Build Advice the weakest link... in my system.

Aloha, quick question on what part of my system bottlenecks the most.

current system:

E6400 core2duo @ 2.14ghz (i can OC it to 3.00)

Asus P5W - DH (with a BIOS update a 45nm quad core is accepted)

2gigs 800mhz ram

8800gts 640mb (stock : 513 / 792 oc'ed 580 / 928)

boot drive is a 160gb IDE HDD

Asus 22inch 1680 x 1050 monitor,


Asking because i have limited money, and would like to keep this system untill 2010 but if possible, upgrade items that could be kept, or would be cost effective.
so going for a new CPU is a little counter intuitive, as i would go AM3 / i5 next year.

thanks in advance

 

There is no weak point in that machine if you ask me, it's balanced very nicely.


For it to last another year i'd pick up a 4870 or GTX260 (both of which can be had for less than £130), as neither will be limited by your overclocked CPU and should easily last another year at your monitors resolution.

 

thanks muchly.

thinking of a 4gig ram kit, total = 6gb.
and a graphics card of some sort to last me through my entire next build. 260 seems good.

thankyou.

 

what os you running? if 64 bit, grab another 2 gigs of ram, otherwise i'd say you look fine. the vga is a little dated, so you could upgrade that if you wanted, depending on the budget like cyph3r said. i don't know that i'd upgrade if you couldnt afford at least the 4870 or gtx 260, because then the upgrade really becomes less of an upgrade as it is spending money for a slight performance gain. i would maybe even try to grab a 4890 or gtx 275 if the budget allows.

edit:
beat me to it...lol

 

Perhaps getting a faster hard-drive too, such as a Samsung F1?

 

I have nearly the equal setup as you, I have been considering a faster hard drive the WD blue/ black is were Iam looking there is also the Samsung F1.

But I would go for a bit of oc on the cpu if your cooler can keep the temps down.

 

for new gpu have a look at this 4890 very good price for one http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...z-GDDR5-GPU-850MHz-Cores-800-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

i think nvidia are introble with there gpu's, they need to do some price checks, because a 4870x2 now costs only £240

 

running XP sp3 32bit. tried installing 64bit win7 but got that "no cd / dvd drivers" error on install. but thats another story.

Thanks for all the advice, ram is dirt cheap, and a graphics card and good HDD are easily re-useable on a newer setup if i make the jump.

just wanted to make sure i wasnt missing anything.

i think my overall budget is about 200-250... so will price some things up, see what happens.

thanks again.

 

looks to be a pretty decent system. i'd agree that a ram upgrade would probably be the best thing you could do right now. and then graphics if you have cash to burn, but it's probably not really necessary.

 

Maybe swap the 800mhz ram for some 1066mhz stuff, then increase ram frequency in bios.

But I'm not familiar with your board, so not sure if it supports 1066..



But if your going to upgrade soon, might as well set the spare cash aside for now.

 

Most bottlenecks in fast PC (i.e. powerful CPU/GPU) is the Harddrive

Or even, if you can spare the cash, a SSD. Getting more/faster ram won't make a huge noticeable difference, while a faster drive will.

 

well, wouldnt worry about the ram for now then. gpu or hd.

 

2GB --> 4GB RAM will make a nice difference.

However, moving from a 160GB IDE HDD --> 1TB SATA HDD will seriously speed things up. You could even go for a 1.5TB for extra speed (I think they use even higher platter densities)

 

640GB Caviar Black is my suggestion.

And if possible you could always sell the 8800GTS 640mb and buy a HD4770, other than that, it's pretty nicely balanced, and wouldn't cringe until the 4xAA is cranked.