Build Advice Upgrade Advice

Upgrading from:

Motherboard: Gigabyte P35 DSL
CPU: Intel Dual Core E2220 2.4GHz
Memory: Corsair DDR2 6400 XMS
GPU: nVidia 260GTX 956MB
PSU: Tagan Whisper 450W
Case: Coolermaster Centurion

Upgrading to:

Motherboard:MSI 770-C45

CPU: - AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2

Memory: Corsair XMS3 DDR3

Case: Antec 300

PSU and GPU staying the same.

I'm not looking for top performance, just a cheap upgrade to get a bit more performance for gaming and also to match the GPU which I feel is probably bottlenecked a bit by the CPU.

Thanks for any advice.

 

thats isnt really an upgrade just a switch from intel to AMD except you have added 2GB more RAM.

my advice is aim higher or add an extra 2GB and good cooler to your existing rig and overclock the CPU

 

I hear what you're saying im just not too keen on upgrading the RAM to DDR2 when it will be redundant if I upgrade my motherboard (plus 4GB DDR2 is still quite expensive).

 

Looks good to me... if you're running Windows Vista/7 then the RAM should make quite a difference - when I jumped from 2GB to 4GB I noticed an incredible speed boost. Can definitely vouch for the CPU cooler anyway - same as I'm running - keeps my 7750BE at a steady 20 degrees.

 

You OCing your CPU?

 

I will give OC'ing a shot today. I've only overclocked an Athlon 64 before, so this is gonna require a bit of reading. Maybe just get some more RAM from eBay to save on cost eh.

 

oo god please dont.

you get zero warranty and could end up with faulty RAM.

 

Oh really? Ah well... maybe I won't then!

 

The stuff that you are looking at will not perform any better than what you have got, you would be better of with an overclock or some more ram could you not just get another matched pair like your own

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-Corsair-DDR2-PC2-6400-(800MHz)-240-Pins-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-5-5-5-18-Lifeitme-warranty

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-(2x1GB)-Corsair-TwinX-XMS2-DDR2-PC2-6400-(800)-240-Pins-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-4-4-4-12

that would be cheaper option

 

what cooler do you have atm?

you should be able to get that chip to 3.2+ with a half decent cooler

a cooler and 4gb ram is what you need

what is your hard drive like?
could be worth looking into a samsung F3 500gb drive they are really good

 

Don't know if you're running on 2 gigs or 4 gigs of RAM atm, but if you do upgrade from that 2 to 4, I suggest you get a 64 bit OS seeing as 32 bits won't be able to use 4 gigs.

Not sure if you've already thought of it, but thought I'd mention it just in case