[Psittac]

I am thinking about upgrading my old PC rather then spend the money on building a new one. All I do is listen to music, browse the internet and game (league of legends, eve online, wow and soon to be D3)

current setup:
Windows vista 32-bit
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Pentium 820d
4gb ram (kingston?)
Ati x1900xt
Antec truepower 2.0 550w
500gb sata 3gb/s hdd

I was thinking of just getting a new gpu and perhaps a ssd to put the games on.

Would a SSD offer me any better performance on a sataII mb? I would probably get the sataIII ssd so it'll be more future proof.

Would a 60gb be good since I'd only store games on it?

[johan851]

An SSD would be a great upgrade, even on SATA II. You might run out of space with only 60GB - check on your current hard drive to see how much space your OS and games are taking up. You'll probably want a 128GB SSD.

Another inexpensive upgrade would be the CPU. You can probably find a used Core2 that will be much faster than your 820D. And yes, the GPU will be a good thing to upgrade if you want better performance in games.

[ivanlabrie]

This...good advice.
Get a Radeon 7850 and a used core 2 quad along with a 32gb or 60gb ssd for the OS only.
That would net you awesome performance on the cheap!

[Twiggz]

Even a 6870 would be an awesome upgrade from that x1900xt.

[ajrettke]

Whats your budget? I think an SSD would be the most important upgrade (it really is amazing how much faster your computer feels). Next would be finding a inexpensive used C2D and video card. That will breathe a lot of life into your system for probably 200 bucks if you shop around. And when you install your OS, install 64bit!

[Robmoo]

I gather you are not in the market for a pair of Samsung 830 512GB.

I'd look at some of the budget builds in Maximum PC and seriously consider a rebuild.

Ever time your PC accesses the HD if you were using a SSD instead your PC would load much faster. I built a HTPC with a Core i5 2400 and a 120GB SSD and there is very little wait for it to boot to Windows. Explorer launches almost instantly. It is a great upgrade. You should probably consider a 120GB or bigger depending on your budget. The music can go on your HD, but you want your programs on the SSD. The Samsung 830 128GB is $170 on Newegg.

You may run into a compatibility problem with the older MB/CPU combo. Make sure your MB/CPU are compatible before you buy.

Good Luck!

[johan851]

I'd look at some of the budget builds in Maximum PC and seriously consider a rebuild.

I disagree. I think he could get a lot of bang for his buck by upgrading a few key parts. A new CPU and video card will go a long way without him having to spend a lot more money on a new CPU, motherboard, and RAM.

[MattNo5ss]

I think CPU + GPU would be a better upgrade than a SSD for gaming. A SSD is better suited for an OS drive than a game storage drive. Games are pretty large nowadays, and with a 60GB SSD, it would get filled rather quickly. Have you checked the size of your WoW and Eve Online folders? D3 + LoL will be around 10GB unless there is a big D3 patch at release, which is possible since the game client has been available for DL since 3/15...

[Psittac]

Well a gpu and ssd is $300 for a crucial 128g and 6870

A cpu would be another 100-130

64-bit OS would be another 100

Right there your lookin at 500 at which point might as well build a new PC since I was lookin at around 800 with using my old case and hdd.

Oh the OS is 32-bit on accident, when I ordered from newegg I *watched* the text that I clicked say 64-bit, on checkout it was a few bucks cheaper and I figured Score! but after install I realized it was 32 and contacted newegg but they said tough luck since it was opened.

I'm thinking the gpu and ssd would be a good upgrade for 300, anything over that and I might as well build a new pc.

I don't understand whats better about the core2 vs 820d? fsb and overall clock are the same and I thought cache was similar. Something about cores sharing cache or something? I don't know I haven't kept up since I built this.

Considering the mb is running warm I don't want to invest much into this pc esp since i'm planning on throwing my 2 80g drives back on and giving it to a friend or family member.

I'm starting school in a few months and won't have an income for the next year+ so saving money is important.

But then again I was playing lol at a friends house on his Asus gaming laptop and got a little upset over how fast it loaded and how quickly it repsonded. Not to mention he opened up the case of his desktop and instant jealousy kicked in. His gpu and psu alone are about $800 which is my entire budget. I don't know, I need to tamp down my desire for a snazzy computer and chug along with this one but i'm not sure if that'll happen. Honestly it plays any game I have very well as is. The only drawback is lol loading time, once everything is open it runs fine. Quicker response would be nice but not sure if it's worth it.

[johan851]

I really depends on how much you want to spend. You can make it work either way.

The only drawback is lol loading time, once everything is open it runs fine. Quicker response would be nice but not sure if it's worth it.

An SSD would be a good upgrade if that's what you're looking for. It'll make the whole system feel more responsive, but you won't see better framerates in games.

[MattNo5ss]

GPU and SSD is probably the best upgrade, since you can carry both over to a platform change eventually.

Core 2 Quad vs 820 D, is two more cores and the whole processor is much more efficient. However, buying a CPU for a EOL socket usually isn't the best idea.

[Twiggz]

Originally Posted by Psittac

Well a gpu and ssd is $300 for a crucial 128g and 6870

^This, just like MattNo5ss said. You could also do well with a 6850 even, but if you want to carry it to another build, go ahead and get the 6870.

[Robmoo]

Wow! LGA 775 and future proof should not be in the same post. Your board, memory, and CPU are 2 generations old. I wouldn't even think about a SSD. You might buy an E6600 from eBay $50 or Newegg $80 and a 6000 series AMD GPU can be had for under $50. However, I advise saving and trying to build something based on the Intel 1155 socket or something comparable from AMD. The most important question here is,"What is your budget?"

[Psittac]

A 6870 and ssd are futureproof in my books

and YEAH I know my computer is old...... hence the whole........ upgrade? post? no need to rehash that, rather you could be helpfull like everyone else

oh and if you read the rest of my post I mentioned i'm a student with no income for at least a year, hence penny pinching and low budget, oh yeah and I mentioned my budget earlier

edit: also an nvidia 6000 series looks like it's comperable to what I have allready, after a quick look

[johan851]

I agree. They're going to be nice to have in this system or in a future system. A new processor is arguably a throwaway upgrade, but the SSD and GPU will be good for quite a while.

[ivanlabrie]

Originally Posted by Psittac

A 6870 and ssd are futureproof in my books

I'd insist on the 7850...It's not much more $$ but it's a lot better in the long run. Plus you could get a cheap newegg deal or something on a 32gb or 60gb ssd. No need for sata3 for real world performance, what you'll notice the most is the iops compared to a mechanical drive.

[shadowdr]

Originally Posted by Psittac

64-bit OS would be another 100

Right there your lookin at 500 at which point might as well build a new PC since I was lookin at around 800 with using my old case and hdd.

Oh the OS is 32-bit on accident, when I ordered from newegg I *watched* the text that I clicked say 64-bit, on checkout it was a few bucks cheaper and I figured Score! but after install I realized it was 32 and contacted newegg but they said tough luck since it was opened.

If you wanted to go to 64 bit, your key is not tied to the 32 bit version. If you have or could borrow the same build as the one you have(pre sp1, sp2 or whatever) you could just reinstall the 64 bit version.

[Psittac]

Originally Posted by shadowdr

If you wanted to go to 64 bit, your key is not tied to the 32 bit version. If you have or could borrow the same build as the one you have(pre sp1, sp2 or whatever) you could just reinstall the 64 bit version.

Whaaa??? you serious? man thats epic thanks for the input!

also I'll think about the 7850 since it's pci-e 3.0, only problem is that the closest i've come to convincing myself of building a new computer is if I make an amd phenom quad core with pci-e 2.1 because that saves me about a hundred bucks and makes me not feel as bad with the 6870, the two combined save me 200 and bring me down to $640 instead of $850.

Chances are if i'm going to wait until school is over I won't be snagging any parts from this PC even if they are upgrades, it'll be a complete build from the ground up, so my only concern about an upgrade is if it'll fit into a build right now at the 600-800 budget.

[ivanlabrie]

You can build a pretty solid rig with that budget. A cheap I3 2100, a 7850, 8gb dual channel ram, 64gb ssd, and a z77 board, plus your psu might power it fine.
Don't worry about pci-e 2.0 on a 3.0 card, it won't be even close to saturating it -only if you go with tri sli gtx680 or something xD-

[Psittac]

Thanks for the advice, i'm gonna put a new post in the general hardware area and repost my new idea for a build while taking what I can from my old pc.

I think that without needing a new OS i'm down to $541

AMD phenom quad core
asus board (with pci-e 2.0 and ddr3)
8g 4x2 mushkin ram
6870
Antec kuhler 620

reuse:
antec 550w psu
Seagate baracuda 500g sataII hdd
Windows vista 64-bit (with new disc) edit: vista not 7
case

at that price I can't help but rebuild and forgoe giving my old pc to someone unless they want to buy the missing parts.