What new hardware?

Computer Hardware
#1

so this is my question…i’ll post my computer specs after this. my comp is only about 9 months old but i definitely need to upgrade some things, seeing as how even Fable 3 had seeeeerious lag issues. i am definitely adding 8 gigs of ram, but am also thinking about adding a second vid card. my budget is between $500-$750 for the entire upgrade, and am looking for any HELPFUL suggestions.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name GEORGE-HP
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model p6710f
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Athlon™ II X4 640 Processor, 3000 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 6.04, 9/7/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = “6.1.7600.16385”
User Name george-HP\george
Time Zone Mountain Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.14 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.50 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.79 GB
Page File Space 3.75 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

#2

also, this video card has to have a tuner for my media center. :smiley:

#3

my bad…after reading about my motherboard…it will only handle 8 gigs of ddr2…still twice what ihave now…this is my motherboard:

#4

Usually a GPU upgrade will help with newer games but since this is a HP motherboard I have serious doubts it will be able to give high game play performance even if you updated the GPU. From my experience a custom built motherboard and GPU and RAM that is built around to play intense GPU games is better then for example HP which itself is a compromised system that will have bottle necks somewhere when you push the motherboard past it’s design purpose.

#5

Okay I looked up the specs for your PC, it uses onboard video unless you paid extra for a card (probably not). Also the MB is uATX so you can probably only use one video card. Another thing is that you don’t need more than 4GB ram for gaming, it would be a waste of money, you can read reviews only in some rare cases does more than 4GB ram make a difference. Its true that ram is cheap now but it would still be a waste. Your CPU is okay but not a great one for gaming, but it should be fine for now. So your budget is good and I would suggest to get a good video card and you will need a quality PSU. Here are some suggestions:

XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
or
MSI N480GTX Twin Frozr II GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

PSU:
Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-620 620W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply
SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

So I don’t know how big your case is, so you have to make sure its wide enough inside the case to fit the video card, you have to measure inside and find out how long the card is. Same goes for the power supply, I don’t know if its the normal ATX size or not.

#6

Just adding a bit to what Eric said, in order to be an Extreme Gamer, you need a system that can handle more than 1 Video card and connect them with an SLI Bridge. You also need a nice big PSU at least 800W as the newer video cards use alot of power. That said, building a new PC is not that hard, all the parts you may need are on online sites like newegg.com and others, even amazon.com has great deals. In most cases you can custom build a new PC cheaper than you can buy a pre built. The last build I put together didnt take anything more than a screwdriver and some homework, ( on google) . It may seem daunting but believe me its not.:wink:

SLI allows two or more graphics processing units (GPUs) to share the workload when rendering a 3D scene. Ideally, two identical graphics cards are installed in a motherboard that contains two PCI-Express x16 slots, set up in a master-slave configuration. Both cards are given the same part of the 3D scene to render, but effectively half of the work load is sent to the slave card through a connector called the SLI Bridge. As an example, the master card works on the top half of the scene while the slave card works on the bottom half. When the slave card is done, it sends its output to the master card, which combines the two images to form one and then outputs the final render to the monitor.

#8

[QUOTE=georgemroth;2592893]so this is my question…i’ll post my computer specs after this. my comp is only about 9 months old but i definitely need to upgrade some things, seeing as how even Fable 3 had seeeeerious lag issues. i am definitely adding 8 gigs of ram, but am also thinking about adding a second vid card. my budget is between $500-$750 for the entire upgrade, and am looking for any HELPFUL suggestions.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name GEORGE-HP
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model p6710f
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Athlon™ II X4 640 Processor, 3000 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 6.04, 9/7/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
User Name george-HP\george
Time Zone Mountain Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.14 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.50 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.79 GB
Page File Space 3.75 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys[/QUOTE]

  1. New Video Card -> $270 -> 68XX or 69XXseries would be great, and relatively cheap
  2. New HDD ($115 + $65), better, A NEW shiny new 96GB/ 128GB SSD + 2TB HDD for storage will do wonders for you.
  3. New faster 8GB of ram, 4x2GB Matched Kit - $120

$270 + $180 + $120 =[B][I][U] $570.

[/U][/I][/B][COLOR=Black]And I spent all of 5 minutes looking, I’m sure you can find better deals and better hardware for the $$$.
You’d have another $180 to dig up a better motherboard & 1/2 decent case and possibly get a bundled power supply.

Technically your HP OS is tied to the motherboard, but if your upgrade your OS to the SSD first, add the new HDD, keep your old HDD (lol) add your new video card and ram … it’s still the same computer :iagree:

Then if you get a new case & mobo, and move your HDD’s, Optical drive, CPU + heatsink, Video card & ram to the new case & mobo… you can argue it’s still the same computer :iagree:

And then you can also try overclocking your CPU, although I’m not convinced that AMD’s athlon 2’s overclock particularly well - google overclocking & your CPU model.

[/COLOR]

But seriously, you could build yourself a beast with a new DDR3 Mobo with 8GB of DDR3 ram, keeping your current CPU :wink:

#9

Yup, yup, yup - what they said :slight_smile:

Far and away the biggest thing is a discrete video card. I haven’t seen you reply if you have one or not. If you don’t - that’s your problem - absolutely. I like debro’s suggestions. You almost certainly need a new PSU, although you don’t have to go too crazy if you’re going with a single video card. I like Eric’s suggestions too (hard core), but that would require a new mb (and the bigger PSU, and more $$, basically a different PC altogether).

In any case, you will see a “world” of difference with the discrete video card. Could you get away with using your current PSU? Maybe with a low-end video card and if the PSU had the required connector (if needed), but I’d check the voltage levels while gaming (and PSU heat), and at the first bsod you’d know that PSU doesn’t have the juice.

A better HDD is always a good thing (and an SSD a very good thing). It won’t make the in-game experience all that different, but start-up, level-up and everything else you do will be a whole lot more enjoyable.

Happy gaming!

#10

Damage75, the suggestions I gave do not require a new MB or PC altogether. His PC can handle a new video card and PSU and he should be fine for a while. Also this thread is 4 weeks old and the OP hasn’t give us any updates, so we don’t know what he ended up doing anyway.

#11

You know what I’m about to say - the point being the recommendation for SLI or Crossfire cards. His system doesn’t support multiple video cards. That’s all. He couldn’t use the capability he’s paying for without a “lot” of new hw.

I don’t mean to dismiss your recommendation - quite the opposite. But the computer he has is not appropriate for a multiple video card system. If he wants to go that route - great! He should get (make) a new system.

If he buys multiple video card technology now, then intends to update everything else in the future (mb, case, cooling, hdd, memory, psu if he hadn’t already) - that is a mistake - since in the future the cards will be cheaper and his money better spent at that time. He has a weak PC that can be made “ok” by a cheap discrete card. I want him to have a killer rig too, but not my morphing what he has now, he would be better off starting over in that case.

I agree your suggestions are very good, I do hope this minor quibble is not somehow insulting.

#12

okay, just pointing out that I did not recommend SLI/crossfire, you mis quoted in your previous reply.

#13

[QUOTE=georgemroth;2592895]also, this video card has to have a tuner for my media center. :D[/QUOTE]

That makes it difficult to give you some recommendations.

#14

[QUOTE=georgemroth;2592895]also, this video card has to have a tuner for my media center. :D[/QUOTE]
Buy a cheap PCI-E video tuner. That way when you upgrade your video card in 2 years, you don’t have to throw away your tuner, or … once again … limit your choice and pay a 2nd time for the TV tuner functionality.
You could even buy a Dual Tuner card, or a pair. you’ve got two usable PCI-E X1 slots … or even, god forbid, buy a Sony PLAYTV, which is USB, and grab the drivers off the web somewhere … Dual tuner functionailty … you just need software … but you have Windows Media Centre anyway :wink: