Advice on PC upgrades

[KK90]

Hi all!

I'm wanting to upgrade my pc, I've had this build for quite some time and will be able to afford upgrades soon! Just after some advice on what needs upgrading and what to upgrade to!

I use my PC for gaming and some graphic design in photoshop.

Any help much appreciated!



Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X2 545
Callisto 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Corsair Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 401MHz (5-5-5-18)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. M61PME-S2P (Socket M2)
Graphics
P225HQ (1920x1080@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (Gigabyte)
Hard Drives
233GB SAMSUNG HD251HJ SCSI Disk Device (ATA)
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S222A ATA Device
Audio
Line 6 UX1

[carvedeye]

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X2 545
Callisto 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Corsair Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 401MHz (5-5-5-18)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. M61PME-S2P (Socket M2)
Graphics
P225HQ (1920x1080@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (Gigabyte)
Hard Drives
233GB SAMSUNG HD251HJ SCSI Disk Device (ATA)
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S222A ATA Device
Audio
Line 6 UX1

That still not a bad system tbh granted its not top end but still a decent system all the same however if it was me i would go down the intel route but this depends on your budget? what sort of gaming do you do/have in mind?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Have you tried unlocking the CPU?? You might get another core or two. What PSU do you have and what games are you going to run??

[scaryjim]

As others have said, the build isn't really that bad: the big issue is that you're on quite a cheap motherboard with a very poor spec, and upgrading the motherboard would also mean buying new memory (as you'd have to move to DDR3). OTOH, as CAT points out, with a better motherboard you might be able to unlock some extra cores, and you could probably overclock your CPU too.

Tricky decision given the balance of your current build though ... realistically everything would benefit from a bit of a bump up!

[agello24]

if you really want to upgrade, then just upgrade the cpu to a quad or see if it can be unlocked by the motherboard. Get a 5800 or 6800 graphics card and have at least a 550 to 600 watt power supply. I recommended a newer video card cause the AMD 4 series cards ran alot or watts during stress.