My Rig needs upgrade

[B.def]

Specs:

Processor-
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.5ghz
Motherboard-
ASRock G31M-s Board
RAM-
4GB DDR2
Video Card-
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series 1GB ( Not sure what model)
Hard Drive-
1TB HDD
Monitor-
HP 2009 20"
Power-
Black Widow 550w

I'm interested in spending around 200 max into my computer. I use it for light gaming and lots of multi-media. I've heard about the Phenom x4 Black ed. and I think that my be a possibility. Any help would be great. And also if anyone can point me in the right direction to OC my processor that would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[mfenn]

Can you be more specific about what 5700 series you have?

 

[B.def]

I would but I don't know. I used CPUID to look and thats all it says. The person I bought it from only told me it was a 1GB. If I had to guess I would say 5770.

 

[betasub]

Either the 5750 or 5770 with 1GB should be fine for light gaming and multi-media (not sure what res is for that 20"HP monitor).

Stock E5200 (2.5GHz) dual-core isn't all that fast. Overclocking to >3GHz might improve your general performance. Alternatively look at other CPUs supported by your motherboard/BIOS. A Q9000-series quad-core would be major improvement in terms of cores, cache & clock-speed, and a simple drop-in upgrade - but they are seriously over-priced compared to their AMD & LGA1156 equilvalents. An AMD CPU/mobo combo might allow you to re-use your DDR2 RAM if you pick correctly.

 

[mfenn]

I agree with betasub that a Q9xxx processor would be your best bet if you can get one for under $200. I would say that a Q9550 would be good if you can find a used one.

If you want all new parts, something like this combo would be good, but it is a little over your budget.

 

[DSF]

There's a stickied guide to overclocking Core2 chips in the CPUs and Overclocking forum. With a G31 motherboard you might not hit the numbers some other people will, but you should still have a least a little bit of headroom.

In terms of gaming, that ought to be fine unless you want to play the newest titles at the highest frame rates. Multimedia processing might be a different story.

 

[Davidh373]

I agree with mfenn on the combo, the Q9xxx series is FAR too expensive @ almost $300 for just the proc. That is a great deal on the combo and you will see a huge spike in performance.