Tyranitar Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 Hey everyone. I'm thinking of upgrading some parts of my PC soon as I was wondering if anyone more knowledgable with PCs than me had any suggestions.I have a fairly decent gaming-quality PC already, but its getting a bit outdated, me thinks. Here's my current specs:Case: Antec 900OS: Vista Premium 32-bitHard Drive: Seagate ST350032 0AS SCSI 500 GBDVD Drive: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200S SCSI Monitor: LG L1953SProcessor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 @ 2.66GhzRAM: DDR2 OCZ SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel 1 GB - DIMM 240-pin - 800 MHz ( PC2-6400 ) x4 (4 gb total)PSU: 500W (sorry, don't know the exact specifics)GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (x1)Motherboard: ASUS P5N-E SLII plan to upgrade my OS to Windows 7 Pro at some point, as well as the Monitor to a widescreen 1080p one. I'm also going to upgrade the video card at some point, but that's mainly where I need some assistance deciding lol. I don't mind getting quite an expensive one, but I guess I need to know if the other hardware will limit my choices somewhat. Also, should I go with NVIDIA or ATI, and should I consider SLI/Crossfire? Another thing is the power supply. It seems like it could be higher, so do any of you think it'd be a good idea to upgrade that as well?Those are the main things I wanna know anyway. If anyone thinks anything else could use upgrading, I'd appreciate any assistance. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThermoNukePanda Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 If you're going to get a new and decent GPU, you'll definitely need to upgrade the power supply. I'm in the same boat. I have a GeForce9500GS (a complete piece of crap) in my quad-core desktop with 8GB of RAM. The processor is hella fast, and I have tons of RAM, but what is holding me back incredibly is the crappy GPU.Also, because the stock system came with a really miserable power supply I'll be forced to swap that out before I even begin to think about putting in a newish GPU.Wait for Dateranoth to poke his head in here. He'll set you straight and will probably find you some good deals.(Also, Win7 is waaaaaaay better and more stable than Vista!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 If you're going to get a new and decent GPU, you'll definitely need to upgrade the power supply. I'm in the same boat. I have a GeForce9500GS (a complete piece of crap) in my quad-core desktop with 8GB of RAM. The processor is hella fast, and I have tons of RAM, but what is holding me back incredibly is the crappy GPU.Also, because the stock system came with a really miserable power supply I'll be forced to swap that out before I even begin to think about putting in a newish GPU.Wait for Dateranoth to poke his head in here. He'll set you straight and will probably find you some good deals.(Also, Win7 is waaaaaaay better and more stable than Vista!)Thanks. I'll look forward to seeing some of his suggestions then.Yeah, I figured I'd probably have to upgrade the PSU. I guess I'll have to decide how high I go for that, though I don't mind if its quite a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 If you are just looking for a GPU upgrade then the Superclocked GTX 460 is a pretty good card. If your PSU is a quality power supply you could upgrade the GPU without upgrading the PSU.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130568&cm_re=gtx_460_EE-_-14-130-568-_-ProductIf you're looking to upgrade more I can offer further suggestions. And that card isn't the only option. I can recommend other products if you'd like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 Thanks, that looks like a pretty good one. =) Do you think it'd be worth SLI-ing them?Also, I think I best upgrade the power supply, just to be safe. I really have no idea of the quality of the one I have now, since I didn't buy it myself, and the recommended power supply for this card seems to be 550W at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 500W will work fine, but a PSU upgrade is always good. I suggest Corsair or Thermaltake. If you're going to SLI them you'd need roughly a 650Watt PSU at least. Though, I don't think SLI would be good in your case unless you plan on upgrading your processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevnvek Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 Depending on your budget I'd recommend the Radeon HD 6870 I'm now using. Not too expensive considering how powerful it is. Metro 2033 is the only game that I've played so far that's been able to slow it down with all the settings maxed out at 1920x1080, and it still looks and runs great with a couple of the FPS consuming features like Depth of Field and Tessellation turned off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 500W will work fine, but a PSU upgrade is always good. I suggest Corsair or Thermaltake. If you're going to SLI them you'd need roughly a 650Watt PSU at least. Though, I don't think SLI would be good in your case unless you plan on upgrading your processor.Ah, alright. Maybe something to consider in the future if I do upgrade the CPU in the future then. Any higher options I could go with as far as GPUs go that you'd recommend, or will the other hardware hold me back at all?EDIT: Sorry Kevin, didn't notice your post when I made this reply. That sounds good too, I'll have a look at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 GTX 580 if you're looking for top of the line and willing to drop about 530 US. Processor may hold you back some, but it'd be a noticeable upgrade from the 460. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 Hm, yeah. It's about £400 here. I dunno if I'd be willing to spend that much, but I'll think about it and look at all the other cards between those two.Thanks for the help anyway everyone. I appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 You're welcome. I can make a lot more suggestions, but I'd need a price range to make anything worthwhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 I'd probably be willing to spend up to £1000 in total upgrades or so, which is about $1550. I'd probably be willing to go higher if I saw something I really liked, but I've got quite a lot I'm able to spend at the moment.Sorry if I'm not being specific enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 With that much I could probably put together a full pc upgrade. I'd have to look into it, but you could of course use some of the items from your old one. Would be sweet to rock a new gpu and keep the old one for PhysX. Of course, a full upgrade wouldn't be necessary depending on what processors your motherboard can be upgraded to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevnvek Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 Besides tax and shipping, that's close to what my brand new system cost me on Black Friday, and it's a monster. So I'd say you could get a pretty fancy rig going if that's just your upgrade budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 With that much I could probably put together a full pc upgrade. I'd have to look into it, but you could of course use some of the items from your old one. Would be sweet to rock a new gpu and keep the old one for PhysX. Of course, a full upgrade wouldn't be necessary depending on what processors your motherboard can be upgraded to.Hm, I suppose you've got a point there. That sounds good to me. =) I've never heard of PhysX though, I'll have to look into that.By the way, I don't know if this is important, but I forgot to say what my case is. It's an Antec 900. It has a 200m fan on the top, two 120mm front fans and another 120mm fan on the back. It also has an optional fan slot on the side, which I'm not using at the moment, but I could if it's necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skylark95 Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 If you are just looking for a GPU upgrade then the Superclocked GTX 460 is a pretty good card. If your PSU is a quality power supply you could upgrade the GPU without upgrading the PSU.http://www.newegg.co...0-568-_-ProductIf you're looking to upgrade more I can offer further suggestions. And that card isn't the only option. I can recommend other products if you'd like.Very similar to the one I have...I have yet to find a game that slows it down... but then again i only play at about 720p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Well, I'm looking at what my motherboard supports right now...http://support.asus....SLanguage=en-us Here's the whole list if anyone wants to see it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevnvek Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 I can't tell for sure because I'm not all that familiar with computer hardware, but it doesn't look like that motherboard supports anything more than dual core processors. I'd upgrade and get something newer that supports an Intel i7 or an AMD Phenom II (which I have, six cores). If you want an awesome system, at least 4 cores will get whatever you want to process done with ease.DISCLAIMER: These opinions do not reflect those of a real computer professional, but rather a "Google Expert". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 It does support a few quad cores, but only fairly old (2007) ones, such as the Q6600 (http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=29765).I'm not totally sure if I want to upgrade the motherboard or not. That was one of the things I had a lot of trouble with last time... still, if the payoff is worth it, I may. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 Your CPU will be your limiting factor if you upgrade the video card, but you would still see a noticeable performance increase. The Q6600 or Q6700 would be a decent upgrade, but they are out of production so hard to find and sometimes really marked up.https://www.upgradebay.com/c1_itemdetail.asp?rid=22&itemid=168877201 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 Another option, if staying with the same mobo is a dual core upgrade:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036For most games the above dual core will run as well as the other quad core. Plus, these dual cores usually overclock really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 19, 2010 Author Share Posted December 19, 2010 Looks good. Would it be worth going a bit higher and getting the E8600, or would you say its probably not worth the extra price?EDIT: Just to ask, if I were to upgrade the motherboard, would you have any recommendations for that? Now that I think about it, it seems like I might be shooting myself in the foot if I don't upgrade it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 It's a little messy, but here is a starting point. I can price things based on what website you want to use if you let me know. Newegg is US based, but the prices should be fairly similar. This is coming in around 1344, but it's a beast system. Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price select item 1 quantity of item 1 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Item #: N82E16822136533Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $89.99 select item 2 quantity of item 2 EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ... Item #: N82E16814130595Return Policy: VGA Replacement Only Return Policy $369.99 select item 3 quantity of item 3 CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply Item #: N82E16817139009Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$30.00 Instant$10.00 Mail-in Rebate Card17-139-009 $159.99$129.99 select item 4 quantity of item 4 G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI Item #: N82E16820231335Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy $119.99 select item 5 quantity of item 5 GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Item #: N82E16813128423Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options13-128-423|hide options13-128-423) Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty The product will be replaced and shipped directly to you at no charge.(more info13-128-423.0.120) 1 year: $19.992 year: $36.99 -$10.00 Instant $209.99$199.99 select item 6 quantity of item 6 Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 Item #: N82E16819115211Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options19-115-211|hide options19-115-211) Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty The product will be replaced and shipped directly to you at no charge.(more info19-115-211.0.120)1 year: $29.992 year: $54.99 -$5.00 Instant $299.99$294.99 select item 7 quantity of item 7 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM Item #: N82E16832116758Return Policy: Software Standard Return Policy $139.99 Subtotal: $1,344.93Here is a link to some other suggestions From TechSpot:http://www.techspot.com/guides/229-desktop-buying-guide/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyranitar Posted December 19, 2010 Author Share Posted December 19, 2010 Looks pretty good I'm using Novatech, which seems to be considered the most reliable UK parts retailer http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dateranoth Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 Yeah. Pricing it on the UK site looks like it's pushing your budget pretty tight. Not much room for a monitor. It's possible to tweak the price with some slower components. Either way it would still be a great machine. It's that 17.5% tax that eats it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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