Cheap Upgrade

[Smudger]

Hi, my system is feeling a little bit tired and I was looking for ways to speed things up a bit without laying out too much money.
So I thought upgrading the chip and possibly the graphics card might be the way to go. My question is; I want to keep the motherboard, so what can I change that will be compatible with my m/board?

Present setup:
Core 2 Duo 4400 running at 3GHz
4 x 1Gb Corsair XMS2 PC6400 4-4-4-12
Asus P5K-E
2x200Gb Maxtor DiamondMax 10 HD
HiS x1950pro Turbo 512Mb
Corsair HX520

Probably looking to spend £200 max, less if possible...
Thanks in advance.

[dfour]

I dont really see the point in upgrading the chip at the moment

Upgrade the graphics card to a 4870 1gb will make loads of difference

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=939

£110+p&p

Or a 4890 1gb from scan for £145:45 delivered with free delivery with hexus forum offer
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hi, my system is feeling a little bit tired and I was looking for ways to speed things up a bit without laying out too much money.
So I thought upgrading the chip and possibly the graphics card might be the way to go. My question is; I want to keep the motherboard, so what can I change that will be compatible with my m/board?

Present setup:
Core 2 Duo 4400 running at 3GHz
4 x 1Gb Corsair XMS2 PC6400 4-4-4-12
Asus P5K-E
2x200Gb Maxtor DiamondMax 10 HD
HiS x1950pro Turbo 512Mb
Corsair HX520

Probably looking to spend £200 max, less if possible...
Thanks in advance.

Your system looks fine TBH and the only real performance upgrade I can see is getting a new graphics and only if you are gaming.

The only really useful CPU upgrade would be to get a Q6700 or Q8400 for around £130 to £140 however your E4400 should be still fine for the next 6 months at least. However I upgraded from an overclocked E4500 to a Q6600 earlier this year and I consider it a good upgrade. However I got the Q6600 cheaply secondhand and sold the E4500 meaning the upgrade cost me under £40!!

I would look at getting an HD4870 512mb for around £100 or an HD4890 for under £150:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

Remember you are eligible for free postage from Scan too!

There are some secondhand Q6600 processors on Ebay for around £100 which should be easy to get upto 3ghz and together with a HD4870 512mb would also be perhaps another upgrade path too.

[shadowmaster]

Tbh as the above two have mentioned the only real thing you need to upgrade is the gfx card. The cpu I would say at the moment is fine, especially as its overclocked to 3ghz.

Something like a 4870 512MB at £98 (the one cat recommended) would do you very nicely.

[Smudger]

Blimey, that's less than I paid for my 1950!
Is the performance difference between to 4870 & 4890 worth the £40 or so extra?

[Terbinator]

Blimey, that's less than I paid for my 1950!
Is the performance difference between to 4870 & 4890 worth the £40 or so extra?

Possibly, while you can clock the 4870 to 4890 levels, you can clock the 4890 further Try looking over reviews and see how the cards compare to each other.

[Smudger]

Right, I've decided on a 4890, and the XFX on scan Today Only seems a good deal, only questions are; it's PCI-E 2.0, but my board is PCI-E 1, will it work, will my HX520 cope, and is it worth paying the extra £20 for the XXX version?

Oh, and does anyone at Scan have a hint as to whether it might be worth waiting for the weekend's Today Only... ;0)

[Smudger]

I bit the bullet and went for the vanilla xfx4890, just waiting for it to arrive...

Has anyone had a go at overclocking one yet, and if so, what speeds did you get from it? Is it worth getting an aftermarket cooler? I've heard that the 4890 can be pretty noisy...

[UseItNow]

I bit the bullet and went for the vanilla xfx4890, just waiting for it to arrive...

Has anyone had a go at overclocking one yet, and if so, what speeds did you get from it? Is it worth getting an aftermarket cooler? I've heard that the 4890 can be pretty noisy...

I would assume an aftermarket cooler would invalidate your graphic cards warranty, bear that in mind if you choose to go down that route.

[Blaineoliver]

Keep stock cooler, but watch those temps, if you use riva tuner and add the voltage plugin, and the VRM temp monitoring plugin, this will allow you to get insanely good overclocks.