Hello all.
I have a Dell XPS 630i, or as I like to call it, a big fat pain in the butt. Nice enough computer, but there has been many issues...and now I would like to upgrade the components and make a more modern beast out of it.
The case is nice, cooling (air) is good enough, and the PSU is in the 750w range.
My question is, since I can afford only one of these choices at this very moment, which upgrade will give me the most bang for the buck.
Heres the deal. I currently have an Intel 2.8ghz quad core, 8gb ram, and 2 ATI HD 4850's in Crossfire (sometimes, CrapFire) config. It is an Nvidia motherboard though, and strange things were done to it by Dell to make it accept ATI cards...Google it if you want the gory details.
Performance on this machine varies greatly. Just Cause 2 runs at 60fps at 1920x1080 full options, Fallout 3 and New Vegas vary back and forth and suffer a micro-stutter problem, Borderlands runs like crap with shadows on, etc. Just can't put my finger on the bottleneck here.
So, I am trying to decide whether to upgrade my CPU/Mobo:
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
$118.99
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core
$159.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) $84.99
Subtotal: $363.97
Or my video card (thinking if ditching ATI though I have been a long time ATI user due to driver issues, Crossfire sync issues, and other problems), maybe a GeForce GTX 580 (which I see is in the $500 range, so if anyone has another Video card that is comparable but cheaper, please feel free to let me know). I am still open to ATI if someone can tell me the newer models have less issues
Anyway, thanks to all reading this, and please feel free to let me know what is the best path to a great gaming computer from here.
I have a Dell XPS 630i, or as I like to call it, a big fat pain in the butt. Nice enough computer, but there has been many issues...and now I would like to upgrade the components and make a more modern beast out of it.
The case is nice, cooling (air) is good enough, and the PSU is in the 750w range.
My question is, since I can afford only one of these choices at this very moment, which upgrade will give me the most bang for the buck.
Heres the deal. I currently have an Intel 2.8ghz quad core, 8gb ram, and 2 ATI HD 4850's in Crossfire (sometimes, CrapFire) config. It is an Nvidia motherboard though, and strange things were done to it by Dell to make it accept ATI cards...Google it if you want the gory details.
Performance on this machine varies greatly. Just Cause 2 runs at 60fps at 1920x1080 full options, Fallout 3 and New Vegas vary back and forth and suffer a micro-stutter problem, Borderlands runs like crap with shadows on, etc. Just can't put my finger on the bottleneck here.
So, I am trying to decide whether to upgrade my CPU/Mobo:
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
$118.99
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core
$159.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) $84.99
Subtotal: $363.97
Or my video card (thinking if ditching ATI though I have been a long time ATI user due to driver issues, Crossfire sync issues, and other problems), maybe a GeForce GTX 580 (which I see is in the $500 range, so if anyone has another Video card that is comparable but cheaper, please feel free to let me know). I am still open to ATI if someone can tell me the newer models have less issues
Anyway, thanks to all reading this, and please feel free to let me know what is the best path to a great gaming computer from here.