Help with upgrade on budget

[ANTH040]

Here is my specs underneath if any could help me I'm trying to run armed assault 2 at decent frames but my current computer does not cut it. So I need some help on upgrading for £300.

I was looking to buy maybe an ati 4850 x2 would that bottleneck my CPU because I think the CPU is the main problem but again I'm not really sure some help and advise would be really appreciated on what to get for around that kind of money and to run armed assault 2 and the latest games.

Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 4600+ (2.4GHz) 2 x 512K L2 Cache (Socket AM2)

Memory (RAM)
2048 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® M2N4-SLI: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II, 2 x PCI-Ex, 2 x PCI

Operating System
MICROSOFT WINDOWS® XP PRO (inc. Genuine CD & license) (£95)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st Hard Disk Partitions
30GB, 70GB, 150GB

1st CD/DVD Drive
18x DVD±RW/RAM + Lightscribe (48 x CD-RW) (£18)

Graphics Card
320MB GEFORCE 8800GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF. AUDIO (6 CHANNEL ON M2N4-SLI)

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities
2 x 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS (1 PORT ON M2N4-SLI)

Case
Stylish Silver/Black Sigma case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling
500W (Peak) Super Quiet Dual Rail PSU with 120mm fan (£25)

Firewire & Video Editing
2 x ONBOARD 1394 FIREWIRE PORTS (NO PORTS ON M2N4-SLI)

 

[pharoer]

SLI or crossfire is pretty much never a good decision budget wise. Get a single chip card instead.

 

[Wathnix]

You specify DDR 667mhz as your memory, your motherboard and processor both can go 800Mhz, I think that is your bottleneck. Get 4 gigs (or more) of memory, it will help future proof your new rig. Patriot brand name or Corsair value select have always been good, cheap memory for me.

What I would do, considering you are on a budget, is to invest in the 4850 graphics card, 4+ gigs of memory, and look for a better power supply than the one you are looking at. I doubt you can get a good quality power supply for 25 pounds, even on a budget the PSU is not something to go cheap on, especially when making a gaming rig, it will likely blow on you and could fry your nice new computer. I would look for a manufaturer such as Antec, Sparkle, Corsair or Enermax, this should speed up your computer and keep it stable. Also be sure that your memory is in dual channel mode, check mobo manual for details. Since you say you are buying windows XP pro I am assuming you are in need of a legit copy. To save monney you could download and install the 32 bit version of windows 7 release candidate for free, it is very good I am typing this on a win7 rig now.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

This is only good until June of 2010, then win 7 RC will shut down, but you will be able to hold off on purchasing a copy of windows for almost a year, using the money to buy better hardware. I am recommending the 32 bit version over the 64 bit because it will use up less memory. To get and install this you will need to set up a Microsoft Live account, then visit the win7 link I posted above, which will allow you to get a liscence key and get you to the download link. download the win7, which will arrive as a .ISO file, you will then need to use DVD burning software to burn windows 7 to a DVD rom, set the BIOS in the computer you are installing it to so that the computer boots from the DVD drive before it boots from the Hard disk, then restart the computer and watch carefully for the prompt to "Hit any key to install windows 7"

Good luck

 

[don'tknow]

That CPU will definitely bottleneck a 4850x2 by a pretty big margin, even if you OC it. I would say you're most in need of upgrading the: CPU, RAM, GPU, Power Supply. But doing a significant upgrade on the CPU requires a new mobo as well (to at least an AM2+ socket). Not sure if you can fit all that into £300.

But first try upgrading the CPU/Mobo/RAM and PSU, as your current vid card is already being bottlenecked. That should give the biggest fps increase. Later on when upgrading the GPU get at least a GTX260 Core216 or Radeon 4870 1GB, anything below wouldn't really be a significant upgrade. I'd recommend going one step higher to a Radeon 4890 as it's pretty damn good and cheap for its performance (again, only after you upgrade the cpu/mobo/ram and psu).

Not sure which parts exactly to recommend, it depends what is available in your area and what kind of deals there are currently. No Newegg over there in the UK and prices are different.

 

[ANTH040]

k thanks for the help