Upgrading my computer

[Jaek]

I just grabbed a new system and put in a cheap 4670 video card. I've been playing on a macbook pro so this'll is a big sized upgrade (i7 920).

I suggest for a low budget then grab a new dx10.1 card for $100. The new ones at that price have good speed.

Here is the June 2009 Best Graphics Cards For The Money from Tomshardware.

 

[Tomcat_ha]

its better to invest in a better vid card than a good processor. Only with arma 2 you are starting to see the i7 really allowing you to put settings higher

 

[Fedorov]

I want to upgrade my procesor, I currently have an Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 (1,8Ghz) on a P5B which is 800FSB.

The most powerful thing with 800FSB I can get is a dual core E5400 (2,7Ghz)

but I read in the Asus site that my Mother board is compatible with quad cores or dual cores with higher FSB. I know that the 800FSB of the motherboard will be a bottleneck, but here is my 2 questions...

would it be worth it to upgrade from E4300 to E5400?
would it be worth it to upgrade to something higher than that even if the FSB is a bottleneck?

 

[KrazyKraut]

I have an Asus P5B and I am running an E6420 on it and plan to upgrade to a quad core or possibly an E8400 later. All P5B should have 1066 MHz FSB with their P965 chipset, no? Or is there a revision that came with only 800 Mhz FSB?

And with the newest BIOS you have 1333 Mhz support, so why not buy a decent CPU like the E8400? MB will probably get hot(ter) but if ASUS gives you that option, I'd take it that it works, they never disappointed me so far.

Anyways, I'm no expert but I don't think an E5400 cuts it anymore, or that it is worth the upgrade vs. your E4300. Rather save some more and buy a new CPU + mainboard next year.

 

[Fedorov]

oh yes Im sorry so It does have 1066MHz , but my RAM is 800 anyway

 

[Tomcat_ha]

the e5400 would be silly indeed.

 

[Fedorov]

I guess i'll have to wait and do a full upgrade in a year or two

 

[KrazyKraut]

Okay again, I'm no expert, but I think you would be perfectly fine with any 1066 MHz CPU, meaning many Intel Socket775 Core2s up to QX6800 and a lot of the Quad Cores, too. The slower memory will affect you somewhat, but I bet most people in the medium range are still running PC800 or even slower RAM. I have slower RAM and it's working fine with the E6420 (though I'm on the lower end of load times probably).

If I were you I'd get maybe a cheap E7600 or something in that range on eBay, wait until the new Ati chips come out, then buy a HD4870/4890 for a fitting graphic card. That should carry you nicely into early-mid 2010 on a low budget.

 

[Tomcat_ha]

I guess i'll have to wait and do a full upgrade in a year or two

actually at the end of this year/early next year would be a nice time to upgrade both your processor and your vid card.

 

[Fedorov]

thanks, I'll think about processor at the end of this year, what i wonder is if i'll also change mobo and RAM or not

as for the vid card I'm still satisfied with the 9800GTX+ and while is not something awesome, I can put all games to te highest or almost highest settings.

I guess it can survive another 2 years (maybe 3 depeding on what games are released) then I'll probably go for the top or almost top card of that time.

my real bottleneck is in the 1,8ghz processor as I only see slow downs when there are too many players on screen or the view distance of objects is high because it has to load more of them

 

[Flogger23m]

its better to invest in a better vid card than a good processor. Only with arma 2 you are starting to see the i7 really allowing you to put settings higher

I'd disagree. Video cards become cheaper quicker and are easier to upgrade at a later time.