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Computer upgrade advice needed....

Last Post 14 Nov 2010 12:53 PM by Xerxes. 8 Replies.

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Advanced Member Posts:948 Avatar

30 Oct 2010 10:25 AM
So I want to upgrade my computer this holiday season and I am wondering exacetly how to proceed. Any advice will help my greatly. Scenario: I plan to upgrade my video card definitely - I wil be going with something higher end. maybe a nividia 480 or there abouts. I want to upgrade my CPU and here is where I need the advice. My motherboard is particular aged and will not run the new i series. Should I just upgrade my CPU to the best one my mobo can use or do I replace my mobo and CPU in one swoop? I am unsure what to do when replacing my CPU as to the follow up steps. Like do I need to reinstall windows or anything else. I am even more unsure what to do when replacing a mobo. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - "Ulysses," Lord Tennyson

New Member Posts:2

30 Oct 2010 04:38 PM
I don't have much comment on the GPU. The preference with most of you guys appears to be Nvidia - I'd argue to the contrary myself but it would be in vain. First focus. CPU & Motherboard. It honestly depends on what you have now. If you have a DC chip an aged motherboard then upgrading both would be for the very best. And unless your changing the number of cores on your CPU then you don't require a re-install of windows. You only would have to layer the environment if you went from a DC to a TC or a QC CPU.

Basic Member Posts:453

09 Nov 2010 01:06 PM
I haven't done an upgrade in over three years. yeah you'd pretty much have to re-install Windows with a new motherboard... too many device drivers would break and its a pain to patch them on the fly. I preferred Nvidia graphics, but Radeon cards are as good now. Don't go overboard on the video card RAM. Get the fastest RAM you can but 256 MB is plenty for everything you'll be running.

Basic Member Posts:185 Avatar

09 Nov 2010 01:57 PM
Nvids 580 just came out, looking good too.

Advanced Member Posts:574

09 Nov 2010 09:41 PM
lol, they still make 256 MB cards??? I probably havent had a 256 MB card for at least 3 years.

Veteran Member Posts:1312 Avatar

10 Nov 2010 06:40 AM
If I remember correctly, X's current gpu has 512MB of ram, I'm starting to think that Xerxes should give you his old card TMO. My LAPTOP has 2 280mGTX's and each card has 1GB of GDDR3 and I still don't run WOW on Ultra settings. Xerxes..........can you tell me whether you're bored is SLI ready? I forget what board you have. I would suggest putting dual Nvidia 470GTX's OR dual 280GTXs. Yes, I know SLI is not supported in wow, but all newer game engines do (SC2, Battlefield titles and COD).

“Be always sure you're right, then go ahead.” - Davy Crockett

New Member Posts:2

10 Nov 2010 03:38 PM
He could just do a quick fileswap or "repair" of windows. In complete honesty so long as the socket and chipset don't change then doing a fresh format would gain next to nothing other than kill time. Just make sure your GPU drivers are out and that should be just fine. I'm not following what TMO's trying to say about RAM. Does he mean VRAM or System memory? His comment has me slightly confused. As for NV, the 5x line, and FERMI, I'll pass. I don't like putting money into rushed fabs and designs.

Basic Member Posts:453

11 Nov 2010 08:07 AM
I would gladly take X's old card if my motherboard could run it ;-) can you say AGP? Actually, I have ported WoW to another machine that has SLI but I cannot upgrade the CPU on that one. I mostly play on my laptop now. No, when I say RAM I am talking about RAM on the graphics card. Get the card with the fastest GPU and the fastest DDR3 RAM you can get; faster RAM trumps more RAM. Of course if you have lots of cash faster RAM and more RAM is probably the best. I'm just saying if you have to choose one or the other because of budget constraints. A gig of RAM is overkill on the video card for playing WoW imo, but I can say what it would do for other games. I still contend with the the idea the the speed of the GPU is the limiting factor...doesn't matter how many polygons you can store in memory if you can't process what's there already. Anyway you guys seem to be more up on the latest and greatest so I'll be shutting up now ;-)

Advanced Member Posts:948 Avatar

14 Nov 2010 12:53 PM
Thanks for the input all, I decided to do a poor man's upgrade for now. I will be getting the gtx 460, since I plan on just getting an entirely new gamming rig next year sometime. I'm saving for something beastly and hoping the cost of SSD goes down by then.

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - "Ulysses," Lord Tennyson

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