PC Upgrade advice please.

[Enz]

Hello.

I am playing mostly Warhammer Oline atm and am noticing some laggy graphics and when I check my G15 display it is showing my processor at 100% a lot of the time. Which leads me to think that the Processor is a bit of a bottle neck however, it's been a while since I last dabbled with upgrading PC's and would like some advice.

I am currently running an MSI P965 NEO motherboard model number MS-7235 and the processor is a Core 2 Duo E6300 1.8 Ghz. My graphics card is a GeForce 8800 GT 512mb. I have 3GB of memory which I have no clue about the spec.

I thought about upgrading just the processor but the fastest I could get would be a core 2 duo E6700 2.67 Ghz for £180.00.

Would it be worth upgrading the motherboard and the processor or just upgrading the processor? Should the 2.67 Core 2 Duo be fast enough? or should the 1.8 Core 2 Duo be fast enough and the graphics card is the bottle neck?

Any advice or thoughts?

 

[Kryten]

The motherboard is limited but I believe it'll take a Core2Quad, but really you'll be better off upgrading it. With the release of the boards & chip types (I7) the prices are dropping nicely. Might be worth spreading it out if budget is an issue - i.e. grab a motherboard first (a p35 chipset will suit fine, gigabyte p35-ds3 should only be around 60) which will work on the e6300.

Warhammer online, being honest, should barely bother the most basic Core based hardware let alone Core2 kit like yours. You might even notice enough difference on the new motherboard alone to leave the upgrading there - and if not you'll be able to upgrade to a new processor easily.

The newest generation (and last generation) Core2Duo kit will work fine on the P35 boards such as the core2duo e8400 or the older but still worthwhile Quad Q6600 which is now available for well under 100 notes. Definitely be worth checking your ram though - grab CPUZ and see what speed the memory is. If it's a bit naff (i.e. PC5300) you can get 4gb of PC6400 for 45 quid or PC8500 for around 60.

 

[Enz]

Thanks for the reply Kryton.

I have contacted MSI regarding upgrading the processor and the motherboards compatibility. They have confirmed that it won't take a quad core and suggested the E6700.

I will have a look into Gigabyte p35-ds3.

 

[Enz]

Gigabyte EP43-DS3L £65

and

either
Q6600 £138

or

E8400 £128

Could anyone recommend better or cheaper?

 

[Kryten]

nnngh again I've forgotten the silly processor prices due to the $/£ problem. Was expecting under 100 quid for both those processors.
I'd probably suggest waiting a couple of weeks for the new line of processors to hit home and thus a price drop, depends how rushed you are. Otherwise either will be good - the E8400 will be better for gaming as not much properly uses quad core, but if you do anything like heavy photoshopping, cad and other thread intense programs, the quad will serve better.

 

[Bugz]

On ebuyer the p45 range is only 10-15 quid more expensive - definitely worth looking into.

 

[Ch3tan]

Don't bother, your cpu is not a bottle neck, I run the game on the same processor with a radeon 1950xtx at 1920*1200. I only get lag when its a overcrowded screen, and this is network lag, not a graphics problem.

The game needs fixing before you spend money you do not have to.

 

[Raven]

The Warhammer client is horrible, even on my what I would consider top of the range PC it struggles at times, wait for them to fix the game before you spend money. Though an upgrade is always nice