Which upgrade route would you take?

[subucni]

I've got about £150 to spend so not exactly a new build to review but a question of which upgrade would you pick?

It's probably all listed under my system to the left, but incase i've not updated it, here's what i have now.

CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (socket 939)
MoBo: Asus A8N32-Sli Deluxe (SATA2, can take upto 4x1gb of DDR1)
Ram: 2x1gb of generic DDR1
GPU: ATI 512mb 4870
HDDs: 40gb (OS drive, IDE, only spare drive i had when last one died), 500gb (Storage, SATA), 1tb (Storage, SATA)
OS: WinXP Pro 32bit
Usage: Nothing special, general PC stuff, web, iplayer, dvds, bit of gaming, just started playing WoW again, so a fair bit of that lately.

Upgrade option 1 (My initial plan)
Buy a 128gb Crucial M4 for OS drive, add another 2x1gb DDR1, and switch to Win7 64bit (uncle has a spare licence i can have)

or
Upgrade option 2
Buy a cheap i3 2100 or 2120 for £90, a £40-50 mobo, and 4gb or more of DDR3, and install that with Win7 64bit on a new partition on one of my storage drives (not to keen on that part though as the last time i had OS and Storage on the same drive, the drive died after the OS crashed and took my storage partition with it.)

So again, which option would you pick?

[scaryjim]

If you're happy with your current gaming performance (and it sounds like you are) I'd go for an SSD. If you're currently using a 40GB OS drive though, why go for a 128GB? A 64GB should be fine if you're used to keeping your OS and your game installs separate.

I'm not sure I'd bother with more memory either unless you've got significant evidence that you're running low: my HTPC runs on a single 2GB stick and that doesn't adversely affect performance on that, which is used for the same kinds of purposes as your computer. I don't know how good readyboost is, but it might be worth investing in a couple of cheapish flash drive and one of these header adapters? I believe that, even with a slowish USB2 pendrive, the random access is still a fair bit faster than on a mechanical HDD.

[Pob255]

Personally I'd probably go the other way, one question, can you move the data currently on the 500gb to the 1tb? if so then do that and use it for the OS & software drive
when putting a new OS on I always remove all other drives, so as just to have the OS drive in, other drives can be reattached after the install is done.
My reason for this is that one time I did this (ether 98 to 2000 or 2000 to xp I cannot remember off hand) the drive order got messed around in the install process and I ended up reformatting the wrong drive and I lost all the data I had carefully backed up onto my 2nd drive.

Although i3+mb+4gb ram will probably go slightly over £150 probably looking at £160-170

I'm not sure about the current state of WoW (I've never played it) but most MMO's do chew up a good chunk of ram and with DDR1 just loading data into the ram is starting to feel a bit slow.

PS watch the anti-virus software, I've noticed a lot of bloating in the last couple of years, also internet is getting far more bloated (atm all I've got open is three tabs of hexus forum and firefox is eating 182mb)

[ik9000]

have you tried running OS on SSD and using HDD for user files, documents, programs, bulk storage etc. Good guide to it available here: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how...ia_storage_ssd

[tieran7890]

I'd go option 2.This will give you more performance as the SSD will only improve load times,whereas the Core i3 will improve your overall experience-way more bang for buck.

[Pilgrim_uk]

I'd go for option 1 as its a starting step to a full upgrade and would notice the improvement. Very little hassle in the upgrade as all you are replacing is a hard drive and some memory.

Option 2 seems a halfway house upgrade and might cost you more than £150. Also replacing the mobo is such a drag man.

As for partitions don't even bother with them. With the amount of cheap drives their really is no need for them.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That socket 939 Athlon II X2 4800+ should get a reasonable price on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/csc/i.html?_nk...=p3286.c0.m283

For WoW a Core i3 2100 should be a good upgrade as it uses only two cores IIRC. WoW also gives higher framerates on DX11 cards too.

[subucni]

Cheers for the replies guys

If you're happy with your current gaming performance .... fair bit faster than on a mechanical HDD.

I wouldn't say i was really happy with my gaming performance but i've certainly had worse over the years. In 25man raids my frames do drop down to around 5fps on all out nuke fights (ultraxion), but most of the time it's still very playable and i'm kind of used to living with it. My system definitely shows signs of struggling at times, such as on occasions when opening up an addon window it'll stutter completely and take a few seconds to catch up before opening up the window. I do have a lot of alt characters and find myself logging in and out a lot. So improved loading times would definitely be noticed and appreciated as an improvement to the whole WoW gaming experience. This is one of the reasons why i was leaning towards a 128gb instead of a 64gb so that i can get my WoW install onto the SSD to benefit from it. Plus 128gb gives me a bit of future proofing for future installs needed.

I was also hoping that by stepping upto Win7 64bit with 4gb of ram at the same time as the SSD this might possibly provide a slight added boost to gaming too, along side the overall system boost. And this slight gaming boost might just be enough to satisfy me for gaming upgrades until i can afford to get the cpu, mobo + ddr3 too.

As for staying with 2gb of DDR1, Like Pob said with background processes, multitabbed Firefox on 1 screen and WoW open on the other, my system already uses around 80% of it's available ram, so doesn't take too much more after that for it to be out of ram. And always heard Win7 generally used more ram, so figured i'd have to get more. But you're right, either way, i'd install and set it up with just the 2gb of ram first and then buy the extra if needed.

Personally I'd probably go the other way, .... three tabs of hexus forum and firefox is eating 182mb)

Yeah, i've accepted that i may need to go a bit over the £150 and if i had to, i'm sure i could shift things around on the HDDs and use the 500gb as just an OS drive until i'd eventually get money again for an SSD and then set it back to storage drive.

Good guide to it available here: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how...ia_storage_ssd

Cheers for that, Having never played with an SSD or Win7 properly for that matter, when i eventually get one (be it this upgrade or the next) I'll definitely be wanting to find a good guide to help with setting up the OS on the SSD in the most optimal way.



Been reading around a lot today and there is no mistaking that either option will show me great improvements but in different aspects of the system. Think my choice has swayed several times today already. Can't decide if the fact that the M4 is on HotUKDeals today at around £110 is making the choice any easier or harder.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Considering that your X2 4800+ alone will fetch around £85 on Ebay,I would ditch what you have while it still has value. You motherboard,RAM and CPU would basically cover the cost of 4GB ot 8GB of DDR3 and a reasonable motherboard. My mate had a very hot running Q9300 running at stock speeds and he replaced with an Athlon II X3 at round 4GHZ and it improved his WoW framerates. It basically needs two fast cores.

An SSD will not help you with games - only loading times for levels. The only time it will help is if you have a lack of RAM, and you have the paging file on the SSD which is not advisable as you will wear it out quicker.

[subucni]

Doh, really shouldn't start a reply in the morning and then post it in the evening after getting sidetracked all day without checking if more replies had been added.

I'd go option 2.This will give you more performance as the SSD will only improve load times,whereas the Core i3 will improve your overall experience-way more bang for buck.

This is kind of how i've been leaning but the current M4 price really is tempting.

I'd go for option 1 as ....

If i was to go option 1 and upgrade later i'd probably still go i3 2100 + budget mobo. As the only other higher end upgrade i'd consider would probably be an i5 2500k + mobo, and finding the disposable cash for that could prove a fair chunk harder and then who know how long before i got off this current setup.

That socket 939 Athlon II X2 4800+ should get a reasonable price on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/csc/i.html?_nk...=p3286.c0.m283

For WoW a Core i3 2100 should be a good upgrade as it uses only two cores IIRC. WoW also gives higher framerates on DX11 cards too.

Yeah i was thinking the same but don't see me being able to take advantage of DX11 for quite a while.

Hadn't even thought about the idea of selling the Athlon on, that's definitely put the cat amongst the pidgeons (pardon the pun) as far as choosing which way to go. Will certainly consider that.

Cheers.

:Edit:

Considering that your X2 4800+ alone will fetch around £85 on Ebay,I would ditch what you have while it still has value. You motherboard,RAM and CPU would basically cover the cost of 4GB ot 8GB of DDR3 and a reasonable motherboard.

Yeah thinking that now, you could be spot on. Go for i3, mobo and ram now, then try and sell the Athlon and maybe the A8N32.. and use the money from that to put towards a crucial M4 later.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is that a picture of your cat in your sig??

[subucni]

Yes, that's my old Cat in my avatar. Probably should get around to changing that. Is that your moose?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yes, that's my old Cat in my avatar. Probably should get around to changing that. Is that your moose?

It was a very pretty cat!

The Moose OTH is a force(gravity based) unto itself.

[Pob255]

You can move other stuff back onto the 500gb drive after you've set it up, my main point was to be able to move any stuff you want to keep off it so you wipe it clean and not try to install win7 over existing data (if you see what I mean)

CAT also makes a good point, if you can still sell that old socket 939 kit for a bit of money.

[scaryjim]

If you do decide to go for a subsystem upgrade, it might be worth dropping g8ina a line; he's after a couple of gig of DDR1 at the minute...

[subucni]

So i guess now is the time to start pricing up parts
Would love to hear your thoughts.

CPU
i3 2100 is £83.99 on today only at Scan
or
i3 2120 is £89.99 at Novatech

MoBo
Really no clue here, so please, if you have any suggestions they are welcome. Obviously with the Crucial M4 in mind SATA3 would be beneficial, and the more ram slots i can get the better.
Happy with either mATX or ATX but room for 1 PCI slot after installing a double slot gfx card on any mATX would be nice if i ever wanted to use my hauppauge card.

I expect i'll either have to make compromises here or stretch the budget a bit.

I notice you recommend http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyt...V25.html?src=7 a lot Cat, any particular reason why this board over other cheap boards. Might not be ideal for me, but was wondering if there is a feature on it that i should be looking out for.

Ram
Was thinking just a single 4gb stick for now and add more later as needed. take it i can't go wrong with http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-c...-9-24-xmp-150v at £20.59, unless any of you guys know of a better bargain.

Cheers again for all the advice guys.