Hello!
I've had my desktop PC for exactly three years now and was looking around for some upgrades, I got interested when I heard about the new Quad-Core and 8800GTX Graphic cards and the new releases of 08 games really pushed me over the edge *ALSO I NEED MORE FANS* My computer heats up quite quickly due to excessive gaming and partially closed environment

This is my current PC Specs;
Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.20GHz
320GB HDD
1024MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
Realtek AC97 Audio

I was thinking of upgrading say RAM, GFX Card, Sound Card, HDD, Processor and maybe install a few more ports such as USB and Bluetooth. My main objective is to play Crysis and Assassin Creed with full graphics and not lag

Thanks!

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ind...mp;#entry720315
this was a much better idea, I doubt that motherboard you have will upgrade enough for crysis at mid level settings

Yea you should probably just look at getting a new motherboard since your already looking at a processor, g-card, and Ram.

Lucky,

I imagine crysis at full would even push your system?

supposedly people are still having trouble with the 9XXX series cards but i have not yet played crysis. I do think that my system would probably have a tough time with that game though and i would probably have to play on low or medium.

I mainly stick to TF2 though. Right now that game plays really well with my card. I run around 80-150fps in 1680X1050.

Tomshardware tackled that project.

I know a guy with an OC'd quad core on H2O and dual 500$ cards in sli and a raid stripe that downloaded the demo and played at highest settings, said the graphics were unbelievable, he hated the game tho.

hmm I looked around and also looked at back my topic which I totally forgot!! Seems a bit expensive cause only last month did I finish paying off for my current computer XD

Would be say 'better' if I just get 3 more GBs for RAM and nVidia 8800GT graphics card with my current computer? WOuld that make a worthwhile difference or is it waste of money and I should build from scratch?

Looking at the sites a computer im happy with is about $2k and I don't think thats an option atm

how this for a GFX Card? 320MB MSI 8800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127328

if your computer is 3 years old, are you sure you have pci-E?

I would have thought you had an agp card?

FWIW, I have a socket 478 board that supports PCI-E x16 but its a brand new board. Alas I am running on board video and a Celeron. No reason to upgrade yet.

Its a great card for the price but just to let you know the 8800GT 512mb will be faster but more expensive. This is the first version of the 8800gt.

It all depends on your budget but good cards to look at are the 8800gs, 9600gt, 8800gt, 98XXseries, also the ATI 3850, 3870, and prices go up from there

This card also looks pretty good for the price

Radeon X1950XTX

You'll also need a better processor for good performance. A Pentium 4 is going to bottleneck most cards. I have an ATI X1900GT, and before I had a Pentium 4 @ 3.0ghz. In a game such as Fable, I could play only on medium settings and get around 30FPs. Once I threw in my core 2 duo processor, I turned up the graphic settings and was averaging 50-60FPS. Some other games were unplayable such as Bioshock. I was getting about 10-20FPs in Bioshock , no matter what my graphics settings were. Then when I threw in my Core 2 Duo, I could run on medium-high settings, and get about 40FPS. Don't get me started on Crysis .

Especially if your getting an 8800GT, you're kind of wasting your money unless you get a dual core processor.

I noticed that card yesterday Lucky. That is an excellent deal. Some benchmarks it even beats the 3870 by a little!

Definatly and it is easily overclockable to 680/2000 which is good for when it starts slowin down on me in games.

check this out they got a whole write up on it.


EVGA 8800GS

ahh from what i see those cards are billion times better than my current

about the processor, is it worthwhile to get quad core? What's so special about it still havent got my head around it
if its not worth I assume a Core Duo would be acceptable I'm thinking 2-2.5Ghz ?


Also this is pretty noob but heres a question -
in Duo Processor for example and they say "2.5ghz" does that mean each processor has 2.5ghz or the 2.5ghz is divided into two processor of 1.25ghz each?
Im assuming the answer to this applies for the Quad Core as well?

also im thinking

Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103211
MotherBoard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131197
Ram: 2 x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820146513

First that processor wont work because you choose and intel motherboard and an AMD processor.

If your going intel then look at these motherboards they all have a very good reputation

GA-P35-DS3L

Abit IP35 Pro

Another good one is the Abit Ip35-E but its not currently on newegg.


That ram is slower DDR2 your best bet would be to go with DDR2 6400 or higher

This is the ram i got and should work well with your setup

Gskill

If you dont want this brand then look here for a different brand

RAM 6400

all this infomration is so confusing I'm sorry I just don't get it when I read the comments on NewEgg they full on say that this
What would you guys recommend? like personally if the price range was $300-400 for the four items (RAM, GFX Card, Motherboard, Processor) what would you get?

Thanks :D

I personally got the these

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
This motherboard is one of the top rated motherboards on newegg and it also has alot of room for upgrading.

GSkill RAM

EVGA 8800GS

Intel E6550

If you want a CPU that a little bit cheaper then go with this one

Intel E7200

hmm cool but question, why has the processor speeds gone down? these chips are 2-2.5GHz while my old PC is 3.2GHz?

Thanks :D

You pentium 4 is a Single processor running a 3.2. These are Dual processors running at 2.33-2.5GHZ

Here is a chart to show how much better these processor will perform compared to your pentium 4.

TomsHardware CPU Charts
When you click the link it doesnt show all the processors so go down to the bottom of the page and click VIEW ALL PRODUCTS

You can see that my E6550 it toward the top of the charts. You are also able to see what processors will perform better than a E6550 and which ones perform worse. Most of the pentium 4 are towards the bottom.

I had a pentium 4 2.8ghz and i upgraded to the E6550 which is at 2.33ghz but trust me the speed difference is definately like night and day.

Also if you want something faster then the E6550 or the E7200, then you can look at the E6750 or the E8400 but price will go up. The price on the E7200 is really good and it just came out a few weeks ago.

ahh I see I saw this brand new PC for $800 on ebay! how does it look:


INTEL CORE 2 QUAD PROCESSORS Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 1066MHz 8MB LGA775 CPU
INTEL PROCESSOR COOLING FAN INTEL STANDARD PROCESSOR COOLING FAN
SOCKET 775 MOTHERBOARDS Asus P5B SE LGA775/ Core 2 Duo/ P965/ SATA2/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard
DDR2 RAM DUAL CHANNEL 8GB (4x2GB) DDR-2 800MHZ PC-6400
SATA II HARD DRIVES 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MB CACHE (HIGH PERFORMANCE)
DVD-RW DRIVES 20X DVD-RW DUAL LAYER W/LIGHTSCRIBE
PCI-EXPRESS VIDEO CARDS nVidia GeForce 8500GT 1GB DVI/HDTV PCI-Express Video Card
SOUND CARDS 6-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD
NETWORK CARDS 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet Network Card (onboard)
COMPUTER CASES NZXT ALPHA GAMING MID-TOWER ATX CASE
POWER SUPPLIES OKIA A-POWER 600 WATT ATX POWER SUPPLY
KEYBOARDS 103 Keys PS2 Basic Keyboard (Black)
MICE I-MICRO 800dpi PS/2 Optical Mouse (Black)
SPEAKERS SUPER TALENT 2.0 Channel Multimedia Speaker System (Black)

post the link from ebay so were able to look at it.

But i can already tell you that its got a old graphics card that probably wont play crysis. I personally feel now that its better to build your own then to buy but it up to you on what you want to do.

the one I saw was,
http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-QUAD-CORE-Q6600-...1QQcmdZViewItem

and about the building I do want to do it too but since I'm not that good with it I might damage the hardware, (electro-static) I think it was called

OR
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-Core2Duo-E8200-...1QQcmdZViewItem

cos its locally sold I can go pick it up :D

the downunder looks good

I would drop back to 2 gigs of ram with xp home and upgrade to a better video card, probably a nvidia 9600
w/ better power supply

hmm why do you recommend dropping back to 2GBs?
andd can you perhaps recommened a better power supply

thanks

I might get a quote for THAT system but with the changes of 2GB Ram, 9600GT Gfx Card or similar, better power supply

I saw some game tests where vista and xp were compared head to head with a new fast core 2 duo, an expensive video card and even with just 2 gigs of ram vista matched xp blow for blow

most will never use more than 2 gigs and windows only sees 3 anyway

find out what power supplies are available?

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2302498,00.asp

hey guys,
sorry for the real late reply! been away lately just got back,
anyways bad news I found out a complete new system is out of the question; for now but still thought of getting a decent graphic card for the moment.
I realised my nVidia 6200 is completely worthless ($30 brand new) !!!!! so till I get a new system I want to get a better card

I was looking at; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130062

The user discussions seem to go in tally with my needs and looks alright, what do you guys think?
btw im not sure if my CPU can handle/support it can someone verify that for me pleaseee

thanks

what's the make and model of your computer or motherboard

same info on your power supply please?

Motherboard; http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mother...?ProductID=1830
Power Supply; how do I find this out? Im gonna take of the case and let you know !

hmm come to think about, what's a good card for around $100-110?

Dont go with that graphics card its too old. These are the best cards for $100

8800GS

I personally have the EVGA version because it has an adjustable fan speed.

Im not able to view for some reason can you post it again or just post the model number.

Power supply has a big sticker on the side you shouldnt even have to take it out. Just open the case an post the specs. The amps on 12Volt + rails are important for us to know along with the wattage and brand.

Motherboard; http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mother...?ProductID=1830
Power Supply; AC 230V ~1/0.5A
The brand and wattage im still tryna find.

so can this board/power supp run the 8800GS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130333

I was bored and I was on newegg and made a decent computer for $1,500 not as expensive as I thought it would've been. Since newegg doesn't service australia. Im going to take this quote to different local shops and see what their prices are Tell me what you think of the build, but this is not important as the graphic card problem

Qty. Product Description
1 Western Digital Caviar GP 1TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$194.99

1 Western Digital Caviar SE 40GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive
$37.99

1 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Processor
$184.99

1 EVGA GeForce Superclocked 8800GS 384-P3-N853-AR Video Card
$137.99

1 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional 70SB088600002 Sound Card
$149.99

1 OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W Power Supply
$129.99

1 ABIT IP35 Pro ATX Intel Motherboard
$179.99

1 G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
$69.99

1 Logitech Silver & Black Gaming Keyboard
$58.99

1 Logitech VX Nano Black 2.4 GHz Wireless Laser Mouse for Notebooks
$55.99

1 Thermaltake CL-R0026 Heatsinks only
$13.99

1 ZALMAN VF900 - CU 2 Ball VGA Cooler
$37.99

1 ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
$26.99

1 VANTEC TD8038H Case Fan
$11.99

1 XCLIO A380BK Fully Black High Gloss Finish Computer Case With Side Panel Window
$109.99

1 LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06
$34.99

1 Sony NEC Optiarc Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s
$15.99


Grand Total: $1,452.83