Please look at my components and offer upgrade advice

R

RightCross

New Member
Hello All,

New member to the forums and I see a lot of good knowledgeable people on here and was wondering if you could help me with some advice. Little about me 1st, I use my computer mostly for gaming and basic stuff such as photoshop etc. In the past I would just buy a totally new desktop every 2 years and junk my old one, usually in fine working condition but, I dont want to be wasteful anymore. However, with each new generation of game you need the hardware to support it. Right now I am starting to lag a little in my new games.

Here is what i have currently.
Processor: Intel Core Duo E6750 @2.66 (2cpus)
Memory: 1g DDR2 PC6400 memory x2
320gb Sata 2 3.0 Gb Hard Drive (have a 500 external as well)
Asus p5k Intel p35 Crossfire 1333FB
Sigma Shark 635 power supply
EVGA Geforce 8800gt 512mb PCI-E
Windows XP home 32 bit

What would you suggest I do with my current set up? Is it workable or should I junk it and start off with the new intel I7 stuff?
 
I would recommend:

4GB of DDR2 Memory
A quadcore cpu
Quality power supply
GTX 460 1Gb

you can find these on www.newegg.com

Quality psu brands include corsair, thermaltake, OCZ, XFX, Seasonic and silverstone
 
linkin said:
I would recommend:

4GB of DDR2 Memory
A quadcore cpu
Quality power supply
GTX 460 1Gb

you can find these on www.newegg.com

Quality psu brands include corsair, thermaltake, OCZ, XFX, Seasonic and silverstone
Click to expand...

I forgot that i replaced my power supply last year, I dont remember the brand or wattage tho it was a highly rated one from new egg.
Questions: Would a quadcore cpu drop directly into the socket I have? (775) If so can you recommend a good cpu?

I figured my video card was starting to lose its effectiveness. I always understood that a duo core couldnt utilize more than 2gigs of memory anyhow thats why I only have 2 gigs.
 
RAM - Add another 2GB (although 32bit only show 3.5GB)

CPU - Get a quad core, may be Q8400? Or get new mobo + RAM + CPU. But I do recommend you just upgrade this time as both company will have new CPU architect intel - Sandy Bridge and AMD - Bulldozer
Or get aftermarket heatsink to overclock the CPU

Video card - Worth spending $200 on GTX460 1GB or 5830 1GB
 
Last edited:
RightCross said:
Processor: Intel C2Q Q9300 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115043
Memory: 1g DDR2 PC6400 memory x2 + 2x2GB PC6400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199
320gb Sata 2 3.0 Gb Hard Drive (have a 500 external as well)
Asus p5k Intel p35 Crossfire 1333FB
Sigma Shark 635 power supply
EVGA Geforce GTX460 1GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130566
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116716

What would you suggest I do with my current set up? Is it workable or should I junk it and start off with the new intel I7 stuff?
Click to expand...

The stuff in red is changed.

If you were to do a full rebuild, sell your memory, motherboard and processor to get money towards your new system. You will probably get more selling the parts seperately, but may find it easier to sell them as a bundle, your choice. If you were to do that though, I would wait for the AMD Bulldozer chips to come out next year, as they are looking very promising, and like they may be AMD doing what they did when intel were still playing about with NetBurst, and overtaking them

Also with the video card, what you said about your power supply:

RightCross said:
I forgot that i replaced my power supply last year, I dont remember the brand or wattage tho it was a highly rated one from new egg.
Questions: Would a quadcore cpu drop directly into the socket I have? (775) If so can you recommend a good cpu?

I figured my video card was starting to lose its effectiveness. I always understood that a duo core couldnt utilize more than 2gigs of memory anyhow thats why I only have 2 gigs.
Click to expand...

Take the side off your case and find out what PSU it is first. Wattage means very little. For instance, let's assume you bought this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121069

it would not be as good as (for the same price), this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

even though they have much lower watts. The build quality is better and because of that the power fluctuations are less, so you have more stable power getting to your system, the actual constant power output is higher, rather than the peak power, the unit is less likely to blow, which wouldn't just be a case of buying a new PSU, it would probably mean getting new other components, as it would have taken them out too because of the crap surge protection on them, if they have it at all, and you can't claim on warranty as damage due to another component failure is not covered.

Yes, a quad core would fit in, but only the Core 2 Quad CPUs, not your i5 or i7 CPUs.

Your video card is still alright, but an upgrade can't hurt. The 460 outperforms the 5830 but is cheaper. The one I put in the link up there is $10 more expensive than the other, same card, however comes with lifetime warranty rather than just 2 years. Both also qualify for the EVGA step up program I believe (check that your 8800gt doesn't, otherwise you may be able to save a bit using that).

For Core 2 Duo CPUs only supporting 2GB of memory, that isn't true. Your particular motherboard can support up to 8GB of memory (4x2GB) regardless of what processor is in the system. I had the exact same CPU as you and was running 4x2GB on an Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard
 
Yeah, don't bother going above 4GB ram as your computer won't be able to utilise it.

Change your processor to a duel core or a quad core i3, i5 or i7 or something really powerful like that. You'll have a nice speedy computer then =]
 
You may be able to get by just fine with simply upgrading your memory and video card. If you're lagging in games, replacing the 8800GT with a GTX 460 1GB card and pushing your memory up to 4GB would probably work well.

While your cpu is a little older, it still isn't a bad processor. Maybe you could find benchmarks for it in some games. While some games are more gpu bound than others and a few games may require a pretty hefty processor, its my guess that you are mostly gpu bound right now (between your cpu and gpu), and a GTX 460 (along with 4GB memory) would do wonders.
 
Thanks for all the helpful advice on here, you guys are fantastic. I have been wanting to upgrade to windows 7 too for some time.

Can anyone tell me the difference between the OS recommended on this thread and the one I added to my cart?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116716
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

The total for these upgrades from New Egg is about $600.00 which is definitely cheaper than the new comps I have been looking at around $1200.00
 
RightCross said:
Thanks for all the helpful advice on here, you guys are fantastic. I have been wanting to upgrade to windows 7 too for some time.

Can anyone tell me the difference between the OS recommended on this thread and the one I added to my cart?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116716
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

The total for these upgrades from New Egg is about $600.00 which is definitely cheaper than the new comps I have been looking at around $1200.00
Click to expand...

The OEM one will be bound to your motherboard. Say in 6 months time you decide to sell your CPU, memory and mobo to go to an i5, i7 or AM3 system, you will have to buy another copy of windows.

With the retail copy, you can install it more than once on other computers, but not on more than 1 at once, so you will be able to keep it to your next upgrade/build.

Because of the prices, I think your initial idea of "build new" may not be so bad

To get the upgrades posted, so your new, quad core CPU and extra 4Gb of memory, it would come to $283.

If you were to get the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231190

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

it would come to $410

For the extra $130 you would get a larger performance increase and better upgradeability, rather than having your system at the max it can be at. The money you make from selling your current memory, mobo, cpu would come to a decent amount, making the extra you have to pay maybe just under $300

Can you also please answer what power supply you are using?
 
Aastii said:
The OEM one will be bound to your motherboard. Say in 6 months time you decide to sell your CPU, memory and mobo to go to an i5, i7 or AM3 system, you will have to buy another copy of windows.

With the retail copy, you can install it more than once on other computers, but not on more than 1 at once, so you will be able to keep it to your next upgrade/build.

Because of the prices, I think your initial idea of "build new" may not be so bad

To get the upgrades posted, so your new, quad core CPU and extra 4Gb of memory, it would come to $283.

If you were to get the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231190

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

it would come to $410

For the extra $130 you would get a larger performance increase and better upgradeability, rather than having your system at the max it can be at. The money you make from selling your current memory, mobo, cpu would come to a decent amount, making the extra you have to pay maybe just under $300

Can you also please answer what power supply you are using?
Click to expand...

Thank you for clearing that up about the OS, I definitely need 1 that will go from comp to comp as I will likely be using windows 7 for years to come.

I finally figured out how to see my order history with new egg and I did not replace my power supply, I replaced the cooler for my cpu (which had stopped working). So i do indeed have the original power supply, i also opened my case to verify.Sigma Shark 635 power supply

I have no idea if this is a good power supply, never given me any trouble in the 2 years its been here.

I still need a video card though...so im looking at 600ish with everything including OS and No motherboard.

At this point maybe I should just look for a total new comp like i usually do and spend the extra few hundred....
 
AaronDunphy said:
What difference does a decent power supply actually do?
Click to expand...

If a power supply is cheap and of low quality, it is more likely to blow. People think that an 850W PSU will power everything, which is true for your better brands, but for your lesser brands is far from true.

Say a cheap PSU is rated at 500W. It may only be able to output 350W constantly. It is sold as 500W because that is the peak power output. It will get up to that point, but you keep it there, it will overheat and blow. However with that said, most cheap power supplies have all the amps on the 3.3V and 5V rails, rather than the 12V, which is where the majority of the power needs to be, higher quality units will therefore have higher amps on their 12V rail(s). When a power supply blows though, the majority of the time it takes out other components with it, as I mentioned before, and because warranty doesn't cover damage due to other component failure, you will be forced to pay for the full replacements.

Even if the unit doesn't blow, it can cause short term problems, which may not always be evident. Low quality units are less efficient than their higher quality counterparts. If you look at most corsair, antec, silverstone, seasonic, Be Quiet!, Thermaltake Toughpower etc units, they will be 80% plus certified. This means that no matter what load, the unit will be atleast 80% efficient. 80% bronze means it is atleast 80%, silver means 85%, gold means 90%. Now look at the lower quality units, like Rosewill, Diablotek, Kingwin, Sigma (;)) and none of them, or very very few will have the 80% tag, because they aren't that efficient. You might just be thinking so what, it costs a little extra to run, no biggy, but think about it:

The laws of physics dictate that energy can not be created or destroyed, only converted from 1 form to another. If a power supply is taking in 100W of power and is 80% efficient, 80W will go to the components, doing what you want it to, the other 20W is heat and kinetic/sound energy from the fan cooling the unit down because of that heat. If a unit is only 60% efficient, only 60W will be going to the components, and the rest will be wasted. The sound and kinetic isn't so bad if you are ok to have a loud system, but having extra heat in your case is a bad thing, because higher temperatures means lower lifetime for components, less overclocking room and the rest of your system being louder if you have fan speed controlled by the BIOS.

If a component isn't getting enough power, it can cause problems, be it hanging, restarting, not starting at all, or seeing artifacts/graphical glitches. This is true for all power supplies, however much more common in cheaper ones as people assume high wattage means you can put a lot of components in the system.

If you are overclocking especially, a good power supply is essential, but it is required if you are not. When you overclock, you make your components consume more power and, as you will be aware if you know anything about overclocking, it makes your system less stable. Power that comes from a cheap power supply isn't as "clean", meaning their is greater poewr fluctuations, so the power your components get changes. This happens anyway, but happens to a much greater degree with a cheap unit, so makes overclocking more difficult, but can also make it so sometimes you will have the effects of not getting enough power, so hanging, shutting down, artifacting BSODing etc.

You can avoid all of that by sticking to the higher quality units:

XFX, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Silverstone, Thermaltake Toughpower, Antec, BFG, Be Quiet! they are your better choices.

OCZ can arguably be up there too as their units are alright, however they aren't as high quality as the ones in the list

You will also find some brands, Rosewill is a great example, have people swearing they are one of the best you can get, however they are crap. They are made from cheap, low quality components
 
Aastii said:
If a power supply is cheap and of low quality, it is more likely to blow. People think that an 850W PSU will power everything, which is true for your better brands, but for your lesser brands is far from true.

Say a cheap PSU is rated at 500W. It may only be able to output 350W constantly. It is sold as 500W because that is the peak power output. It will get up to that point, but you keep it there, it will overheat and blow. However with that said, most cheap power supplies have all the amps on the 3.3V and 5V rails, rather than the 12V, which is where the majority of the power needs to be, higher quality units will therefore have higher amps on their 12V rail(s). When a power supply blows though, the majority of the time it takes out other components with it, as I mentioned before, and because warranty doesn't cover damage due to other component failure, you will be forced to pay for the full replacements.

Even if the unit doesn't blow, it can cause short term problems, which may not always be evident. Low quality units are less efficient than their higher quality counterparts. If you look at most corsair, antec, silverstone, seasonic, Be Quiet!, Thermaltake Toughpower etc units, they will be 80% plus certified. This means that no matter what load, the unit will be atleast 80% efficient. 80% bronze means it is atleast 80%, silver means 85%, gold means 90%. Now look at the lower quality units, like Rosewill, Diablotek, Kingwin, Sigma (;)) and none of them, or very very few will have the 80% tag, because they aren't that efficient. You might just be thinking so what, it costs a little extra to run, no biggy, but think about it:

The laws of physics dictate that energy can not be created or destroyed, only converted from 1 form to another. If a power supply is taking in 100W of power and is 80% efficient, 80W will go to the components, doing what you want it to, the other 20W is heat and kinetic/sound energy from the fan cooling the unit down because of that heat. If a unit is only 60% efficient, only 60W will be going to the components, and the rest will be wasted. The sound and kinetic isn't so bad if you are ok to have a loud system, but having extra heat in your case is a bad thing, because higher temperatures means lower lifetime for components, less overclocking room and the rest of your system being louder if you have fan speed controlled by the BIOS.

If a component isn't getting enough power, it can cause problems, be it hanging, restarting, not starting at all, or seeing artifacts/graphical glitches. This is true for all power supplies, however much more common in cheaper ones as people assume high wattage means you can put a lot of components in the system.

If you are overclocking especially, a good power supply is essential, but it is required if you are not. When you overclock, you make your components consume more power and, as you will be aware if you know anything about overclocking, it makes your system less stable. Power that comes from a cheap power supply isn't as "clean", meaning their is greater poewr fluctuations, so the power your components get changes. This happens anyway, but happens to a much greater degree with a cheap unit, so makes overclocking more difficult, but can also make it so sometimes you will have the effects of not getting enough power, so hanging, shutting down, artifacting BSODing etc.

You can avoid all of that by sticking to the higher quality units:

XFX, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Silverstone, Thermaltake Toughpower, Antec, BFG, Be Quiet! they are your better choices.

OCZ can arguably be up there too as their units are alright, however they aren't as high quality as the ones in the list

You will also find some brands, Rosewill is a great example, have people swearing they are one of the best you can get, however they are crap. They are made from cheap, low quality components
Click to expand...

Great reply man!
Thanks, understand alot more now :)
 
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