What would be best to upgrade in PC

[re8]

Gotta reall get a dual core processor for all games from now on....buy a X2 4200+ for £45
They gonna come down more tho, so I'm waiting a little

AMD just lowered their prices Monday (find my thread), so unless there is a week-long lag for the UK, the prices you see today you'll likely to see until next year. Unless there is a special Christmas sale or something.

[Stage]

yea you definitely need to upgrade the processor, the ram is fine and the video card should hold on low settings, maybe low-medium settings. but the processor will shrivel up and die trying to running ut3, it wont be able to keep up

[re8]

I think that should be the best bang for the buck with the announced pricecuts on AMDs X2 Processors. And the Mainboards for AMDs CPUs come relatively cheap too compared to prices of mainboards for Intel CPUs.

I used to think so, until I found out:

• Intel E21x0 overclock like crazy (up to +100%), getting close to Extreme Editions
• Intel E21x0 chips seem to take overheating better than AMD chips now
• If you use NewEgg, DealNews, & other sites, you can find cheap Socket775 boards at only $10 more than comparable AMD boards

Even with the recent price drops, AMD lags behind Intel even on the low-end. The only good reason I've heard to go with AMD is that "They're not Intel". Sorry

[Art_illery]

From the posts i saw from Wee-dude ;o) i wouldn´t recommend him to overclock anything. That might work for you as you seem to be a little better at understanding how things work in a computersystem, but for people, that don´t overclock, that rule, that you can "squeeze" more performance from the lowend Intel CPUs simply doesn´t apply.

Don´t forget, as an overclocker you are one of the maybe 10% of people who are actually doing that. Don´t think everyone is going to overclock, that is simply not true.

[re8]

From the posts i saw from Wee-dude ;o) i wouldn´t recommend him to overclock anything....Don´t think everyone is going to overclock, that is simply not true.

hehe good point!
But to me, if it can overclock well, then that CPU is likely can take heat well, & thus last longer.
Also note: some major manufactures sell overclocked systems now.

The intel 775 platform is still better IMHO; better CPU upgrade path than AM2 for now. Might change with AMDs tri-cores... we'll see.

[salad.afp]

Do you have a 939 mobo?

Because AMD has just cut prices on many of thier processors. You can get an AMD Athlon X2 4000+ for about $50 now.

Good luck... You're gonna need it.

Please check your PM ^_^

[oldkawman1]

What exactly do you have?

That all depends on the motherboard your using? Is it a 939 socket or an old socket A or 462?

If it's a socket 939, you can pick up a Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or 4200+ for cheap or a Opteron 180 for not so cheap, as well as an extra gig of ram. Your radeon will run UT at low detail, so depending on your budget, you can get a better card like the 1950 pro or just wait on upgrading the video card until after the game is released.

But, if it's a socket A or 462, you will need a new motherboard, cpu, video card, and ram. That would mean you really need new memory as well, DDR2 type. The LGA775 or the socket AM2 both require DDR2 memory. You will likely have to get a new power supply as well to support the new motherboard. Your video card will run UT3 at low detail, but if it's the AGP version, it looks like you need to get a new video card as well because it would be silly to get a new motherboard with an AGP slot.

[thegrimreaper3]

I used to think so, until I found out:

• Intel E21x0 overclock like crazy (up to +100%), getting close to Extreme Editions
• Intel E21x0 chips seem to take overheating better than AMD chips now
• If you use NewEgg, DealNews, & other sites, you can find cheap Socket775 boards at only $10 more than comparable AMD boards

Even with the recent price drops, AMD lags behind Intel even on the low-end. The only good reason I've heard to go with AMD is that "They're not Intel". Sorry

everyone talks about this overclock. But your bus speed is **** and therefore NOT WORTH IT... and NOT close to the extreme... not in my opinion...

[re8]

everyone talks about this overclock. But your bus speed is **** and therefore NOT WORTH IT... and NOT close to the extreme... not in my opinion...

That's a good point.
For what I do (audio), a fast bus will help load & edit samples much better; AMD +1.
But, Intel's core is much faster with SSE; Intel +1.

For UT3, let's just let the demo's results speak for themselves

[KriLL3.8™]

And even if it OC:s close to the baseline of another CPU you can OC that CPU even more.

[craigl04]

dont even attempt it with a 939 based system, scrap it all and start again, if needed, go see the man at the bank, they are your freinds

[Jovas]

If your mobo supports a dual core processor, then go get a solid one which fits your socket..

[Art_illery]

Let´s just concentrate on helping that guy who started this post instead of getting to those boring AMD vs. Intel fights shall we ;o).

As i see it, we need a lot more information on the technical specs of the System you are running right now. Which type of Socket is it, which type of Graphics Card Slot. Sadly, upgrading a Computersystem nowadays isn´t as "easy" as it was about 10 years ago. There are so many different paths you can choose from today and with each new generation of Hardware there are new complications on the road to upgrade your System, that you have to take into account, that in my opinion as a rule of thumb it is not really viable to upgrade single parts of a system that is older than 2 years. The PC Architecture is laid out to be very configurable, yes, but with all the technical improvements and incompatibilities that arise from new Technologies faster and faster each generation of the Hardware, it is very hard to upgrade single parts without compromising too much.

In most cases it is much better to just get rid of the old System as one (sell it on ebay or something) and take that money, put some new money on top and go out to buy a completely new Rig.

That is the reality today, sad as that may be. Don´t ever make the assumption that you are buying a System that you can upgrade for years to come, you will get disappointed very badly.

And for Weehuuu, it all comes down to upgrading the CPU first, this is his main bottleneck in his system right now. If it proves to be too hard to upgrade the CPU with the Socket he is using, than he will be needing nearly a complete new system (Harddisks and DVD Drives could be worth upgrading too, if they are still IDE Types, as S-ATA is becoming the new standard rapidly). His only chance at getting away real cheap is if it is a S939 Mainboard, which he could upgrade with one of those remaining S939 Dual Core Athlon X2s on the market, but those will vanish till the end of the year/beginning next year too, would be my guess

[re8]

Let´s just concentrate on helping that guy who started this post instead of getting to those boring AMD vs. Intel fights shall we...There are so many different paths you can choose from today and with each new generation of Hardware there are new complications on the road to upgrade your System, that you have to take into account, that in my opinion as a rule of thumb it is not really viable to upgrade single parts of a system that is older than 2 years. ...

And for Weehuuu, it all comes down to upgrading the CPU first, this is his main bottleneck in his system right now.

Yes, his graphics cards are good, so a AMD x2 would put his system in the "good+" range, then an extra GB into the "very good" range.
I wouldn't buy another MOBO if possible.

[Art_illery]

Let´s just wait until he drops in and hopefully gives us some more info on the techspecs of his System, then we can help him decide if it is worth upgrading single parts, or if he is better off buying a complete new system (if he has the money anyways that is)