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Build Advice Quick upgrade advice please...

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by brodel, 15 Mar 2010.

  1. brodel

    brodel Minimodder

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    Hi,

    My friend has found some of his games starting to stutter a bit, more noticeably after installing Windows 7. He currently has this setup...

    Intel e6320 1.8ghz
    2 x 1GB of RAM
    Gigabyte ga-965p-ds3p mobo
    4870 1GB GPU


    The games that are coming out in the future that he wants to play are splinter cell conviction and bad company 2.

    Splinter Cell

    Core 2 Duo at 1.8 GHz or Athlon X2 64 at 2.4 GHz
    1.5GB RAM for Windows XP; 2GB RAM for Windows Vista or 7
    GeForce 7800 or Radeon X1800 with 256 MB (GeForce 8800 GS or Radeon 4670 with 512 MB recommended)

    BBC2

    Minimum Specs
    Processor: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz
    Main memory: 2GB
    Graphics card: GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900
    Graphics memory: 256MB

    Recommended Specs
    Processor: Quadcore
    Main memory: 2GB
    Graphics card: GeForce GTX 260
    Graphics memory: 512MB


    I looked at possible upgrades to his current computer, for example a Q8200 and 4GB of RAM which came to about £200. Personally I think it might be a waste to invest in fairly old technology and have also looked at an i5 rig, i5-750, gigabyte p55m and 4bg of ddr3 1600 RAM which came ot about £340.

    The i5 seems like the more worthwhile investment to me, but I wanted to see what people on here thought and if there were better options that i've missed. Does anyone have any extra advice or alternatives that I should look at? :)
     
  2. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    All depends on what he wants to spend, have you tried OC'ing his existing PC?

    I'd go for an i5 over upgrading a dead socket.
     
  3. adam_bagpuss

    adam_bagpuss Have you tried turning it off/on ?

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    could just upgrade the RAM to 4GB and overclock the E6320 to around 3GHz.

    cheapest option for you.

    what res does he game at ? as the 4870 is still a pretty good GPU and its probly your CPU and RAM that lettin you down now
     
  4. brodel

    brodel Minimodder

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    Sorry, i should have mentioned that he games at 1680 x 1050. I haven't tried overclocking his current system. Do you imagine an overclocked version of his system would be adequate for Battlefield Bad Company 2?
     
  5. adam_bagpuss

    adam_bagpuss Have you tried turning it off/on ?

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    hmm should do ok only thing you will lack is quad core but a nice fast dual core should compensate a bit.
     
  6. PureSilver

    PureSilver E-tailer Tailor

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    Overclocking's definitely the first thing to try, because after that (I too don't consider it worth upgrading a dead socket) he'd need a new CPU/motherboard/RAM combination, which is much, much more expensive. To soften the blow (and if all he does is game) you could try the i3 dual-cores, which are cheaper than the i5 quads.
     
  7. brodel

    brodel Minimodder

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    I might head over to his on the weekend so could possible try overclocking first, although i haven't done any since overclocking my AMD 3000+ about 5 years ago so I'll need to read up on that again.

    The i3 looks like a really good cpu for the price, he doesn't mind spending money to be covered for the future and it seems like quite a few games might be going quad core, like battlefield bad company 2 for example... so he may just think it's worth paying the extra £65 for the i5 750.

    thanks for all the quick replies by the way =)
     
  8. adam_bagpuss

    adam_bagpuss Have you tried turning it off/on ?

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    if he doesnt mind spending some cash id go i5 750 and overclock it should have no problem for the next year or 2 before you upgrade again lol
     
  9. brodel

    brodel Minimodder

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    yea, i mentioned him the cost of the i5 build and he said it was less than he'd expected to spend so i think that's the best option. =)

    thanks again
     

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