Processor Upgrade

Felbeast · October 10th, 2009, 01:47 PM

Hello,
Im thinking of getting an upgrade for my computer but im not really sure how much of an upgrade it is. Its kit thing that includes a:

Case
Athlon II X2 215 2.7GHz <
1GB RAM <----more expensive kit $200
Gforce 9500 <
PCIe slots

or a

Case
AMD Athlon LE-1640 ADH1640DPBOX Processor <--less expensive kit $149
2GB ram <
PCIe slots <

vs what ive got now:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
1gb ram- 2x512mb (200mhz)
Gforce 6200 256mb
NO PCI express (sux)

Main thing why i want to change it is for Gaming (Starcraft 2 preparation) and because the case (i suppose) makes an airpline-like noise. are these worthy upgrades or should i just stay with the airplane? I wanna get the most bang for my buck. Any suggestions?

Aaron_8015 · October 10th, 2009, 02:10 PM

You will be best off selling your current rig and building/buying a new one... That athlon X2 isn't a bad choice but comes with a rubbish low end gpu....

Do you have any links to the site?

How much are you willing to spend?

Are you capable of building your own?

By the way, welcome to TechIMO.

Felbeast · October 10th, 2009, 02:29 PM

Thx for the welcome =D

The site for the kits are these MSI K9N6PGM2-V GeForce 6100 Socket AM2 Barebone - MSI K9N6PGM2-V MOBO, AMD Athlon 64 LE-1640 CPU, 2GB DDR2, Case & 450 Watt PSU at TigerDirect.com <--$149

and

]ASUS EVGA 9500GT Barebone Kit - Asus M2N68-AM SE2 MOBO, Athlon II X2 215 2.7GHz CPU,1GB DDR2, NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT, Case w/ 450 Watt PSU at TigerDirect.com <--$200

Im willing to spend around 200 bucks since all I want is an upgrade from what i currently have that can be upgraded afterwards since mine well, it doesnt even have a PCIe and the ram frequency is 200mhz makes ram buying expensive when compared to 667mhz. I know how to build it myself Im just not pretty good when it comes to dealing w/ processor speeds. What would you recommend?

Aaron_8015 · October 10th, 2009, 02:52 PM

right, well im afraid all $200 will get you is a new mobo/cpu/memory, you would have to upgrade gpu/psu at a later point....

Will see what parts I can dig up....

Felbeast · October 10th, 2009, 02:59 PM

Cool, ty

Aaron_8015 · October 10th, 2009, 03:06 PM

CPU
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
$60 (FS)

RAM
Newegg.com - Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PSD22G800KH - Desktop Memory
$38.99 (FS)

Mobo
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
$79.99 (FS)

T= $178.98 all with free shipping

Okay, the cpu is a dual core at 2.7Ghz (for a little over your budget you can pick up a faster Phenom II).

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

The board takes AM3 cpu's so you can upgrade to mabye a quad core in the future if you need too (im sure starcraft will make good use of them

).

The motherboard has on-board video that you can use till you can get enough for a new GPU.

The board takes DDR2 which is now starting to be phased out by DDR3 so prices are starting to go up for it. It may be better to spend a little more get some DDR3/mobo but that is your choice....

(That mobo is open box so it is a little cheaper than new)

Felbeast · October 10th, 2009, 03:41 PM

Mmmmm the price is actually better than the other ones, how good is the video integrated on that mobo? In terms of say WoW
What i have now barely lets me get to 25-40 fps indoors and goes down to 1fps when surrounded by 20 ppl or pvp.

I think with the phenom i make it exactly to the 200s but i dont know if rather than getting the phenom I should get a video card? or more ram?

Aaron_8015 · October 10th, 2009, 03:50 PM

Its still low end but should be an improvement over what you got currently.... With the less than $30 you have left no gpu is worth buying.... I would start looking at ati 4670 or Nvidia 9600 or better..... (starts around $50 and you need to make sure your power supply can take them).

Felbeast · October 10th, 2009, 04:04 PM

Mmmmm yeah, thats another one of the things why I was looking at those kits, its because they came with a case and (im guessing) a power supply. My comp right now has a regular case and the powersupply i had to change it twice because it fried 2 and then this one i have now took it out of a stock hp pavillion i had laying around and it has held, although still goes off sometimes and something in there is making an airplane turbine kind of noise. I cant figure out what it is but its loud.

I dont think this case can hold that much stuff.

Aaron_8015 · October 10th, 2009, 04:56 PM

Well you really should save up the money and pick up a quality PSU, if that case does come with one 90% it is cheap junk.

I would wait a little bit till you can get say $400 then you can upgrade everything at once (including new DVD drive and HDD) so you can sell what you are using now...

The selection of parts you posted earlier (with the athlon x2 + 9500GT) will be okay for WOW at low settings but come time for starcraft you will be lagging behind like you are with WOW now.