Could I step up the CPU from what's in it? Even a small boost may be worth the cost. Otherwise I could just replace the entire mainboard.
AMD Phenom II X4 965 is said to be compatible with this board and BIOS.
https://www.ebay.com/p/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-965-3-4GHz-Quad-Core-HDZ965FBK4DGM-Processor/79634429
Hi Vraciu,
Just asking..........
When you say you're maxed out on mem, do you mean that your current mobo's total memory module capacity is maxed out at 4Gb?
If this is so then I would suggest to just gather your funds and pick up a CPU, mobo & mem combo as a minimum to get you up to speed. Doesn't need to be the latest, greatest stuff that's out currently, just a setup that has a 4-core CPU at minimum, mobo that can accept the CPU and more than 4Gb mem and is dual channel compliant (most will accept at least 8Gb-16Gb) @ DDR3 1600 (the sweet spot) and the mem modules (2 x 4Gb mem modules minimum for dual channel operation). Either Intel or AMD will suffice. You can find some good cheap deals on some still very good and powerful equipment.................
If your existing mobo can accept more mem capacity >4Gb (8Gb would be a good place to land at a minimum) then I would suggest to up the mem to 8Gb then look at the CPU upgrade you've listed as Win 7 can use the 2 extra CPU cores as well as any other apps to perform better. Lowest cost option............
As w\ any computer upgrade, 1st make sure that you have ample PSU power capacity from your existing PSU to handle any upgrades or plan to include a PSU upgrade along w\ the rest.
To test your box to see if it is making excessive page outs from system mem to virtual mem (using the page file) you can set up the Win 7 Performance Monitor to monitor this aspect of your box, then minimize it and run the game w\ it running in the background then check the results.......this will show you if your box is actually writing data from system mem to the page file while playing the game and how much it is doing it (shown in %). Just because Windows shows that your page file usage is that high, it may not be actually using that much of it while the game is actually running. With this said, the 4Gb amount of system mem you have currently onboard will most likely show thru the Performance Monitor that your box is actually paging out data to the page file on your HDD\SSD while running the game............ How much page out data traffic is going on will be the question as it takes CPU cycles\resources to do this which will take away from the CPU cycles needed to run the game..........
This is not the Win 7 Resource Monitor that is found in the Task Manager, this monitor is found thru the Control Panel, System and Security, Administrative Tools and can be set up to monitor just about any aspect of your computer's operation so it is a good tool for us consumers to use to TS computer performance issues yourself.
Hope this can help you out.
