Upgrading PC, need help (current specs included)

[Byrdox]

I registered on this forum for the sole purpose of asking for help with upgrading a few details with my current PC setup. I had this computer built using the CyberPowerPC website last year, and I still have the invoice in my email, so I'm going to copy and paste the full hardware specs straight from it. I realize that some of this info is irrelevant but I'm including it anyway--just in case:

--Current System--
HD-403-101 160GB SATA-II 3GB/S 8MB 7200RPM HD
RM-312-112 1G DDR2 PC6400 MEMORY
FA-108-112 COOLERMASTER LGA 775+ 3.6GHZ FAN
CS-410-103 ORANGE XBLADE 3 CASE NO POWER
CD-124-175 BLACK SONY 20X DVDRW
FD-104-103 BLACK SONY 1.44MB FLOPPY DRIVE
MB-316-103 ASUS P5N-E SLI NFORCE 650I SLI MB
SC-XXX-101 AC97 ONBOARD SOUND
VC-160-112 EVGA GEFORCE 8600GT 512MB PCI-E
SW-160-125 WINDOW VISTA HOME PREMIUM 64BIT SP1
SW-160-132 WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1 COA
CU-189-112 INTEL CORE 2 DUO E4500 2.2 RETAIL
PS-109-118 ULTRA LIFETIME SERIES 600WATT PS
NC-110-111 ZONET 802.11G 54MBP WIRELESS PCI

If you're still reading, I hope you'll provide me with some helpful input!

First thing I want to do is add another HDD, one with at least 200gig+ of space, possibly more depending on cost/value. I'd like to balance the price of the HDD with the quality of it such as the speed and that sort of thing, along with it's capacity.

The next, less specific, thing I want to do is beef up this thing's gaming capabilities. To clarify, I don't necessarily want to be able to play Crysis on full-blown settings, but I would like slightly more power; Basically, I want my system to be able to run games such as the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, and maybe even go back to Oblivion and Fallout 3, all while able to play them toward the high-end of the video settings spectrum--not necessarily the tip-top of it, but enough to make it look pretty and run smoothly.

But which way should I go to do this? Should I upgrade my video card? Install more RAM? Or do I need to take a more costly and complicated route?

Currently, I'm capable of playing just about every game available, although Crysis forced me to turn everything down to minimum, and even then it was running at a choppy 10FPS. I can play Mass Effect 1 with settings turned almost all the way up and only receive some slight choppiness, which I then turn down just slightly to even things out. Oblivion, depending on what's on-screen, is perfectly playable at about mid-level video settings (some areas I can crank em up with no problems, and then others I have to turn them back down just to fight accurately). Fallout 3 requires me to do similar things with it that I did with Oblivion, but at around mid-level settings it's very playable.

Again, what I'm hoping to accomplish is to be able to play games like Mass Effect 1 or WoW on full-settings, Oblivion and Fallout 3 with high-but-not-max-settings, and basically just not worry about whether or not I can play this or that game without making the graphics look like PS2 or worse, or dreading that the framerate will just be a strobe light.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. My price range is about $125-$175 for these upgrades, but can increase depending on the value of the upgrades, or whatever. Again, I'm not looking to create a hotrod, I basically just want to put some pegs on my bike and a card in my spokes. Thanks in advance!

[david eaton]

the first thing that I can see is that you are short of RAM. i would suggest maxing out the board with 8gb as you are running a 64bit OS. I think that you may need a new video card too, but I don't know enough about them to advise you.

[Byrdox]

Bump, and I noticed I only listed my current setup as having only 1gig of RAM, when in fact I have 3gigs of RAM; it should read:

RM-312-112 1G DDR2 PC6400 MEMORY (Quantity of 3)

Sorry about that. Hope to hear more input.

[cmeyvin]

You won't need 8Gb of ram for ur needs. Put all the money on the graphics card instead. Getting 8Gb ram from 3gb won't give you the framerate boost you need. I believe 3gb will do good enough. Get a graphics card like the new HD5770. It is only 159$ on newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-858-_-Product

This card will keep u happy for years to come and is futureproof, it will be a while before you'll ever going to need to upgrade your graphics card. Maybe you might feel the need to upgrade your processor later on. But it should do okay for now. Maybe later if you plan to build a new pc, u can just mayb hook it with the HD 5770. And remember HD 5770 is a dx11 card thus futureproof. But if your looking for a cheaper alternative, you may just go with the HD4850 which is slightly less powerful than the HD 5770. It is available for under 100$ these days, so if u choose that option you can buy ram with the money left.

[Byrdox]

Thanks for the video card info. I suspected an upgrade in that department would do a lot for me, and I'm now very inclined to go with the one you linked me. I just had a couple of questions (for anyone):

From the info I've linked of my current system, is anyone able to assure me that this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-858-_-Product) will be compatible "out-of-the-box" (i.e. I just pop it in, run the drivers, and it's running)? I only ask because I'm under the impression that there is a slight difference between some cards, and I don't fully understand the technical terms like "PCI Express" although I do know my current video card is PCI Express.

I just worry about spending money on something and finding out it's incompatible or requires something else that I didn't take into consideration; I consider myself relatively fluent and familiar with lots of computer technical stuff, but know that my knowledge is far from complete. Thanks so far for the help!

[cmeyvin]

Since your MB is an Sli board, u won't be able to run two HD 5770 in crossfire. Thats the only drawback i can see. Otherwise a single HD5770 will run flawlessly on your MB, no compatibility issues whatsoever. But your processor might be of a little bottleneck to you card. But you can always upgrade later which you might wanna get something like this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115057

[sifLord]

the pci-e just tells you the type of physical connection the card makes with your mainboard

the other types are pci and agp, niether of which is compatible with a pci-e slot

as mentioned above, your mainboard supports SLi , this means you can use 2 (or more) Nvidia brand graphics cards at the same time to boost the graphics capabilities

the HD 5770 ATI card mentioned supports crossfire, which is basically the same as SLi but supports ATI brand graphics cards...

as suggested above, your mainboard, being SLi, will not be able to run 2 ATI cards at the same time

the 5770 sits between the nvidia 250 and 260 as far as performance goes, but it has hardware support for directx 11

the cpu is a mixed bag as afar as gaming is concerned, in some games its more important than others

the only other consideration would be your power supply, not all power supplies are created equal, but it should be adequate unless you do go for a dual graphics setup

[rond36]

Originally Posted by Byrdox

Bump, and I noticed I only listed my current setup as having only 1gig of RAM, when in fact I have 3gigs of RAM; it should read:

RM-312-112 1G DDR2 PC6400 MEMORY (Quantity of 3)

Sorry about that. Hope to hear more input.

For duel-channel memory to be enabled your DIMMs need to be installed in pairs

Your motherboard supports duel-channel memory, installing 3 DIMMs will cause your memory to run in single-channel mode!

You would get better performance if you remove the 3rd DIMM and even better if you add a 4th DIMM

If you want 3GB you need to install 2X 1GB DIMMs in the yellow slots and 2X 512KB DIMMs in the black slots

[123456]

512Kb... now that's taking us back down memory lane... XD