What would be a good upgrade for this PC?

[jimson]

Pretty happy with this system, but wondering what would make the most difference in an upgrade, newer Vid card or something else?

Also wondering if I should upgrade the OS. XP home edition SP3 currently recognizing about 3.25 gigs of ram

EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

E8400 cpu

PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply

Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-115DBK 

Creative 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5

[TequilaChaser]

Windows 7 pro or ultimate 64 bit version  and possibly a new higher end videocard......

but with what you have now, you should be able to just bout max out with hi res pkg in AH..

if you OS is clean, tuned and tweaked.....

[jimson]

Ah, thanks.

I can run most, if not all of the eye candy, but would like to position myself for the future and have a little overkill so I don't have to worry about tweaking stuff much.

What are the better video cards that are on the market these days?

[guncrasher]

be aware there's a lot of problems with win7 64 and the xtremegamer sound card.  I have that card and it stopped working after either win7 or creative update.  I cant get it to work.

semp

[Boozeman]

What are the better video cards that are on the market these days?

AMD Radeon 5850 or Nvidia GTX460 1G

However, AMD will release the HD6000 series soon, so I'd wait a bit to see what they are worth.

[Ghastly]

Just be aware that as you improve the video card, you will likely lose additional memory from 32 bit XP.  This is because the video memory is direct mapped into the address space, and you only have 512 now, while newer cards that are less than 1 GB are "harder to find" - and present the ugly choice of optimizing your choice for "now" or "after an upgrade to w7 64 bit".

<S>

 

[Masherbrum]

Actually, just a 9800GTX+ would be almost ideal for your CPU.   I have an ASUS P5K-E MB with an E8400 and 4GB of PC-8500 Mushkin Ascent RAM.   I have an 8800GTS KO and play all games on max. settings.   

But I'd ditch the 32 bit OS first.   I went from 32 XP Pro and went to Vista Ultimate 64 and do NOT regret it.   

You could also use faster RAM as that MB supports 1066 and 1200 (you have 800).   

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Actually, just a 9800GTX+ would be almost ideal for your CPU.   I have an ASUS P5K-E MB with an E8400 and 4GB of PC-8500 Mushkin Ascent RAM.   I have an 8800GTS KO and play all games on max. settings.   

But I'd ditch the 32 bit OS first.   I went from 32 XP Pro and went to Vista Ultimate 64 and do NOT regret it.   

You could also use faster RAM as that MB supports 1066 and 1200 (you have 800).   

Going higher ram speeds would require overclocking the memory bus. Usually the optimal situation is to have synchronized speed on CPU FSB and memory. Asynch ram is actually slower in many benchmarks so you'll gain some, lose some. You get absolutely the least bang for buck 'upgrading' your ram 'mhz speed' compared to upgrading any other component. Well, maybe killerNIC is worse than that!

[SectorNine50]

Going higher ram speeds would require overclocking the memory bus. Usually the optimal situation is to have synchronized speed on CPU FSB and memory. Asynch ram is actually slower in many benchmarks so you'll gain some, lose some. You get absolutely the least bang for buck 'upgrading' your ram 'mhz speed' compared to upgrading any other component. Well, maybe killerNIC is worse than that!

That motherboard will do 1066Mhz without overclocking, and with a FSB of 1333MHz on his E8400, I don't think he's gonna get sync'd speeds so he might as well have faster a-sync'd speeds.

Just be aware that as you improve the video card, you will likely lose additional memory from 32 bit XP.  This is because the video memory is direct mapped into the address space, and you only have 512 now, while newer cards that are less than 1 GB are "harder to find" - and present the ugly choice of optimizing your choice for "now" or "after an upgrade to w7 64 bit".

Are you sure of this?  I'm running 32bit XP with a 1GB card on 3.25GB RAM (4GB installed) and all is available.  Nothing changes on my RAM between my old 256MB card and my 1GB card.

I think you may be thinking of video cards that use shared memory.

[Masherbrum]

That motherboard will do 1066Mhz without overclocking, and with a FSB of 1333MHz on his E8400, I don't think he's gonna get sync'd speeds so he might as well have faster a-sync'd speeds.

Thank you.   I looked at the specs and came to that very same conclusion.   

[MrRiplEy[H]]

That motherboard will do 1066Mhz without overclocking, and with a FSB of 1333MHz on his E8400, I don't think he's gonna get sync'd speeds so he might as well have faster a-sync'd speeds.

Heh first of all you're so off base it's not even funny. You're confusing the Intel "quad pumped" 333mhz fsb rating with your DDR2 rating.

Yes, the E8400 actually runs at 333Mhz bus speed. After multiplier of 4 it becomes 1333. DDR2 however has only a multiplier of two (2) so sync ram speed is actually 666Mhz.

I would never in a million years pay the price of 4gb ram sticks to get 200mhz bus speed change as a result. That's just retarded folks. He will get perhaps 1 fps gain (IF he's lucky) and pay 80 bucks or more.

[Tigger29]

would like to position myself for the future and have a little overkill so I don't have to worry about tweaking stuff much

You guys are forgetting the point here.. he doesn't want the hassle of overclocking, and all of that.

Jimson, really it all comes down to how much money you want to spend, and what you want to use it for.

Got $1000?  Get a new motherboard, i7 setup, 12GB RAM, and an ATI5850 and Win7 Home Premium 64bit.

Got a couple hundred bucks?  You can get a nice little upgrade going to an ATI 5830 or 5850.

If all you use the computer for is basic computer stuff (email, www, etc) and Aces High, then don't bother upgrading the Operating System, as that extra 750MB of Ram isn't going to make THAT MUCH of a difference.  If you DO decide to up the Ram further, then Win7 Home Premium 64bit is the way to go.  Don't let the name fool you, the "Ultimate" version really offers little more than Home Premium, and you're likely to find you won't even use those options.

I will say this... the 9800GTX+ is only a marginal upgrade over the 8800GT.  Really, it's not that much of a difference.. it's basically the same card with a little faster memory and slightly higher clock speeds.

I'll use Aces High as a benchmark here with my system.  I had the following:

• ASRock G43Twins-FullHD Motherboard
• Intel E7400 C2D (2.8GHZ, slightly OC to 3.0GHZ)
• 4GB DDR3 1066 RAM
• 9800GTX+ Video Card
• USB Turtle Beach Headphones.. nothing fancy about the hard drives or anything else
• Win XP Home (32bit)

I was able to handle Aces High at 512 textures sliders about 2/3 of the way to max and no shadows and run a steady 55-60FPS at 1920X1200 resolution.  1024 (hires) textures didn't seem to affect FR too much until I flew into a lot of action, fire, etc in which it would drop down to 25-30 at times.  Higher sliders dropped it down to 40 or so consistently, and shadows REALLY killed things.  This is all with a notch of AA in AH settings.  It actually seemed to perform slightly worse by disabling AA which doesn't make sense, but perhaps it liked to be stressed... and likewise 2 notches was too much for it... but 1 notch was JUST RIGHT.

Then I upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.  Didn't really see much of a performance increase in Aces High.  I would have to say... about the same.

Then I upgraded to an ATI 5830 Video Card.  I've been a die hard Nvidia fan throughout the years ever since I had a three bad ATI experiences in the 90's with poor drivers and compatibility issues - all of which were corrected by switching to Nvidia, but all the rave reviews about the ATI 58XX line couldn't be ignored.  The price was right, people were talking good things, and I can't complain one bit.

I ordered it knowing it was the 'low end' of the 58XX line, and while I was hoping for the best, I expected the worse and I have to say that this card met me right in the middle of my expectations.  No, it's not a beast, and if I had the chance to do it again I probably would have saved up for a 5850, but I don't regret my purchase at all.

With the 5830 I can run 1024 Textures with hires, All sliders maxed out, and self shadows at 1024 AND maintain 60FPS all day long.  Turning on other planes' shadows kills it big time.  Cranking self shadows to 2048 takes a pretty good hit as well.  With this latest AH update, I set 2048 hires textures and while flying the new Mossie, my frames are still maxed out.  I also enabled the new building shadows and they don't seem to affect things anyway.

So can I max EVERYTHING out?  Well no.  I was hoping that I could, but I knew that an entry level 58XX card probably wouldn't do the trick.  Is AH pretty?  Oh yes!  Most definitely.  Was the 5830 an improvement over the 9800GTX+?  *YES*... if I had to guess, I'd say a 30-40% improvement is realistic.  I can only IMAGINE what the high end cards are capable of.

Then I upgraded to a Velociraptor Hard drive.  Paid way too much for a 160GB hard drive, and while it is definitely MUCH faster (computer boots much faster, game loads much faster, no stuttering when a plane with a custom skin comes into view, etc)... I don't feel it was worth the investment.  Looking back I should have used that money to upgrade to a 5850 instead, BUT like I said, no regrets at all.

So, to answer your question... without spending your money to rebuild the system with a new MB, Processor, Memory... really your best bet is a video card, but if you're going to do that don't skimp out.  I highly recommend the 5830 or if you can afford it, the 5850.  The Fermis (Nvidia) are nice from what I've heard, but I'm an ATI fanboi now.  Runs cool.  Performs well.  I use ATI Tray Tools and now have a significant OC on my graphics card with no ill effects.  I just can't complain.

Unless you specifically WANT TO upgrade to Windows 7, I can't really see a reason to recommend it unless you want to up the ram to 8GB or more... but I don't believe even that will make a significant increase in AH performance.

Now if you use the computer for other intensive things, then this might all be a different story...

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Thank you.   I looked at the specs and came to that very same conclusion.   

As a friendly reminder I suggest learning the bus multiplier basics before shelling out advice on use of someone's hard earned dough.

[jimson]

Lotsa good info for me to consider.

Thanks for the replies.

I'll probably start with an upgraded Video card.

Not sure about the OS. I am started to do some AH film making and such, but I don't think I need to move up to i7 yet.

[Masherbrum]

As a friendly reminder I suggest learning the bus multiplier basics before shelling out advice on use of someone's hard earned dough.

You made a decision for me.  I thank you for it.   Goodbye.