Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade my PC but on a very tight budget (£130 - More If I can sell my current graphics cards and even CPU + Mobo).

There are some different ways I can do it but I'm wondering which is the best thing to do.

Atm my current specs are

Intel E8400 3.0 @ 3.85GHz
XFX 750i SLI SKT 775
EVGA 8800GT KO
Inno3D 8800GT OC
Corsair XMS2 4GB 800 MHz

Now I've been looking at this graphics card.

With this being the first 'stage' of the upgrade as in the future I can then upgrade to a better CPU (Quad Core)

Or I can upgrade the CPU to a SKT 775 Quad Core, but they are quite expensive for something that is 'old' tech.

The last thing is to wait until my PC cannot run the latest games (Almost happening now as it struggles to play Crysis 2) such as Battlefield 3 which if it is anything like Bad Company 2, it will struggle on my dual core. Then I would upgrade my PC as the prices may come down.

I think it would be better to get the GPU first as it is a straight swap into my current rig. But it may not perform any better as my CPU will most likely be holding it back.

What do you guys think would be best?

Thanks

i have a feeling that the intel I series is going to stick around for a while, so i'd probably just leave the machine as-is and then decide whether you need an i7 or an i5, and buy a whole new machine completely.

Quote from bunder9999 :

i have a feeling that the intel I series is going to stick around for a while, so i'd probably just leave the machine as-is and then decide whether you need an i7 or an i5, and buy a whole new machine completely.

Yeah well I would upgrade to a i5/7 but they are too expensive for me to upgrade to.

Which is why I was looking at upgrading the GFX card because my current one's seem to struggle on high resolutions (1920x1200) and they also sometimes overheat and crash.

Otherwise I would buy two of these to keep them cool and then even overclock them more, and then in the future buy a whole new rig..

What do you think the best option is? Because if I'm spending £42 on the coolers I may as well just put that towards a new GFX card?

Go for the 460 or sth. similar from ATI. Check prizes of the 5xx series as well.
It will be a balanced system and you can play for another year or so with this PC. Should be your last upgrade before buying a i5/i7 system, I´d say.

Er, guys, no. Dual core CPU for gaming in 2011 = fail.

Two 8800's are perfectly fine (providing you run them in SLI), they can get over 60 fps in Dirt 3 maxed out, so get yourself Phenom II X4 945 (68 GBP) and ASRock 970 EXTREME4 (65 GBP).

Quote from E.Reiljans :

Er, guys, no. Dual core CPU for gaming in 2011 = fail.

Er dude, seriously. No. duel core cpu's can do the new stuff too. I have yet to play a game that my AMD Phenom 550 cannot cope with. and that's on a socket AM2+ board with DDR2 ram. When giving advice, try to keep it close to the truth at least.

Quote from E.Reiljans :

Two 8800's are perfectly fine (providing you run them in SLI), they can get over 60 fps in Dirt 3 maxed out, so get yourself Phenom II X4 945 (68 GBP) and ASRock 970 EXTREME4 (65 GBP).

8800's are fine but they will show their age once you play more DX11 games. grab a GTX460 (or 470). you need high video memory to run high resolutions. so the 1gb versions of the 460 would be spot on for you. some say the cards run hot. my card (GTX470) has never gone over 80°C under load. and if you use MSi Afterburner, you can give your fans a more aggressive cooling curve.

Well I have just installed Windows 7 64bit so everything is speedy. I've also overclocked more to 4.25GHz and it seems stable so far.

I would look at going to the AMD Quadcore as I have a motherboard that is AM2(+ I think) which should support that CPU and it has SLI. Although I remember it being a terrible motherboard lol.. (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2/M2NSLI/#CPUS)

I could just buy the CPU any as it is pretty cheap and see how it goes, but I doubt I could overclock it much on that motherboard

Btw where did you find it for £68? this is the cheapest one I can find, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... p;catid=6&subcat=1943

that cpu is fine, i had one stock that ran everything really well

Yeah but I think it will struggle when the next lot of games come out, as I said it can't play Crysis 2 at all lol..

Would this be any good?

AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 ... lack Edition (Socket AM3)

MSI 870A-G54 AMD 870 (Socket A ... d *WITH FREE MSI GRENADE*

Then to unlock that AMD to quad core using that motherboard?

£120 for both?

Or shall I just wait and get a six core?

Don´t waste you money on a Phenom II X4 945 - that´s not even a decent upgrade, if you can´t OC. You need more graphics power, that´s it. I have a E8400/460amp myself.
@and play the more demanding Crysis 1 at 2048x1152, very high.

Quote from R.Kolz :

Don´t waste you money on a Phenom II X4 945 - that´s not even a decent upgrade, if you can´t OC. You need more graphics power, that´s it. I have a E8400/460amp myself.

Mmm Ok, well I'm still not sure wether to upgrade to a GTX 460 or get a new CPU lol..

What would be better to buy? I'm guessing its obviously the 560?

GTX 460 Super-OC

GTX 560

I would be going the Intel route - a Phenom Quad is a quick CPU for not much £, but it's not really an upgrade from a high-clocked Core 2.

Quote from Jakg :

I would be going the Intel route - a Phenom Quad is a quick CPU for not much £, but it's not really an upgrade from a high-clocked Core 2.

i agree. if it's not broke, don't fix it. upgrade the GPU. the difference between the 460 and the 560 is not enough to warrant the price difference. if you have good case cooling (airflow) then the 460 (1gb) will be good enough for you. 470 if you can get it.

just so you know, two GTX460's in SLI are not to be overlooked. two of those cards can really pump out the graphics.

Well there is no price difference between the GTX 460 and GTX 560?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... atid=1914&subcat=1830

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/u ... IGVykWQ3BZWA==#pix-review

Otherwise I can get this but I may recieve a naff card

http://www.scan.co.uk/products ... 25mhz-336-cores-dvi-mhdmi

The 560 is cheaper than the 460 by 9p haha, although I'm thinking my CPU with bottleneck it?

if there's no price difference, always go for the newest. 2xGTX560 (if you're going to run two, you don't need to worry about them being the 1gb editions)would be a very tidy upgrade. i wouldn't look for an overclocked unit. but that's just me.

you're always going to have a bottleneck. you upgrade GPU, cpu is the bottleneck. upgrade the CPU, ram is the bottleneck. upgrade ram, hdd is bottleneck. don't worry about bottlenecks. it's not enough for you to worry about.

these newer GPUs take a lot more of the load so even if your cpu was a bottleneck, it wouldn't be as noticeable as it would have been a few years ago. so as your GPU is churning out the graphics, your cpu is still able to take care of background processes. you could even buy one 560 and then use your old GPU as a dedicated physx card. reducing load even further.

Quote from dadge :

these newer GPUs take a lot more of the load so even if your cpu was a bottleneck, it wouldn't be as noticeable as it would have been a few years ago. so as your GPU is churning out the graphics, your cpu is still able to take care of background processes. you could even buy one 560 and then use your old GPU as a dedicated physx card. reducing load even further.

Yeah thats what I was going to do, well then I guess its the GTX 560 then,

thanks for the help all

will your psu be able to cope with the added demand on it?

Quote from dadge :

will your psu be able to cope with the added demand on it?

I should think so, its 700W, not sure of the brand but it isn't a non-named one lol

Although most cases would say to get a branded psu. I followed that rule of thumb and bought an OCZ psu it ticked all the boxes and was running great until one day there was a stench of fail in the air. The psu gave up the chase after 6 months usage. I then bought a more powerful non big name psu. It hasn't failed me yet (touch wood). So i would advise you that if you do need a psu, don't opt for one because of the name, but go for one that will comfortably do the job regardless of brand.

Quote from dadge :

Although most cases would say to get a branded psu. I followed that rule of thumb and bought an OCZ psu it ticked all the boxes and was running great until one day there was a stench of fail in the air. The psu gave up the chase after 6 months usage. I then bought a more powerful non big name psu. It hasn't failed me yet (touch wood). So i would advise you that if you do need a psu, don't opt for one because of the name, but go for one that will comfortably do the job regardless of brand.

Yeah well my first PSU was some unbranded 600w which gave up after a year or two, this one is doing fine so far haha..

I've had to down clock to 3.8ghz as 4.25ghz was too unstable..

Quote from lukelfs :

I should think so, its 700W, not sure of the brand but it isn't a non-named one lol

From memory, don't you have some Arctic POS PSU? If so, probably best to replace that first...

Quote from Jakg :

From memory, don't you have some Arctic POS PSU? If so, probably best to replace that first...

Was close, Atrix.

As I said before my old PSU failed and nothing was damaged , and that wasn't even a brand heh..

Atrix are crap.

Get a decent PSU.