Suggest New Component? Advice Appreciated

[k3n7]

Hi, I'm currently in the process of upgrading my system slightly, however, I am unsure as to exactly what component is bottlenecking my rig. It's not a high-end PC but I would just like some advice as to what component to upgrade.

My spec:

• Asus M2V Motherboard
• A64 2.4GHz 3800+ AM2 CPU
• 1GB DDR2 Generic RAM
• Sapphire ATi Radeon x1600 Pro 256mb

Any advice appreciated. Thanks a lot.

 

[a2amali]

you did not mention if its a single chip 1GB ram or 512x2 if its single then to get double output you will need two chips as this is DDR2 memory. if you just use one then you will get half the performance.
You also did not mention the hard dirve, that is really the bigest bottle neck, if you have SATA2 Drive then it will really really help the system.
Also if you are running vista OS ( you did not mention!) then directx 10 card would be very sweet indeed.

Hope it helps.

 

[k3n7]

Sorry for not providing sufficient specs.

It's a single 1GB Chip - would that considerably increase performance if I bought another one or a set of 2x1GB?

It's an IDE HDD - I didn't realise the HDD affected performance in games etc

OS - It's Windows XP, not prepared to lose the game compatibility

Thanks for the advice. Now that I've told you, what do you suggest?

 

[Me__2001]

what bottlenecks are you talking about? what are you having problems with?

 

[a2amali]

Sorry for not providing sufficient specs.

It's a single 1GB Chip - would that considerably increase performance if I bought another one or a set of 2x1GB?

It's an IDE HDD - I didn't realise the HDD affected performance in games etc

OS - It's Windows XP, not prepared to lose the game compatibility

Thanks for the advice. Now that I've told you, what do you suggest?

Yes thanks, now that you have givem me more information i would suggest that you get the second 1GB chip, i will double your speed between CPU and Memory, you wont see a lot of differnce but it will be visible. The hard drive will make bigger difference in booting up and opening applications specially large games like Unreal Tornament III or Gears of War etc.

If you had vista i would suggest a nvidia 8500GT card which is cheap but does directx 10. it can make a big differnce to game viewing.

Goodluck.

 

[V_R]

What do you use the pc for? Gaming?

Another gig of ram is always good, if you want to upgrade the vid card then it depends on what your going to be doing and whats your budget?

 

[k3n7]

Yeah I game quite a lot on my PC. I don't have a particually big budget and am willing to spend around £100-£130. The idea of the upgrade was just to give a little bit of extra performance when in-game (i'm happy with the graphics, it's more fps i'm worried about). I'm also not too worried about load times. I'd rather have to wait a little bit longer to get in-game and then have a better experience then.

Thanks. Any more advice?

 

[V_R]

Well if i were you i'd save a few more £ and get an 8800GT 512mb when they are in stock.

Best bang for buck by a long way.

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...+Extreme+Performance+(2x1GB)+?productId=26802

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...n+5000++2.60GHz+(Retail+AM2)+?productId=29176

Get these two items and sell your old cpu and ram and you'll have a real flying machine . The money you get for your old stuff will pay for a good cpu cooler .