Doing a slight upgrade soon..

[markpelly]

Was wondering what you guys may think are some good upgrades. I do some heavy gaming when im not in school. Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Black Ops are the two games im into now. Here is my current setup:

Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory:
2046MB RAM
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Monitor:
Dual Samsungs
OS:
Win7 64bit

I upgraded most of this a couple years ago and it is just now showing its age. Rather slow when working with big projects in CS4 and I dont get very good frame rates anymore. So does anyone want to suggest a good upgrade on RAM and for the CPU? If possible give me a reasonable price on these, I am only looking to spend like 300-400 for both. Thanks guys

 

[MindoverMaster]

What board do you have? If you can upgrade you CPU, a Phenom X4 or X6 would be nice.

Update your memory to 4GB

Update your GFX to a ATI HD5770, or a NVIDIA 260.

What is your PSU wattage?

 

[patonb]

Stay away from the 260 isn't even made anymore. The ones still around are way over priced.

I very doubt your board will run am3 chips well so:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!
Its a X4 965 BE and a ASUS M4A79XTD EVO board.

All for $299.00 then you can keep you 8800 if you want, or go to an x6... or go for a new gpu as well.

I'd add a new gpu those if youre concerned about gaming.
Newegg.com - XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity its 114 with 15 mir.

That'd get you to $400 and would be a great setup reusxing the rest of your stuff, but this assumes your psu is around 450W and is a decent make.

 

[snowsurfer]

What resolution do you game on?

 

[markpelly]

awesome guys. Def what I was looking for.

I guess 4 extra gigs is enough for now on RAM; I actually have two 1 gig sticks of that same GSkill.

I will probably stay with the GFX card I have right now, it still runs pretty well. I think where I am lagging is in the RAM and CPU department right now so I will stick with those two for now.


And I run usually at just under 1920x1080 on most games.

 

[patonb]

Before you do anything, check your psu for how many watts and Amps on the 12 V rails. That'll give you the info if your psu will be good.

But without switching gpus, you should have no issues. A quad will really help in CS4

 

[markpelly]

okay well I grabbed these out of the BIOS:

3.3V - 3.36v
5.0V - 5.02V
12.0V - 11.84V

and these were on the side of the PSU itself:

3.3V - 25A
5.0V - 45A
12.0V - 30A

those are the max DC outputs..not sure if those are important.

here is the power supply: PSU

 

[markpelly]

I actually heard that the BIOS or other software are not good tools to use to find the voltages. But this will have to do for now.

 

[patonb]

The psu numbers are what i'm looking for... Its not great, at only 30A on 500W but it'll power the updates listed above.

A few more Amps, 35-38 would be best.