Upgrading...

[kirennia]

Right, put pretty simply, I'm looking at upgrading my computer on a relatively strict budget as I believe although this one has done me very well, it is starting to drag behind in certain respects and now that I've come into a bit of money, it might be time to upgrade.

Current spec:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 7600 GT
Display Memory: 256.0 MB


It's been a long time since I last had to look into upgrading so am completely out of the loop with respects to where to buy from and what to buy.

More ram would probably be the first port of call along with a new graphic card, so long as the processor is going to be able to support it.

I'm only really looking to spend around £200 but I never have been one for going for the absolute maximum with my computer so am not looking for any wow factor although obviously future upgrading will be a factor on my decision.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kryten]

What do you intend on doing with it?
£200 can buy you a lot of upgrade - the processor is certainly sufficient to cope with anything modern still. For instance, £25 to £30 will get another 2gb of ram to bring you up to 4gb, and £100 will get you a spinky mid range graphics card that will chomp Crysis for breakfast and still have room to run Farcry 2 for dessert.

However before slapping in a bigger graphics card it'd be useful to know what motherboard you're running - some older boards won't be able to make full use of a decent graphics card and will just be a bottleneck.

Grab CPUZ and let me know what you've got.

 

[kirennia]

It's a ConRoe1333-D667
Intel i945G/GZ

Cheers for ther program hint, in all honesty, I wasn't sure what to use to find it out short of opening up my case, heh.

In terms of what I want, I don't play a huge amount of games but anything in that respect would be helpful. This year I'm going to be doing a fair amount of DirectX for my project which is supposed to be a new generation AI creation facility.

The project itself is creating an artificial city from user parameters and the idea behind it is that it'll have no limits. While I understand the principle of Z-buffering, only displaying what's visible to the camera etc, I doubt that'll be implemented before the system to actually view the thing in a 3d environment as I'm combining my project with a module to do the former which wont be progressing as early as the project...if that makes sense

Basically, I'm worried about my system performance for debugging collosal amounts of objects, even though the rendered objects wont be of great detail (out of scope of the project), there will be severe amounts of them (So high gfx card memory is important). I was looking into getting a half decent spec quad core as well to attempt multi-threading as I go but I have a funny feeling that'll mean a new motherboard and a lot more money.


In terms of ram, it's a bit worrying running that program seeing they're 2gb DDr2 but DRAM Frequency = 249.5MHz.....so getting a complete 4gb bundle might be my best option as well.

Running 32-bit XP still by the way so sadly couldn't push past 4gb ram which I? think would help the most anyway...

Looks like I may have to stretch my budget.

 

[Lethul]

id say 4850 and new ram. Then OC your CPU a bit

 

[Kryten]

The motherboard will be holding it back a lot, I'd be a bit worried about upgrading the RAM on it as it may not feel the full benefit.
However, can't really go far wrong - if you've 200 quid to spend, 140 will still get a spinky graphics card and 4gb of ram leaving 60 to spend on another motherboard should you decide you need it.

 

[kirennia]

The motherboard will be holding it back a lot, I'd be a bit worried about upgrading the RAM on it as it may not feel the full benefit.
However, can't really go far wrong - if you've 200 quid to spend, 140 will still get a spinky graphics card and 4gb of ram leaving 60 to spend on another motherboard should you decide you need it.

Any recommendations of good motherboards which would give a decent bang for my buck? Am guessing I'd need a new CPU as a result too though

As I'm concerned about upgradability, it might even be the better option to just get a new motherboard/CPU/ram and hold off for the graphics card...

Not sure where to go to get them or of decent manufacturers though

Corsair/kingston ram of course... thing is, that 4850 as an example is made by multiple manufacturers... does it really matter which one you go for?

edit:Also, could you recommend any places to get this stuff from with decent returns policies/prices etc?

 

[Kryten]

CPU will be fine, the only upgrade cause for concern these days is that you wont be able to get the spangly I7 kit

Can pick up an Asus P5Q or Gigabyte P45, the more basic ones for around 60.
As for the 4850, it doesnt really matter about the manufacturer too much, Sapphire, Powercolor etc - they all work

Ram : I really, really dislike Kingston due to silly amounts of failures on previous usage but if that's changed or not I dont know. Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, Geil are all very good brands.

And where from? Ebuyer, Scan, Aria, Overclockers - returns policy is a fairly moot point as a warranty is a warranty and they have to abide by the law and distance selling regs.

 

[dysfunction]

... thing is, that 4850 as an example is made by multiple manufacturers... does it really matter which one you go for?

I have always wondered about that. I think some may perform slightly better than others. My theory is buy the "middle of the road" price wise. That way you don't get a sluggish card and you are not paying a fortune either.

 

[fang]

I have always wondered about that. I think some may perform slightly better than others. My theory is buy the "middle of the road" price wise. That way you don't get a sluggish card and you are not paying a fortune either.

There really shouldn't be any performance differences unless it's an OCed version or has a non-reference cooler (high temps may hinder the cards performance).