Rate this upgrade out of a scale of 1 to 10.

[LW07]

My current system:
AMD 64 X2 4800+ S939
2 gigs PC2700 ram
X1900XT 512mb
Windows XP Home Edition
510W PC Power and Cooling PSU
400GB SATA II 7200.9 Seagate hard drive
Dell 19 inch 1440x900 monitor

upgrading to(not OCing):
E8500(will stock cooler be enough if i'm not going to OC?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128359
Gigabyte mobo
OEM Windows vista 64-bit home premium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820211188
A-DATA DDR2 800 4 gigs of ram
HIS 4850
Western Digital 640GB hard drive
keeping the PSU and monitor, gonna use my 400GB as a storage drive

 

[happy medium]

6.5/ 7

 

[LW07]

How could i improve the upgrade?

 

[the unknown]

Spend more money.

All the other components look good, but if you're primarily going for gaming, your main focus should be your GPU first and foremost. Then CPU. Everything else is gravy.

How could you make it better? Well first of all the resolution is pretty crappy for gaming IMO. The 4850 may be fine for that resolution, and probably best price/ performance, but you're just asking how can you make it better. Upgrade to a 4870 or 4870x2 if you really wanna spend some cash. You're next logical step would be buying an aftermarket cooler, and OCing your CPU. No you don't need one if you're not OCing. But remember, OCing is free performance. And that e8500 can surely OC.

 

[Roguestar]

Change the motherboard for the EP45-DS3L.

Otherwise it's a solid "meh, fine"/10.

 

[RPatrick]

Thats a solid upgrade.

Screen size is a personal preference. If you are good with your resolution, the performance gains you would get by spending more money or overclocking would be insignificant in most cases.

 

[LW07]

So what if i got this 4870?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161236

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128345
the EP45-DS3L.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835186134
Arctic cooling Freezer 7 pro aftermarket cooler

so how would my build be with those changes?

Should i change the E8500 to the E8400 and save $20?

Could i go even lower and get a E7200/7300, or maybe even a Pentium E5200?

 

[TidusZ]

You could go for the E8400, save $20, and overclock to ~4ghz or a little less. There isn't much point getting a 4870 if you aren't going to buy at least a 22" monitor imo. You can get a 22" under $200 @1680x1050.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: LW07
Rate this upgrade out of a scale of 1 to 10

E8500(will stock cooler be enough if i'm not going to OC?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128359
Gigabyte mobo
OEM Windows vista 64-bit home premium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820211188
A-DATA DDR2 800 4 gigs of ram
HIS 4850
Western Digital 640GB hard drive
keeping the PSU and monitor, gonna use my 400GB as a storage drive

I rate it a 3.75, for lacking originality. :roll:

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Don't even bother upgrading. Your system is not that old. You should upgrade the graphics card and put faster/more ram.

 

[LW07]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
Don't even bother upgrading. Your system is not that old. You should upgrade the graphics card and put faster/more ram.

Yeah my first intent was a new GPU and a new monitor and keep my current CPU until quad core+ became mandatory, but i was told an AMD X2 4800+ S939 is a bit long in the tooth.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Originally posted by: LW07

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
Don't even bother upgrading. Your system is not that old. You should upgrade the graphics card and put faster/more ram.

Yeah my first intent was a new GPU and a new monitor and keep my current CPU until quad core+ became mandatory, but i was told an AMD X2 4800+ S939 is a bit long in the tooth.

Have you seen my system? For me it's time to upgrade, but you can wait a while longer.

 

[Denithor]

I have to agree with Waiting on this one. If you aren't planning to improve your monitor a simple GPU upgrade will take care of your gaming needs. For 14x9 just throw in a 4850 and call it a day.

 

[LW07]

waiting is a strong consideration for me, but i also am considering going AM2 because AMD's socket AM3 chips will be supported by AM2 mobos, so i save $ by not having to change out mobo and ram and all that, compared to going for an intel build.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Originally posted by: LW07
waiting is a strong consideration for me, but i also am considering going AM2 because AMD's socket AM3 chips will be supported by AM2 mobos, so i save $ by not having to change out mobo and ram and all that, compared to going for an intel build.

Why are you so eager to upgrade? Just wait and see what happens. Don't invest early for a future build. For all we know, Deneb could be a another Barcelona. Wait and see what the AM3/new chipset bring along. You system doesn't need an upgrade currently and not many games need a faster CPU. Relax and enjoy what you have. This is just my opinion but if you really want to upgrade it's your choice.

 

[LW07]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem

Originally posted by: LW07
waiting is a strong consideration for me, but i also am considering going AM2 because AMD's socket AM3 chips will be supported by AM2 mobos, so i save $ by not having to change out mobo and ram and all that, compared to going for an intel build.

Why are you so eager to upgrade? Just wait and see what happens. Don't invest early for a future build. For all we know, Deneb could be a another Barcelona. Wait and see what the AM3/new chipset bring along. You system doesn't need an upgrade currently and not many games need a faster CPU. Relax and enjoy what you have.

I don't want a shiny new 4850/70 to be bottlenecked by my 4800+.

 

[Kraeoss]

take these guys advice and wait... wouldnt kill u to wait a few mths more imo price cuts are on the horizon....

 

[LW07]

i guess i'll wait and just upgrade my video card, and maybe even the soundcard and monitor(currently got a Soundblaster Live! that i'm gonna upgrade to an X-fi or something).

 

[Ichigo]

Lol X-fi.

Anyway, buy a 4870 1GB when you can. Honestly, no modern CPU is going to bottleneck it at high resolutions. At low resolutions, the framerate is so high the "bottlenecking" is a moot point.

 

[LW07]

Originally posted by: Ichigo
Lol X-fi.

Anyway, buy a 4870 1GB when you can. Honestly, no modern CPU is going to bottleneck it at high resolutions. At low resolutions, the framerate is so high the "bottlenecking" is a moot point.

So i should just keep the 4800+ X2? i heard somewhere else that someone had been bottlenecked with that same CPU with an 8800GTX at 30 fps on FEAR and 25fps on guild wars.... i don't know what to say about that scenario.

and i'm more leaning towards a GTX 260 216 core than the 4870...

also gonna upgrade my PSU while i'm at it.

 

[MarcVenice]

Whoever said that was talking crap out of his neck 2.4ghz amd dualcore isn't exactly fast, but it's no real slouch either. It will give decent gaming performance in pretty much any game as long as the gpu is up to it. I'd probably go with a HD4870 or GTX260 as well, if the CPU does become to slow, you can always replace it later down the road.

 

[Roguestar]

The 4870 1GB is a better card than the GTX260 Core 216.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Whoever said that was talking crap out of his neck 2.4ghz amd dualcore isn't exactly fast, but it's no real slouch either. It will give decent gaming performance in pretty much any game as long as the gpu is up to it. I'd probably go with a HD4870 or GTX260 as well, if the CPU does become to slow, you can always replace it later down the road.

Which is exactly what I recommended half a thread above. Upgrade GPU, you'll probably find you don't need a CPU upgrade for quite a while. By the time the system starts feeling slow the new architecture will be out (from both intel & amd) and you can make a decision at that time based on performance benchmarks instead of hearsay & guesses.

Right now the great deals are GTX 260 (192 core version) on eBay for <$200 with Microsoft cashback deal or the 4870 1GB card for around $300 (significantly better performance but also considerably higher cost).