After my plans to upgrade an old base unit ran aground due to other expenses coming up, I've decided to look at the project again, specifically the status of my primary gaming unit. The current spec is below: iBUILD™ Intel Gaming PC All Rounder Premium ATX Midi Tower Case Corsair 750Watt PSU (actually a different, equivalent model, a Seasonic IIRC) ASUS P5Q Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 Dual Core 2x3GHz 6MB cache Standard CPU Cooling Fan Samsung 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz 320GB 7200RPM SATA II Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD RW Black SATA nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Home Built-in audio Internal Card Reader 26 in 1 Currently gaming on an old Dell 17" 1280x1024 monitor, but I'd like to replace it so that the Dell is available when I get round to upgrading the other base. So what I'm wondering is whether I can upgrade only the GPU and step the resolution up a bit? I'm guessing a 20" 1600x900 one wouldn't add much extra stress, but if possible I'd like to jump to 21-23" and either 1680x1050 or Full HD due to the price margin's being relatively close. The only games we play are old Star Trek ones, all DX9 and 32-bit, so while I may swap out a new HDD and Win 7, I'll be sticking with the existing RAM and a 32-bit OS. How far can I take the GPU upgrade before the CPU becomes a limiting factor? NB: No real funds are available as yet, I'm trying to get an idea of the options before I start saving. However, unless it is likely to make huge difference, I would say £100-150 would be reasonable. Shamrock Holmes
You won't have any issues upgrading to even the newest graphics cards, so long as it's a single core card (no 5970 or 295 as an example). That being said, if you're planning on running at 1680 x 1050, you won't need anything more powerful than say a 5770. If you're going to be running at 1920 x 1200 (or 1920 x 1080 for the 16:9 monitors), something like a 5850 would be sufficient. Just make sure your power supply can support the card.
A 750W Corsair PSU (or equivalent Seasonic - not that there is any difference) would be sufficient for all single GPUs and most dual GPUs. Depends on the game. The E8400 is a good CPU which will overclock well if your BIOS supports overclocking. Given that the Star Trek game you play are old ones it is probable that you would not benefit from upgrading to a quad core.
