Upgrade Advice

[Deamonik]

I am thinking of upgrading my current system and wanted to see what the techwizards here at Anandtech think first. I built it a few years ago and I am still happy with the performance for the most part but would like to see better frame rates while running games on high settings (large textures, AA, AAA, AF, HDR, etc.).

I play Oblivion (modded), Fallout (modded), Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Risen, Metro 2033, Assassin's Creed, Just Cause 2, Dead Rising 2, Darksiders, Amnesia, just to name a few. I run everything at 1680x1050 resolution on a 22" LCD.

My current configuration is...

MB: MSI P35 Neo Combo
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Conroe Socket 775 LGA @2.9GHZ
RAM: 2 GB Kingston PC2-6400 DDR2
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

I am running the latest GPU drivers and DX version. I have replaced the stock heatsink on the CPU with an aftermarket one and OCed the CPU to 2.9GHZ but the increase in performance wasn't that noticeable. Would an even faster CPU make any difference? A GPU with more memory would probably help with larger textures I suppose. Would using 4GB of DDR3 make any difference? Or should I just start over with all new components?

Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions and for not making fun of my outdated hardware. 😉

 

[f4phantom2500]

honestly, i'd suggest holding out for sandy bridge/bulldozer...your setup is still rather capable, maybe upgrade the video card, since you can transfer that to a new rig. about the ddr3, are you asking because your current board supports both ddr2 and ddr3? if so, getting 4gb ddr3 would be worthwhile now, since you could also transfer that to a new rig as well.

 

[Deamonik]

honestly, i'd suggest holding out for sandy bridge/bulldozer...your setup is still rather capable, maybe upgrade the video card, since you can transfer that to a new rig. about the ddr3, are you asking because your current board supports both ddr2 and ddr3? if so, getting 4gb ddr3 would be worthwhile now, since you could also transfer that to a new rig as well.

It does support both DDR2 and DDR3. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Deamonik]

4GB of DDR3 is about $50. Much cheaper than I remember. The MB specs say it supports 1066. Does this mean I can't use one rated for 1600? I mean, would it just scale down or not be usable at all? They are about the same price and the 1600 would give me more options in the future.

 

[f4phantom2500]

4GB of DDR3 is about $50. Much cheaper than I remember. The MB specs say it supports 1066. Does this mean I can't use one rated for 1600? I mean, would it just scale down or not be usable at all? They are about the same price and the 1600 would give me more options in the future.

it would be usable; it might scale it down, though. but, to answer the real question, there's no reason to get the slower ram.

 

[mfenn]

For now, RAM and GPU.

I'd get 4GB of DDR3 1333 for $40 because there is at most a 2% difference between 1333 and 1600. It'll run at 1066 in your current board.

For GPU, it really depends on your budget, but you play a fair number of TWIMTBP games, so I'd recommend a GTX 560 Ti for $250 ($235 today).