is it worth it upgrading this pc?

[freakyfriday]

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/12132708-12133156-12133158-12133158-12133158-80626463-81048856.html?dnr=1

this is my PC

but a few things I have upgraded on it over time.

OS is Windows 8 consumer preview 64 bit

i have 2 external hard drives.

Iomega- 1TB

clickfree- 2TB

Video card- sonic GF 9600gt 512mb PCI-X

Acer V193 17" lcd monitor

i'm trying to get back to computer games,

[Vice]

When you say upgrade I'm guessing you mean keep the motherboard and perhaps upgrade the Memory and Graphics?

Based on the specifications listed on that page I would say this is using hardware from around late 2005 to early 2006. That was 6 years ago and I'd not recommend upgrading it. You would probably do yourself better buying a new system.

However if you really just want to upgrade then perhaps a GTX 560 would be appropriate. It would definitely be faster than the 9600GT you currently have but I'm not really sure how much of an improvement it would make with that processor. The latest games are more CPU demanding than that processor can muster.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

any significant upgrades would require a mobo swap and that more then likely wouldnt be compatable with the case you have ( front harness). would prolly be cheaper to just get a new one.

[freakyfriday]

ok to its cheaper to get a new system?

[Vice]

Well if you were going to upgrade the motherboard then I'd say just start over with a new system. If you want to keep costs low go for a low-end Core i5 Quad Core and 4 or 8GB of DDR3 Memory. Pair that with a GTX 560 Ti or a HD 7950 and you'll be back in to gaming.

[muratoner]

i would get amd 6850 or 5770 for that system if you're an occasional gamer like me.But if you're a hardcore gamer then you would have to upgrade cpu-mobo-ram all together.Probably something like i5 or i7 series with amd 7950 or nvidia equivalent and throwing an ssd drive would be the cream on top

[PixilEyes]

It would cost more to upgrade than it's worth to. Sorry mate. :(

[tomasarson]

It would cost more to upgrade than it's worth to. Sorry mate. :(

agreed.

you could do some upgrades but i don't think they would really be worth it at this point.

you could spend $150-3 hundred on upgrades or get a brand new pre-built oem pc for around 500 or less. but everything in it would be dramatically faster than any upgrade you could make to your old computer.

if you don't want to build your own get a cheap oem pc, then clean install windows with the key on the side of your new pc. also try and get something that is upgrade friendly. (as much as it can for an oem)

[Laslow]

Here's what you do. Buy a Geforce GTX 560Ti and put it in your current system and see if it runs to your liking. There's a good chance that it will because you only have a 17" monitor.

If you find your CPU isn't up to the task, then you go ahead and buy a cheap prebuilt i5 system and use the 560Ti to upgrade from the onboard graphics, then you'll most certainly be set.

[tomasarson]

Here's what you do. Buy a Geforce GTX 560Ti and put it in your current system and see if it runs to your liking. There's a good chance that it will because you only have a 17" monitor.

If you find your CPU isn't up to the task, then you go ahead and buy a cheap prebuilt i5 system and use the 560Ti to upgrade from the onboard graphics, then you'll most certainly be set.

+1

[tsupersonic]

Here's what you do. Buy a Geforce GTX 560Ti and put it in your current system and see if it runs to your liking. There's a good chance that it will because you only have a 17" monitor.

If you find your CPU isn't up to the task, then you go ahead and buy a cheap prebuilt i5 system and use the 560Ti to upgrade from the onboard graphics, then you'll most certainly be set.

Wouldn't recommend that as pre-built systems tend to come with restrictive power supplies. I would just build a straight down new computer, if you want to run the latest and greatest games at the highest quality possible. Otherise your computer should be ok, if you play games at lower quality and lower resolutions.

[freakyfriday]

hello all I would like to keep the 9600gt but get new ram, cpu, motherboard

and I prefer amd then intel.

[Ambroos]

hello all I would like to keep the 9600gt but get new ram, cpu, motherboard

and I prefer amd then intel.

You're making all the bad choices for gaming.

1: More RAM, a better CPU and a better motherboard really won't increase your gaming performance quite a lot. And if you want to do that, you will have to get a new case too. And you really wouldn't get a big performance increase at all, your graphics card is limiting you in this case.

2: And why would you prefer AMD? Intel processors perform so much better right now, even when you take price into account Intel still is a much better deal in almost any case in my opinion.

[Wakers]

Intel processor and AMD graphics are the best way to go.

Nothing beats a 6850 in terms of value for money at the moment, if you have a budget. Nothing comes close.

i5-2400

Cheapish H67 Motherboard

8Gb DDR3 Ram

HD 6850

400 - 500W 80+ PSU

Save the drives from your current system for now. Maybe get a larger internal hard drive, if you need one.

[TEX4S]

hello all I would like to keep the 9600gt but get new ram, cpu, motherboard

and I prefer amd then intel.

As Yoda said, "you must unlearn, what you have learned" -

9600gt - is not a gamer card not even 5 years ago, AMD was better than intel .... 10 years ago.

BUT if you want to get AMD - then their new stuff would be a quantum leap compared the the junk you have now, yes its junk.

As mentioned, go get a cheap, Core i5 for $350, get a $150 video card, and a good PSU - you have a modern gaming machine - enjoy.

as fas as wakers comments about the HDD - if they are half as old as the rest of that dinosaur - then you're already on borrowed time - and the act of installing an OS could very well push an HDD over the edge - then what have you got ?

If you realize this, and are trying to spread out the $$ - then keep the drive - but always knowing in the back of your mind that it can and will go out @ any minute ... you decide.

The HDD is one of the few pieces with moving parts - therefore it wears out. Avg. life is 4 years on a drive - buy a new one.

[Wakers]

As Yoda said, "you must unlearn, what you have learned" -

9600gt - is not a gamer card not even 5 years ago, AMD was better than intel .... 10 years ago.

BUT if you want to get AMD - then their new stuff would be a quantum leap compared the the junk you have now, yes its junk.

As mentioned, go get a cheap, Core i5 for $350, get a $150 video card, and a good PSU - you have a modern gaming machine - enjoy.

as fas as wakers comments about the HDD - if they are half as old as the rest of that dinosaur - then you're already on borrowed time - and the act of installing an OS could very well push an HDD over the edge - then what have you got ?

If you realize this, and are trying to spread out the $$ - then keep the drive - but always knowing in the back of your mind that it can and will go out @ any minute ... you decide.

The HDD is one of the few pieces with moving parts - therefore it wears out. Avg. life is 4 years on a drive - buy a new one.

4 years?

I've got one that I've been using intensively for over 8 years and it's still in top health. Very small though!

[TEX4S]

4 years?

I've got one that I've been using intensively for over 8 years and it's still in top health. Very small though!

Hence the word AVERAGE.

I just knew someone was going to say something like this....

[Wakers]

Hence the word AVERAGE.

I just knew someone was going to say something like this....

Yes, yes, average. But where did you pluck that figure from? Because HDDs are built to last much longer than that.

[playXray]

Yeah that's way off from my experience. We've got about 20 computers at work, most of which have HDDs that go back to 2005/2006. Never had a failure. I've got HDDs at home that still work and are over 10 years old.

The figures may be skewed by "production error" failures - i.e. brand new drives that go kaput because something went wrong (as opposed to them being too old). If you take out the data from faulty drives that die within 6 months, I'd be very surprised if the average life of an HDD was anything less than 8 years.

Oh, and to the OP: your GPU is just way way too old for gaming. You could get yourself a GTX 560Ti and see if that helps - if it doesn't, just build yourself a new PC and stick it in there. Personally, I always love an excuse to build a new gaming computer, so that's what I'd do.

[TEX4S]

4 yrs. ?? It was the CTO @ Seagate in a MaximumPC article last year - I used to read that mag everyday :blush:

Might be able to reference it elsewhere - he was talking about the silliness of MTBF & 512-bit encryption type things. (because 256 is so easy to brute force kinda of talk)

I remember almost 100% of what I read (kinda nerdy I know) he was kinda funny but was serious when talking about real lifetime as opposed to MTBF.

How silly it is to undermine SSD {A} because its only 1.5 million hours MTBF, as opposed to SSD {B} which is2 million hours MTBF. How people will automatically think SSD {A} is not as good and will fail soon...

I'll google some phrases see if I get ahit & I'll post it - not for austerity - just because it was an interesting read. (it was before all the floods)

[freakyfriday]

hello everyone I did some research on computers, these are sold at my local computer store, all prices are in Canadian, I want to use my current video card http://ncix.com/products/?sku=28598, with the system. these are the current systems that they sell.

HP pavilion s5-1020- 499.99

HP pavilion p7-1125-569.99

HP pavilion p7-115-679.99

HP pavilion p6640f-799.99

HP pavilion h8-1010-839.99

would like to play battlefield 3 and newer games at high

[Astra.Xtreme]

hello everyone I did some research on computers, these are sold at my local computer store, all prices are in Canadian, I want to use my current video card http://ncix.com/products/?sku=28598, with the system. these are the current systems that they sell.

HP pavilion s5-1020- 499.99

HP pavilion p7-1125-569.99

HP pavilion p7-115-679.99

HP pavilion p6640f-799.99

HP pavilion h8-1010-839.99

would like to play battlefield 3 and newer games at high

A 9600GT won't get you anywhere near high settings in BF3.

To do that, you'll need at least an i5 w/ 560 Ti card, and even that might be cutting it close.

[Site Lab]

at least an i5 with 560ti? Id say for maximum. He could easily get high settings with a i3 and a 6870. I run battlefield 3 on high at a resolution of 5760x1080 at around 50fps on the setup below.. There is also a pc in my house from around 4 years ago (X4 9850, 4GB DDR2 and crossfire 4670...) that runs battlefield 3 at high, quite well for its age.

[Site Lab]

Since you said you wanted AMD, and im supposing you want it cheap...

Powercolor Radeon HD 6770 1GB $104.99 Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 8GB$44.38 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad Core Processor AM3 3.4GHZ $139.98 Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus 600W ATX $69.98 MSI 760GM-P23 (FX) mATX AMD 760G AM3+ DDR3 1PCI-E 16 1PCI-E1 1PCI DVI VGA SATA2 USB2.0 Motherboard$57.59 Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX Computer Case $38.88

$455.8

Im finding you some benchmarks now...

[Astra.Xtreme]

at least an i5 with 560ti? Id say for maximum. He could easily get high settings with a i3 and a 6870. I run battlefield 3 on high at a resolution of 5760x1080 at around 50fps on the setup below.. There is also a pc in my house from around 4 years ago (X4 9850, 4GB DDR2 and crossfire 4670...) that runs battlefield 3 at high, quite well for its age.

BF3 is CPU intensive and an i3 would be a limiting factor. Might as well spend the few extra bucks for a quad core.

Also, you do know that your 6950 is almost an exact equivalent to the 560 Ti, right? Resolution for you isn't a big deal either since yours has 2GB of VRAM.