? Upgrade

[opel80uk]

Hi All

You guys really helped me out with me new build a year and a half ago, and was just wondering whether I could pick your brains about upgrading? basically I do a bit of gaming on the PC and would like to be able to play the latest games (Football manager series, good turn based and real time strategies, and games like New Vegas etc) which I think my rig does fine ATM, but was wondering whether I should be looking to upgrade anything at the mo, especially with regards to games being released now, as I'm aware my set up is getting on for 2 years old? I have a little bit of dosh (bout £300 + what ever I would get for selling the soon to be replaced parts) ATM and was wondering what was the opinions on an upgrade are and what I should I replace or would I be better off putting my money towards a newer set up a bit further down the line? My rig is:

Phenom II X4 955BE
Gigabyte MA770-UD3 revision 2
4gb PC2-8500
Samsung F1 1tb
XFX HD 4870 512mb
Corsair HX450W 450w
Antec 300 Case

Thanks for any help!

[ik9000]

I'd put it towards a new graphics card and maybe some extra RAM, though 4GB isn't bad. Otherwise that is still a reasonable set-up. That way you can wait until Bulldozer and Patsburg come out later this year and see what they're like.

[Pob255]

What screen/resolution are you playing on?
That system will happly handle fallout new vegas at 1680x1050

[ik9000]

does your motherboard support DDR3? That could make a difference if you can switch from DDR2.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,an HD4870 1GB should still do the job. If you really want to get an upgrade an HD6870 1GB or perhaps an HD6950 2GB would be worth looking at!

[ik9000]

isn't he on a 512MB card not a 1GB?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

isn't he on a 512MB card not a 1GB?

Oops! I misread the OP! However,a HD4870 512MB is still a decent graphics card and will trade blows with an HD5770 1GB in many game.

[ik9000]

a HD4870 512MB is still a decent graphics card and will trade blows with an HD5770 1GB in many game.

to the OP - why not try running the latest games that appeal to you and see how your current rig fares. If the graphics performance isn't cutting the mustard, look to upgrade the card, but if you're happy with its performance then save the money to put towards new components in the future, by which time things will have moved on and you'll get something even more powerful for your money.*

(*inflation effects excluded - thinking about it, should we all just be buying up everything now cos the buying power of savings is only decreasing...?)

[ehhhhhhh]

I would spend on a decent SSD and maybe a 6950 (though bought of them would be around 350-400)...and OC the 955 too it should handle 3.6+ with a good cooler.

[Ultima2876]

Even without a really expensive one; if you get a Hyper 212 Plus or maybe a Arctic Freezer 7 (that's what I have) you can push to 3.6ghz without much of a problem - and for only spending £15-20. I've got mine running at 3.6ghz and after a couple of days of 'breaking in' it's now 56 degrees under maximum load, 50 degrees after a few hours gaming session and 31 degrees idle.

Out of the two though I'd recommended the Hyper 212 Plus, from all I've heard. The Arctic Freezer 7 was a bitch to fit on and gave me a scare at first when my temps were up at 63 under max load - it definitely takes a few days to settle.

[Domestic_Ginger]

New GPU then a Cooler and OC - the 212 is £15 at play + .

A word of warning if you have a C2 chip they do not overclock quite so well as the C3. The heat and power consumption rises quite sharply with overclocking too.

I would not invest in upgrading the rest of your rig; if you know you are then you could get some DDR3 while its cheap but otherwise not bother (I have some waiting for AM3+!).

I have the same rig as you; I put a 5850 in it and it runs at much higher settings than my 4870 or 260 (okay not the top of the line FPS). I can max L4D2 at 1920x1080. Finally I can start running near top specs in Empire TW (18 months on). I am not going to upgrade until BD comes out.

[opel80uk]

Hey Guys

Apologies, as away for away few weeks so didn't get a chance to thank you for replying.

All in all, I think I'll hold tight for a while at least, but thanks again!

[opel80uk]

Me again, and I'm after another bit of advice!

Since I built the PC I've always had a slight buzzing whenever I use headphones with the PC (and also if I'm playing a game and unplug the headphone when I plug them back in I don't get any noise, and have to shut down the application and open it again. Doesn't happen when using the speakers) . I just assumed that it was a problem with the onboard soundcard, although I guess it could also be with the case, as I'm using the built in socket. My question is, will any soundcard be ok to test that out? Was just gonna go with the cheapest, unless anyone thinks that is a mistake?

Thanks again for any help.

[ik9000]

Me again, and I'm after another bit of advice!

Since I built the PC I've always had a slight buzzing whenever I use headphones with the PC (and also if I'm playing a game and unplug the headphone when I plug them back in I don't get any noise, and have to shut down the application and open it again. Doesn't happen when using the speakers) . I just assumed that it was a problem with the onboard soundcard, although I guess it could also be with the case, as I'm using the built in socket. My question is, will any soundcard be ok to test that out? Was just gonna go with the cheapest, unless anyone thinks that is a mistake?

Thanks again for any help.

The losing sound when you unplug and then plug back in could be due to windows rather than a hardware problem. When i unplug mine and then reinsert a pop-up box appears asking me to confirm what I've plugged in (bizarrely one of the options is even for a microphone!?) but until I've done that it won't play any sound. If this is happening behind the game running you might need to alt+tab out the game and click it to get sound back. I assume there'll be a way to turn it off in windows, but I haven't been able to find it myself. If anyone can assist with how to do this it'd be much appreciated.

As for the buzzing, is there dust in the socket (try cleaning with compressed air, and even contact cleaner - though I'd only resort to that once you've ruled out other things). Does windows spit out any error messages in device manager? Are the contacts on the audio jacks all soldered ok, both in your machine and your headphones? Is everything properly connected and earthed in your machine?

[Pob255]

It can be the front panel connector, they can cause issues, it could also be windows as ik9000 said.

It's a difficult one to track down.

Most budget sound cards lack internal connectors so you cannot plug the front panel connectors in.
If your headphone cable is long enough what you can try is a simple audio splitter plug in the back and keep your head phones permanently plugged in with the speakers.

This a a difficult one to track down.

[opel80uk]

The losing sound when you unplug and then plug back in could be due to windows rather than a hardware problem. When i unplug mine and then reinsert a pop-up box appears asking me to confirm what I've plugged in (bizarrely one of the options is even for a microphone!?) but until I've done that it won't play any sound. If this is happening behind the game running you might need to alt+tab out the game and click it to get sound back. I assume there'll be a way to turn it off in windows, but I haven't been able to find it myself. If anyone can assist with how to do this it'd be much appreciated.

As for the buzzing, is there dust in the socket (try cleaning with compressed air, and even contact cleaner - though I'd only resort to that once you've ruled out other things). Does windows spit out any error messages in device manager? Are the contacts on the audio jacks all soldered ok, both in your machine and your headphones? Is everything properly connected and earthed in your machine?

It's strange as if I'm running the game and unpug the headphnes and plug them back in again, windows picks up that I've pluged in headphnes (The speaker icon changes to headphones when I click on the volume icon in the taskbar), and I'm not getting any error messages on the device manager. But if I unplug and then plug in the headphones, even if I Alt-Tab a game when I go back into it I get the same thing. I have to actually close the game down and restart it from Windows to work.

It's not the headphones as I have tried it with new pairs that work fine with my other pc and I still get the same problem. I've used compressed air to clean dust out but doesn't seem to change anything and all the contacts look fine to me. I'm wondering whether it is a problem with the onboard sound on the Mobo maybe?