Upgrade or rebuild

[feeddagoat]

Hey everyone, im wondering if i should carry out a minor upgrade or hold out for a rebuild. My current set up is

CPU: athlon x2 6000
MOBO: Asus M3A78 pro
memory:.4gb 677mhz ram
GPU: GTX260
HDD:250gb +1TB (both full)

My main uses are gaming (1680x1050), recording tv, some light encoding and folding@home in spare time. Currently im planning of buying a NAS later in the year so that would solve my storage problems but my main rig is starting to struggle. Is it worth investing in a new gpu or cpu or holding off till i can do a complete upgrade preferably as close to next gen consoles as possible. With a new gpu i can at least carry over to a new build and help folding efficiency or would upgrading to a phenom ii be a better option or even some other upgrade ive overlooked.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Honestly, the Athon X2 6000 is pretty aged at this point. I'd suggest a new PC.

what sort of budget do you have to spend?

 

[feeddagoat]

Budget wise is pretty flexable but idealy say the £100 mark maybe £150 for the gpu if new. Second hand is something im willing to consider and does seem the best route.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

£150 kinda tight:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Celeron G540 2.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£31.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI H61M-P25 (B3) Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£32.28 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£17.45 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£52.92 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Sony DDU1681S-0B DVD/CD Drive (£11.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £146.62
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-16 16:02 BST+0100)

re-use your GTX 260, hard drives, and case. I'm hoping your hard drives are SATA, but I suspect your DVD drive isn't, so I replaced that, the rest is a much faster dual core processor (and the motherboard can add any 1155 chip after a bios upgrade) snd a new power supply, to replace your aging existing one. if you trust your current PSU, you can probably upgrade to an HD 7770 within your budget.

 

[feeddagoat]

Cheers for the recommendation =]
PSU is good. Had to replace it earlier in the year after my old one died. Went with 650w FSP. Both optical drives are sata. Will the 7770 give a good enough boost?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

well, sorta. the 7770 uses a lot less power, but the two are on the same position in the monthly Tom's Heirarchy chart. I'd say the 7770 is a little better, but not hugely

Since you have a new FSP, let me see about something a little better:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor (£88.19 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI H61M-P25 (B3) Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£32.28 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£28.24 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £148.71
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-16 16:48 BST+0100)

 

[feeddagoat]

Is it worth going h61 over a z chipset for future reasons?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

the H61 is fine. a Z chipset is really only needed if you want multiple GPUs or overclocking a -K chip.

 

[feeddagoat]

No plan for multi gpu. Cheers for the recommendations =] Looking at the benchmarks it does look the best option so ill look to purchase in the coming week.

 

[Kamen_BG]

You motherboard is pretty good and it supports the Phenom II line of CPU's.
In my opinion you should just upgrade the CPU.
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=46281&vpn=HDZ965FBGMBOX&manufacture=AMD&promoid=1375

If you need more graphics power you should upgrade the graphics card as well.
If you need just a bit more power this will do.
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=70172&vpn=11201-02-20G&manufacture=SAPPHIRE&promoid=1373
Or if you really wanna game i suggest you step up to a HD 7870.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161404&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

[feeddagoat]

The phenom ii's are hovering around £80 mark. Only problem is how nice will they play with my slow ram? Since the system is near EOL, I would possibly be more inclined to go 2nd hand down that route.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I dislike the idea of putting a Phenom II in your system at all. Its really not getting you forward at all.