Upgrade or new PC?

[Srsly]

Hi,

My pc is 2 years old now and it can't really run recent games on a decent quality anymore. So i want to upgrade, mainly the processor and videocard.

I saw that my current mobo, an Asus P5b also supports quad core and 4gb but i am wondering if the mobo would be fast enough.

my current specs:

C2D E4500

2GB

8600gt xxx 265mb

Asus P5b

Should i keep my current mobo or replace it? If this mobo is too slow for a quadcore i have the budget to buy a new one but if i can keep this one i would rather do that. I don't know nothing about fsb speeds and other mobo specifications.

And with the videocards i am a bit confused too. I thought about a 9600 series, but apperantly the 8800 series is still faster and the 9600 is only a midsegment card. Or are the ati equivalents better, and what card specifically?

I want to play recent games on high quality running on a 1280x1024 resolution. What card would you recommend in this range?

[shihchiun]

The motherboard is fairly modern. I don't know too much about the chipset, but it should be fine. You could always upgrade it later if you wanted to. What's your budget?

[Srsly]

Well for the videocard i don't know the current prices but something around 150/200 euro. I have around 400 to spend but i am already buying a quadcore and 2gb extra memory so that would leave around 200 or a little more for a videocard and maybe a mobo.

[Krispy Kritter]

You will want to replace/upgrade all of your memory. In other words, 2x2gb as opposed to just buying 2 more 1gb sticks and running 4x1gb. Also, for the nvidia cards, 8800GT line or the 260. You can view comparisons at tomshardware in the vga charts.

[obiwong]

you'll need a 64bit OS to make use of 4GB of RAM

[theAnimal]

Overclock your processor a bit, and get a 9800GT.

[hawker1986]

OC your CPU to about 3Ghz, it should be easy enough to manage, maybe buy a better cooling solution for it like an akasa 965. Then get a further 2GB of RAM as you suggested and an ati 4850, youll be well on track again with your gaming, and it wont be expensive (about ?150 whatever that works out in euros). Even if you get the quad core that mobo is still fine and I would stick with it.

Hope that helps.

Hawker

[+shift. MVC]

That system can still hold out for quite a while. If you find yourself lacking in performance then just upgrade accordingly.

I'd say it'll still be adequate for about another 2 years.

[Srsly]

OC your CPU to about 3Ghz, it should be easy enough to manage, maybe buy a better cooling solution for it like an akasa 965. Then get a further 2GB of RAM as you suggested and an ati 4850, youll be well on track again with your gaming, and it wont be expensive (about ?150 whatever that works out in euros). Even if you get the quad core that mobo is still fine and I would stick with it.

Hope that helps.

Hawker

Alright thanks for the advice. The Ati cards seem to be a lot cheaper compared to the nvidia ones and perform pretty good too, so i probably get the 4850 or 4830, 2gb extra ram and i looked into overclocking and apperantly the e4500 is decent for that so maybe i can get a higher clockspeed out if it, i guess i wait with the quadcore for now then.

Thanks for the advice everyone:))

You will want to replace/upgrade all of your memory. In other words, 2x2gb as opposed to just buying 2 more 1gb sticks and running 4x1gb.

Why? I was gonna get 2x1gb from exact same memory as i have now. Do you mean it will run slower than 2x2gb?

[hawker1986]

I think what hes trying to say is that having 4 sticks of memory rather than 2 can make your system more unstable in certain circumstances, like high overclocks, generally its not a problem, my PCs all have all 4 slots filled and work just fine, even under high overclocks. They will not be slower in any fashion so long as they are the same speed. As for overclocking your CPU I should think it will be easy to achieve, if I was you I would be aiming at 3Ghz (FSB 272 I think), you may need to just notch your Vcore up say 0.25-0.5v and drop the memory divider down one but it shouldnt be a hard task.

If you get the extra RAM, OC your CPU (I would get an aftermarket cooler for that) and a new GPU I think you will be very happy with your system. Glad to help.

Hawker

[+shift. MVC]

Filling all your RAM slots puts more stress on the northbridge. That should only be an issue if you're overclocking though.

And it's nothing a simple voltage increase can't fix.