Hey guys,

My games a bit choppy/laggy for my likeing, so i was thinking of upgrading.

I thought i shouldn't do anything without the pro advice from these forums

Please let me know what i should do , or if i need to supply any more info

atm:

Intel core 2 cpu
6300 @ 1.86 GHz
1.00gb of ram

Im not even sure what my graphics card is :S

Thanks,

gog.

atm im thinking of just upgrading my ram to 2gig and getting some uber sweet graphics card

Originally Posted by gog

atm im thinking of just upgrading my ram to 2gig and getting some uber sweet graphics card

That is normally the most logical approach. Generally bumping up the RAM gives the best bang for the money. However, understand that bumping RAM over 1Gb on a single core CPU will not give near as big a performance gain as going from 512Mb to 1Gb. You will get some gains, but not a huge bump. Still, for the cost, that is normally the first step.

You did not specify your motherboard's graphics support capability. I would guess AGP. There are still some excellent AGP graphics cards out there and they will most likely provide a significant performance boost, especially for graphics intensive applications, such as games.

However, you need to look down the road a bit. AGP is obsolete. New motherboards do not support AGP graphics cards. So spending a bunch of money on an AGP card now (which you must do to get to the "uber sweet" stage) may not be economically the best thing to do, especially if you are considering a new motherboard/CPU in the near future as you will have move to a PCI Express graphics card. Even your new 1Gb of RAM may not be supported on a new motherboard.

Your CPU is not very current either. If you upgrade your RAM and graphics, your CPU may become the next bottleneck in line. What I am saying is even though you will see improved performance, you may still not be happy with the game play. It may be better to hold off on upgrades until the budget will allow a new motherboard (and CPU/RAM/graphics card) upgrade. This is especially true if you are looking at the latest 3D animated games as they are written for the latest in HW technology.

On top of that, if your current power supply is a few years old, and matched (in terms of watts) to your current system, it may not adequately support more RAM and especially the new graphics card.

Use the eXtreme PSU Calculator Lite to determine your power supply requirements. Plug in all the hardware you think you might have in 2 or 3 years (extra drives, bigger or 2nd video card, more RAM, etc.). Be sure to read and heed the notes at the bottom. I recommend you set Capacitor Aging to 30% and if you participate in distributive computing projects, I recommend setting TDP to 100%. Then look for brands listed under the "Good" column of PC Mechanic's PSU Reference List. Don't try to save a few dollars by getting a cheap supply. Digital electronics needs clean, stable power. A good, well chosen supply will provide years of service and upgrade wiggle room.

Thanks for your advice. My comp is only about 10 months old, some thing are out of date? I remember buying a pretty good power supply with a decent wattage too. Im selling my wow accounts and i should get about $500-700 which ill spend on upgrading this comp. Am i better off buying a completely new PC? Is it possible to upgrade to a dual core and a better motherboard?

Great, i've found my order history to give you an idea of what exactly i have atm:

Silver Midi-tower case with mesh-look front, 22cm fan in side panel, 3x 5.25/1x 3.5ext, 2x 3.5int, no PSU


Palit X1600XT PCI-E x16 video card with 256mb RAM, VGA/DVI, TV Out (S-video/Component)


Antec TruePower Trio 650W ATX Power Supply, 120mm fan, Dual PCI-Express Graphics Card Connector, 4 SATA Connectors

Pioneer DVR-111D Silver OEM IDE DVD-RW, 8x DVD+/-DL, 16x DVD+/-R, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 40x CD-R w/software

250Gb Seagate 7200.10 7200rpm SATA-II hard disk, 16mb cache, NCQ
HD-ST3250620AS 9QE0C9A7 $143.00

Intel Core2 Duo E6300 1.86Ghz (Conroe) Processor, Dual core LGA775 2mb cache, w/Intel Cooler

ASRock Conroe945G-DVI LGA775 945G P4/C2D MATX board, DDRII, PCI-E x16, PCI-E x1, 2x PCI, 4x SATA, Video, audio, LAN

Corsair Twin2X 1024MB 240-pin DDR2 XMS2-6400 RAM 5-5-5-12 (2x 512mb sticks) w/heat spreader, not for DDR boards

That is a pretty nice computer all ready. I would say upgrade to a DDR3 graphics card for sure. Which is going to run you between $175-$275 depending on what you want. I would go high end since you have plenty of money for it. I just upgraded to a Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS OC which was 275 and is a very nice card. For gaming your probably going to want to get an Over Clocked card like I did, which gives you a little more bang especially in the newest games, and you have a nice power supply that will easily support it already. Antec is a great brand and the TruePower Trio helps save energy by running low when it isn't needed to run at full, so that is a really nice benifit. I would get a DVI cord too if you get a nice graphics card and your monitor can handle it which I would guess it could since the computer is relativily new. Along with a RAM upgrade you will be sitting at a pretty powerful computer, but I would definatly get the RAM upgrade if I were you. 2GB is the standard for a desktop so I wouldn't sit at any less than that. You already have a PCI slot so you should be able to get the latest graphics cards that are out. Other than that I can't think of much else you need.

I agree - that's pretty nice already - my mistake for assuming it was pretty old - my mistake again for not noticing the 6300 in your first post too! Antec's are a favorite of mine so with the 650W Antec, I think you did good there. Your drive is SATA II, NCQ, with 16Mb buffer - all good points. And Corsair is a major RAM maker.

There are faster motherboards, but the difference would be insignificant and a lot of hassles because Windows would choke at seeing new hardware, and think it is a new computer.

So, I think you are good to get more RAM and a new graphics card and use them with your existing HW.

Yep yep! The rest of your money you might as well save for future upgrades, they're inevitable, or for those new games your going to get! Nothing else is really worth upgrading for how much money you would have to spend and small little improvements that you don't need for anything you will be running anyway. Have fun!

-Cody

Thanks heaps guys...i dont know a lot about computers as you probably would have guessed so if you dont mind, ill do a bit of research for my graphics cards/ram and link them here. Just to make sure im buying the right stuff.

Thanks a bunch for all your help!

Ok for my ram , i saw this:

2gig ram only $100 AUD.

For graphics cards im really confused. I see some with 300ish mb for $400 then a 512mb one for $200 (both nvida). If somebody could link what graphics card they could reccomend me that would be great.