Advice on a budget upgrade?

[loshon]

Hi, my current build is aging pretty hard right now, but I'm rather tight on funds, so I'm gonna reuse some things from my current build in order to get the best bang:buck ratio. However, I'm still not sure on a few parts, so I figured I'd post here and see if you guys had any up-to-date recommendations.

1. I'll be using the build primarily for gaming and painting in Photoshop. I play things like ArmA II, BFBC2, and soon BlackOps.

2. Budget is less than $600.

3. Buying all parts from the US with Newegg, unless I can find somewhere with cheaper shipping as Newegg to Alaska shipping fees are outrageous.

4. I am somewhat of an AMD/ATI fanboy, but ultimately I'll be going for the better deal.

5. I am going to be using many parts from my current build including:
Antec Sonata 2 Case, 4 gigs of G.Skill Pi Black DDR2, DVD Burner, and 3 HDs. However, the 120mm case fan is failing, so I'm replacing that.

6. I lurk these boards night and day, looking up tips and comments on other builds.

7. I do not plan on overclocking, but I am not ruling it out.

8. 1920x1080

9. I plan on building it after the 6000 series is announced/released, to take advantage of possible price drops.

Currently I'm running:

Core2D E6750 and a 4850 hooked up to a P35-DS3R from Gigbyte. I do not hope to run Crysis on max settings, but I do want a significant improvement over my current system.

My biggest question is whether or not my DDR2 RAM will work with a newer mobo if it's the same Pin amount but DDR3.

So far I've scoped out the Phenom II x4 970 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103894)

I'm looking for advice on a mobo, PSU, GPU, and if there's a better CPU for the buck, that too.

Thanks!

 

[fffblackmage]

Your P35 mobo supports 45nm C2Qs. Get something like a Q9550 and you're done, unless you decide to ditch the DDR2.

 

[snouter]

Your current system is not awful.

I easily got 3.2 or 3.4GHz overclocks on that chip with the stock HSF.

The mobo dictates the ram. You won't be able to use the DDR2 800MHz in a newer build.

For games, the video card matters more. What can't you do with the computer that you want to do? For gaming, a new video card my get it done. For encoding, a Core2Duo quad core might help.

I'm not a huge fan of throwing good money after bad though.

For $600 you should be able to build a complete new i3 or i5 system though, especially if you can reuse the case and PS and sell any of you old parts off for anything at all.

 

[loshon]

Hmm, this makes me completely reevaluate my position. Thanks for your advice.

Currently I'm running a 450W Antec PSU that came with my case when I build it 2 years back, and most likely should have failed a long time ago, so sitting on it is making me somewhat nervous. Based on what I've read, I figure if I upgrade to a newer GPU I'll probably need a little bit bigger PSU.

And what can't I do that I want to? I'd say games. That's really the biggest factor here; I'm starting to have to set all my settings on low to get a competitive framerate. Painting in PS isn't too hardware intensive, it seems.

After discussing it with myself for a while, I think I'll probably get a new GPU and PSU, with a case fan, and overclock my E6750. Unfortunately, I've never overclocked anything. Is overclocking with my mobo and CPU something I should try having never done it before?

 

[snouter]

Wait for others to chime in before spending any money or doing anything.

I'm just thinking that a 20% overclock and new video card might work for not that much money. If the overclock does not work than maybe add a C2D Quad core, but then you are starting to get into the $300+ range and that might be good money after bad.

I have not overclocked my CPU in a while (it's my HTPC now), but I also have a Gigabyte motherboard. I'll try to get in there tomorrow and tell you what to change in the BIOS. Honestly, it was as easy as making one change in the BIOS. Saving the settings and rebooting.

Heat is the only real issue with overclocking. So, you will want to use freely available tools like CoreTemp to monitor the temps until you get an overclock you think you can live with.

Actually, overvolting the CPU and frying it is another issue, but I don't think you'll have any problems with this. I only changed one multiplier of some sort in the BIOS to get my overclock and I could run it at 3.2 or 3.4 all day without issue. Temps stayed reasonable even with the stock HSF.

You'll want to take this opportunity to clean as much dust out of the computer and CPU cooler and fan as possible.

I got my HD4850 a couple of years ago for $150. I assume there are good cards out there now in the $150 to $200 range that play most games pretty well. I'll defer to others as to what the good midrange game cards are out there these days.

Open the task manager. Stretch it a little wide on your screen to make the graphs longer/wider. Play a game that is not performing well. Get into it, and then quit out as fast as you can and see what the CPU usage was like in the task manager.

CoreTemp http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
CPUz http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Core2Duo Q8300 $120 http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0341725

Decent power supplies go on sale often. Should be able to get a 500w to 600w PS for around $50.

Here's one for $35 after rebate. http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0301545

 

[fffblackmage]

Why are you expecting the Antec PSU to fail? What model is it? Should be fine as long as it's not a Basiq.

I like snouter's suggestion on getting the gfx card before doing anything else. You most likely won't find a significant gain in framerates with the cpu upgrade anyways.

Since you're planning on upgrading, you have a good opportunity on learning to OC with the old hardware. If you fry something, at least you have a good reason to go ahead with the upgrades. XD

 

[loshon]

Wow, thanks for the advice! I guess you're right about the OCing thing, although I'm still going to see if I can get this up to 3.4 Ghz while I wait for a few price drops and more input. I may decide to get a GPU and then do the test that snouter was talkin' bout to see if I really need a new CPU after OCing.

The reason I expected the Antec PSU to fail was because I've had bad experiences with PSUs already installed in a few other cases in the past.

So, does anyone have any advice on a good GPU that's in the < $300 range?

 

[betasub]

For your games and res, you should be looking at Nvidia's GTX460 1GB, or whatever competitive card AMD has available later this month (new HD6xx0 series card?). Check your Antec PSU for rating on the 12V rail.

 

[loshon]

Doing some scouting I discovered that I had stuck a 500W PSU in a build that I pieced together from 4 older computers, so I'll probably just swap out that one for the one I have now.

And after doing some browsing, I found this 4601GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127510). I'll wait until after the the HD 6 series is released to see if there's a cheaper alternative or if this goes down in price.

As per snouter's advice, I'll wait until I get the GPU to see if OCing my E6750 + the 460 will be enough, but if it's too much of a bottleneck, I'll go with the Q9550 that blackmage recommended. Any big problems or better ideas?

 

[snouter]

I'm going to the Braves baseball game tonight, so, not likely to get you the OC settings tonight, but I have not forgotten you.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Why are you expecting the Antec PSU to fail? What model is it? Should be fine as long as it's not a Basiq

What's wrong with Antec Basiq PSUs? Aren't they FSP-made?

 

[fffblackmage]

What's wrong with Antec Basiq PSUs? Aren't they FSP-made?

lol, no idea. Maybe its the name. For some reason, I always had an impression that it was... rather basic? You're right, there's nothing wrong with them.

 

[loshon]

I'm going to the Braves baseball game tonight, so, not likely to get you the OC settings tonight, but I have not forgotten you.

Haha, okay, thanks a bunch. Have fun at the game.

 

[snouter]

Game sucked, but I did see Bobby Cox's last game ever as manager.

This is based on my Gigabyte Mobo, but it should be close to yours.

To overclock your system:

When you are booting, hit the DEL key to enter BIOS.

In the first BIOS section the M.I.T. Intelligent Tweaker or something like that, look for 2 settings:

Change the CPU Host Frequency to:

400 for 3.2GHz
425 for 3.4GHz

Then look for something called Performance Enhancement. Change that from Turbo to Standard, if it is not already on Standard.

F10 to save and exit and continue booting.

Used CoreTemp to watch your temperatures.

 

[loshon]

Awesome, thanks. I'll try it now.

Edit: It works great. Thanks a bunch.

 

[MisterDonut]

Q9550 would last you a while, if that's all you're doing with it. That and a GTX 460 would be a pretty fast machine. Would be a really great upgrade to what you have for a really good price.