Looking for PC upgrade advice!

[Rolla]

Sup geeks!

Ive had my rig for about 2 years now and im looking to upgrade. I mainly want to upgrade my RAM, but wondering if theres any other parts of my PC that i should be upgrading/are holding the rig back any.

Im wondering if any of you could point me in the right direction of what RAM to use, im looking to get atleast 8GB for around £40-60 depending on whats best. Do i need to spend a lot here?

Anyways any help/advice is appriceiated!

Heres the basic stats of my rig:
  AMD Phenom II X4 955 (4 x 3.2 GHz) AM3 8MB - Black Edition   
  Samsung (SH-S223L) 24x DVD Re-Writer/Reader +/- RW - Black - Lightscribe (SATA)   
  AMD Heatsink & Fan   
  ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1 GB - DVI/VGA/HDMI (XFX) (PCI-E)   
  Corsair 4GB XMS3 PC3-10666 1333MHz (1x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)   
  Asus M4A78LT-M (AMD 760G)   
  Edimax Wireless LAN 54Mbps (PCI)

[fohat.digs]

I had a similar rig. I recently bought 8GB of "Crucial" DDR3 at Micro Center for $20, but I am extremely fortunate to live very close to a great store. At the same time I got a great deal on a HD6450 video card for $35, I hate to rub it in.

I have had good success with Samsung and Buffalo RAM, too, both also reasonably priced, but I am not a gamer and not particularly demanding.

If you can wait, buying on ebay from China is the cheapest route, and I have had mostly good luck with that, also.

[Internetlad]

All depends on what you're doing. If you're gaming an update to a 7850 would be huge, a 7950 would be even better.

Processor intensive tasks might be improved by getting an aftermarket cooler and pushing that phenom a bit further VIA overclocking, or if you're really looking for an overhaul, a bulldozer if you're an AMD guy or an i5 3rd gen would be better for most tasks.

An extra 4 gigs of RAM sure wouldn't hurt, be dirt cheap too. If you have 2 empty slots consider picking up a similarly clocked kit and popping it in. extra RAM is fairly overrated as very few programs are made to use more than a couple gigs, (thanks, x86) so unless you're running several high-usage programs or something high end like Vegas or Photoshop, you probably will only notice a nominal increase in performance (not like a step up from 256 to 512 back in the early days of XP, which was huge.

and depending on what you're doing on the internet, a hard-wired connection could fix occasional bumps and hiccups. I despise wireless technology and use it as little as possible especially in desktops. A better internet package might be all you need.

Why are you considering upgrading? Is your computer "not as fast" as it once was? Are your needs increasing, or you just feel like your computer "could be better" by throwing money at it? For basic computing (internet, email, office stuff) that machine should be plenty fast so long as you're not running any garbage software in the background. Could be all you need is a tune-up.

[IvanIvanovich]

Picking up a 2nd identical 4GB stick would be good, not sure why you didn't get a dual channel kit in the first place. You don't mention what you are using for OS drive, if you only have hdd an ssd would be a wise choice. ssd is the single most improvement component you can add.
Personally I would not do more than that unless you plan to keep the whole system for a while more. If you were thinking about a full upgrade I would hold on a little bit longer with Haswell not too far away, rumored for early summer.

[TheProfosist]

How much your willing to spend to upgrade might be nice too

[Hak Foo]

Sup geeks!

Ive had my rig for about 2 years now and im looking to upgrade. I mainly want to upgrade my RAM, but wondering if theres any other parts of my PC that i should be upgrading/are holding the rig back any.

Im wondering if any of you could point me in the right direction of what RAM to use, im looking to get atleast 8GB for around £40-60 depending on whats best. Do i need to spend a lot here?

Stick to brands you've heard of with lifetime warranties, and ones rated for 1.5v.  Matched pair = good.  I went with a 4x4Gb set just because I figured it would last me til whatever replaces DDR3.

[TheProfosist]

Sup geeks!

Ive had my rig for about 2 years now and im looking to upgrade. I mainly want to upgrade my RAM, but wondering if theres any other parts of my PC that i should be upgrading/are holding the rig back any.

Im wondering if any of you could point me in the right direction of what RAM to use, im looking to get atleast 8GB for around £40-60 depending on whats best. Do i need to spend a lot here?

Stick to brands you've heard of with lifetime warranties, and ones rated for 1.5v.  Matched pair = good.  I went with a 4x4Gb set just because I figured it would last me til whatever replaces DDR3.

you dont need 1.5v for AMD chipsets especially ones that old the 1.5v restriction is for intel starting with sandy bridge

[PointyFox]

Yeah, the best upgrade you could make would be to get at least 8Gb RAM.  I checked my RAM earlier today and I was using 5.44Gb.  The rest of your components are still good.

The next upgrade would be a solid state drive.  They are a nice improvement over HDDs.

[Rolla]

All depends on what you're doing. If you're gaming an update to a 7850 would be huge, a 7950 would be even better.

Processor intensive tasks might be improved by getting an aftermarket cooler and pushing that phenom a bit further VIA overclocking, or if you're really looking for an overhaul, a bulldozer if you're an AMD guy or an i5 3rd gen would be better for most tasks.

An extra 4 gigs of RAM sure wouldn't hurt, be dirt cheap too. If you have 2 empty slots consider picking up a similarly clocked kit and popping it in. extra RAM is fairly overrated as very few programs are made to use more than a couple gigs, (thanks, x86) so unless you're running several high-usage programs or something high end like Vegas or Photoshop, you probably will only notice a nominal increase in performance (not like a step up from 256 to 512 back in the early days of XP, which was huge.

and depending on what you're doing on the internet, a hard-wired connection could fix occasional bumps and hiccups. I despise wireless technology and use it as little as possible especially in desktops. A better internet package might be all you need.

Why are you considering upgrading? Is your computer "not as fast" as it once was? Are your needs increasing, or you just feel like your computer "could be better" by throwing money at it? For basic computing (internet, email, office stuff) that machine should be plenty fast so long as you're not running any garbage software in the background. Could be all you need is a tune-up.

Thanks for the info guys!

Basically i use my rig for gaming, i play SC2 and some LoL and D3. however i run dual screens on it and i like to watch streams on the second monitor. I thought that upgrading the ram would ease any jitteryness or slowness but maybe its the graphics card? The internet i have is pretty shoddy, but i cant do anything about that, i am limited to one supplier atm, however i dont think thats causning my jitteryness.

I dont particularly have a budget, but obviously cheaper the better. i have looked into getting an SSD just for my OS, but have been unsure about that.

In short im looking for the cheapest ways to speed up my gaming rig

[fohat.digs]

The SSID is the best way to speed things up, if one of the most expensive.

The good news is that you can take with with you into your next build so you only have to buy it once.

[Internetlad]

slow/bad internet could cause lag spikes, and maybe even occasional stutters or slight freezes in online games (as the game can't connect to the server) but you'd probably notice dropping, rubberbanding  and other connection issues with it.

I think your machine would appreciate a 7850/650 ti for SC2 and D3. LoL should run fine on pretty much anything. $150-170 may seem expensive, but depending on your needs you could use that card for years. Better to spend 150 once than 80 twice. It will be more relevant for passing on to somebody else or reselling when the time comes to upgrade, too.  At least, that's the arguement I made to myself when I got my $300 7950

SSD won't help much with games, but overall windows performance gets a huge boost from it. Consider a smaller SSD as a boot drive and your current HDD as a storage drive for games/data?

RAM is always a cheap upgrade solution. If you're not dual channel you should notice a boost just from putting in a matched stick on it (not huge, but it's evident)

Hope it helps!

[PointyFox]

Spending $150 on a SSD made a huge improvement, however the rest of my components were already high end and to see much improvement I'd have to spend well over $400 on any other upgrade.

[okooko]

Spending $150 on a SSD made a huge improvement, however the rest of my components were already high end and to see much improvement I'd have to spend well over $400 on any other upgrade.

I bought my 60gb Vertex when they were 260, now its about $1/gb or around that, depending what you buy.

I run 1 ssd and 4 hhds. If my comp ever kills itself, i only need to reinstall the OS and everything else is there on the HHDs

[Leslieann]

Thanks for the info guys!

Basically i use my rig for gaming, i play SC2 and some LoL and D3. however i run dual screens on it and i like to watch streams on the second monitor. I thought that upgrading the ram would ease any jitteryness or slowness but maybe its the graphics card? The internet i have is pretty shoddy, but i cant do anything about that, i am limited to one supplier atm, however i dont think thats causning my jitteryness.

I dont particularly have a budget, but obviously cheaper the better. i have looked into getting an SSD just for my OS, but have been unsure about that.

In short im looking for the cheapest ways to speed up my gaming rig

Do the memory (it's cheap and a good upgrade all around), your processor is fine.
The video card is your weakest link and where your greatest gains will be found.

If you can swing an SSD, go for one, but don't prioritize it as it won't help when you need it. They are great for starting and opening things, but normal gaming won't really benefit, particularly when it comes to lag.

[Rolla]

great thanks for the input guys, gonna definatley go for another stick of ram as i only have one ATM and from what ive heard, its never a bad thing!

Also gonna look into the SSD, my boot times are very slow, esp compared to my ultrabook. So i thinik that will be the investment.

i notice a lot of you are form the US, im from the UK. I seen you have a website called new egg, really cool website. is there a european version of it? theres a lot of places to buy from just wanna make sure its the best/cheapest

I may look into the graphics card later this year, but would my current graphics card suffer from running 2 screens? even if its only a web browser or stream?

[Leslieann]

i notice a lot of you are form the US, im from the UK. I seen you have a website called new egg, really cool website. is there a european version of it? theres a lot of places to buy from just wanna make sure its the best/cheapest

I may look into the graphics card later this year, but would my current graphics card suffer from running 2 screens? even if its only a web browser or stream?

I believe you have a place called Scan, it seems the equivalent.
Your current card has plenty to power dual screens, just not on a game.

[Rolla]

i notice a lot of you are form the US, im from the UK. I seen you have a website called new egg, really cool website. is there a european version of it? theres a lot of places to buy from just wanna make sure its the best/cheapest

I may look into the graphics card later this year, but would my current graphics card suffer from running 2 screens? even if its only a web browser or stream?

I believe you have a place called Scan, it seems the equivalent.
Your current card has plenty to power dual screens, just not on a game.

When you say not on a game, can i run a game on one and then a stream on the other?

Or do you mean just cant run 2 games on 2 screens.

[thegnu]

Stick to brands you've heard of with lifetime warranties, and ones rated for 1.5v.  Matched pair = good.  I went with a 4x4Gb set just because I figured it would last me til whatever replaces DDR3.

in my experience: kingston, samsung, corsair, crucial have never given me problems.  agree with the matched pair.  and agree that if you can get another identical 4GB from corsair, it would probably be the cheapest route to 8GB

[Internetlad]

When you say not on a game, can i run a game on one and then a stream on the other?

Or do you mean just cant run 2 games on 2 screens.

Not on games in general. I certainly wouldn't suggest trying to run 2 games on 2 screens haha.

That card was mid-range when it came out, and we're coming on the 8000 series sometime this year. It might handle new games at low-medium.

Adding a second monitor, in my experience, doesn't decrease the performance of the card noticably, but i've never done/seen an in-depth analysis of that either. I know some people who play DOTA2 have a guide for the character up on a second screen, so it's certainly possible.

And newegg is a chinese and north american brand. Based out of California IIRC. They service China, and North America but not the UK.

[Leslieann]

When you say not on a game, can i run a game on one and then a stream on the other?

Or do you mean just cant run 2 games on 2 screens.

Depends on the stream type.
Audio is streaming is fine, video on the other hand may or may not work. Even on mine it seems to depend on the type of stream or video codec being used, some videos will just be blank if you try putting a game on one screen and a video in the other. If it is using any special features such as GPU rendering, anti-aliasing or lighting or texturing, the card may choke trying to do it differently for both screens and two programs. This is probably a Windows or coding issue (the game has a lock on that portion of the card) and no amount of better hardware will help. Dual cards could though, not SLI, what I mean is a single card for each screen. 

I often have a radio stream an d browser on one screen and a game on the other. You could, but you may need to turn down some graphics to do it. I have a bit better card.

[PointyFox]

Spending $150 on a SSD made a huge improvement, however the rest of my components were already high end and to see much improvement I'd have to spend well over $400 on any other upgrade.

I bought my 60gb Vertex when they were 260, now its about $1/gb or around that, depending what you buy.

I run 1 ssd and 4 hhds. If my comp ever kills itself, i only need to reinstall the OS and everything else is there on the HHDs

I got a Samsung 830, 250 Gb for $150 

[sordna]

There's an awesome site that easily compares and ranks different CPUs: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

It also has a similar page that compares and ranks different graphics cards.
For example, I have an ASUS EN9500GT TOP/DI/512M GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 card and can easily see it's crap for today's standards :-)  But it's good enough for my purposes (Compiz Fusion compositing effects on Linux)

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/common_gpus.html

Let me know if you have any better resources about comparing components like that!

[PointyFox]

There's an awesome site that easily compares and ranks different CPUs: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

It also has a similar site that compares and ranks different graphics cards.
For example, I have an ASUS EN9500GT TOP/DI/512M GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 card and can easily see it's crap for today's standards :-)  But it's good enough for my purposes (compiz fusion)

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/common_gpus.html

Let me know if you have any better resources about comparing components like tha!

Not bad, the GPU I bought in October 2011 is 13th on the list.

[sordna]

GTX 560? How much did it cost in 2011?

My EN9500GT cost me $89 back in 2008. However I'm happy with the computer I built that year (Asus M3N72-D mobo with AM2+ socket) I still have it running great, and was able to upgrade the CPU to a Phenom II X4 965 for $99 this year. I have 4GB RAM and even with 2GB that I had at first I had no issues even with compiz / 3d rotating desktop cube stuff, due to using Xubuntu Linux.

[PointyFox]

GTX 560? How much did it cost in 2011?

My EN9500GT cost me $89 back in 2008. However I'm happy with the computer I built that year (Asus M3N72-D mobo with AM2+ socket) I still have it running great, and was able to upgrade the CPU to a Phenom II X4 965 for $99 this year. I have 4GB RAM and even with 2GB that I had at first I had no issues even with compiz / 3d rotating desktop cube stuff, due to using Xubuntu Linux.

$250 for an Evga GTX 560 ti superclocked with lifetime warranty.

[sordna]

Cool. What Windows Experience Index are you getting (on Windows 7)?
My setup from 2008 got CPU 7.1, RAM: 7.3, Graphics 6.6, Gaming graphics 6.6, HDD 5.9
and after upgrading the processor to AMD 965 and memory to dual channel 4GB 1066MHz it bumped CPU to 7.3 and RAM to 7.7
Not bad for a 2008 computer I think... I really like the upgradability of AMD systems.

[PointyFox]

Cool. What Windows Experience Index are you getting (on Windows 7)?
My setup from 2008 got CPU 7.1, RAM: 7.3, Graphics 6.6, Gaming graphics 6.6, HDD 5.9
and after upgrading the processor to AMD 965 and memory to dual channel 4GB 1066MHz it bumped CPU to 7.3 and RAM to 7.7
Not bad for a 2008 computer I think... I really like the upgradability of AMD systems.

CPU 7.7, RAM: 7.8, Graphics 7.6, Gaming graphics 7.6, HDD 7.9

I have:
Corsair Vengeance RAM 8Gb (CMZ8GX3M2A1600) overclocked to 1866 MHz
Intel i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5 GHz
Samsung 830 SSD (250Gb)
Gigabyte Z68 (GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3)  motherboard
Evga Superclocked GTX 560 TI (01G-P3-1563-AR)  GPU

[Internetlad]

Not bad, the GPU I bought in October 2011 is 13th on the list.

I feel good that mine is fifth, but I did just buy it a week ago.

[Lanx]

if you're gaming upgrade in this order

4gb or more ram (it's just too cheap and the best overall performance)
some new videocard
ssd (while it won't "perform" better, it will give you a better overall experience, load times are nearly non-existant)
overclock aftermarket cooler (if you know what you're doing, a good cool or even a corsair h100, all in one watercooler can bump you to 3.8ghz)

i basically have the same system as you, i have an old amd phenomii x2 that i unlocked to a x4 and have overclocked conservatively to 3.7 (it can goto 4, but might crash, and i want 100% stability) i have it running on a corsair h100 that i got on sale, and it's better and quieter than all the other 60/70 dollar heatsinks i've bought in the past. it's on 8gigs of ram and an old 4800 ati, skyrim runs fine, zero lag, and i run all my office programs with no loadtime cuz i have a ssd.

since we have similar rigs my index is 7.3
cpu7.4/ram7.5/graphics7.3/hd7.7

this is with very minimal tweaking, normal i'd tweak it more, but i want it stable and just run fast my memory settings could be better, but i might sacrifice stability. either way check your index and see comparitive scores.

the last game i played was diablo3 on high quality, and since i'm a hardcore gamer, i did not want to be affected by lag, but it was still enough to have high quality at full resolution.