Which should I get...new video card or processor?

[crazydog]

What do you guys think about this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130351 ?

Hey guys. When I built this sytem, I sorta cheaped out on both the video card and processor, and now I'm looking to upgrade.

Currently I have this video card:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2918356&body=MAIN#detailspecs

and this CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115015

The video card cost $179.99 when I bought it, and the CPU cost $176.99

I know that better equipment is cheaper now, so I thought I'd try to sell one of those and upgrade to a faster one.

I don't want to go all out and get something like the GTX 280, or a Core2 Extreme, but better enough than what I have now to make it make sense to upgrade.

For the video card: I can't SLI, it needs to be PCI x16, and DirectX 10 isn't important
For the processor: 32-bit, Quad-core/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Pentium Extreme/Pentium D, LGA775 slot, 1333/1066MHz FSB

Remember: I only want to upgrade one of these, the video card or the CPU, not both.

[Hitman Smurf]

Your processor is good enough for now...I'd go with the video card...8800GT like mine is only about $155 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130319

[crazydog]

I guess I really just have to try out video cards.

I'll buy em, test them out, and if the performance increase isn't woth the price, I'll just ship it back and try another...unless anyone can be very specific about how a card will perform in comparison to my current one.

[Luggage]

I agree w/ Smurf in that you should upgrade the video card - will see better gaming performance relative to CPU upgrade.  That said, you can seriously overclock that CPU on air using a good cooler like the Zalman CNPS9700 (~$50).  One more thing, do you have at least 2GB of RAM?  That will also help immensely and DDR2 is now very cheap (2GB DDR2 800 for ~$35) so would be a worthy upgrade...

8800GT is a great card (that is what I have as well); however, I would ask you to also consider the ATI 4850.  I know ATI has had their problems for the last couple of years, but all the reviews I have read on this puppy would imply it is a much better card than the 8800GT and is only ~$160 nowadays.

Final point to consider is whether your mobo allows SLI or Cross-fire; that way you can always add more graphics for <=$100 at a later date so that should influence your choice of ATI vs. NVIDIA.

[crazydog]

I haven't had much luck attempting to overclock. I'm just no good at it. Nothing I try boots. If someone wants to walk me through it, that would be helpful.

I do have 2gigs of ram, I guess popping in 1 or 2 more wouldn't hurt...

My motherboard doesn't support dual cards, so that's out....I guess I could just 'try' both of those cards.

Thanks for your input.


Edit: This card is pretty nice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130351. Amazing it costs the same as mine when I got it.
I guess with that I wouldn't need any more system RAM..that's got plenty.

[TE | Hypo]

yeah my vote is for graphics card as well.

[Luggage]

I haven't had much luck attempting to overclock. I'm just no good at it. Nothing I try boots. If someone wants to walk me through it, that would be helpful.

I'll write up a little guide for you later today.  In the meantime can you please post your specs, especially i) motherboard, ii) PSU, iii) RAM and iv) CPU cooler?

On the 1GB video card, I personally don't think you need that much RAM on 1 video card unless you are playing on a huge screen (>22") so I would recommend saving the extra $$ and putting it in your pocket or buying the 9800GTX instead -- just a personal bias though...

[crazydog]

MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171016
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
HSF: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

[Luggage]

ok, your components look good and shouldn't have issues with overclocking the CPU.  Based on some product reviews, people have been able to push their CPU to 3.5GHz so I think 3.0GHz is a decent goal for us.

Since your multiplier is locked at 7x, the way to OC is to increase your FSB frequency.  I believe at stock speeds your comps is running 266FSB (*7 = 1.8GHz).  Changing FSB also impacts two other things: i) how fast your RAM runs (2 * FSB * Memory/FSB multiplier) and, ii) in some cases your PCI-E speed may also be linked.  Never change your PCI-E from 100.  So the only things to tweak are i) FSB, ii) FSB / Memory multiplier and iii) CPU voltage. 

Step 1: Backup your most important files just in case
Step 2: Get i) Prime 95 Orthos (stability testing), ii) CPU-Z (so you can see basis stats on what your computer is running), and iii) some utility to monitor CPU and motherboard temperatures (there should be something that came with your mobo; if not, get SpeedFan or whatever a quick google search yields).
Step 3: Make sure your CPU fan is running at 100% AND your BIOS disables any program that alters CPU fan speed
Step 4: Depending on your BIOS, you may be able to save your current BIOS profile so that whenever computer crashes, you can revert back to a stable config
Step 5: With CPU fan at 100%, write down your system temperatures somewhere (CPU, Motherboard - north and south bridge, etc.) so this will be a good benchmark to see how much hotter your system gets with our tweaks.  Remember heat is the biggest component killer (beside voltage).  Get system temps both for i) idle as well as ii) running Orthos for temp under load.
Step 6: Now the fun begins...

Before we increase your FSB, I will ask you to increase your CPU voltage to 1.4Volt; this is 0.5V higher than stock (you can confirm this with CPU-Z: there is a slight drop from CPU voltage you set in BIOS to what you see in CPU-Z).  Higher voltage brings stability although raises temps so not going too high.  I think you can easily push your CPU to 1.5V, if needed, but no reason to get crazy just yet.

Our initial goal will be to increase FSB in increments till your system stops booting.  Remember to do it nice and slow, start at 325FSB and then go up in 10-15 increments.  At the highest setting at which comp is booting or perhaps a small decrement for a safety margin (hopefully >=425FSB), we should run Prime 95 Orthos for a few hours to make sure it is stable at these speeds.  If not stable, then decrease FSB by a bit and try running Orthos again.  While running Orthos, make sure to monitor comp temps as well - they shouldn't go much higher than 60C.
If temps are too high, bring down voltage by a bit.  This may result in lower stable FSB but you don't want to burn your comp either.

While this whole process is going on, you should make sure that your RAM is not running higher than its rated speed of 800.  So as you raise FSB, reduce your Memory/FSB multiplier to make sure that FSB * Memory/FSB Multiplier is <400 (since DDR2 = 400*2 = 800).  RAM running higher than rated speed is a big reason comps refuse to boot when trying to overclock.

Once you have reached a FSB that CPU is nice and stable at, then you can try and bring RAM back up to 800 or slightly beyond; I think your sticks can do ~900MHz but will need slightly more voltage.  I don't think you gain much by boosting RAM from 800 to 900 so don't worry about overclocking RAM just yet.

When you are done, make sure to save your settings profile in BIOS or write it down for your records.  Also remember to be a bit conservative when you start off; as you get more comfortable with this stuff you can always go back and push your CPU more.  Highly recommend keeping A/C on in your computer room to keep ambient temps low.

[Video_Master]

I have a 8800 Ultra for sale for $300.

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