Comp Upgrade Help

[SixThumbs]

Thanks again, I'll consider the GPU more now but the reason I wanted to upgrade the CPU is because according to "Can You Run it?" it's behind on a lot of games, even the ones that run ok but I still get some gameplay lag here and there. I just don't know how legitimate that site is because it tells me I fail a lot of times even when according to pixel/vertex shader versions and dedicated video ram I'm well above.

[Tibe]

I once happened to read an article about the gaming these days. It stated that gaming hasnt done a exactly massive leep in about 8 years now. I can confirm this, since Crybaby engine and such just add physics and better graphics, while still staying to the basic formula.

 In the old days it was different yes. Year 2000 playin Red Alert 2 with no problems with your badass PC. WHAM! 1 year later you have GTA 3 and everything lags and your gamingsystem is obsolete. Ahh, the good old days.

[Leshma]

So, I guess the question I'm now asking is will a new PSU and GPU help more then a processor? I just remember reading that a processor could possibly hamper performance if the GHz are kind of low for each core and the more than 2 are not commonly used on games yet. My two core only has 2.8 GHz each and I don't know how much of a difference getting four with 3.4 GHz were make, would be a massive jump if I guessed but again with computers I just think higher numbers equal better.

There was a time when games were designed around GPU like first Crysis. Now CPU makes a difference even in singleplayer games. In multiplayer/mmo games good cpu is necessary. You should think about SSD as well.

[Overdriven]

A lot of it is to do with the lack of any console progression. It usually goes along the lines of:
New consoles pushing boundaries of graphics ect blitzing everything else out ---> standard affordable pc specs catch up eventually ---> standard pc specs over take consoles by significant margin ---> consoles bust out the new shiny boundary pushing tech.

Simple fact is that hasn't happened since the 360 and PS3 which is what...8 years?

[SixThumbs]

Welp, after a few more hours of browsing I think I might be shit out of luck powering anything else without "modifying" my computer case further or buying a whole new tower. I've got these sitting in my shopping cart right now:

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134641
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

and this is the only PSU I could find so far that would quite possibly fit in the damn thing:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-151-090&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#top

[Overdriven]

Almost same processor as me  Just consider what I said about the heatsink being heavy. I'd make sure your motherboard supports it, just so it's actually tough enough the hold the weight.

Take it your motherboard doesn't support ddr3 ram then?

[Tibe]

Only 300W PSU? That might be a problem.....

[SixThumbs]

I'm pretty sure the motherboard only supports DDR2 and the processor is under the list of supported types so I don't think that should be an issue. I'm still looking for more PSUs as I think I should have about a half inch for height and a few inches for length in terms of leeway but the width might be a problem unless I want to destroy the case more, which is a bit sad considering that most of the PSUs I see are mostly box shaped.

The 300w one I saw was the only one that would fit more or less the same dimensions as the one I have now but that's the main issue I'm having right now along with which RAM set I should get. I guess I'm looking for two 4 gig, 240-pin DDR2 800MHz, unbuffered non-ECC and although I have a 64 bit operating system I'm not sure because the website for the specs says this: "Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs; *32-bit operating systems cannot address a full 4.0 GB of memory".

That should theoretically mean I can get 8 GB of ram with 2 x 4gigs, right?

[Leshma]

and this is the only PSU I could find so far that would quite possibly fit in the damn thing:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-151-090&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#top

Does this fit?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104132

[SixThumbs]

Sadly I don't think so. The page says my PSU now is "7.9 x 3.3 x 2.1 inches" but comparing it to the stats listed on that page and looking at the actual thing I'm thinking they can't make up their minds which part is height, width and depth.

Edit: I might have to cave and just buy a tower but at the same time I don't want to end up destroying any hardware I already have from lack of knowledge either removing it or installing it.

[Kafein]

I got a i5 2500K, OC'ed to 4.2GHz and just a good ol' HD4870 as GPU. Guess what, it's still the CPU bottlenecking GTA4 like a bauce.

although I have a 64 bit operating system I'm not sure because the website for the specs says this: "Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs; *32-bit operating systems cannot address a full 4.0 GB of memory".

That should theoretically mean I can get 8 GB of ram with 2 x 4gigs, right?

Both your OS and your mobo have a physical adressing limit. A 64 bit OS is fine for any realistic amount of RAM (2^64 is kinda big), however most gaming pc motherboards today only support up to 16Gb of RAM, if it's old you should check yours.

[SixThumbs]

Well, I've been considering just upgrading completely the past couple of days with either one of these bundles:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1018125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1018122

I considered upgrading the RAM on this one Kafein but even if it did support up to 16gb I realized that it's DDR2 which was about three and a half times more expensive than DDR3 if I wanted to put 8 gigs in.

I just can't decide whether I want to spend that money right now because I'm a frugal bastard. It's either drop the ~650 dollars on what would be a budget gaming machine or drop about half of that to upgrade an increasingly obsolete machine. I just feel guilty dropping this thing altogether because I've only had it about a year.

[Lannistark]

If you are vast on budget I'd go for a Medion. The germans sure know what they are doing, and the prices of their machines are just great.

Last one I saw had this:

- Core i5 3450 [3rd gen 4 cores etc]
- Some Asus motherboard with USB 3.0 PCI 3.0 x16 some other PCIs etc
- 8 GB Ram low case latency, high freq (1600 Mhz iirc)  [You'll fly with this]
- 64 GB SSD for OS + 1TB HDD
- Hot Swap [to change HDDs while active]
- Nvidia GTX 550 Ti [Not the best, not bad either, you'll pretty much run all games on medium at least]
- Blu Ray Unit [Pretty awesome to have this]
- Corsair 450W PSU [More than enough Watts, enough amps on the 12V rails etc]

Price: 650€

Best stuff for the best price hands down. Honestly, I was really tempted to buy that one, unfortunately I was low on budget at the time.

[POOPHAMMER]

Welp, after a few more hours of browsing I think I might be shit out of luck powering anything else without "modifying" my computer case further or buying a whole new tower. I've got these sitting in my shopping cart right now:

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134641
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

and this is the only PSU I could find so far that would quite possibly fit in the damn thing:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-151-090&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#top

I use the X955 black ed, its a nice CPU for the cost, I would imagine that would be aaround the same

[Lannistark]

Problem with AMD processors is the bottleneck. Don't get a Phenom if you then go berserk after a beast graphic card. It will just cut the fps of pretty handsomely.