What Part of my System Needs Upgrading?

[230G]

  I built a system about 2 years ago that consists of:

  GIGABYTE GA-EP43T-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard

  Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80571E7500

  G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

  GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

  Samsung by Seagate Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive    

  Rosewill Green Series RG700-S12 700W Continuous @40°C,80 PLUS Certified,Single 12V Rail,Active PFC Power Supply 

  Frame rates have been sorry lately. Would a new vid card help or is the processor a bottleneck? If the processor is a problem, is it upgradeable without a new motherboard?

 Thanks!
 230G

[Dragon]

Processor and Video Card.

[MaSonZ]

Processor and Video Card.

+1. be careful with your processor though, make sure if you dont get a new board that your new processor is socket 775. If you dont want to spend the money on a new processor, you can spend 30 or 40 bucks on a good cooler for it and overclock it a bit. Would save you a lot of money, but due to age of components I'm not the one to ask if that would be a good idea. I have not overclocked either, so dont ask me for advice.

just my .02  

can get a 775 socket 3.2GHz op. Frequency for 60 bucks. wouldnt be much more for a new processor over a good cooler.

[230G]

 So is 3.2 Ghz the most I can get in a Socket 775? I see them at NewEgg for only about $60. would the help much?

  ALso, what are my options where vid cards are concerned? Any PCI card, or are some better than others for AHII?


 Thanks!

[MaSonZ]

So is 3.2 Ghz the most I can get in a Socket 775? I see them at NewEgg for only about $60. would the help much?

  ALso, what are my options where vid cards are concerned? Any PCI card, or are some better than others for AHII?


 Thanks!

From what I see, yes 3.2 GHz is the fastest. You may notice a difference, dont quote me though.

As for the video cards, I ran a 6850 for a few months with AH and it ran well with some extra eye candy turned on, I've seen some people say that a GTX 560 Ti is good for the game too, but no experience with nVidia cards.

only concern would be the processor "bottlenecking" the performance of the video card, but I do have the knowledge to speak whether it would be an issue on your end.

[guncrasher]

I would save the money and get a new cpu/mobo/ram and video card.  reuse all your other parts and it will be a brand new machine that will max out aces high.  you can sell your other parts get about a hundred or 2 for it, who knows that will reduce your costs.  get a sandy bridge or an ivy bridge with a k and you will be set for at least 4 or 5 years..

only reason I say dont update is because in 1 or 2 years you will have to update again so it's basically money wasted.  if you dont have the money for it then save it, if you have put up with it until now another 2 or 3 months wont kill ya.


semp

[AAJagerX]

What semp said.

If you just want a quick boost, just do the video card.  The upgrade to an e8400 or e8500 processor will definately make a difference, but you will end up replacing that again before too long.

I'd drop the coin on a quality video card that you can reuse in your next build, and call it good.

[MaSonZ]

What semp said.

If you just want a quick boost, just do the video card.  The upgrade to an e8400 or e8500 processor will definately make a difference, but you will end up replacing that again before too long.

I'd drop the coin on a quality video card that you can reuse in your next build, and call it good.

his 7500 will bottleneck the performance though in this case, correct?

if the 7500 will bottleneck, he could do a slight overclock to reduce it a little, correct?


I'm not tryin to measure meat, just trying to broaden my knowledge base.

[Bizman]

his 7500 will bottleneck the performance though in this case, correct?

if the 7500 will bottleneck, he could do a slight overclock to reduce it a little, correct?


I'm not tryin to measure meat, just trying to broaden my knowledge base.

Studies have been made, that an average computer user can't tell the difference with efficiency variation within 20%. Overclocking more than 20% can be succesfully done only if the manufacturer has underclocked the processor or video card only for marketing related reasons - or with help of ultimate cooling methods.

Hope I made myself understood, I'm still not quite convinced the previous chapter was really English. Sometimes I feel like I should re-read my English books dating from 35 years ago before writing anything here...

[MaSonZ]

Studies have been made, that an average computer user can't tell the difference with efficiency variation within 20%. Overclocking more than 20% can be succesfully done only if the manufacturer has underclocked the processor or video card only for marketing related reasons - or with help of ultimate cooling methods.

Hope I made myself understood, I'm still not quite convinced the previous chapter was really English. Sometimes I feel like I should re-read my English books dating from 35 years ago before writing anything here...

yoyu did, and you speak english well. thank you clarifying.