Computers & Electronics

Noob upgrade advice

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  • Oct 4th, 2012 10:30 pm
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Member
Nov 2, 2003
247 posts
8 upvotes
Toronto

Noob upgrade advice

Hey all!

OK, so I haven't turned on my desktop in over 6 months. I'm starting to get back into PC games (Xcom, Endless space, Civ 5, etc), so I'm thinking of what upgrades I can treat myself to.

I currently have:

AMD 5000+ (2.3...? or 2.6 ghz?)
3gb Ram
Windows 7 (32 bit I'm pretty sure)
Nvidia 8800GT (I think its BFG, might be wrong).

What would be best bang for buck - upgrade CPU, add memory or upgrade videocard? I'm thinking of getting a Geforce GTX 280 - used for 80 bones.


Thoughts? It's not really a biiig deal, but I kinda wanna treat myself so something (I'd def buy used, try to keep it ~$100 upgrade).



Thanks guys :)

Edit: Oh and I have a badass Corsair power supply. It's plenty big, forget the wattage but it was quite large lol.
16 replies
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jul 22, 2006
22438 posts
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Hey!
Wattage means NADA... Who made it is more important.

If it's a Corsair CX - I'm sorry but it's garbage :(

For your budget, I think you should get a AMD Phenom CPU (if the board can support a AM3+ cpu)
Deal Guru
Dec 10, 2004
13194 posts
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Kanata
george__ wrote: Hey!
Wattage means NADA... Who made it is more important.

If it's a Corsair CX - I'm sorry but it's garbage :(

For your budget, I think you should get a AMD Phenom CPU (if the board can support a AM3+ cpu)
Sorry but Corsair CX is not garbage. It's not top tier but far from garbage. Diablotek is garbage.
Deal Expert
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Jul 22, 2006
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:( Fineeeeeeee

Corsair CX is a decent "BUDGET" level PSU
Member
Nov 2, 2003
247 posts
8 upvotes
Toronto
hahaha fair enough. For my needs, decent budget quality is good for me.

So I think as per my motherboard I can only go up to AMD Athlon dual core 5600+, in terms of processor. I tried looking and it's quite old, so I'd be hard pressed to even find one.

So at this point... it isn't even worth upgrading, eh? If I upgrade the video card, I won't see much gain because my CPU is the bottleneck. Is that right?
Deal Fanatic
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Dec 23, 2008
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Milton
RCDEMORAL wrote: So at this point... it isn't even worth upgrading, eh? If I upgrade the video card, I won't see much gain because my CPU is the bottleneck. Is that right?
yeah thats pretty much it.
you still gain performance improvement but not at full capacity/efficieny. its like putting a ferrari in a school zone..i think
Deal Expert
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Jul 22, 2006
22438 posts
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uh if it can't go higher you probably stuck with a AM2 socket CPU or something.

So like Spena said, no use upgrading the poor thing.

New rig going to cost you ~$300-$400?
Member
Nov 2, 2003
247 posts
8 upvotes
Toronto
george__ wrote: So like Spena said, no use upgrading the poor thing.

hahaha Poor thing indeed, I laughed out loud at that.

Fair enough - I'll save my pennies and get a new rig probably at Christmas time. In the meantime, a fresh Windows 7 install helped.

Thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it!
Banned
User avatar
Feb 15, 2008
26318 posts
3242 upvotes
Calgary
I'm with the other posters -- not much you can really do to that system to make it better. A SSD perhaps, since they're so cheap and you could re-use the SSD in a new machine. But other than that, save up, and get a new machine on the Black Friday/Boxing Day deals that will probably be insane this year.
Deal Fanatic
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Jun 7, 2001
7994 posts
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Alberta
I recently had an AMD 64 X2 3800+ AM2....fastest CPU upgrade would be a 6400+ which isn't very fast these days. I think that even a HD 7750 would be bottlenecked by the CPU. Your 8800 GT is only a couple tiers lower than HD 7750....3 tiers is noticeable. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... 107-7.html

If you are looking for a decent upgrade...a new mobo, memory and CPU....$150+

Dave
Deal Expert
Feb 29, 2008
30106 posts
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Montreal
RCDEMORAL wrote: Hey all!

OK, so I haven't turned on my desktop in over 6 months. I'm starting to get back into PC games (Xcom, Endless space, Civ 5, etc), so I'm thinking of what upgrades I can treat myself to.

I currently have:

AMD 5000+ (2.3...? or 2.6 ghz?)
3gb Ram
Windows 7 (32 bit I'm pretty sure)
Nvidia 8800GT (I think its BFG, might be wrong).

What would be best bang for buck - upgrade CPU, add memory or upgrade videocard? I'm thinking of getting a Geforce GTX 280 - used for 80 bones.


Thoughts? It's not really a biiig deal, but I kinda wanna treat myself so something (I'd def buy used, try to keep it ~$100 upgrade).



Thanks guys :)

Edit: Oh and I have a badass Corsair power supply. It's plenty big, forget the wattage but it was quite large lol.
That rig is old. The GPU, RAM and CPU are no longer relevant. I hope you still hav ethe 64bit disc for windows 7. Don't waste money on the gtx 280. Suck it up and replace the whole thing.
Member
Sep 23, 2012
245 posts
20 upvotes
Ottawa
And I was thinking of reconnecting and cranking on my circa 1999 PC with Win 2000, 256M RAM and probably one of those Pentium CPUs. LMAO.

I bet if I connected it to the internet, it would suck up all the viruses before I even got to this forum.
Deal Addict
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Aug 3, 2002
1736 posts
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Vancouver
If you only have $100 in the budget grab an SSD if anything. It won't help your games as much as like a new cpu or video card but will help daily usage of your computer.
My suggestions would be uh... Corsair Neutron (GTX or non-GTX) 120GB or OCZ Vertex 4 128GB or Samsung 830 128GB... maybe a Crucial M4 128GB if it's the cheapest of the 4 (<$90 or so)

Since you already have a mechanical harddrive you won't have to spend more money on one for general storage.
⬅⬇⬆➡
Deal Addict
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Jun 14, 2009
2471 posts
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Quebec
You could find a cheap Phenom II X4 + mobo + ram for cheap over BST
Deal Addict
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Feb 18, 2007
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New Westminster
xmas is only less than 3 months away so i would wait and buy better all around than waste a 100 now.
Poor Grammar and being long winded don't fit well together, Oh well.
Deal Expert
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Jul 22, 2006
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Wait wait wait wait wait - I gave up on waiting
Buy now regret later :P
Member
Nov 2, 2003
247 posts
8 upvotes
Toronto
Hm, very good points. Looks like December/boxing day is the time for it... or January, when all your guys are selling all your old rigs :)

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