What to upgrade first?!

G

gex18

Geek Trainee
About a fortnight ago i built the following computer;

AMD athlon 4400+ x 2
BFG geforce 7800 GT OC
Gigabyte Nforce 4 K8N pro sli mobo
GeIL value RAM (2 x 512mb)
NEC 4550 dual layer dvd writer
Antec P180 case (4 x 120mm fans)
Antec true power 2.0 430 watt psu
Samsung spinpoint 7200 rpm 200 gb hdd

The benchmarks form the futuremark prgrams were quite poor and so am looking at upgrading some of the components;

Replacing graphics card for BFG geforce 7800 GTX 512 mb card
Better RAM (for overclocking)
Adding water cooling - which comes reccomended?!

Which do you think would be the first worthwile upgrade?
 
That graphics card you've got is fine, maybe look for some performance RAM with tighter timings, it will give you a bit more performance.
Those 512MB 7800GTX Cards are nice but are complete overkill.
 
Agreed, new performance RAM and thats it :)
You have a really good PC there and there is nothing other than the RAM that needs upgrading. Ignore the benchmarks, they mean absoutely nothing and when it comes down to it, it's how the machine runs, not how high a score you get!
 
WHat kinda benchmarks do you two guys get? Well i decided to leave the graphics card as is, may upgrade to the 512 mb when the prices come down, also am going for ocz platinum ram, is this good? And am also doing my own watercooling kit! What cpu, gpu and chipset blocks are the best quality and most efficient?
 
Well my system isn't half as good as yours but in 3DMark01 I get just over 10,000 with my CPU Overclocked to 3.15GHz and my Graphics Card @ 600Mhz/1200MHz
The GeiL One-Series looks good, although they do state that they are best used on a board that has lots of overclocking options and the DFI LanParty4 is what they test them on, they run @ DDR400: 1.5-2-2-5 and DDR500: 2-2-2-5
Those are pretty impressive timings but I'm not sure whether your board would be able to give them the options they need for decent running.
You could always look into some Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Pro TwinX, they run at DDR400: 2-2-2-5 which is mighty impressive.
 
hmm, i have an x800xt pe, on 3d mark 01, i only get 20,000, but i have slow processor and crap ram, on 3d mark 03 i get about 12,000, and i gather you get higher than that, you dont need a new graphics card, all i can see that could do with an upgrade is the ram, to some performance ram.

for some benchmarks you can compare to i have made a thread in benchmarking sub forum that i have compared 2 cards.
 
gex18 said:
WHat kinda benchmarks do you two guys get?
Click to expand...
I don't benchmark unless i'm having problems with my system or my games, and so far i haven't had any problems. But on 3DMark 01 i got 6732 and on '03 i got roughly 4500.
As i said, Ignore the benchmarks, they mean absoutely nothing and when it comes down to it, it's how the machine runs, not how high a score you get!
 
willhub said:
that the powerfuller your system, the higher you get on benchmarks :s.
Click to expand...

powerfuller?

and were computer geeks, lmao


wow man your system doesnt really need an upgrade but agreed that your RAM is a little low, id get a gig or two of CMX1024-C2PT

i got it and its great
 
Yeah some decent RAM and you'll have a nice system there!
[ot]Hey zRoCk! You're back again!! How's it going?[/ot]
 
A lot of people have come to us wondering why they have low benchmark scores. You're not alone. Don't beat yourself up over low benchmarks. Everyone's rig is a little different, they may be using a different resolution, settings, etc. And also realize 3Dmark and PCmark are not particularly accurate programs, they can give vastly different results for very similar rigs. But as I said there's a lot of variables to work with.
This is a good thread to check out for all your water cooling needs: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=369416&page=1
Hope this helps:)
Frankly I wouldn't upgrade anything but if you really want to then yeah OCz Gold or Platinum is very nice. It's been proven that tigher timings make very little differene in real work tests like games, going from CAS 2 up to 2.5 gives you about a 1-3fps drop tops. So long as you have a gig you're all set. But if you want to overclock then yeah high performance ram is a nice thing.
 
Matt555 said:
Yeah some decent RAM and you'll have a nice system there!
[ot]Hey zRoCk! You're back again!! How's it going?[/ot]
Click to expand...

haha im not gonna be here all the time, things are goin good, its schoolwork, and the band that are takin up most of my day
 
well i have ordered this water cooler today - reason i did is wanted something to start with that was easy to setup.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=9861&GroupID=368

and have decided to get 2 x 1 gb of RAM but which make comes reccomended;


Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3500LL Pro TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-093-CS)

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (MY-057-OC)

Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR PC4000 Ballistix Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864Z503) (MY-066-CR)

been having real problems getting games to run smoothly was thinking it was the graphics card being a bit underpowered. Only got doom 3 and UT2004. What do you think the max graphical settings in doom 3 would be for smooth gameplay? (card is BFG Geforce 7800 GT OC)!
 
The Crucial is the best kit there, PC4000 gives you more OC potential than PC3200 or 35000, good stuff. With a 7800GT you should be able to max all your settings:):(
 
Agreed :)
Doom 3 should run at 50FPS or higher on ultra quality with AA and AF enabled with a 7800GT :cool:
 
I don't know how high you want to overclock, but if you're looking for mega OC's, then you may want to look at motherboards from DFI (assuming you have a little patience setting up the boards) or Asus. Hell, the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra might not be a bad move as it's cheap and OC's pretty well.
 
Well at the moment i have to play doom 3 on high quality with aa and af off otherwise its a bit jerky. BTW how do i get the doom 3 benchmark? Then i can see what FPS its running at?

*No selling allowed outside of the BST forum. 50 posts are required before you can access those forums.*
 
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