Pc upgrade

kilo

kilo

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I am getting a bit of cash in a few weeks time and was thinking of upgrading my current pc.

I currently have:
Pentium 4 Dual Core 3 Ghz cpu
gigabyte GA-945P-S3 motherboard
2 GB ram 667 (4 x 512)
MSI Ge force 9600 gt

And im looking at :
INTEL Core2 Duo E8500 - 3.16Ghz or
INTEL Core2 Quad Q8200-2.33Ghz CPU
A motherboard supporting DDR2/DDR3
4GB DDR2 1066 Mhz Ram or more if its beter to have more
or DDR3 if the motherboard can support it.

I will use it mostly for games but i also watch a lot of movies and series and do play around in photoshop a lot.

I would like to hear what u guys think and would appreciate any advice. :D
 
Well, don't worry about DDR3 - DDR3 boards and RAM are exorbitantly priced, and offer a ±5% performance increase over DDR2.
 
Great i will focus on DDR2 then... anyone know of good motherboards that support the cpu's i should maybe look at?
 
For a budget non-OC board with 4 onboard SATA ports go for an Intel G31 board (micro-ATX size) at around R600. If you want to OC and use more than 4 onboard SATA ports, go for a P43 board such the Asus P5QL-E or P5QL-Pro (ATX size) at around R1500.

I would go for the Q8300 or Q9400, they aren't much more expensive than the Q8200.

4GB DDR2-800 RAM will be fine.

Graphics card is still decent, so you can keep that.

Perhaps a G31 and Q9400 combination if it suits your budget. ;)
 
At most i can get about R6000, but never OC anything and dont know much bout doing it really.
 
kilo said:
I am getting a bit of cash in a few weeks time and was thinking of upgrading my current pc.

I currently have:
Pentium 4 Dual Core 3 Ghz cpu
gigabyte GA-945P-S3 motherboard
2 GB ram 667 (4 x 512)
MSI Ge force 9600 gt

And im looking at :
INTEL Core2 Duo E8500 - 3.16Ghz or
INTEL Core2 Quad Q8200-2.33Ghz CPU
A motherboard supporting DDR2/DDR3
4GB DDR2 1066 Mhz Ram or more if its beter to have more
or DDR3 if the motherboard can support it.

I will use it mostly for games but i also watch a lot of movies and series and do play around in photoshop a lot.

I would like to hear what u guys think and would appreciate any advice. :D
Click to expand...

For R6000 you can get a lot better.

Are you looking to upgrade your GFX card?

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition - 2.80 GHz R 2,015

Asus AMD M3A-H/HDMI Motherboard - Socket AM2+ R 1,243

Corsair XMS2 DHX Technology Memory - DDR2-800MHz - 4GB Kit R 1,017

HIS ATI Radeon HD4830 - 512MB - PCI-E R 1,783

Total: 6058

AMD Phenom II 940 3.0Ghz Quad-Core CPU - Socket AM2+ R 3,171

Asus AMD M3A78-T Motherboard - Socket AM2+ R 1,863

Corsair XMS2 DHX Technology Memory - DDR2-800MHz - 4GB Kit R 1,017

Total: R6051

I recommend the Quad. You'll only get a small boost from going to the 4830. Actually you'll get a small boost anyway, because at the moment your cpu is a bottleneck.
 
Why not just get the E8500, decent Mobo and some decent Ram.
If your going to be gaming most then a dual at 4ghz will be best off. ( and overclocking is not difficult ;) )
 
Monkey101 said:
Why not just get the E8500, decent Mobo and some decent Ram.
If your going to be gaming most then a dual at 4ghz will be best off. ( and overclocking is not difficult ;) )
Click to expand...

Why would he want a dual core if he does a lot of image editing?

Sigh.
 
Ja, good builds. The question is, how much of a difference will low-latency RAM make, is it worth double the price of normal RAM?
 
You won't get any high OCing on the CM Hyper TX2. Mine is already running on 50c when I play GTA4...
 
From what I know it can get Intel CPUs a fair OC. I guess your AMD runs warm because it's 65nm?

Anyway, the way I see it, no OC = no aftermarket CPU cooler.
 
Intel E8500 is more than enough IMHO

I have a E8200 and still going strong with the latest games, running 1680x1050 no problems on all games. Yes thats my GFX card but the point is no bottleneck whatsoever with the E8200.

Go E8500 :)

RAM, forget about the low timing RAM, its a waste of money unless you are a hardcore OC'er, which it sounds like you are not. Some decent Corsair (NOT value select) will go down well.

Mobo I rather not comment on, coz I have asus right now and been having some problems with my prior boards... :(

remember you dont need to spend all R6k ??
 
Qwikslver said:
Why would he want a dual core if he does a lot of image editing?

Sigh.
Click to expand...

Lol, he said "play around in photoshop a lot". From what i have seen "playing" around with photoshop does not really justify a quad.

Stick with a high clocked Dual IMO. Cheaper, less heat, less power, better gaming.
 
PostmanPot said:
From what I know it can get Intel CPUs a fair OC. I guess your AMD runs warm because it's 65nm?

Anyway, the way I see it, no OC = no aftermarket CPU cooler.
Click to expand...

Nope, it's 45nm, but it's 125W.

Edit: BTW, you don't get a cooler with the 940 BE cpu.
 
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