What should I upgrade?

[zero cool]

Hi :)

I am ....hoping...to get the chance to upgrade my system soon. The specs are in my sig. Can anyone suggest what areas I should be looking to upgrade and to what to get a decent/significant improvement in performace. Obviously this is a very general question so even rough ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

:)

edit: sorry should have added this in...I tend to use my pc for

playing games,generally fps and rts
listening to music
watching movies

[zip22]

cooling. its fun to mess around with and can give you better overclocks. it can also be relatively cheap compared to other upgrades. i have a system kinda similar to yours. right now, it seems like a lot of things are getting switched over(socket types, video cards, memory types, form factors, dual core processors) that could cause an upgrade you do now to be either a complete overhaul (motherboard, processor, video card) or not really worth it. im holding tight until i can see a good upgrade path for the future. i dont know how you feel, but i wouldnt just upgrade something for the sake of upgrading something. i feel my computer is more than adequet and will last me till these changes blow over. then i'll have money to do a complete overhaul when it is warranted.

[deception``]

Looking at your signature, there are a few things that you could stand to upgrade. But before we begin our fun, please answer for me a few questions:

1. How much are you willing to spend on an upgrade?

2. Are you specific to Intel, or do you not have a preference?

3. Are those hard drives in question all IDE, SATA, or both?

4. How are the rails on your psu?

5. How high does your memory clock on your system?

deception``

[zero cool]

@zip22 I have been planning for a loooong time to get better cooling parts so that is likely to be part of my upgrade. Like youself I am unsure if now is a good time to upgrade. Re upgrading for the sake of it: I do a fair bit of gaming and although I can run most/all games I find that the newer games Doom, Far Cry etc all have to be on lower settings and as long as it isn't money down the drain I would like to improve things. Also I tend to 're organise' my files a lot and find that my pc can take, relatively speaking, a fair while to move files/unrar files etc. My big concern is about upgrading at the wrong time.

@deception
Looking at your signature, there are a few things that you could stand to upgrade. But before we begin our fun, please answer for me a few questions:

1. How much are you willing to spend on an upgrade?
Probably talking a couple of hundred GBP....but it's a bit of a grey area.....I know this doesn't help much, srry. I am trying to identify what to 'aim for'


2. Are you specific to Intel, or do you not have a preference?
I would prolly want to keep my mobo as I think it is prolly ok :shrug: for now so I would be sticking with Intel.


3. Are those hard drives in question all IDE, SATA, or both?
The 80GB and one of the the 200 GB are IDE the other 200 GB is a SATA.


4. How are the rails on your psu?
ehm.......not too sure I am afraid : psu noob: . The psu is a cheap own brand name psu.

5. How high does your memory clock on your system?
I haven't tried oc 'n at all, it is set at 3.4.4.7 at the mo.

Sorry I don't know if that is much help.

deception``

Thanks a lot to both of you for your feedback :)

[deception``]

Since you're looking for better gaming performance, I'd say that two areas to target would be your processor and video card. Simply put, the video card will bring about the most noticable difference in your gaming experience. However, I also think that you could benefit from a newer processor in terms of overall system performance.

To be honest, a 3.0-3.2 Prescott is most likely a viable upgrade. However, I am not too fond of s478 Prescott's, as Intel's 90nm chips tend to play much nicer on the newer LGA 775 socket. Of course, this does not mean that you cannot enjoy a good s478 Prescott system, but one on the newer platform would definitely be recommened. When you do decide to upgrade your chip, make sure you have proper cooling not only for the processor but your entire motherboard as well.

As I said earlier, you should also look into upgrading your video card. There are many choices in this category to where you simply cannot go wrong. If you are simply looking for average performance, I would look into a 6600GT. If you wanted something a bit more, then I would consider an x800XL or 6800GT.

deception``

[zero cool]

Since you're looking for .......an x800XL or 6800GT.

deception``

Thanks very much for your help. :)

Those are the two areas I was thinking about changing. I have a thread over in cpu>Intel about upgrading my cpu Here (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=380977) . I have been looking at some of the threads about gfx but have come to the conclusion that everyone has there own preference upon whether to go with the 6800 or the 8500 I am just trying to find the best 'bang for my buck'.

[subtotal]

personally i woul seriously consider getting a good quality psu before installing an expensive video card like a 6800 etc

[CeeDeeJay]

1) The best return for the amount of money you invest would be with a new vid card.
2) The second best bang for the buck would be to upgrade the cpu.

If your going to upgrade the vid and cpu it is time to seriously consider that this might be the time to go to a 64 bit system.This move would be a large upgrade in preformance and the time to consider it is before you buy cpu and vid card because they are two of the main factors that cost you when you switch to the 64 bit system.If I had to buy the cpu and vid card I would go ahead with a 64 bit system.

[zero cool]

Thanks for your advice folks :)

[SolidxSnake]

also, to power that much stuff, you might need a new PSU if you don't have a good brand name right now