Upgrade recommendations for my system

[corey]

I was planning to upgrade my build for a while. It really shows some poor performance at latest games. Though there's a slight problem; since I'm a student my budget for upgrade is limited. So I'm trying to get best value for limited budget.I'm not sure what has higher priority at my upgrade : GPU, CPU, ram or something else? My main aim is to get better performance at games, so can you please come up with some recommendations for build's upgrade.

My current system is :

Asus P5K SE
MSI 256MB RX2600PRO DDR2
Core 2 Duo 6550 @ 2.8 ghz
OCZ 2x1 GB DDR2 800 mhz
Seagate 500 GB 32 MB Sata

[tiro_uspsss]

*definitely* the v.card :eek: :yepp:

get a 4830 :up: - they are cheap, u can get them under $100 after rebate :up:

[little_scrapper]

You havent stated your budget. Nobody can help you unless you do. But your upgrade choice is plain as the nose on your face.

First and foremost ~ VIDEOCARD. Hands down the only component that is going to get you substantially higher fps.

Second ~ CPU. My old E4300 did 3.0Ghz for daily use without breaking a sweat, and my E8400 does 4.05GHz for daily use. Are you sure you cant get a bit more out of that CPU? IF you can get over 3GHZ without being redlined all the time on that cpu then an OC on the CPU would be the most cost effective.

Memory doesnt do squat these days. DDR800 4-4-4-12 has the exact same responce time as DDR1000 5-5-5-15. You wont notice any difference in games or apps and you would need to go to completely usless synthetic benchmarks to even SEE any differences. Upgrading ram wont give you any more FPS unless you buy some uber high priced DDR1200 4-4-4-12 which doesnt even exist and it would only yield a few fps... like 3.

Your motherboard is fine also. I still run a P965 chipset and I can play Crysis at 1680x1050 with everything on high and 4XAA with very good FPS. The video card is where the FPS are going to come from. Running at 33% OC on my CPU probably gives me another ... :shrug: just guessing 15-20% more FPS. Maybe, but the extra 5-10 fps is generally enough to keep me from getting framie.

Get a video card.

[CodeNinja]

That's very similar to the build my brother has. He's got a 2.6Ghz dual core with 2GB DDR2 800mhz in it. We stuck an XFX 9800GT in, and he's very happy with it. He said he's running Fallout 3 with nearly full detail (He had to turn down the anisotropic filtering since it kept crashing). I believe the card was like $129 at the Egg, and it came with Call of Duty 4. It's not a super powerful card, I imagine if your shooting for 1600x1200 resolutions with 8x anti-aliasing in Crysis 2 you'll be disappointed... but it seems to be a good middle-of-the-road card for those on a budget. My next system will likely sport one of them.

A 4850 ATI is a good buy too, from what I hear.

[corey]

Thanks for the replies dudes. Actually my initial plan was to upgrade the vga card too. Though I wasn't too sure about it, I didn't want to waste my limited budget. After your recommendations, I'm planning to buy a 4830 or 9800 gt. These cards are affordable for me, since they are both under 150$. Which is a better option to pick up?

[B.E.E.F.]

The HD4830 is the better option.

Can't go wrong with more ram. At least 4GB (2x2).

[little_scrapper]

The HD4830 is the better option.

Can't go wrong with more ram. At least 4GB (2x2).


If running Vista then yea for sure. And 2x2GB of DDR800 can be had for about $25-30 these days.:up:

[Ket]

V. Card, then mobo.

[tiro_uspsss]

The HD4830 is the better option.

Can't go wrong with more ram. At least 4GB (2x2).

+1 :yepp:

[Ket]

RAM is nice, but 2GB is sufficient. Its not his major bottleneck. His graphics and mobo on the other hand are. Get a decent mobo and you will be able to OC that CPU of yours nicely and will get a huge performance boost all round nevermind if you decide to OC any new graphics card you may decide to get.

ED - Couple items that will give you a nice boost and aren't too expensive

Foxconn P45A-S (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186148) $110, $90 after MIR
Sapphire HD3850 512MB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102715) $70, $55 after MIR. OC this and it will perform well. ( I know, I have the "souped up" version. 12k+ in 3DM06 @ 877\2GHz :up: )

Alternatively;

BIOSTAR HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141080) $70

[Ensamvarg]

As these guys have said, up that video card to a 4830 or better. Asus P5Q Pro for a new motherboard? I have 2 gig of RAM myself and hate it but I suppose its preference, I'd get more personally.

[corey]

Thanks everybody for your advices :). I'm planning to buy a 4830 in a week. I'll try to share my experiences with my new graphics card.