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Which parts can I upgrade?

B

bimbs

Member
Hi all,

Does anyone know how to figure out which parts are salvageable from my current rig? I'm trying to upgrade but don't know if I have to start from scratch or not.

here is what I have:
MOBO: ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80569Q9550

VID :ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

RAM: 4GB unsure of kind

Windows XP 64bit

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks
BIMBS
 
You can't upgrade the CPU without upgrading the motherboard and RAM as well. The RAM on that board is DDR2, current boards use DDR3.

The video card will work in a new motherboard, but it's obviously very slow for current games, and upgrading the CPU alone won't improve gaming performance.

You could upgrade the video card only, but any significant upgrade over 4850 is at risk of being bottlenecked by a Q9550. It's possible to avoid some of that bottleneck by overclocking the CPU.

What is your other hardware? Power supply, case, hard disk?

Also please answer the questions in the sticky so we know more what we're dealing with.
 
As lehtv alluded to, it really depends on what you want to do and what your budget is.

- If you have a tight budget and want to game, the CPU, mobo, and RAM are probably reusable. If you have a bigger budget, it wouldn't be worth it.

- Likewise, if you want to improve your video encode speeds, your GPU is probably reusable because you would want to focus on CPU performance.
 
Thanks guys!

I have this:

PSU: SeaSonic S12-430 430W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply
Case: Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
harddrive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3400620AS 400GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

Right now, I can't play skyrim and I would really like to at least be able to play it. Also, I do light audio and video editing. I wanted to spend under 500 if that's possible, but I don't want to waste money if spending $500 now will barely upgrade me. If so, I'd rather wait till christmas time and spend around $1000.

Any ideas?
 
I was in a similar situation before I built out my current box - was using an LGA 775 quadcore 2.66 with 8GB DDR2. Main difference was that I stuck a 560ti gpu in there to try and extend the lifespan a bit.

For less than $500, a mid-tier video card (560ti is a great choice) should get you through probably 1-1 1/2 more years of current-gen titles. I'd suggest spending the $250 or so on that and putting the rest toward what will eventually be your new system. Should be able to get a new mobo+ram or a decent intel chip (i5 2500k is a good one) for the other $250.

Edit - just noticed your PSU is a bit on the low side. Make sure you check power requirements before you buy anything new.
 
His PSU is more than enough for any single modern card pretty much if there isn't too much overclocking going on.

My recommendation would be to just pick up a 660 Ti for $300 right now and calling it a day. Skyrim will run at max settings pretty easily and I don't think upgrading your CPU/Motherboard currently for just "light" video encoding is going to be worth the cost increase that you'd have to stomach.

I'd also like to recommend an SSD to go with that to make your system feel snappier overall but the issue is that you're currently running XP which does not support TRIM, while you are able to manually do the things that TRIM does automatically for you, you'd be responsible for occasionally running some software to clean up your SSD.
 
Durvelle27 said:
if your in the USA

Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115078

BIOSTAR B75MU3+ LGA 1155 Intel B75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138357

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231314

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102987

Total: $485

reuse case and HDD and psu
Click to expand...

Changing out the motherboard would require a new Windows license to go with it. And while the i3 2100 (or any variant of the) will outperform the Q9550 for many applications, it's not by a huge amount as the Q9550 is not a weak CPU.

I also stand by the 660 Ti vs the 6950, as these AT benchmarks show it is MUCH more capable in every title. It does cost more but the performance difference is more than worth the cost difference.

I still stand by 660 Ti + an ~128GB SSD as these will drastically increase the performance and responsiveness of your system and can easily be carried over to the next system that you build. I don't think the difference for light encoding is going to be worth it currently as it will take at least $2-300 to really start seeing better encode times.
 
http://www.techspot.com/review/467-skyrim-performance/
Looking at the benchmark article, it looks like there is cpu scaling in performance, but its for max-quality and the game isn't very multi-threaded.
Low end gpus can play the game at reasonable settings.

Since the OP is already planning to spend $1k at Christmas, the best thing to do would be to upgrade the video card first I guess.
 
MrA79 said:
For less than $500, a mid-tier video card (560ti is a great choice) should get you through probably 1-1 1/2 more years of current-gen titles. I'd suggest spending the $250 or so on that and putting the rest toward what will eventually be your new system. Should be able to get a new mobo+ram or a decent intel chip (i5 2500k is a good one) for the other $250.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. A new graphics card like 7850 will make a huge difference in framerates even though it will be bottlenecked in some situations. In Skyrim, my 560 Ti (slower than 7850) is bottlenecked i7-920@3.2 (faster than Q9650) - not all the time, but in specific situations like in Markarth.

Then start planning on the CPU upgrade
 
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Overclock the Q9550 to 3.5Ghz, and then upgrade the video card. Also upgrade to Windows 7, XP is getting old. That should do you for the next year or two.

My BIL's rig is a Q9550 in an X48 mobo, with CF 6870 cards. He plays a lot of games on it.

I think the person that posted that a Q9550 would bottleneck anything faster than a 4850 is wrong.
 
Thanks a bunch!

The computer currently has over-heating issues; however, the new vid card should fix that, correct?

So I'll buy the 660 Ti, an SSD, and windows 7. Are SSD drives reliable? A lot of the reviews on newegg said they fail pretty easily (blue screen, etc). Also, should I wait for windows 8 or just go ahead and buy 7?

Thanks again!
 
Most SSD BSOD issues have been resolved via firmware updates, so I wouldn't worry too much about that - just do some research before you settle on one. Personally I think an SSD in your system is going to be overkill (you're going to saturate the 3gb/s buffer and I doubt you'll see a huge performance boost over a basic 7200 rpm drive), but they are definitely nice to have.

If you're having heat issues, a new vidcard could actually make things worse - again, research the different vendor cards and find one with as low an idle\load temp as possible. Make sure your case is dust-free and your fans\filters aren't gunked up (including cpu fan), and maybe change your intake\exhaust configuration if need be.

For the OS, I would just go ahead and get Win7 - I haven't seen anything that suggests Win8 is going to even be decent for conventional desktop\gaming use - in fact, several developers have said it's going to be a disastrous platform for gaming.
 
Newer generation cards run quite a bit cooler at idle, but at full load they will still produce more heat so I'm not sure if your case will create heat issues or not.

There are many SSD's on the market, and they use different controllers. If you want reliability and don't mind paying a bit extra, the Crucial M4, Samsung 830, and even the OCZ Vertex 4 are all based on the Marvell controller, arguably the most reliable controller around (excluding Intel's I suppose). They'll typically cost around $100 for a 128GB model if you wait for a sale to pop up.

Also I'm not sure getting a Windows 7 license now is a good idea if you plan on upgrading the motherboard + CPU near Christmas or thereabouts as the key will be tied to your current system.
 
Thanks guys! I ran a furmark test and the GPU temperature skyrocketed to 110 degrees in about 45 seconds (at which point I turned off the test). This means that the issue is with my graphics card and not my PSU, correct?

I'm just trying to decide if I also need to buy a PSU also.

Thanks!
 
110C in 45 seconds? That sounds horrible :<. I didn't even know 4850 could get that hot. I would open it up and get rid of all the dust and apply new thermal paste.
 
MrA79 said:
Most SSD BSOD issues have been resolved via firmware updates, so I wouldn't worry too much about that - just do some research before you settle on one. Personally I think an SSD in your system is going to be overkill (you're going to saturate the 3gb/s buffer and I doubt you'll see a huge performance boost over a basic 7200 rpm drive), but they are definitely nice to have.
Click to expand...

This is wrong. The responsiveness benefit of an SSD does not come from increased sequential read/write performance (though that is nice). Instead, it comes from increased random I/O performance which isn't limited by the SATA bus but instead by how quickly the controller can process input (or in the case of a mechanical drive, how fast the head can seek). SSDs are faster than HDDs by a factor of 30-100.
 
bimbs said:
The computer currently has over-heating issues; however, the new vid card should fix that, correct?
Click to expand...

Depends on what exactly is overheating. Install HWMonitor, do something intensive and report the temps back to us (a screenshot works great).

bimbs said:
So I'll buy the 660 Ti, an SSD, and windows 7. Are SSD drives reliable? A lot of the reviews on newegg said they fail pretty easily (blue screen, etc).
Click to expand...

Yes, SSD drives are very reliable as long as you buy the right one. The Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 are very safe bets from a reliability perspective.

bimbs said:
Also, should I wait for windows 8 or just go ahead and buy 7?
Click to expand...

IMHO, Windows 8 looks like a completely unusable POS for anything without a touchscreen.
 
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