Update Vid or CPU?

[HecklerUK]

Budget is pretty non existent at the moment, but would like to improve my main PC. Building a new one is out of the question, so it's gotta be a CPU or Vid card upgrade.

See specs in sig... AM2+ motherboard so can't take advantage of DDR3 memory which limits the effectiveness of new CPU's. The 9600GT may not be fast but it plays everything I've thrown at it... and considering I'm only using a 19" monitor at 1280x1024 then it doesn't need to cope with higher res. Would like to replace it at some point with a nice 22" widescreen one at 1920x1080.

Which would give the best value upgrade... considering a max of £100

[wonderlust]

get the monitor 1st? thats going to be about £100?

[JoeJones]

If you get a monitor at that res and play games at that...you'll soon find your GFX card is not up to it.

Best option....rough it out till you have £300-400 and build up a new PC.

[superboy]

depends, what are you going to be using your upgrading system for?

[DoubleTop]

a nice way to make your older PC 'feel' faster is a simple reinstall into a new case :D

You can get some nice new cases for well under that budget, or a really nice one with a new PSU to boot as well. Of course that depends on your current case.

Another nice 'upgrade', keyb and mouse, they are your touchy bits, getting new ones is like getting a new PC :)

£100 budget to upgrade what you have is going to be tough, a second monitor is possible, but nothing really that is going to make you jump out of your seat unless you get a decent price for your current one.

Depending on age of your components - new case, keyb, mouse and replace the 1.75Tb two drives into one if the budget stretches to it.

hth,

DT.

[HecklerUK]

LOL... case is fine, it's a gigabyte triton one and I'm more than happy with it's sleek black lines and minimalist looks.

I'm actually quite happy with the monitor I have, and as mentioned... gaming at 1920 or even 1600 on this card is gonna be a struggle... Besides when I can I'm getting a new TV for the lounge and the 32" Samsung is moving upstairs into my bedroom, and the PC will be hooked up to that through the wall so I can use the media centre properly whilst in bed... and no, I don't want that just so I can watch pron before some smart **** suggests it. :) So monitor is not a priority as the office is not somewhere I'll be watching TV/movies or pron. :p

Quite happy with the MS 5 button mouse and MS keyboard... not bothered about them being new as I tend to spill things on them, they get full of dirt and need stripping and washing every few months... and I get crumbs in the keys. :)

If I can raise a little extra then that'll be nice... I've got a 2.2ghz Phenom X4 9550 (currently at 2.365ghz) at the moment... was thinking a Phenom II X4 around the 3ghz range.

Was thinking of a Radeon 57xx series... seen those around the £100 mark and they seem to be a big leap over the 9600gt.


Building a new one is out of the question... Currently out of work and the market is pretty bad around here... So even getting £100 together is hard enough... not got much else old tat I can sell. :)

[BeeP]

The kids PC has a 9600 on it, I recently replaced it with my old 4850 & their performance really did increase, so i would say get a 4850 or similar which will cope with 1920x1080 (I used mine for source, TF2 etc on 1920x1080).

You will notice a little difference with the 4850 on the lesser res, when you move to a higher res then the difference becomes larger.

So imho I would say you should go for a gfx upgrade, there are loads out there for ~£100. Buy a decent one & you can move it over when funds allow you to upgrade mobo/chip etc.

Ninja Edit

Just noticed how tight cash is, on that I would say a 4800 series card would serve well, as I said my 512 meg 4850 coped with most games & tbh the 5770 I now have isnt a huge leap.

[MissChief]

4850 at that price, and when you do get your new monitor it'll still play games at a good res as well. Not sure if you'd get a 4870 for £100 though but if you can, do it. it's possible Fermi may push most grpahics card prices down a few quid in the next few weeks. At least I'm hoping Ati cards come down a bit!

[HecklerUK]

I don't mind if the 5770 isn't a huge leap over the 4850, I'm still using a 9600GT. :)

But if I had to make a choice, I'd probably go for the DX11 support even if performance is the same... would at least mean the card is not likely to need upgrading as quickly next time.

As for monitor... quite happy with a 4:3 @ 1280x1024 for now... would rather put the money for a new monitor towards the new TV fund. :)

[Toonshorty]

Your happy with 4:3 @ 1280 x 1024 because you haven't gamed on anything better.

I switched from a samsung sync master 17" to a 20" LCD 2032MW and the difference is amazing.

I would recommend this:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Displays/Monitors/22+Inch+LCD/BenQ+G2222HDL+21.5%22+Widescreen+LED+Monitor+-+Black+?productId=39722

or

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Displays/Monitors/24+Inch+LCD/BenQ+G2420HDBL+24%22+Widescreen+LED+Monitor+-+Black+?productId=39706

[BeeP]

Well I can highly reccommend the 5770, not sure if prices will drop due to fermi but it might be worth waiting to see.

[RDRUNR]

Your happy with 4:3 @ 1280 x 1024 because you haven't gamed on anything better.

I switched from a samsung sync master 17" to a 20" LCD 2032MW and the difference is amazing.

I don't know if it's that much of a difference. I game on a 20" LCD 2053BW and at 1024x768 or 1280x1024. I prefer the look of the "old resolutions" rather than the tiny 1680x1050. And I still am top 3 in end round results in score so higher res doesn't equal more points.

I'll be going for a 5770 1GB myself and gaming on a i7 960. I'll most likely keep the same resolutions even if it's still 30+fps at 1680.

It's just personal gaming pref.