Hi there, I've read this forum and others in the past to help me get into building my own system, so some time later I'm asking for some help.
I've built my computer roughly 1.5 years ago and I'm starting to seek a computer upgrade, though I've been rather out of the loop with all the tech info and whatnot. I really don't have much cash to spend atm (only about $250).
Mainly I wanted to upgrade my video card from an nVidia 7600GT to an ATI HD4850, but wanted to know if I had to upgrade anything else so the new video card wouldn't be bottlenecked. Anyways, here's my build. Not linking the case and other hardware that doesn't affect performance.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
PSU:OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI 600W ATX12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V CB/CE/CSA/UL/FCC - Retail
Video Card: EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
CPU Heatsink: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
This is the HD4850 I'm looking to buy:
Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR AX4850 512MD3-H Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Basically, would my system do just fine with only the video card upgrade, or is it worth investing more money to upgrade more components? And, if going from nVidia to ATI, I read that to get the full benefit of the card I'd have to reformat my system, though plenty of people don't seem to do that, but does it really matter? I mean, it probably would work just fine if I uninstall the drivers and all prior to putting in the new video card.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
I've built my computer roughly 1.5 years ago and I'm starting to seek a computer upgrade, though I've been rather out of the loop with all the tech info and whatnot. I really don't have much cash to spend atm (only about $250).
Mainly I wanted to upgrade my video card from an nVidia 7600GT to an ATI HD4850, but wanted to know if I had to upgrade anything else so the new video card wouldn't be bottlenecked. Anyways, here's my build. Not linking the case and other hardware that doesn't affect performance.
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
PSU:OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI 600W ATX12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V CB/CE/CSA/UL/FCC - Retail
Video Card: EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
CPU Heatsink: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
This is the HD4850 I'm looking to buy:
Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR AX4850 512MD3-H Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Basically, would my system do just fine with only the video card upgrade, or is it worth investing more money to upgrade more components? And, if going from nVidia to ATI, I read that to get the full benefit of the card I'd have to reformat my system, though plenty of people don't seem to do that, but does it really matter? I mean, it probably would work just fine if I uninstall the drivers and all prior to putting in the new video card.
Thanks for taking the time to read.