Hiya all. I am just thinking about starting to upgrade my system as its a couple of years old now. My current system is as follows Amd 6400 x2 Black Edition- CPU Asus M2N-Sli Deluxe- Motherboard Coolermaster realpower 850w- PSU Nvidia 8800GTX- GPU Creative Fatal1ty Xfi Platnum- Soundcard 4 gig of Cosair DDR2- Memory Artic Freezer Pro- Cpu Cooler NZXT Lexa- Case I am currently running it on a Samsung LCD Tv 26" which only has a resolution of 1360x768 At the moment i have got a Antec 1200 Case coming this week. I have £140 cash waiting plus what ever i am replacing i will be selling on to make more money. So my question is what should i be upgrading and what should i be upgrading to?? I mainly use my PC for Sim racing and thats about it really although i do play Arma2 and operation arrowhead. Oh and i will be buying second hand components as i just cant justify loosing so much money when buying new like i have done previously. Any help will be much appreciated. Cheers Chris
Well, I'd first look at replacing the 8800GTX with a GTX460 (gotta love Nvidia nomenclature ). With the money you have and selling the old card, a 1GB version should be possible. Also, have you overclocked your processor?
Your LCD for sure, 1360x768 is a very low res. At 26" that pixel density is sure to be very low, can't look too good.
i am not really worried about the screen to be honest as i am sat further away from it than a convenional Monitor because of mt racing cockpit set up.
Well, are you able to play Arma and Operation Arrowhead at decent settings? I'm guessing yes because of the low res and decent GPU. I'd say put the money into a good keyboard and mouse if you don't have them already, or headphones/speakers.
Belive or not arma2 struggles at full quality but i think maybe thats a cpu issue perhaps as i have heard that its very hard on the cpu?
It might be, wouldn't think that a heavily overclocked 6400+ would struggle though.. How full quality? Do you have draw distance way up?
The processor's all right then. OT: docodine, your avatar has been driving me nuts for time immemorial as I recognise it but I can't remember where from! Please put me out of my misery!
http://www.trustedreviews.com/cpu-memory/review/2007/09/27/AMD-Athlon-64-X2-6400-Black-Edition/p1 There it is matey. Now its only a duel core and my board officially supports this model-- http://www.trustedreviews.com/cpu-memory/review/2009/01/08/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-940/p1 And some people have managed to get this one working too--- http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-phenom-cpu,7312.html even though its a am3 chip whilst my board is only a AM2 ...Do you think i will see a noticable difference if i upgraded to one of these perhaps?As well as a new gpu??
I'm not sure how AMD backwards compatibility works, if you can get those AM3 chips running, why not a 1055T?
Get a new GPU if you feel your frame rates need a boost. If they're fine (and they might well be at such low resolution) then don't bother. Don't waste money on a faster CPU just for gaming, that one is fine. In most games (excepting those that are badly multi-threaded or have extensive physics that you don't want to turn down) you'll see little difference between your current CPU and the fastest AMD make, unless you spent a heck of a lot on graphics muscle. A better screen is a pretty good suggestion, but if you're sitting so far from it that you won't see the benefit of more resolution that would be wasting money also, unless your TV suffers badly from poor colour and/or contrast. As you've got a good soundcard, do you have the other audio hardware to make proper use of it? As has already been suggested, some nice speakers or a good pair of headphones will do a lot to enhance immersion. Note that I don't suggest a "gaming headset", as they're very overpriced for what you get (i.e. £80 for a £20 pair of headphones with a £5 microphone stuck on them). To be honest it's difficult to recommend anything if you're upgrading just because you want to (nothing wrong with that mind!). Is there anything about your PC you don't like, or anything else you use it for? How are your frame rates?
Frame rates are ok in most games i play apart from arma2 really. The reason i thought it may be a cpu bottle neck is because they are big maps in arma2 and there is usually a lot going on over the map that is not actually happening on your screen if you no what i mean. I currently run a set of logitech X540 5.1 speakers and i use a creative fatal1ty headset.The thing is i only use the headset for playing games so if i get a new set it will need a mic on it as i always play multiplayer online. Ohh and regards to a change in monitor i would need to get a 26inch as i could never go smaller now lol and i think that a 26inch monitor with better resolution would be a bit on the pricey side wouldnt it??
I'm not familiar with arma2 but a quick google reveals people complaining it doesn't make good use of more than one core. It should be easy enough to find out what sort of load your CPU and GPU are under during the game, and see which cores are being used. Rivatuner works well if you don't already have a utility. Regardless, if you're running a ~3.4GHz AMD Dual Core already you're not going to see any difference unless you can get it or another CPU beyond that clock speed. A better solution might be to look for a utility that forces better use of multiple cores, which would almost double your in-game processing power. During my search for a utility to make supreme commander use multiple cores I remember seeing one that works for any game/program, though I didn't try it - it's out there somewhere. With the speakers/headset you have there's probably no point in upgrading those either, unless you want to spend a lot of money. I find standalone microphones work perfectly well for in-game chat, which removes the dependence on headsets. You can get some really nice headphones for a reasonable price, but whether or not you need them depends on how much importance you place on audio. Once you get to the level you're at you have to spend a lot of money to see any significant improvement in quality, in my opinion. You're fine with what you have unless you're unhappy with them for some reason. If you're looking for a monitor the same size or larger than your current TV with better resolution and quality you probably don't have to spend that much, though I guess it depends on how well the TV works as a PC monitor. I'd imagine the 27'' Hanns.G would be an improvement in every way, as it's bigger, higher resolution and has decent colour/contrast etc for a TN panel. If you wanted to get a top-notch screen then yes you'd have to spend quite a bit at that size, but I'm guessing anything of a similar size with HD-level resolution would be an improvement. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can help you out here!
honestly i would just save for a more significant upgrade when you have about £400 you will be able to get an almost brand new system using a few parts of your old (plus selling a few others)
