Best upgrade for my PC

[mojo6912]

Hello. I would really like to upgrade my PC for gaming a little bit and was hoping you wonderful people could give me a little bit of advice.

I can't afford to spend a lot so I was just looking to upgrade the one or two things that will give me the most bang for my buck right now. Anyway, here is my machine in a nutshell: (from Speccy)

Summary
Operating System

MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP2

CPU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHz 43 °C
Yorkfield 45nm Technology

RAM

8.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-6-6-18)

Motherboard

PEGATRON CORPORATION Benicia (CPU 1)

Graphics

HP w2338h (1920x1080@60Hz)
512MB GeForce 8600 GT (BFG Tech) 63 °C

Hard Drives

625GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-65A7B2 (RAID) 34 °C

Optical Drives

HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH40L
LUFOT 3GH6NKT SCSI CdRom Device

Audio

Realtek High Definition Audio

Frist I was looking at my RAM at only 400MHz I was going to upgrade it but after reading around a little I'm not so sure that will give me a significant boost. I'm thinking that maybe I should replace my video card instead.

I was looking at the XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 PCIE Graphics Card for $110. I am not sure if it would be compatible with my setup by itself. Would I need a power supply or heatsink or some other parts to make it work properly?

Please give me your opinion and advice! Thank you very much!! =)

[Jurwi]

Personally I'd just get a whole new computer, but if you're set on upgrading a part or two, a new graphics card would propably be the best choice. Radeon HD 5770 is a solid option for the price if you don't want to spend more than that. It should be compatible in every way with your other parts, might lose little performance if you motherboard doesn't have PCI-E 2.0, but should work anyway.

[Cantii]

It depends on what the power supply you have is and the power it can produce. It'll be compatible with your motherboard, but as far as I know, that motherboard's PCI-E 16x slot isn't PCI-E 2.1, but I'm not sure if that'd make a big difference or what, might just not get full bandwidth until you upgrade the motherboard, I suppose, 'bout it.

The RAM isn't an issue, it's CAS 6, so upgrading to 800MHz won't be much of a change.

Could you post what your power supply is?

[Maxsul]

If you want to stick with Nvidia, try a 460 (look at the variations) or a 550ti. Anything else will be bottlenecked a tad by your cpu, and the 2 listed will play wow full ultra settings; the only framerate loss you'll have is in high pop zones.

[Jurwi]

If you want to stick with Nvidia, try a 460 (look at the variations) or a 550ti. Anything else will be bottlenecked a tad by your cpu, and the 2 listed will play wow full ultra settings; the only framerate loss you'll have is in high pop zones.

550Ti is just stupid choice, it's way overpriced currently.

[mojo6912]

Thanks guys I'm going to seriously consider getting the 5770. I'm not really sure how to find out what my power supply is. Would it matter that much?

---------- Post added 2011-03-21 at 01:00 AM ----------

Something that I just considered...

Although I am broke now and would love to be able to turn the graphics settings on all my games from low/medium to high for about $100... I do plan to one day build a super gaming computer from scratch.

I was wondering if this future computer of mine would be able to make use of the 5770 even if it a little out dated. Would it be bad if I were to have 2 different video cards, one top of the line card and then the 5770? When people use 2 cards do they usually try to use the same card?

[lordcanyon]

just open up the case and look at the power supply you should see the watts
thats how all mine have been

[coldfiredragon]

Your RAM is actually 800MHz its DDR2, so its running at 400MHz x 2.

Personally I would get a new video card, that would be the best item. I would look for like a Geforce GTX 460.

[Saithes]

As many have stated, the GTX 460 is an amazing card for the price. Cool, Quiet, Powerful all in one ;D

[Magezsoul]

For WoW, 10000000000000% a CPU upgrade.

WoW uses almost NO graphics card processing. Its 99% CPU based.
But a decent P67 1155 MoBo with a 2500K or 2600k, overclock it to 3.8-4.0GHZ (Really simple with the sandy bridge CPU's)

I upgraded my graphics card from a ATI 5770 to a 480 GTX Superclocked and gained MAYBE 3 Fps.

I upgraded my E8500 to a i7-2600k, over clocked it to 4.2GHZ with the stock cooler and gained roughly 60 FPS (30 in raids after turning everything to ultra).

You'd also be setting yourself up for an easy Ram upgrade (if you get a board that supports 1600MHZ ram, you can get 4 gigs for $40)


Links to all the parts

i7-2600k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0&Tpk=i7-2600k

i7-2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&Tpk=i5-2500k

1155 P67 motherboard (Don't buy a H67 motherboard, you can't OC with them)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-706-_-Product

4 Gigs of ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-193-_-Product

[Saithes]

For WoW, 10000000000000% a CPU upgrade.

WoW uses almost NO graphics card processing. Its 99% CPU based.
But a decent P67 1155 MoBo with a 2500K or 2600k, overclock it to 3.8-4.0GHZ (Really simple with the sandy bridge CPU's)

I upgraded my graphics card from a ATI 5770 to a 480 GTX Superclocked and gained MAYBE 3 Fps.

I upgraded my E8500 to a i7-2600k, over clocked it to 4.2GHZ with the stock cooler and gained roughly 60 FPS (30 in raids after turning everything to ultra).

You'd also be setting yourself up for an easy Ram upgrade (if you get a board that supports 1600MHZ ram, you can get 4 gigs for $40)

From what's been shown the E8500 is quite a bottleneck to the GTX 480 anyways. =P

[Magezsoul]

From what's been shown the E8500 is quite a bottleneck to the GTX 480 anyways. =P

Regardless, my graphics card(s) have never gone above 20% usage. Even my 5770.

The 8600 OP has is more then plenty

[Saithes]

Regardless, my graphics card(s) have never gone above 20% usage. Even my 5770.

The 8600 OP has is more then plenty

Lol, my 460s run 50% or so each in main cities(getting 85-90 fps on full Ultra) and 70-80% out questing. If a CPU is a bottleneck, the GPU usage won't go up very much

[Magezsoul]

Lol, my 460s run 50% or so each in main cities(getting 85-90 fps on full Ultra) and 70-80% out questing. If a CPU is a bottleneck, the GPU usage won't go up very much

Full Shadows/AA?
I have both turned low/1

[Saithes]

Full Shadows/AA?
I have both turned low/1

Yep, full shadows and AA.

[DeltrusDisc]

Still that video card he has is a bit old.... and only 512mb of dedicated graphics memory. >_<

If he can afford it, getting a new video card wouldn't hurt at all. And boy oh boy, what a nostalgia trip posting a BFG Tech video card. RIP

But I agree with my server companion, get a Sandybridge CPU with P67 board if you can afford to go for almost completely new computer, it's a night and day difference for a lot of us who have not upgraded our computers in 2+ years.

I went from an E5200 dual-core 2.5ghz to the i5-2500K... oh you bet it's a biiiiig difference.

[Jurwi]

Guy is clearly hinting he has only around $100 to use, so why the heck are people trying to give him links to $500 mobo+cpu combos. Beats me.

His CPU is already decent one for its age, the GPU on the other hand is just steaming pile of turd.

[DeltrusDisc]

Guy is clearly hinting he has only around $100 to use, so why the heck are people trying to give him links to $500 mobo+cpu combos. Beats me.

His CPU is already decent one for its age, the GPU on the other hand is just steaming pile of turd.

Oh I do agree, he should opt for a new vid card.

[Saithes]

Core 2 Quad's are still viable... especially being his is a Penryn with 45nm which makes it even better I still say look around for a good deal.. you can always find an amazing deal on either newegg or other sites. My suggestion as stated is to try to find a GTX 460, if not the 5770 is also a decent and viable option.

[Dizey]

The 5770 or gtx 460 are both good ~$100 options for you. They're both DX11 cards, so you should get some frame rate boosts if you change your config to use it. 4.1 is suppose to have full DX11 support from what I hear as well. The Q8200 is one of the lower-end quad cores by intel, but it's not that bad. Unfortunately all of the older CPU's are ridiculously expensive still, which makes it tough to squeeze more life out of an older intel system.