Cheap upgrade for my 4 year old OCed computer?

[Kolath]

Back in 2008 I build a C2Q rig and it has served me well ever since:

Intel Q6600 OC @ 2.8 GHz
2x1GB G. Skill DDR2 800
Gigabyte P35-DS3R
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Corsair 520W PSU
Windows XP SP2

I just use this desktop for gaming. But with the new XCOM game coming out, I'm concerned that my old rig won't quite cut it, especially the 2GB of ram. I'm reluctant to drop a lot of money on a whole new system, so I want to know if the following upgrade would make sense:

+ 2x2GB DDR2 800 (~$70)
+ Windows 7 (~$150)

The cheapest thing would be to just buy 2GB of ram, but then I'd be running mixed types and I assume I wouldn't be able to OC much at all.

Do you all think that upgrade would give a noticeable boost?

 

[eternalone]

Have you considered AMD's bulldozer?? If speed and efficiency really dont matter to you it would be considered a good upgrade.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Seriously? Faildozer?

To the OP, keep your PC as it is for now and see how it goes. Memory might not be an issue at all.

An upgrade to a newer Intel rig would give a boost, new GFX card as well. You should plan and save up for the major upgrade you will need one day.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

New GPU will be the biggest difference in performance.

 

[Smartazz]

Windows 7 can be had for $99 on Newegg and as other have said, a new GPU would be the biggest upgrade. I've also never had any issue mixing RAM.

 

[Kolath]

Will a new GPU really add that much when system RAM is so low?

 

[Smartazz]

Will a new GPU really add that much when system RAM is so low?

With Windows XP you might be ok, but I'd go with 4GB personally before a GPU upgrade.

 

[Ken g6]

Windows 7 can be had for $91 at Amazon. Though it wouldn't transfer if you bought a new mobo. If you purchased the retail version of XP, you might want to pay a little more for the upgrade version. You can also consider that the Windows 8 upgrade is supposed to be only $40 next month.

But it looks like XCOM will be based on Unreal Engine 3, so I see no point paying for a new version of Windows at all. Even a 7770 would be a big improvement over your 8800GT, and leaves you plenty of money for more RAM if you need it. With a single-fan version you could probably even squeeze in Windows 8; or you could spend more and get a 7850.

 

[tynopik]

it supposedly runs on an 8600GT, thus an 8800GT should be plenty fine
it does require at least Vista and 2GB

you have 4 memory slots? why not 2x1 instead of 2x2?

 

[Yuriman]

I have a similar system that I retired recently to my wife. A RAM and video card upgrade would both give nice improvements, but DDR2 is horribly overpriced and you can't reuse it when you do eventually upgrade.

Even with an old CPU and 2GB of RAM, you would still benefit from a new video card, and on a very limited budget I think that's probably all you should do. Afterwards, start saving up for a new CPU + mobo + RAM.

In For Sale/Trade, you can often find great deals on used video cards. An HD4890 is probably somewhere around twice to three times as fast as your 8800GT and you could probably talk him down below $50. If you can swing it, the 7770 is a great card, it's (if I remember correctly) somewhere in the range of 20-40% faster than the 4890, but more importantly it supports DX11 and draws a lot less power.

 

[tynopik]

the smart thing would be to wait till the game was actually here and see how it did before going off and upgrading willy-nilly

it might be that your current system is perfectly adequate

and if not, you will better be able to pinpoint what exactly needs upgrading

 

[pantsaregood]

Push the Q6600 further if you can. Get a new GPU.

 

[ZYFER]

Well fall in the recommended requirements:

http://www.xcom.com/enemyunknown/ar...wn-digital-pre-orders-and-system-requirements

The 4GB Ram will surely help, a video card upgrade will be the biggest difference maker. Most important, it is the one you can least regret, as you can use it in a later system build. The Ram you have now meets the minimum, but if we get all three, you would be set for at least awhile. Try and pick up some DDR2 used from someone if possible to minimize the cost.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I don't think it's worth spending any money on DDR2 RAM. You can buy 16GB of DDR3 to put into a new system for almost the same price. You're severly GPU limited so I would start there, and overclock that CPU.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Q6600 was known for easily clocking to 3ghz,2.8ghz is pretty weak.

4gb ddr2,a used gtx460 would be a good upgrade to your 8800gt.

Miss my Q6600,had it matched with a gtx280,good times i had indeed with that system,not that i miss the gtx280 as i hated that card.

 

[eternalone]

Seriously? Faildozer?

To the OP, keep your PC as it is for now and see how it goes. Memory might not be an issue at all.

An upgrade to a newer Intel rig would give a boost, new GFX card as well. You should plan and save up for the major upgrade you will need one day.

I was being sarcastic.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Don't throw any money at that machine. Ask friends and family if they have any leftover DDR2 RAM, and just get a new graphics card. The graphics card will carry over to a new build later.

 

[AtenRa]

I would sell the Mobo+CPU+Memory and i would upgrade to a Trinity setup. Trinity A10-5800 will be just fine for the new XCOM Enemy Unknown.

 

[mikeymikec]

The A10 isn't yet on anandtech's bench but the A8 really doesn't look like a good upgrade from the Q6600:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/399?vs=53

 

[SPBHM]

"XP SP2"
if that's XP 32bit, please update to SP3... there is no sense in avoiding SP3


as for your PC, for gaming, if you play most of the time with high level of details and resolution, the priority should be a faster graphics card...
but... your CPU will also be a problem in some games...

upgrading the memory is cheap and will improve performance in some situations... (buy some $20 2GB module)

you should probably wait for Windows 8 in a few weeks,
I think there is a cheap upgrade versions even for XP owners.


so I think if you are not willing to expend to much money, go for a faster VGA something like a 560 Ti, or 7850 ($180?)

but as I said, in some situations the q6600 will still be a problem for gaming performance... but even so, a new VGA will be a massive improvement over the 8800GT for gaming,

 

[Kolath]

Thank you, everyone, for the great advice and links! I think I'll wait until it comes out and see how performance is. And I'll probably look to upgrade the GPU first, since I can reuse that with a new computer later.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I would sell the Mobo+CPU+Memory and i would upgrade to a Trinity setup. Trinity A10-5800 will be just fine for the new XCOM Enemy Unknown.

Are you joking???? OP, dont listen to this. If you have to get a new MB and CPU, which you probably dont, definitely go Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge quad. That trinity at stock will barely be faster than your OC Core 2 quad. Yea, you could overclock it, but you can also overclock a SB processor and have far better performance.

However, if it were me, I would upgrade the graphics card, possibly try to OC a bit more, and see how your current system works.

Edit: sorry, I did not reread just before posting, so didnt see your latest post. Anyway, sounds like you have already decided to basically do what I was suggesting.

 

[Termie]

You can often find 4GB of DDR2 ram for around $40 in the FS/FT forum here. That's the direction I'd go if I were going to upgrade that system to W7.

 

[inf64]

The A10 isn't yet on anandtech's bench but the A8 really doesn't look like a good upgrade from the Q6600:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/399?vs=53

I'm not going to say that A8-3850 is a stellar performer by today's standards ,but have you even bothered to look at the results you have listed?
In sysmark 3850 is faster in 2 benchmarks,2 are tied and in 2 it looses.
In real world workloads it is faster in: Adobe PS CS4(8%),Divx encode(16%), x264 1st pass(29%) and 2nd pass(16%), WME 9 x64(20%),3dstudio max r9(9%),3dstudio max r9 specaps radiosity(19%),3dstudio max r9 specaps throne (11%),3dstudio max r9 specaps cballs2(12.5%), 3dstudio max r9 specaps singlepipe2(23%), 3dstudio max r9 specaps spaceflyby(13%),C10 ST benchmark(22%),CB10 MT(25%), PAR2 MT(21%),PovRay 3.7(22%),Blender(21%),S.Squeeze Pro(18.4%),Winrar(4.4%),Crysis Warhead(7.5%),L4D(9%),Fallout3(20%).
3850 is slower than Q6600 in only a few workloads: Far Cry2(4%), MS Excell 2007(32%-highest difference),3dsmax r9 specaps underwaterescape(8%).
Chips are tied in 1 workload : 3dstudimax r9 underwater.

As can be seen from percentages above,3850 is clearly superior CPU in wast majority of workloads and the average number from above is 12.24%.
A8 3850 on the other hand will be inferior to A10-5800K when both at stock. 3850 can OC to around 3.6Ghz on air while A10 5800K can OC on the same level as FX4170,so around 4.5-4.8Ghz on air cooling. It is clear therefore that A10-5800K both at stock and (especially) OCed will be a good upgrade to Q6600. It won't bring the speedup of one 2500K for example but it won't have the price of 2500K either. It will be far cheaper and it will have a great onboard GPU as a bonus.

 

[Yuriman]

The A8 has a 20% clock speed advantage, so on average it's actually slower per clock than a Q6600.