Biggest Upgrade in terms of game performance

[Helme]

So, I've come to the point where I will be able to afford upgrades due to starting to study again - problem is I will have to do it over a period of 3 months.

My current system is:
AMD Athlon+ XP 3200 64bit - 2Ghz singlecore
1GB Kingston Ram - 533Mhz
GeForce 7300LE 256mb(it's fucking horrible)
Asus M2NPV-MX motherboard
2 IDE Hardrives, at 160gb and 250gb,7200RPM, pretty standard stuff.
350W Q-tec PSU(It's pretty weak, but it will run the new CPU I'm planning, probably won't run the HD4850 however).


I have pretty much settled on the parts;
E8400
P5-Q motherboard
2GB(to start with) Corsair 800Mhz Ram
Corsair 550W PSU
Radeon HD4850
and either a Seagate or Western Digital 500/750GB SATA2 HDD depending on whats on offer at the time(the 750GB's sometimes goes to the same pricerange as the 500GB's).

Now the problem I'm having is that, I want to play some games while I'm upgrading and while my current mobo does support the PCI-E 16x, I'm not really sure if my PSU is strong enough to run the card, so I'm pretty much "forced" to get a PSU along with it. Regarding hardrives and such, I'm just going to save that to last, the ones I have will work just fine, I'm also saving my case, monitor, speakers and so on.

Anyways I've come up with 3 packages:

Package1 -
E8400, P5-Q motherboard, 2GB ram

Package2 -
HD4850, PSU, 2GB ram

Package3(this is the one I will take last) -
Remaining 2GB ram for the 4GB, HDD and maybe a new case - not sure.

Which of Package1 and Package2 will give me the best game improvement performance wise? I'm personally thinking it will be the 2nd package mainly due to how my graphic card is fucking retarded in games, but it might not be that a big improvement due to my generally poor CPU, on the other hand if I go with package1 - it might not be a big improvement at all because my graphic card is mongoloid.

 

[chipper]

if it was me id go for gfx card memory and psu the first 2 are more likely to give you a much bigger overall performance increase, ram is just as important as your cpu and GPU these days curious why your going the ati route tho now the 8800 series are dirt cheap and are generally more powerful cards the new nvidia cards are still pricey but a overclocked 8800 GTX will match the 4850 and beat it in many cases not sure how the price difference works out tho but im a bit of a nvidia fanboy so im biased

problem with todays machines is it aint just about the gfx card, memory plays a massive part and tbh for any gamer 2gig should be absolute minimum if your wanting to run games to their potential especially on a 64bit system.

 

[Kryten]

First and foremost, PSU in package 1. Do not even attempt to run any hardware of any decent standard on a Q-Tec PSU regardless of wattage. Lowest of the low and you'll be risking damage to the new parts.
Do so at your own risk. Sorry to be blunt about it but people here know full well what I think of shit power supplies. Theres decent PSU's, medicore ones, shit ones, then there's Q-Tec PSUs.

Now, you will get 2 very large steps in performance boosts from both the packages you've outlined. The processor is several classes ahead of your existing single core one. I made a similar jump to yours, from a 32bit 3200XP (identical performance wise to the 64bit version you have) to a very basic Core2Duo e6300, and that made a crapload of difference. At the time though I was on a basic graphics card, a 7600GS.

The graphics card will be yet another huge boost on top - without it, you're not going to be playing anything high end - Crysis is still a no-no but that's no huge loss. I'm not sure what else you play but the better put together games such as the Source engine stuff and COD4 etc will still run very well indeed.

It's worth noting you should really buy single modules for your memory; i.e. not a pair of 1gb sticks now and another pair later one, this will hamper upgrade attempts in the future. You'll lose "dual channel" performance but it's not going to make your system retardedly slow or anything.

My opinion on a better path would be as follows:

Package1 -
E8400, P5-Q motherboard, PSU
(Your current ram is undoubtedly going to slow it down somewhat but it's going to work. Otherwise do as you suggested and get a single 2gb module, they're cheap enough)

Package2 -
HD4850, 4GB ram (or 2gb if taking the latter suggestion)
(Additionally, if this is going to be something you're doing in the next couple of weeks keep an open mind on the graphics card. As good as the 4850 is, nVidia are dropping prices to keep in the running and you might get a better deal. But if you're looking to perhaps add another card or something later down the line stick with the ATI)

Package3 -
HDD and maybe a new case

Chipper: it's worth noting that for roughly the same price, the HD4850 slaps the 8800GT around silly. The tide is turning and we all benefit

 

[Helme]

Actually, the HD4850 pisses all over the 8800GT card in terms of performance(It actually beats the 9800GTX) and is only about £10 more expensive, if that.

And yeah, I'm going for 2GB memory either way, I'm just pretty bothered that if I go the GFX card route it won't do me much good at all because of my CPU being first and foremost singlecore, and being also very low clockwise for a singlecore.


And yeah, I'm not intrested in Crysis(most overhyped game last year in my opinion, it's pretty damn poor - finished it a friends house on top graphics and I was not impressed by anything other than how it looks).

What I'm looking to play mostly is WoW, and WAR beta, either works pretty okay on my current computer but more performance wouldn't be bad - might give AoC another try aswell, else I'm pretty much a huge RTS fan and the main reason im upgrading is for Red Alert 3, Soviet Assault and EndWar - along with Diablo3 and Starcraft 2 of course.

How is your opinion on the Sweex PSU's? I got one recently for the computer downstairs, its 400W but I have no idea how good it is, I'm thinking its below the Q-Tec

edit: The graphic card comment wasn't mean as an reply to you Kryten, your post wasn't there when I did mine

 

[chipper]

said gtx not gt =)

did look over some benchmarks and there wasnt a huge amount of difference between the 2 however it was a overclocked 8800GTX think the 4850 came out on top at higher resolutions, and like i said im biased had a ati card and it was the worst experience in my pc history will never touch em again.

 

[Helme]

My last ATi card was an 9600, it was probably the best graphic card I've ever owned. It never had a problem, ran any games with no problems or fuss at all, hell I'd probably still use it if it was PCI-e.

And yeah, sorry. The GTX however has a much steeper price, infact it's more expensive than the HD4870, which is outperforming nVidia's 260GTX by 9% and is only slower than the GTX280 by 11%, for half the price. As Kryten has said - the tides are turning and it's a perfect time for us gamers to upgrade our computers, now we can only hope the Phenom's picks up.

edit:

The 8800GTX costs ~£175, the HD4850 ~£110 and the HD4870 ~£170.

 

[Kryten]

Indeed, and the 4870 makes mince out of the 9800GTX let alone the 8800 in any flavour possible

I've not heard of Sweex tbh, but as I've said before you need to stick with the bigger brands : corsair/seasonic (corsair models are quite cheap), enermax, tagan, antec, akasa etc. Take a look around and see what's available for the price, you should be able to pick up a decent 500w for around 45-50 notes.

Generally speaking it's best not to be loyal to brands in a field that changes as much as performance PC equipment, everyone has their ups and downs. ATI still to this day has really shit software and their dev's heads need knocking together or replacing with monkey counterparts. But that's really just testement to the hardware when it performs that well. And of course there's 3rd parties out there making drivers too, such as Omega.
I don't think AMD will last too long without some real quality kit at very decent prices, but they can't afford to keep that up. That said, there's no reason to cut off your nose to spite your face: if something is performing very well at a price you can't refuse, it's daft to ignore it "just because you prefer to hand your money to Nvidia".

 

[Helme]

Competition is good, and loyalty is bad. Main reason I'm hoping the Phenoms pick up is because it would pressure Intel into lowering the prices on their new Q9000 CPU's, the E8400 is already at a ridiculously low price for what you get, but the Quads are still a bit up there hovering between not worth it and 'maybe'.

 

[inactionman]

Just to echo what Kryten said, Q-Tec PSU's are shockingly bad, and are rated way in excess of what they are truely capable of. I wouldn't be surprised if the one you have is only really rated at 200W or so! So I certainly agree with upgrading the PSU in the first batch, I know it's not a sexy component, but it's a necessary one. So I'd swap the PSU and the memory.

Never heard of Sweex, and that's normally a bad thing for PSU's.

The rest of the components look fine (although you seem to be getting 6Gb of memory?), one thing to say is that if you hold off on the purchase of the 4850 for a month you may be able to get a 4870 for a similar price due to the great competition happening at the moment. I can't believe we've seen ~£150 come off the price of a GTX280 (available for just over £300), and ~£100 off a GTX260 (available for around £200) since they've been released. ATI may follow with some price cuts (to maintain price/performance levels), plus prices will drop as availability increases.

 

[Helme]

Nah, I'm not getting 6GB of memory - the first package I get, will have 2GB memory - the 2nd will have none, the 3rd will have the last 2GB - which is also when I'll be installing Vista(I've had the CD for ages but it's not really attractive when it would steal 30% of your RAM, at best )

And yeah, I know PSU's are important, what are you guys opinion on Coolermaster and Chieftec PSU's btw? at the prices I'm watching atm they are at the same wattage as the Corsair, but about 20% cheaper, which might indicate that they are bad but I personally think both Chieftac and Coolermaster are respectable brands so I'm not really sure.

 

[Kryten]

Helme, aye @ the phenoms.
The trouble they're facing now is a matter of time. If they had released the phenom's they've just released when they should have: i.e. a year ago, they'd have a decent market share, compared to almost complete domination by the Core series of processors. On top of struggling performance and price ratios, they're not fantastic overclockers either; this basically limits their audience to that batch of loyal AMD fans and/or people needing a decent upgrade to an existing AM2 system.

Coolermaster PSU's aren't bad. I personally rate them in the "mediocre" - which more important would suggest they're a million times safer than a Qtec. As you're on a budget, go for it. Cheiftec isn't a name I've heard in the PSU game for a long time, but again they're hardly bad either, you won't be dissapointed either way.

 

[Helme]

Heh, nevermind - found a site which had the Sapphire HD4850 AND the Corsair 450W on sale

Will save me about £20, which is almost close to another set of ram with current prices Oo


edit: Turns out they also have freight at half the price of other places, heh - guess I'll be adding those extra 2GB right away

 

[Yaka]

just pray they dont use twatters and tits aka TNT, so clever are they that they leave a tv out side then claim it wasnt thier fault you wernt in.

 

[Helme]

Nah, the package comes to the nearest post office and I get it whenever I want to get it. Seeing as I live 2 minutes walk from said post office it isn't so bad