About upgrades

**Triarii** · April 10, 2007, 05:29 AM

You probably get sick of people asking for upgrades but I could use some advice for the future. I'm from the UK if that helps.

My current system is:

Processor: Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz
Motherboard: ASRock P4V88+
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon X800XL
RAM: 1.5 GB, can't remember which type.

I'm guessing that a new processor should be my top priority.

EDIT: I'm operating on a low budget so I would be unwilling to spend more than £250. I just want a machine that can run M2TW well as my current system really struggles in large battles and sieges of any size.

**Arakorn** · April 10, 2007, 08:47 AM

Well I guess people get sick of people wanting an upgrade who doesn't post their budget.

So I'd start with that.

**Citizen** · April 10, 2007, 03:15 PM

In all honesty £250 is kinda tight if you wanna upgrade that machine mate.

You need a new processor thus you're going to need a new mobo since the one you currently have is socket 478. C2D's are socket 775 (I recommend a C2D as I am sure will most people). Core 2 Duo's require DDR2 ram and thus you're going to need new ram. I also think the main problem is your video card - anyone else agree?

If you want to be somewhat future proof and avoid upgrading for at least another year, I'd go with the Nvidia 7600GT - cheapest I've seen is about £75 1 gig of ram should do you fine and get the E4300 Processor. That's plenty good enough. You can always OC it later too!

**Erik** · April 10, 2007, 03:45 PM

You could replace your 2.8GHz Pentium 4 with a 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 (which IIRC is the fastest processor for the socket 478).

Your graphics card is still fairly decent, I would wait a few months for the prices of DX9 AGP cards to drop. (I expect a huge drop during the summer, when mid-range DX10 cards get released and most of the old stock has to go).

**Incinerate_IV** · April 10, 2007, 04:20 PM

I don't think a 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 is going to make that much of a difference. All the Pentium series are outdated, it will just be a waste of money.

Sorry to say, but you probably will need a new computer. The whole computer is too old, you can't really upgrade it any more, it just won't be worth it.

You can try to optimize your software to make your programs run more efficiently. Start by uninstalling background programs, updating your drivers, maybe try overclocking, and of course scan for viruses. Check this site out for some nice tweaks and guides.

**Doono** · April 10, 2007, 04:33 PM

Your setup is not very promising for an upgrade especially if you want to move to a higher platform. You are screwed with a low budget and a lot of unusable parts in a new system. If you move toa core 2 duo system you will need to replace the:

Mobo
Cpu
RAM
and probably the graphics card i don't think many if any core 2 duo mobo's take agp anymore.

Ok after a bit of searching I found this which is the only way your getting onto a core 2 duo platform with your current budget. It will allow you to slowly make the switch since it has alot of cross platform functions:
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA VIA PT880 Ultra
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=534747
From what I have gathered it supports AGP 8x and PCI-E 16x so you can keep your current card for now.
It has 2x DDR 400 RAM slots and 2x DDR2 RAM slots obviously only one type can be used and only 2 slots are available so unless your current ram setup has a gig stick you will be limited to 1 gig.
It's also very cheap so when you have all the other components sorted you cna throw this out and get a decent board.
I would couple it with this http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=532081

If you can get a bit more cash i would go for one of these bundles and a buy a new graphics card, this is a way better choice.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=339&subcat=

With one of these it will be quite acceptable as a mid range machine
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=356

£330.12 you arn't goign to get better than that.

**Triarii** · April 11, 2007, 05:35 AM

Thanks for the replies. As I feared it's not so much an upgrade but a complete overhaul that's needed.

Doono that bundle looks very nice. I think I'll go for it. Although I'll need to wait a few months until I can get the money.

Just one more question: How much of an improvement is the 7600GT?

**Incinerate_IV** · April 11, 2007, 03:08 PM

Originally Posted by Triarii

Just one more question: How much of an improvement is the 7600GT?

To tell you the truth, your current X800XL is already really good. The only thing holding you back is the processor. Performance wise the X800XL will probably be the same as the 7600GT, or it might even be better.

**Erik** · April 11, 2007, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by Incinerate_IV

Performance wise the X800XL will probably be the same as the 7600GT, or it might even be better.

It depends on the game, sometimes the 7600GT is faster, sometimes the X800XL is.
Just take a look at Tom's GPU charts: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

So I agree: there is no need to replace that graphics card yet.

**Triarii** · June 01, 2007, 05:56 AM

This is the setup I've decided on:

Motherboard: Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA VIA PT880 Ultra, S775, AGP / PCI-E, DDR
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663)

I'm sticking with my X800XL for now.

How well will this run M2TW?

EDIT: I just realised that this mobo does not support 800Mhz RAM

**Doono** · April 11, 2007, 06:43 AM

Im not entirly sure but i think the x800xl was created to counter Nvidia's 6800 so that would mean the 7600 is quite a fair bit more powerfull than it. However if your goign to wait a while you will probably be able to get a low end 8000series card for a similer price or a 1900 series radeon.

**sdjenkyn** · April 11, 2007, 07:10 AM

you have a couple option's 1) upgrade your vid card to a 7800gt......huge performance increase even with your current set-up. Its what i did when oblivion came out and i basically had the exact same config as you do. If you have cash left over add a zalman fan to your cpu and overclock it. This rig is now my daughters and she is running a 2.4 currently clocked to 2.8 with 2gigs of ddr 400 and a 7800gt. There is nothing she can't play on it. 2) Save your money and do a complete rebuild because once you go to the 8000 series v.cards you will need to look at pci-express boards, bigger power supply, dual-core chips and ddr2.....depending on what you are going to run app wise it may not be needed for another year or two.