Should I Upgrade or Start from Scratch?

T

TJoshX

New Member
Hey guys,

So I'm looking to slowly get back into some gaming, however I have never been of the "Hard Core" label. I have a PC I had put together through NewEgg back in 2007 and I am looking for opinions on whether I should look to upgrade some of the components, or just start over completely...

As far as gaming goes I just picked up Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning yesterday and am looking to get into the Mass Effect series. Also Half-Life 2... yes, I've never played HL2 which usually tends to shock people, I'm told its one of the best FPS's to ever been released?

My current system was built in 2007, specs are listed below with links to NewEgg.

It has been suggested to me that if I upgrade my current system, replacing the CPU with an AMD core-6 and the the video card to an Nvidia GTX 500 series should suffice... this would run about 300.00, which I'm cool with. However 300.00 is still a good chunk of change and i'm wondering for that kind of money if it makes more sense to shell out a little more now and convert over to an Intel i5 build...

So, to simply... do you agree with upgrading the CPU and Video card as mentioned? Or do you recommend starting an i5 build? If you're on the i5 side of the fence, specific recs and mobo combination would be greatly appreciated. Please consider me a computer newbie!

Oh... budget for the i5 build would ideally fall around the 500.00 mark... might be able to flirt with 600.

Thanks, I really appreciate it.



Josh

Mother Board: GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Black Edition Processor ADO5000DSWOF

Cooling Fan: ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT

RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2RPR800C44GK

Power Supply: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible ...

Hard Drive: SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD321KJ 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Hard-Drive: GIGABYTE 3D AURORA GZ-FSCA1-ANB Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
 
There would be very limited options for a quad AM2+ CPU.

If you were to go i5, the main processors and pretty much best processors for gaming is the i5 2500k. Goes for about $220, so there's half your budget. Pair it with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128495

And then you'll need to get new RAM, since 1155 motherboards don't support DDR2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233195

So that will leave you $134-234. With a new motherboard, you'll need a new version of windows, unless you have a retail edition that you can use on multiple computers. That'll be another $100. So now you're down to $34-134.

There are endless options, though. You could get an i3 for $100 and still get great graphics. That will leave you room for a good graphics card like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125401

And in the future, if you want a quad, you can upgrade easily.
 
Thanks for the reply, the 500.00 sounds tight then for the intel i5... when I set out to spend a decent amount of money I like to buy waht I should be buying and do it right the first time... that being said, would a 700.00 budget put me in a better place? Or are we talking still more?

Thanks,

Josh
 
Cool thanks for the reply...

As far as windows goes I won't need to purchase a copy... sorry I should have mentioned that.

Also I had a question on the memory...

I noticed that there are a lot of options in the 50.00 range for 2 4gb sticks... should I just send the extra 25.00 and double the RAM?

Also, what is the difference with all the RAM... just looking at the Corsair Vengence line there seems to be 5+ options in the same memory size category. Some of them have the huge heat sinks while other don't...

Should I consider one with a heatsink? Also, and sorry for this probably will come across as very "childish" but I'm noticing blue, red, brown.. and so forth but all seem to be 2 x 4gb sticks, what the difference in the olor denominations?

thanks.
 
Ok, for gaming 8Gb is about as much as you will need for a long while.

The colours last I noticed differentiated either the speed or timings I know it works like that on Kingston. With them it is quite possible that the colours just allow for personal taste.
 
Ok I see...

What about the ones with/without the heat sinks? Should I invest in a set that have them or does it really matter?
 
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