What to upgrade in old computer?

Tar.Aldarion

Specs:

Antec NSK 4480 case
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 (4MB L2 Cache)
Patriot 2GB PC6400 (800MHz)
ATI HD 4870 1GB
motherboard is nForce 650i Ultra
PSU Corsair TX 650W

So I have a secondary computer on my desk and we like to play games on both, small lan. However this pc is getting a bit sluggish, taking a while to open windows etc. Might I be better to have XP on something with this spec or stick with win7?

I play games like CSS, dota 2, trackmania, portal 2, hl2, l4d2 etc on it. I would like to know what might be the easiest thing to upgrade on it that would make a difference, I was thinking of scrapping the 2 gb of ram and getting some new 4 gig kit?

ShadowHearth

if i am not mistaken you can upgrade cpu in to some q6600 +++, which will make huge difference.


pump up ram up to 4gb too, i would not go any higher unless you can find a cheap deal of ddr2 6 or 8gb ram.


you could bump up gpu to 6870 and have a very nice solid machine after all those upgrades.

check adverts.ie to find some ram and qpu, should not be a problem

Tar.Aldarion

So taht would be the best cpu I could get in to that mobo would it be? The CPU is definitely the bottleneck i feel, along with ram I suppose.

Would have to be ddr2 ram is it? Cheapest 4gb of that would be good so. something from mymemoryc maybe? Maybe adverts would be better ye. See any good deals give me a shout


Think I'll leave the gfx for now, as I'd like it to be fairly cheap, just to get a bit more life out of the machine and my gfx card has no problem with those games at all, even my 8800gts doesnt heh. Really feel the cpu slows it down, and to a lesser extent ram.

Serephucus

Something like this would be good:

http://www.adverts.ie/hardware/intel-core-2-quad-processor-q6600-2-40-ghz/1432950

It's a 2.4GHz quad core, that you can overclock to up to 3.6GHz.

FruitLover

Don't forget your storage - an SSD as your boot/OS drive should speed things up (particularly general day-to-day farting about with windows browsers, etc).

Tar.Aldarion

Serephucus wrote: »

Something like this would be good:

http://www.adverts.ie/hardware/intel-core-2-quad-processor-q6600-2-40-ghz/1432950

It's a 2.4GHz quad core, that you can overclock to up to 3.6GHz.

Looks god, would that OC on any aul cooler? I cant imagine what kind of crap one is in this old computer. I have a stock one from an 2500k though, but that might not even be better.

FruitLover wrote: »

Don't forget your storage - an SSD as your boot/OS drive should speed things up (particularly general day-to-day farting about with windows browsers, etc).

Would love that, but sure I dont even have an ssd in my main pc, waiting for them to come down a bit and get a 512 :-) Trying to keep it cheap to spruce it up, man I'd love one heh.

Serephucus

You'd need to fork out an extra €20 or so for a decent-ish cooler. It doesn't have to be fantastic, but better than stock at least, and you'll get to 3.0.

Come to think of it, you probably could to 2.8-3.0 stock, but odds are it would be loud as hell.

Tar.Aldarion

Might try and OC a little on stock and see, if not an arctic 7 or something will do well.
So teh aim would be to get a q6600 for about 50e?


ddr 3 not work in such an old mobo?
new ddr2 seems pretty expensive. 50-80 for 4gbs
http://www.memoryc.ie/products/type/Computer_Memory/DDR2/index.html#Capacity=4GB&page=0

So I should prob look on adverts for that too.

Serephucus

Yup, DDR2 is quite expensive now. I actually have 4x1GB sticks here that I'm looking to get rid of. Shoot me a PM or something if you're interested.

I'd pay €50 for a Q6600, but the few I've seen on Adverts seem to be a little higher than that. You could probably get those down around the €50 mark though without too much bother.

Tar.Aldarion

Cool, will give you a shout. If I can get 4x1 second hand that would be grand. Was thinking of just getting another 2x1 but im not sure mix and matching is great. Thanks for the help!

ShadowHearth

well like i did mentioned q6600 will hit a sweet spot. its still a very very solid gaming cpu. some people might coped on it and thats why prices went a wee bit up.
try to get a set of 4gb sticks. should be on adverts. those are getting rare and very expencive. so keep looking for it m8.

if you plat only those listed games then your current 8800gts might still be a valid solution m8.

Tar.Aldarion

Thanks guys.

So am thinking of buying 4x1gb set as above for 40e, second hand.

A question though, is it ok to mix and match ram? Since I have 2x1gb patriot, what if I stuck in 2x1 of another type would that be ok?

Was also thinking that 2x2gb of ddr2 ram second hand + the 2x1gb patriot ram that I have for 6gb.


Would this stuff cause issues and I'd just be best to stick to the 4x1gb set?

Serephucus

You could use 2x2 and 2x1, but depending on the motherboard, and the type of RAM, sometimes they just don't get along. As to which ones, it's a bit of a crapshoot. There's also the point to be made that 6GB vs. 4GB won't really do anything for the computer, unless you're doing very memory-intensive stuff - VMs or music production or something.

Tar.Aldarion

That's true, don't need 6 at all. Could go for your 4x1gb and sell my 2x1gb.

or go for 2x1gb of yours and 2x1gb of my own. :-p
Must read about using differing types, same might be best.

johnners2981

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Thanks guys.

So am thinking of buying 4x1gb set as above for 40e, second hand.

A question though, is it ok to mix and match ram? Since I have 2x1gb patriot, what if I stuck in 2x1 of another type would that be ok?

Was also thinking that 2x2gb of ddr2 ram second hand + the 2x1gb patriot ram that I have for 6gb.


Would this stuff cause issues and I'd just be best to stick to the 4x1gb set?

No don't mix and match ram, it doesn't always work so it'd be better to get 4x1gb and sell your 2x1gb

Tar.Aldarion

Which is the better chip, a , E8400, E8600 or a q6600, q8300? Been offered all of those...

deconduo

The E8600 would be the fastest clocked chip at 3.33 GHz, but its only a dual core. The Q6600 would be better as its a quad core. As serephecus said, it overclocks pretty decently too.

Tar.Aldarion

Thanks might go for that so, people seem to be interested in them moreso that the others anyway, always a good sign.

gonna look for a second hand cooler like arctic 7 too.


Oh so the q6600 is better than the other quad core? i always think bigger is better Seems to have more cache while the other is slightly faster stock.

johnners2981

There's not much difference in the q6600 and the q8300, the q8300 is newer but probably won't oc as high. So go with whichever you can get cheapest

Tar.Aldarion

Sounds good to me. Great stuff guys, thanks.

FruitLover

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

waiting for them to come down a bit and get a 512 :-) Trying to keep it cheap to spruce it up, man I'd love one heh.

I wouldn't even bother with a large SSD, tbh. You wouldn't need more than 128GBs for your OS, programs, installed games (I get away with a 60GB OS drive), then you can just use a cheaper rotary drive for storage.

Tar.Aldarion

I know ocz made good and bad ram, looking at 2x2gb of ocz PC8500 5-5-5 Platinum ddr2 ram, what make you of that type? It's between that and the 4x1gb corsair value select ram above.


edit: it seems fine, nvm.

ED E

deconduo wrote: »

The E8600 would be the fastest clocked chip at 3.33 GHz, but its only a dual core. The Q6600 would be better as its a quad core. As serephecus said, it overclocks pretty decently too.

Having moved from an E6700 to a Q6600 last month I'd say you'll pay a little over 60 for it second hand. But if you're considering a faster dual be careful, my Mobo would support up to a Q6700 only, so check first.


If DOTA follows LOL or source form then GPU is pretty irrelevant, mine only runs at max 30% for LOL and source is well know as CPU heavy. The Quad will make all the difference.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

Serephucus wrote: »

Something like this would be good:

http://www.adverts.ie/hardware/intel-core-2-quad-processor-q6600-2-40-ghz/1432950

It's a 2.4GHz quad core, that you can overclock to up to 3.6GHz.

ya, buy that CPU OP

Kirby

I tend to disagree with alot of people regarding this sort of thing.

My ethos on this is why spend 150 or so on upgrading 5 year old technology for a marginal performance boost when you can spend 350 or so on a new CPU ,Mobo and Ram that is less than a year old and has huge performance advantages.

People often go out and spend the money to "upgrade" and end up disappointed with the results. The jump between an E6550 and a q6600 isn't that big for playing games. I've had both of those cpu's. An i5-2500k is great value. It overclocks to 4.5 ghz at the touch of a button with virtually no effort. The jump to an i5 is quite large.

In my eyes, you are better sticking with what you have and saving a little more to get something new that will do you for several years to come.

ShadowHearth

Kirby wrote: »

I tend to disagree with alot of people regarding this sort of thing.

My ethos on this is why spend 150 or so on upgrading 5 year old technology for a marginal performance boost when you can spend 350 or so on a new CPU ,Mobo and Ram that is less than a year old and has huge performance advantages.

People often go out and spend the money to "upgrade" and end up disappointed with the results. The jump between an E6550 and a q6600 isn't that big for playing games. I've had both of those cpu's. An i5-2500k is great value. It overclocks to 4.5 ghz at the touch of a button with virtually no effort. The jump to an i5 is quite large.

In my eyes, you are better sticking with what you have and saving a little more to get something new that will do you for several years to come.

okay...

we are talking about dual cpu with 2gb ram system. having a nice 2500k system is always awesome and i would always recomend to save up, but not in this case.
if person actively gaming now, then the current setup is like a little troll who ****s on your soul, every time you try to play something. To save up 600-700eu for a nice brand new setup will take time, so if he can spend around 100eu now and make it less stressfull for him, so he can save up money for proper new setup. q6600 is still a very very beefy CPU and bumping that pc to 4gb ram will make wonders.

i have 2 pc. my q6600 3gb 6870 old dell, which can play anything right now and my new pc 2500k 8gb gtx570 monster. when i have them bouth side by side my new rig makes my cry when i think about euro/performance ratio compared to my old Dell. ( i am trying not to think about it anymore :d ). so i know in fact that such minor, cheapish upgrades will make wonders in OPs case.

Kirby

ShadowHearth wrote: »

To save up 600-700eu for a nice brand new setup will take time, so if he can spend around 100eu now and make it less stressfull for him,.

600-700? Thats a bit extreme. You can get a cpu, mobo, and ram for about 350 if you look for deals. Thats what i did. I got an i5, p67 and 8 gigs of 1600 ddr3 for 440. And that was nearly a year ago. And i didn't go for budget items like a person could. I got a FTW board. If you shop around, it can be had for cheaper.

Incremental upgrading the cpu and ram will set him back atleast 100. Probably more. And thats second hand with no warranty for a tiny boost. You talk about value. I just don't see the value in going that way tbh.

It's his choice but I thought I would offer a dissenting voice. No harm in it.

Tar.Aldarion

Hey guys, thanks for all that, both opinions are valid to me. It is something I had thought about a lotbefore buying anything, save up a bit and get another pc or upgrade that one. Thing is I already have a 2500k, p67, 560ti, 8gb ram etc pc.

This is the other pc on my desk, we like to play games together, I just need to keep it up to speed and get all new stuff in a few years. It is annoyingly slow atm and this will make a big difference for now. My thoughts also are that I can sell my ram, my old processor and an old gfx card and have spent nothing really, to get better stuff for now.

In the end I've gotten an unreal deal for 100e, 300/400 worth of stuff (4gb ram, mobo, gfx card, q8300, 2 hdds, pc350s, antec 300 case, 750 watt psu) so if that gets dropped over as planned, all is well. I'll build a pc out of the best of what I have.

Will do what you say in the future kirby, as I am very wary of upgrading towards a dead end, got a great deal though.