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Going to spend $500 to upgrade my pc and thinking of where it would be best spent.

Ridire de na Fhiaigh
Ruwund
Ridire de na Fhiaigh
  • GW2: Ruwund.3547
Posted On: 11/24/2012 at 11:39 AM
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---i have 4gb ddr2 memory---kinda old but does the job

are any of the newer ddr# really that much better?

 

i only have a 400 power supply so i am leaning heavily on upgrading that to a 750 at least.  I want to run dual monitors and have tried to do so with the current setup only to have my graphics card stop funcioning.

 

---graphics card is 4670 pci 1gb (saphire).

when i run gw2 i don't seem to have frame rate issues unless i am in a massive eb zerg and it drops to around 10ish.  it is an older card but "seems" to get the job done. 

 

--i am also thinking of putting in ssd ~125 gigs for around $1=1gb price.

mainly thinking of doing this for the power consumption and start ups and kinda faster opperation of my game and os.  I heard they are more reliable than the disks also but have not confirmed that.

 

What am i missing?  and what would you upgrade this machine given $500?

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Ridire de na Fhiaigh
Ruwund
Ridire de na Fhiaigh
  • GW2: Ruwund.3547
Replied On: 11/24/2012 at 08:51 PM PST
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okay so i couldn't wait for feedback..... bought a 750w power supply and a geforce gtx 560 ti for a total of ~300 US dollars. i also got a great friend of mine to throw in a ssd 128gb for free :)) i don't think i did too bad :)

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Ridire de na Ulchabhan
Kalec
Ridire de na Ulchabhan
  • ESO: @Kalec-Stromhir
Replied On: 11/24/2012 at 11:43 PM PST
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GW2 is dependent on CPU. A GPU upgrade will be very little to what GW2 can do. A 750w PSU is mostly overkill in most system, even for just one card, as you can easily run 550-650w.

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Saighdiuir de na Faolchu
WinterBeard
Saighdiuir de na Faolchu
Replied On: 11/25/2012 at 07:10 AM PST

A free 128GB SSD isn't a bad deal (heck, free anything isn't a bad deal), so you did good there. If you're more concerned with overall system performance I'd advise installing that as your operating system drive, rather than a drive for storing games or media. You'll benefit by far the most from the SSD speeds on bootup and core OS functions. Regarding the power supply, Kalec is right in that 750W is a lot of juice for a normal rig running one GPU and just a couple of hard drives. If you got a good deal on it, definitely keep it, but if you're looking to trim a few bucks you can get by on a 650W and not come close to touching that for the forseeable future. As for the 560Ti, not a bad card at all; one of the best contenders in the $150-ish price bracket. What manufacturer did you get (EVGA, MSI, ASUS, etc)? Each has their own personal spins on the nVidia reference model and add their own bells & whistles, so I'm just curious. Lastly, regarding Kalec's mention that GW2 is heavily CPU dependant: YES. Lord, oh yes, it is. My processor is a slightly-outdated Intel core i5 2500k bumped up to 3.8GHz, and GW2 makes a regular habit of pegging all 4 cores at 50% plus. All of this is to say that when you find yourself with another few bucks to plunk into this machine in the future, your money would be best spent upgrading the motherboard, CPU, and RAM (since all current architecture is based on DDR3 I can guarantee your motherboard won't support newer CPUs or memory, meaning you'd have to upgrade all 3). Don't bother adding to your existing memory, as DDR2 is by all accounts obsolete. If you're still running a machine that uses DDR2 RAM, that means your motherboard is of an older vintage and by extension, so is your CPU. Any idea what brand and model of processor you're running in there? I ask because AMD processors, while cheaper that Intel by a wide margin, also lack of a lot of the optimization and sheer guts of the Intel model lines. AMD may offer more cores and slightly higher clock speeds for your money, but their internal architecture is such that what they actually do with those extra processing cycles is - in general - far less efficient than their Intel counterparts. Taking a look at some of the CPU benchmarks over at Passmark is one of the best ways to illustrate that trend: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ The good news? RAM is cheap as dirt (you have to be actively *trying* to throw your money away to spend more than $40 on an 8GB DDR3 kit), and if you shop around a bit you can bundle a decent motherboard with an Intel i5 CPU for under $300. I'd definitely bear that all in mind for your next round of upgrades. And, of course, if you have any questions just ask. Family tech advice is always free of charge. :P

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Ridire de na Fhiaigh
Ruwund
Ridire de na Fhiaigh
  • GW2: Ruwund.3547
Replied On: 11/25/2012 at 07:55 AM PST
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"All of this is to say that when you find yourself with another few bucks to plunk into this machine in the future, your money would be best spent upgrading the motherboard, CPU, and RAM (since all current architecture is based on DDR3 I can guarantee your motherboard won't support newer CPUs or memory, meaning you'd have to upgrade all 3). Don't bother adding to your existing memory, as DDR2 is by all accounts obsolete." Hit it on the head. I had a friend explain compatibility and and he basically said the same thing. I am running Intel Core 2 quad cpu Q9300 @ 2.50ghz. I will spend the next batch of money (tax season) on mb and cpu and i am hoping to get the i7 range (that is currently the best right?) which is why i went to 750 watt psu. My friend said the same thing about psu's that with running all the new stuff i would not max the psu with most stuff i did. (he basically talked me down from a 1k watt psu---what can i say i like to spend some $$ :). I got the "asus engtx560 ti DCII top/2DI/1gd5 geforce gtx 560 ti (fermi)1gb 256-bit gddr5 pci express 2.0 x 16 hdcp ready sli support..." - copied from my order form...lol. The psu was only 84 dollars so i didn't see a problem getting it either :). i put some money in now and wont have to "replace" what i got when i upgrade everything else in ~6 months time.

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Banlaoch de na Griobhta Dearg
Briseadh
Banlaoch de na Griobhta Dearg
  • GW2: Briseadh.7386
Replied On: 11/25/2012 at 01:56 PM PST
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Yeah, I have a 750W upgrade from a 400W myself because my graphics card I bought to replace the one that died blew the power supply port it was hooked on. It turned out the 750 was quite a bit cheaper as it was on special at the time I had to buy it! I think you are on the right track with what you are doing and it's great having got some of the items free and cheaper. Glad your friend talked you out of the bigger power supply - definitely not needed for a home PC. Now the one thing I did do is get an uninterrupted power supply (UPS), which helped a lot until we got our power box on the pole replaced. The thing was shorting out and burned one of the two connectors on it so it would flip off every time we tried to dry the laundry and then it got so bad heating the hot tub after putting water in it after a cleaning did the same. Just safer this way because I also found out my surge protection system had died in the process. Yup, this has led to a redneck joke or two along with the mouse that shut our water off one morning. ;) Anyway, may want to look into one of these if you don't have one to be on the safe side considering how my power issues are what led to my fixes above in the first place.

Don't mess with Mama Bear, I might hug you too tight. =D
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Saighdiuir de na Sailetheach
Tathlyn
Saighdiuir de na Sailetheach
Replied On: 11/26/2012 at 05:46 AM PST

What components do you already have that you plan on using in the new rig: case, video, cd...? That will make a huge difference in what I suggest. What else do you use the system for besides GW2? Do you run Linux or a hackintosh? Without knowing your components I would highly recommend an SSD before you even bother to upgrade anything else. Buy it off newegg or amazon. Check camelcamelcamel.com to see what the lowest price has been and then put in a notifier. If you are willing to wait, I would spec everthing out and use Camel to notify you everything. 4/5 bucks here and there can make a huge difference. Do you care about going Intel or AMD? I am not as sure about AMD, but I would choose an X79 motherboard, the next 4 announced quarters of Intel CPUs will use socket 79 so you will upgrade resilient for a while. I would highly recommend going this route even if it takes up the majority of your budget. I would also highly recommend the UPS. It is just nice to have clean power. In my area we have a lot of brown outs. I am a big fan of Crucial RAM. Lifetime warranty is nice. Lastly, check out craigslist. I am a huge fan of buying used especially if I can get my base components that way and the items still have manufacture warranty on them. I almost always buy a used case.

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