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Upgrade ?'s

xaeniac

xaeniac

Golden Member
Current System Specs:

AMD X2 4600+ AM2
2 GB DDR2 800
GeForce 7900GS 256MB
FSP Group AX500-A 500W ATX12V Power Supply

I do some light gaming but my rig is getting old to run some newer games. My main goal is to see a performance increase for the most bang for the buck. My budget is ~$600, but depends on how many parts I must upgrade. The cheaper the better, but don’t want junk and don’t need the latest and greatest.

1.) Will I see a performance increase with an upgrade?
2.) Can I reuse my power supply?
3.) Can I reuse my RAM?
3a.) I was going to upgrade my Ram, but my other ram slots are bad on my mobo.
4.) Video card <$200 and I don&#8217;t run high resolutions. 1280x1024 is all I need.

I do like AMD Cpu's
 
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You can probably get a 630 Propus with a 5770 + motherboard + 4gb of RAM for <600. You can definitely reuse your PSU. 5770 might be much for that resolution but its a safe bet in case you ever come across a new monitor.

Don't get OCZ DDR3. It's trash.
 
What motherboard do you have? As long as it's got an x8 or x16 PCIe slot you could just upgrade your video card and call it a day, but at that resolution you'd be CPU bottlenecked very easily I think.

Donut's spot on though, could get yourself a nice full system upgrade too.

5770 is a really good option, you'll be able to do just about anything and then some at that resolution but it will also be plenty powerful if you get round to getting a higher resolution. Alternately, if you see yourself locked in at 1280x1024, something even less powerful would probably work and save you a few bucks (5750, 48xx). This will run you something like ~160-175 new or you can find one for about 130-150 on the forum (Pretty sure there's a MSI Hawk 5770 for like 140 + shipping up atm).

RAM is pretty simple, can pick up 4GB of Eco or Ripjaws for a little over a hundo and it'll be perfect.

Mobo just pick whatever AM2+ or AM3 board suits you (what you need in terms of USB/SATA/onboard video/etc.) that you feel good about. I'd probably take a look at an amd chipset 770 or 870 board; make sure you keep an eye on the type of RAM the board takes.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.442723

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130275

To me that seems like a pretty good set up for you. If you don't like the mobo you can fiddle around with Newegg's search to see if you find another that suits you better or look for one with a decent combo on memory to shave off a couple more dollars; open box is also an option.
 
Post the exact model number of your mobo so that we can check to see what CPUs it's compatible with. I'm willing to bet that you will be able to drop in an Athlon II X4 635 and a 5770 for very cheap.
 
+1 on Gigabyte. I've been getting good experiences with their stuff. 4GB on top of the 2GB you already have might not be a bad bump either.
 
Why not just buy a 5770 1GB and see if that gives you the performance you want? If it doesn't, then you can upgrade to a new mobo, CPU, and 4GB RAM and still use the 5770.
 
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