Upgrading my 2.5 yr old system

I

Iceroid

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Jul 28, 2007
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My current system (in my sig) still runs everything I play (mw2/nfs shift/tf2/crysis) decently, but I want to future proof before it starts to really choke on newer games.

I would like to upgrade without replacing the entire system, instead just replacing the cpu/ram/gpu

please take a look and tell me if this sounds good, or if I will need to replace the motherboard and power supply also:


Core 2 Q8200S

G.Skill 4x2gb DDR2 800

Radeon HD 5850
 
If you were to buy those componets, you might as well move to an i5 setup.
 
The Q8200S is not that great of a chip really. You are looking at 2MB cache per pair of cores compared to 4MB cache per pair of cores in a Q6600 or 6MB cache per pair of cores in a Q9550. If you aren't going to move to a good quad then you might as well look for something like an E8400 instead.

8GB ram will very likely be overkill. Games are almost still exclusively 32-bit, and as with all 32-bit applications they will not be able to use more than 2GB of ram each even on a 64-bit system. The program would have to be 64-bit (rare) or Large Address Aware (even more rare) to ever use more than 2GB of ram at any given time. So if you already have 2x1gb modules, you might as well just get another pair of 1 or 2gb sticks for 4 or 6gb total.

The 5850 is a good choice.

Running all of that with a 520 might be a bit tight. The big variable will be your quad. Power consumption of a quad will go up dramatically as you overclock.
 
save money and just get 2 x 2gb sticks of ram and reuse your 2 x 1gb sticks. use the extra money you save from the ram on a better cpu.
 
GotNoRice said:
The Q8200S is not that great of a chip really. You are looking at 2MB cache per pair of cores compared to 4MB cache per pair of cores in a Q6600 or 6MB cache per pair of cores in a Q9550. If you aren't going to move to a good quad then you might as well look for something like an E8400 instead.
Click to expand...

Well with the cpu, my only real concerns are something that works on my current mobo, and price around $250 or less. What is the best quad core available for that?
 
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