What should I upgrade? :cool:

M

mrbagrat

banned
I am having so much trouble deciding what to upgrade for my dell. Right now I have:

nVidia 6800 GTO
Cheapy 320watt PSU
3.2 ghz P4 Prescott
1gig DDR2 533 RAM
Cheapy microATX mobo
80gig HDD
DVD/CD drive and burner

I have a 350-400$ budget including shipping and California taxes. I am going to get an Antec Truepower 550watt, a better mobo, and a better case for sure.

The motherboard should be fast, and preferrably have SLI suppo
rt. If it doesn't, its OK. But I would rather it have SLI support.

The case shouldn't be uber expensive, but I would like it to have good airflow (at least 1 120mm or greater fan) and it should be solidly built.

I am also getting MCE, so thats minus 115 $ from Tiger Direct.

RAM will be upgraded later this year to 3gb.

Plenty of HDD space

So, the priority of what I need to get goes:
Case
PSU (done)
CPU cooler (done)
Mobo
CD/DVD combo burner (current one is LOUD)

That leaves 150-200$ for case, mobo, and possibly CD/DVD burner

What do you guys think I should get?
 
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i think that u may want to think about your psu because nothing is wosre than trying to game on a crappy psu
 
Hmm your budget doesn't leave room for upgrading more than one of the things you mentioned above. You also didn't say what you use your computer for. As for an SLI motherboard, you will be pushing it to find a good one in your price range. I would suggest a modern DVDRW and a new PSU as your initial upgrade.
 
m3incorp said:
I would suggest a modern DVDRW and a new PSU as your initial upgrade.
Click to expand...
Although practical a DVD-RW drive will not yeild any performance upgrade in either multitaksing or gaming/media. A more wise upgrade would be RAM, which would most definately yield a performance increase.

dragon
 
It depends what you will be doing with your computer. For most things, 2GB is adequate. With 3GB, you are almost overloading the memory controller with 3-4 of the memory slots full. Unless you have 2 512MB sticks and 2 1GB sticks in dual channel, you will have 3 1GB sticks, which isn't dual channel. Quality is better than quantity.

Of course, correct me if I'm wrong
 
You are correct; but I didn't mention RAM because his last sentence states he will upgrade it later on. I too think 3GB would be overkill.

dragon2309 said:
Although practical a DVD-RW drive will not yeild any performance upgrade in either multitaksing or gaming/media. A more wise upgrade would be RAM, which would most definately yield a performance increase.

dragon
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the replies (finally)! My computer would be used for heavy gaming.

m3incorp said:
Hmm your budget doesn't leave room for upgrading more than one of the things you mentioned above. You also didn't say what you use your computer for. As for an SLI motherboard, you will be pushing it to find a good one in your price range. I would suggest a modern DVDRW and a new PSU as your initial upgrade.
Click to expand...

What about http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813188004? It will most certainly be faster then what I have. Pretty much anything would. I'm not looking for a super fancy mobo, just a good and reliable one. And from what I hear, eVGA's support is stellar.

Jet said:
don't upgrade to 3GB of ram. Your processor is what socket? LGA775?
Click to expand...

Yeah, prescott socket 775 P4.

Jet said:
It depends what you will be doing with your computer. For most things, 2GB is adequate. With 3GB, you are almost overloading the memory controller with 3-4 of the memory slots full. Unless you have 2 512MB sticks and 2 1GB sticks in dual channel, you will have 3 1GB sticks, which isn't dual channel. Quality is better than quantity.

Of course, correct me if I'm wrong
Click to expand...

I currently have 2x 512mb sticks, at 533 mhz. My upgrade would be 2x 1gb of 667mhz. Would this be unwise, pairing two different speeds? Also, the reason I wanted 2gb was because it would future proof it a bit better. Although by the time 3gb isn't enough, it could be time for me to buy a new system.
 
ahh, heavy gaming...you are making this even harder.. While the video card you have is pretty decent for general purpose, an upgrade of the video card would currently have the most effect on gaming, and of course RAM. If you are not intending to run two video cards in SLI, I really don't see a need for a SLI board at this point. I am afraid that if you are really intent on gaming, that you are going to be looking at a little more monetary investment in the very near future. Be prepared to jump ship to AMD and supporting motherboards.
 
Amd...I would if I could. Buying a new processor and video card and RAM and all of the compnents listed above would simply be too huge of an investment. I am too young to get a steady job, so I don't have the $ to upgrade so much.

I should probably clarify: gaming as heavy as my system will allow. And with the SLI, I just realized you are right. I will look into more mobos. Hopefully with a cheaper PSU and mobo that don't need SLI support, and less RAM, I may have the $ for a decent GPU by christmas.:D

Also, what is a good mobo manufacturer?

EDIT: I actually will go with the same mobo. Although I won't use SLI, it still looks better for its price. Or, should I get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186023 ?
 
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