Recommend me PC stuff

[FelixofMars]

Okay so my PC is pretty much feels like a relic or at least a hack job of ancient parts by today's 6/8 core beasts. Basically I tried to sticky tape in spare parts I either found cheap or borrowed apart from I recently upgraded the graphics card. Which while probably not top of the range seems pretty sweet.

Specs are:

Pentium(R) Dual-Core: CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM DDR2 I think.
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (1016MB DDR5 I think?!)
A 300G HDD not any great specs on that, just stores my stuff.

So I just want a cheapest upgrade to sort of match the graphics card and not be bottle necked. which it obviously is at the moment.

My idea is probably to get a SSD 64G and just have windows and some high end progs/games on there as they are ~?90

Then I just want to get a processor that is a good spec for the graphics card and probably DDR3 (or whatever is best for my money over performance.)

My friend keeps telling me to go AMD but I have had reliability/heat issues with them in the past (admittedly 5 years ago+)

I also want to try to get it in a compact case like this one:

http://www.thermaltake.com/product_info.aspx?PARENT_CID=C_00000047&id=C_00000256&name=LANBOX&ovid=

Not really in a rush to do it but I may as well hear suggestions.

[eastyy]

would stick with intel...i have a quad core and does me fine

have to say though those specs do not seem to bad ...what sort of games/programs do you intend to run ?

and what mother board do you have ?

my machine is a quad core q6600 2.4ghz and a geforce 8800 gts and pretty much have felt no need to upgrade can all games fine (though i only tend to play games at a 1024x768 resolution

[abigsmurf]

Overclocking the CPU and replacing the ram with 2*2gb sticks is probably the most cost effective option for you. Apparently the CPU overclocks quite considerably.

Other than that, you're looking at around £350 to build a core i5 system canabalising some parts

[FelixofMars]

I have a feeling it was this board;

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=I2f2e2yHI0XF2Vf9

I am mostly using it to play Battlefield BC 2 with my friends. The framerate improved a lot with the new card but it still tends to drop when lots of stuff it going on. It does feel like its because there isn't the CPU umph behind it.

Things like Left4Dead 2 and of course TF2 run fine, I doubt they would really improve from a new PC.

Basically I have friends with decent rigs and I like to be sociable but Battlefield is still feeling a little unplayable when comparing the the Xbox 360 version even.

Mostly the framerate drops from 40 to sub 20 when lots of explosions happen, the M-com is armed or there is a bit too much action. Obviously its hard to have a fair fight when it lags so my stats are terrible.

Also I want to play the new Guild Wars 2 when it comes out, and probably whatever new shooters come out so maybe the new COD or the new MoH or whatever.

[FelixofMars]

I know you guys are saying Intel and I am a big believer in them as I have had overheat issues with AMD but the chipset is about 50% more and my friends assure me they don't overheat anymore

Should I take the dive with something like this?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/222510

I think I am going to try to split the costs on some stuff so may hold back on doing a full upgrade on RAM.


Basically I have had it with the lag, it clearly just need a little more grunt. I guess I could try overclocking it a bit first but it probably is due to lack of a little of everything (processor,memory,HDD) I guess I could shell out for another 2G stick but it seems a waste.

[abigsmurf]

That seems a very expensive 'deal', my only guess is the ram they use is ultra expensive. Probably a bundle geared around overclocking.

For comparisson, here's an equivalent Core-i5 set:



I would however recommend overclocking that CPU you have just to see what the improvement is, it's surprising the effect it can have.

Remember if you use your existing ram, no matter which stick you buy to go with it (so long as it works), your ram will only be as fast as the slowest pair.

[FelixofMars]

Cheers, I am really clueless about building a modern PC. Too much changes in such a short time.

Although you said I could buy a newer stick of RAM, but it would run at the older RAM's speed I cannot upgrade to a different DDR spec. So DDR3 would not just run with DDR2 or whatever. I am guessing on a NO but I may as well ask.

Will quickly try overclocking, any good values?

[sj33]

^You can't mix DDR2 and DDR3, they're not interchangable. But you can mix different speeds (for example, a stick of DDR3 @ 1066MHz and a stick of DDR3 @ 1333MHz). However, it will always be 'throttled' to the speed of the slowest stick.

Given any existing RAM you likely have was designed for an older CPU (which probably had a slower FSB), it would likely run at a slower clock speed than the FSB of a new CPU (assuming it is compatible at all). So it might be best to just ditch the old RAM entirely. Besides, you're going to want to be running pairs of sticks (2 sticks, 4 sticks etc) in order to run them in Dual Channel mode. Having 3 sticks, 5 sticks etc. will disable Dual Channel mode.

[FelixofMars]

Yeah guessed as much. Ah well I will play with what I have got and wait to save up enough for some half decent bits and pieces when I really can't stand the framerate anymore. Did try overclocking it by 5% so far using the ASUS built in overclock tool in the BIOS. A little less jumpy not sure if its enough.

[abigsmurf]

I reckon you could get a good, stable 20-30% overclock on that CPU without heat or stability issues. Just make sure you know how to hard reset your bios before going in too heavily (in case it refuses to boot).

[FelixofMars]

Thanks, it seemed to work enough at 10% - finally playable! and I don't want to push my luck. I checked through what RAM I have its DDR2 667MHz Ebuyer has it at £19.99 so I could get another 2G. Patch job it up a bit.

Oops it was 1G a 2G stick is £35-40 OUCH!

Forget it then :S

[FelixofMars]

Thanks abigsmurf, the overclocking helps a little with most stuff but I am guessing the multiplayer on BF2 is just too intensive for my RAM or something else is the bottleneck on FRAPS I get around 40/50fps even with my poorly rig. Online its still sub 30, its just about playable but playing on a friends PC its clear that mine doesn't cut it.

In the end I overclocked to 20% but it stopped making any difference.

I am going to order an AMD Phenom II X6 1055T and a motherboard to fit.Should be around £200. I have a decent power supply in this case 650w I think. and a mate has some spare DDR3 RAM that he is going to give me cheapish as he has no need of it.

[abigsmurf]

With 4gigs, you'll have a decent mid range system, that should run pretty much any game out at the moment well.

CPU should last you a good 3-4 years, can't see current CPUs bottlenecking games for a long time.

[FelixofMars]

Yeah thanks for the help anyway. It was fine for Borderlands and Fallout 3 but I assume the online component of BF2 is too much for my poor old rig. Yeah my mate has 4G DDR3. I think the whole thing is priced at around £300 which is far better than previous rigs I built. That said I am reusing my decent HD 5700 card and the PSU is still beefy even for todays juice gobblers so I think it would have been £500 if I had to get those on top which is still reasonable.

[FelixofMars]

And the verdict is a hell of a difference it BF BC 2 from sub 30-40 frames to sometimes 100 if your looking at a scene with not much action but mostly 50-60+ frames. Also in the end I scrimped on the CPU and only got a X4 950.

Still not got all the RAM I wanted either had to borrow some while I wait for mine to arrive.