Build Advice New PC in stages

Hi guys and girls

I am upgrading my pc slowly bit by bit as its the only way I can afford ;(

My budget is about £60 an item, but can potentially push that a bit, for instance to get a 4770 card

So far have upgraded the HD as the old one was very old and starting to make weird noises, went for the:

1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 SATA2 7200RPM 32MB cache

Rest of kit as follows:
AMD 64 X2 3800+ (overclocked slightly to 2.4ghz)
OCZ DDR2 PC2-5400 / 667MHz / Special Ops Edition - 2GB
ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA Motherboard
Radeon 9250 128Mb 64 Bit ddrohs

Running xp and windows 7 rc 64 bit, and want to move to Windows 7 64 bit as my main OS.

I store lots of photos, do minimal manipulation of them, and play WoW a lot.

The above machine just about copes with WoW on low settings, but when there is a lot happenning on screen, my frame rate drops to the low singles and its impossible to do anything. On a good day I get about 15 fps average.

I would like to be able to play WoW with the settings turned up and get a decent frame rate but don't obviously need anything blisteringly fast.

So my question is what order should I replace bits in and what recommendations do you have?

My thoughts were as follows:

1. Motherboard
2. Memory
3. Graphics Card
4. Processor

Any help appreciated

 

In order:

1) GPU
2) RAM
3) mobo and CPU at the same time.

what PSU do you have ? brand wattage etc ???


GPU first as this is the biggest factor for games - the 4770 is a good card for mid to low resolution. should be perfectly fine for WoW (pretty low spec). what resolution do you game at ???

4GB will benefit you massively especially in win7, you can geet away with 2GB in XP but not vista or win7 really if you want t0 play games. DDR800 or DDR1066 2x2GB will do.

mobo and RAM maybe something like a E5200 maybe with the biostar IP45 (think thats what its called)

 

Have a 400w something PSU, came with the original Mesh PC that is still the case as well, but thats all thats left of the original machine

Have a 19 inch flat screen (Xerox) and would like to push the graphics to whatever limit I can get out of WoW really.

 

is it a branded PSU i.e coolermaster, seasonic, corsair etc ?

if its a cheap and nasty one that could do with an upgrade too possibly.

The 4770 should be more than enough for WoW on max details @ 1280x1024 /1440x900.

 

Your motherboard is AGP.

 

OMG old school my bad.

first to update is now mobo before anything.

you can either get another AMD board (AM2+, although not sure which is best) and put your 3800 in with an upgrade to 720BE later.

or get an E5200 and biostar P45 board as the intel option

 

That wouldn't work...

 

This is the motherboard spec page
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=AM2NF3-VSTA

I was considering an AM2+ board as they say they also take the AM2 processors, so could carry on with the existing X2 64 3800+, but still upgrade the board and other bits, and then later replace the chip with something nice.

 

why not ?

hes got an AM2 3800+ X2

all AM2 CPUs are compatible with AM2+ boards.

 

Can you elaborate please?

 

Lol, Socket 939 != Socket AM2?

 

er the motherboard he currently has is socket AM2 ??????

therefore his 3800 is AM2 !!!!!

 

CPUZ tells me that the CPU is a


Socket AM2 (940)



If only I could attach the screen shot of CPUZ

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=169250

give the above a read

then try to save up for a few months i would suggest you save the money they buy in one go to be honest

 

And ASRock website states the motherboard is AM2, http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=AM2NF3-VSTA

Where did the 939 confusion come from?

So basically you can keep your CPU and get a better board.

 

anyway back on topic,

it would provide you with an upgrade path if money is an issue so you cud go AM2+ board with 3800 then switch to 720BE at a later date. before eventually switching to AM3 if you ever do and your 720BE will work in that.

or you cud opt down the intel path instead. although this would cost more initially and offers no upgrade path if that important to you.

 

OK then so mobo first, now which one?

Would it be worth buying one with integrated graphics at the moment, until I can afford the 4770?

So something like
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+AM2%2B+(AMD)/Gigabyte+GA-MA780G-UD3H+AMD+780G+Socket+AM2%2B/AM2+Motherboard+?productId=35357
or
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150949

Thanks for all the help so far

 

thinking about it abit.

you would be better saving your money up rather than upgrading piece by piece as suggested by yakyb.

This will give you better kit overall.

also i doubt you will be able to get a 4770 as these are in very short supply. although it depends when you decide to buy. At the minute there hard to get.

what sort of budget total are you looking at may help in making some suggestions ?

 

I had not planned on saving up really, not something thats easy to do

I understand that I might end up with a better machine if I save up and get it all at once, but for various reasons I have about £60 a month to spend and would prefer to do it in stages, means if I have a bad few months then at least I have got some extra gain with the pieces I have already bought

And I have been trying for about 2 weeks to get a 4770 without any luck, so that may just go to the bottom of the list for the moment.