Keeping older system going.

[lildave151]

I've had my current computer for about 2 years now. Honestly it still runs great for what I use it for (WoW and the occasional FPS although I'm not too picky about being able to play at max res/graphics.) What I'd like an opinion on though is if there is any one piece that would be a bottleneck and is holding the rest back. If I'd only see small gains from replacing different parts then I'll just stick with what I have but if one upgrade would show significant gains then it is a purchase I'd really look into.

WD Caviar Blue 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
ASRock AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX
OCZ 4GB DDR2 1066
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3
PC Power and Cooling 420W Power Supply
Windows 7 Ultimate

Edit: I unlocked my CPU's extra cores so it runs as a quad Phenom II X4 B50. Nothing is overclocked.

[erh]

the first thing that comes to mind is the GPU.. however i wouldn't risk it seeing as the power supply is pretty bad.. im not sure how good quality it is, ideally you could run a much better gpu of it (like a radeon 5770 or even maybe a nvidia 460) but i would risk it cuz the psu cud end up frying it..

[haxartus]

The PSU is not bad but it's low wattage. You have 27A on the 12V rail and you are currently using a 143W (about 12A) graphic's card. Here is a GPU that uses similar power but it's significantly better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-506-_-Product
I wouldn't recommend using such GPU on a low wattage PSU, but you're doing it right now with 8800GTS...

[Asmekiel]

Upgrade the GPU to something like a GTX460 or a 6850 and you'll be a happy gamer again.

[vesseblah]

Radeon 6850 would be probably best bet in power/performance ratio but even that will be dangerously close to overloading the 420W PSU.

[mupto]

gpu then power supply.

[Chickensoup23]

The PSU is not bad but it's low wattage. You have 27A on the 12V rail and you are currently using a 143W (about 12A) graphic's card. Here is a GPU that uses similar power but it's significantly better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-506-_-Product
I wouldn't recommend using such GPU on a low wattage PSU, but you're doing it right now with 8800GTS...

This, seconded.

Very, VERY good card for it's power consumption. It will run anything (or almost) on high/ultra/extreme, depending on game. You will love yourself.

After that is done, a good 600-650 watts PSU such as the Antec Truepower 650W, the CoolerMaster 650GX or the Corsair TX650 will let you run any kind of build for the years to come (single-GPU, that is).

Good luck,
Chicken

[lildave151]

Thanks for all the input. I'll definitely check out that video card and look into a better psu as well. I can't remember exactly but I did figure out that this psu would handle the system when it was put together. I guess I didn't leave room for much expansion though.

[Psii]

Sigh, looking at your "older system" then thinking about mine is just hurtful lol.
Thankfully I'm upgrading soonish

[lildave151]

I had my last one for about 4 years. Considering how inexpensively I put together this one 2 years ago I just wanted to see how easily it could be helped out. I don't plan on getting a new one for a while. Just not worth the dough for what I expect from it and use it for. Best of luck on your upgrade.