Upgrading, And I Need Help !

W@P

W@P

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I am planning on upgrading and would like to know what you guys think.

Plan on getting:
Core2 E6550
ASUS P5K LGA775 mb (not deluxe or wi-fi one)
Asus EN8600GT (one with the fan)

And i curently have 1gb DDR2 667 normal memory plan replacing that a bit later.
And i also have a 350watt aopen psu, should i buy a bigger and better one thats got the cables for PCI-E, if so, wich one ?
Also should i upgrade the ram and which ram should it be then?

Will use it mostly for midrange gaming and movies and so.

Not too much worried about overclocking cause i don't know how.
Just want the system to be future proof for a while.


Thanks in Advance:D
 
Oh and the graphics card is the 512mb one
 
You'lll probably want a better PSU, even though that Aopen might run the system fine.. You don't need any PCI-E connectors for a 8600GT, but might as well get then if you're getting a new PSU to support upgrades.

Check the Coolermaster Extreme Power or iSonic PSU's at prophecy.co.za, they're cheap and they'll run your system. :)
 
So this system should be half decent ?

I hate the fact that just when u think u are ahead of technology or buy at hte right time something better or cheaper comes out.

But then again if you wait you will never buy.

Just want the system to be powerfull enough to do almost anything, don't want the games to freeze and stuf like that.
 
In that case you might want to consider the 8600GTS (and even the 8800GTS, if you can stomach doubling the graphics budget). The 8600GT is almost an entry-level DX10 card, which was found to be a poor performer.

In RAM terms, DDR2-667 is fine, since your demanding gaming apps require more RAM, rather than faster RAM. It's more noticeable when Windows has to swap info to the disk pagefile, as-opposed-to replacing DDR2-667 with DD2-800 or DDR2-1066. I'd keep the 1Gb that you have and add in another 1Gb later.

Also, for a basic PC, a good PSU will cope fine. This does not imply higher power-rating, but rather stable voltage.

The 350W Aopen is unfortunately not quite in that class IMO. I'd vote for Something like the Antec NeoHE 380W would do the trick
 
yeah dude, I have to agree with flarkit. upping your RAM speed will not yield noticeable performance increase. Upping it to 2GB will. The PSU is a bit on the weak side, a brand name 380w or 400w like Antek or coolermaster should allow you to sleep easier at night.

and please. save up a bit, or work overtime or take out a loan or hit your buddies or your mom for some cash and get a better video card. an 8800 GTS 320MB will have you drooling in your sleep, but a 8600GTS will mean that you can at least play crysis when it hits the streets, even if it is with all the goodies turned off.
 
Ok,

I will re-check my graphics card options cause not that desperate for the card right now.. (still have one that i can use)

I may have made up my mind butt will have to sleep on it.

Thinking of getting this at prophecy:

Asus P5K (as mentioned above)
Cooler Master Extreme Power 650w
Core 2 E6550

Would this be a good choice and then just later on get a decent gfx card and maybe some better ram ? ? ? ?

My current pc had an encounter with eskom and i thought its time to upgrade.


Thanks to all.... :D:D:D
 
Yeah dude, 650w is total overkill. 450w is enough. You are not going to SLI, Watercool, overclock or any of that jazz, are you? Hold on to the card, the 8900 or 9800 is scheduled to drop soon, and then the 8800 prices will come down, that's the time to buy a 8800GTS 320MB.
 
If you are not worried about O/C'ing, then leave the ASUS mb, and get the (Intel Media Series 'Dragontail Peak' Intel P35, LGA775, FSB1333, 4xDual DDR2 800, 1xPCI-x16, 3xPCIx1, 3xPCI, 5xSATA(Raid 0,1,5,10), 1xeSATA, 1xATA100, Gbe Lan, 8ch_Sound, Max 12xUSB, IEEE1394, ATX, Viiv). You will save about R335. Rather use it on graphics.
 
or CPU. good call JohnnyQ. And there's nothing wrong with the P35 chipset.
 
@ JohnnyQ - noted

1. Say i get the asus board, it says in the specs "crossfire ready" this
mean that I CAN use nvida card in pci-e 16x just not in sli ?

2. So a 650w psu is ott for the current specs but if i add a decent gfx card later on wil a 400w or 450w be enough ?

Feeling like i are sitting on a draad :confused:
 
Okay.

1.450w powersupply will be sufficient for any non-exotic R 10 000 dual GPU grafix card. You will be fine. It will run a 8800GTX ultra if you need it to. If you are worried, get a 500w. 650w powersupplies are for people with 8 hardrives, 8800GTX cards in SLI overclocked with watercooling goodness etc. Well, those guys probably have 800w powersupplies. but they really only need 650w powersupplies.

2. Crossfire is the ATI version of Nvidia's SLI. It means you can run 2 ATI cards to get increased GPU processing power. Why on earth would you want this if you are going to be running a Nvidia card?
 
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