Freezebyte said:
Unlikely considering my 2.8 P4 years ago couldn't even run BF2 decently
Click to expand...
A new video card will do more in games than a change in CPU.
 
westsrides said:
Folks,

My poor ol' lass just can't cut the Stalker: Clear Sky mustard. She's a 3.0Ghz P4 on an ECS PF4 (Socket 775) w/ a PCI-E 256MB Radeon 1950 & 2GB of RAM. I only have $200, maybe $300 to blow at this (f*ing economy...), so Bang for the Buck is very important.

I'm not sure what my weakest link is, nor do I know if only buying a new vid card or a new processor will solve the problem. I suspect both are needed, but I'd like some reassurance. Is there a program I can download to test my machine and tell me where the bottleneck is?

I don't think my Mobo can support these new fangled dual- and quad-core processors, so I think the 3.6Ghz P4 660 or 661 (why is the 661 so much cheaper, according to pricewatch?) is the only reasonable CPU upgrade.

Since my Mobo isn't SLI, I was thinking of following arstechnica's recommendation of a Geforce 8850.

What do ya'll think?
Click to expand...

First off, after looking at ECS' website on info for your board. It seems that they didn't exactly keep updating the bios. So based on what they list, the most powerful processor that your current board supports is the P4 672 @3.8GHz, for some reason it seems they didn't update your board to support the 65nm procs so the 631,641,651,661 probably won't work on your board. You could email your tech support to verify, but it's not likely as I don't see any bios updates that say they added Cedar Mill support.

That said, before we can determine if your cpu will be a bottle neck we need to know what resolution you game at. The lower resolution you run, the more power the processor will need to be. So let us know that asap before any real recommendations can be made.

Next thing we need to know is what power supply you are using, if in the case that upgrading cpu/mem/mobo is the best option we will need to know what your power supply will be able to handle, not to mention if it has the proper connections for the newer equipment.

So please post back with this info if you would like to have the best advise.
 
Got a Fry's near you? If so... Since you don't seem to be afraid of ECS, pickup one of their CPU/mobo combos for $120 or less ($99 or $120 for an E7200 w/GF7050VT-M; $80 for an E2200 w/945GCT-M; $80 for a 5600+ w/ECS GeForce7050M-M; etc). That'll save you a chunk of cash.
 
enginurd said:
Got a Fry's near you? If so... Since you don't seem to be afraid of ECS, pickup one of their CPU/mobo combos for $120 or less ($99 or $120 for an E7200 w/GF7050VT-M; $80 for an E2200 w/945GCT-M; $80 for a 5600+ w/ECS GeForce7050M-M; etc). That'll save you a chunk of cash.
Click to expand...

Good call. I keep forgetting about those combo's myself.
 
Don't forget to make sure that the motherboard is PCI-EXRESS 2.0 compatible.
 
nej_k said:
Don't forget to make sure that the motherboard is PCI-EXRESS 2.0 compatible.
Click to expand...

No need if you're on a tight budget, since the single GPU cards of today don't even saturate the PCI-E1.1 bandwidth. ;) So even a regular PCI-E 1.1 16x slot will do fine.
 
Mackowitz said:
With money being tight, I would think $150 on just the graphics card would be a good first step. See how it runs, maybe the P4 3.0ghz is good enough for games once you get an HD4850 in the box.
Click to expand...

I was thinking something along this too. You might be able to get something a little cheaper to save money for the CPU. Its too bad about the unknown CPU support of your board. An E2xxx with some mild OCing would set you up for around $200.
 
westsrides said:
are the Fry's mobo/CPU bundles on their website? I only saw one AMD combo listed...
Click to expand...

Not usually. They're almost always at their B&M stores.

And you still haven't answered the most important question of all: what PSU do you have?
 
4670 is better video card in this. 5% slower but 1/3 of the power useage of 3870.
 
sorry it took so long to answer, but it is nice to still have a job these days.

My PSU is pretty generic, I think, and I'm not opposed to replacing it, of course, if necessary.

It is a "Black Steel" 580W. +13.3, +5, +12, -5, -12, -5
 
I'm searching for reviews of Core2 mobos, like those ECS models mentioned above that are bundled at Fry's, but am overwhelmed by the results. None that I see are breaking it down, though, the way I'd like. Can anyone recommend a review?
 
The boards bundled with the CPUs are basically free, so don't expect much. They'll run the system fine, and they're great for hackintosh systems. The Intel based ECS boards offer zero overclocking features. The nvidia based ECS boards offer little OC'ing features, limiting your OC to what the chip can do at stock voltages. These boards typically sell for $25 shipped on the FS/FT forum, in case you want to buy the combo and sell the board. But again, on a budget as tight as yours, the freebie ECS board that comes with the E2200, E5200, and E7200 combos are good enough to get you goin.
 
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