what should i upgrade?

H

henz0

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 14, 2009
Messages
68
i have 200 to upgrade something in my system for better performance

specs are

ecs amd690
brisbane 4000 oc @ 2.44ghz on stock cooling.
evga 9600gt
2 gb kingston hyper x pc2 6400 ram
 
id give the ram a push ... then may be whats left on a new card ?
 
What PSU do you have?
Better performance in what? Games? Video encoding? etc. Be more specific
If better performance for gaming, what resolution are you playing at?
 
Better gaming, video encoding, and all around performance. It sometimes feels sluggish, and firefox takes years to load. I'm on top of maintenece so that's not the issue. I'm using a samsung 2253bw @ 1680x1050. Psu is a antec 430w. I'm running xp 32bit(if that matters)
 
henz0 said:
Better gaming, video encoding, and all around performance. It sometimes feels sluggish, and firefox takes years to load. I'm on top of maintenece so that's not the issue. I'm using a samsung 2253bw @ 1680x1050. Psu is a antec 430w. I'm running xp 32bit(if that matters)
Click to expand...

Which Antec 430W PSU do you have?
What hard drive do you have?
Which ECS AMD 690G mobo do you have?
 
I checked the ecs site and it only showed 1 ecs amd 690g mobo. I checked the cpu support and nothing new was supported. The fastest cpu supported was the x2 6400 or x2 6000.

With that res the 9600gt is probably being pushed past its best. But, that all depends on what games you play.
 
a newer video card would still be bottlenecked by the cpu.. even so I would still go for ram, cpu, mobo upgrade.. I would possibly save a few more bucks and bump this upgrade up a little though
 
hossdaddy said:
I checked the ecs site and it only showed 1 ecs amd 690g mobo. I checked the cpu support and nothing new was supported. The fastest cpu supported was the x2 6400 or x2 6000.

With that res the 9600gt is probably being pushed past its best. But, that all depends on what games you play.
Click to expand...

i play fallout 3, world @ war, and nfs most wanted

forgot to add that my videocard is so long that it blocks 2 sata ports since the layout on the mobo is terrible...
 
The TruePower Trio is not as good as what Antec has now, but it's fine for your system. Personally, if I were to buy new parts (namely, motherboard, processor, and/or video card), I'd buy a new PSU... if I could.

The simplest upgrade would be to get a new video card, like the Radeon HD4850, but it would turn your processor into a performance bottleneck. Alternatively, you could buy the motherboard and processor that hossdaddy picked out earlier -- you could reuse the RAM that you currently have (but if you have an OEM version of Windows, that's another matter) -- but you then wouldn't have enough to get a new video card (without increasing your budget and/or selling some of your older parts... but that's assuming that you can find a used HD4850 for relatively cheap).
 
selling is gonna be almost impossible. i had a ht omega striker collect dust for like 6 months since no one wanted it lol. ended up giving it away.

so with 180, there's really nothing i can do?
 
henz0 said:
i play fallout 3, world @ war, and nfs most wanted

forgot to add that my videocard is so long that it blocks 2 sata ports since the layout on the mobo is terrible...
Click to expand...

9600 GT will handle Most wanted and World at War on 22" no problem. Fallout 3 is med-high will be still very playable. But your CPU is major hold, so x2 245 overclocked to 3.5-4 GHz would be great upgrade for you ontill you can get a better video card.
 
is the video card that bad? i remember paying 200 for it and giggling like a little girl when the ups guy got here lol...then again that was back in april of 2008..
 
henz0 said:
selling is gonna be almost impossible
Click to expand...

I'll take the 9600GT off your hands for $30 shipped :D

J/k!

henz0 said:
is the video card that bad? i remember paying 200 for it and giggling like a little girl when the ups guy got here lol...then again that was back in april of 2008..
Click to expand...

The 9600GT is ok but it's simply not that capable of high settings with games on a 22" monitor. Luckily for you. COD: WAW is heavily GPU limited so if you were to upgrade to the HD4850, you'd be fine with that game. However FO3 and NFS:MW are heavily CPU limited so there will a major bottleneck as tiraides said. So the CPU and mobo upgrade is probably your best bet

If you haven't already, reinstall your OS onto the WD 640GB drive you have. It's significantly faster and more snappier than that old 120GB HDD.
 
Danny Bui said:
I'll take the 9600GT off your hands for $30 shipped :D

J/k!



The 9600GT is ok but it's simply not that capable of high settings with games on a 22" monitor. Luckily for you. COD: WAW is heavily GPU limited so if you were to upgrade to the HD4850, you'd be fine with that game. However FO3 and NFS:MW are heavily CPU limited so there will a major bottleneck as tiraides said. So the CPU and mobo upgrade is probably your best bet

If you haven't already, reinstall your OS onto the WD 640GB drive you have. It's significantly faster and more snappier than that old 120GB HDD.
Click to expand...

ok so cpu & motherboard now...next month gpu and possibly faster hd. i have so much stuff on the 640 and nearly not enough space on the 120 to transfer it too...
 
Forgot to ask, is the pre applied paste on the heatsink any good? don't wanna waste 8 bucks on arctic cooling mx2 if i don't need to..
 
you mean on the stock heatsink? if so no, you money is better spend on aftermarket heatsink like Coolermaster Hyper 212 plus.
 
The thermal paste on the stock heatsink is fine, no need to let it go to waste if you're using the stock cooler. Though, its still good to buy some MX-2 in case you need to re-seat your HSF, as you'd also have to clean off the old TIM and apply a new layer.

If you're not OC'ing right now, then no, you don't really need a better HSF right now, but it would be a biatch to install one later, especially if it has a backplate and your case mobo tray does not allow you to access the rear of the mobo.
 
Aftermarket cooler it is...thanks everyone for the help.

i'll be buying the mobo and cpu today
next month i'll purchase a new gpu & psu
 
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