Official "Upgrade Help" Thread

[Mikit0707]

@Chevron: I've also found the Z-5450 set which has wireless rear satellites. But the thing I like about them is that the amp has 2x optical, which means I can plug in PS3 and Xbox at the same time. I've never owned Logitech speakers but have always been quite impressed with sound clarity. My initial post was made in the hopes that somebody would provide some alternative makes... the logitechs are just so... old. :(

[Chevron]

There's nothing wrong with them. They come with a remote too.

I own them. Just can't put them too loud because my windows rattle. :-)

[Mikit0707]

^^^^

I like the sound of that (no pun intended) :D

[-Bouncer-]

I'm looking for a good 26" LCD. Any suggestions? Using it for my PC, Xbox and Wii.

[RaptoR]

I'm looking for a good 26" LCD. Any suggestions? Using it for my PC, Xbox and Wii.

Well you better have a really powerfull PC if u plan on playing pc games on that size screen!
If its just for movies it should be ok, but if u wana play games its probably too big if your PC isnt a pretty powerful one!

If 26" isnt essential i would say go for a 24 inch, namely the HP LP2475w...Its got a max res of 1920x1200 and is an excellent all round screen...bit expensive tho!

[Machine]

I'm looking for a good 26" LCD. Any suggestions? Using it for my PC, Xbox and Wii.

Go for the Samsung T260... It runs at a native resolution of 1920x1200 just like a 24" BUT you WILL appreciate those extra inches. If you have the cash to blow then yes go for the big boy.

It's a wonderful screen, I've had the honor to see it in action a few times.

[Tryxst3r]

Go for the Samsung T260... It runs at a native resolution of 1920x1200 just like a 24" BUT you WILL appreciate those extra inches. If you have the cash to blow then yes go for the big boy.

It's a wonderful screen, I've had the honor to see it in action a few times.

Best. Screen. Ever! Seriously, if you can get it, get it. I've got its baby brother (the T240), and it's one of my best buys.

[MK4 GTI 20VT]

Hi guys

Im new to the forum but I have been browsing for a while.

My stupid question for the day:

We have 2 PC's, one is new'ish (6months) and the other one about a year old (im using this one). The new PC has a 2.4 duo core CPU and the PC im using has a 1.8 duo core. My PC has the better graphics card, better RAM, better motherboard, more powerfull power supply ect ect ect but the CPU is the slower. Now to get to the question I want to ask, will there be any major hick ups if I swop the 2 CPU's? I did the research and both motherboards are compatible with both CPU's. Any firmware problems or any other type of problems that might arise if I do the swop?

The new PC has a Abit motherboard and my PC has a Intel motherboard.

I dont have the driver CD of the new PC, the shop didnt give it.

Btw, im running a legal copy of Windows XP SP3.

Thanks in advance

[Wesley]

I'm looking for a good 26" LCD. Any suggestions? Using it for my PC, Xbox and Wii.

Well, I can only agree with everyone else here, really. At R3510, there's no better monitor:

Samsung T260 FLC-ST260 @ R3510

Hi guys

Im new to the forum but I have been browsing for a while.

My stupid question for the day:

We have 2 PC's, one is new'ish (6months) and the other one about a year old (im using this one). The new PC has a 2.4 duo core CPU and the PC im using has a 1.8 duo core. My PC has the better graphics card, better RAM, better motherboard, more powerfull power supply ect ect ect but the CPU is the slower. Now to get to the question I want to ask, will there be any major hick ups if I swop the 2 CPU's? I did the research and both motherboards are compatible with both CPU's. Any firmware problems or any other type of problems that might arise if I do the swop?

The new PC has a Abit motherboard and my PC has a Intel motherboard.

I dont have the driver CD of the new PC, the shop didnt give it.

Btw, im running a legal copy of Windows XP SP3.

Thanks in advance

Welcome to the forums, er... bloody hell, what a name. Which letters do I choose? I'll call you Bob ^_^

There won't be software hiccups when switching the CPU's, but you may have to get yourself some decent thermal paste to slap in between the heatsink and the CPU. You're running an E2180, right? Why not overclock it? You'll be able to get up to 3Ghz out of it with a bit of effort (no screwing around with voltages either).

See, the reason why I say give overclocking a try is because the newer PC is still probably under a warranty - taking off the side of the case will mean you have to break some sort of seal, voiding that warranty - and we don't want to do that (warranties are a godsend). Swapping out the processor won't be a painful process, but it may take some doing if the new PC has a custom-built case that makes taking out the motherboard rather like booting into Vista on a Pentium II - you'll get there eventually, but it'll take a long time to do it.

Overclocking your old PC will be much less painful, and you may even clock it high enough to equal or better the other Core2 Duo (which I guess is the E7200/7300). It doesn't take much doing: lower your memory speed in the BIOS, and then increase the CPU frequency by 10Mhz until you can no longer boot, then lower it back down by about 20Mhz. You should be able to reach 2.4Ghz without any problems, and you'll probably be able to go a little higher than that.

[BTROG]

What would be the best R3000 upgrade for my current pc specs: E2160 1.8Ghz, ECS 945GCT, 9500GT, 450W psu, 3GB ddr2 667Mhz ram. I'll really appreciate it if you helped me guys thanks ;)

[Wesley]

What would be the best R3000 upgrade for my current pc specs: E2160 1.8Ghz, ECS 945GCT, 9500GT, 450W psu, 3GB ddr2 667Mhz ram. I'll really appreciate it if you helped me guys thanks ;)

For R3k:

MSI Intel G31M3-F V2 @ R501
Patriot Signature Line DDR2-667MHz 2GB @ R307 (chuck out the 1GB module you already have, you should run 4GB RAM now)
Cooler Master Hyper TX 2 @ R217
Force3D HD4670 512MB @ R741
Coolermaster HTK-002 Thermal Paste @ R42
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1 @ R1208

Total: R3016

Your motherboard is a hindrance to whatever other upgrades you may buy, the G31 at least offers you more of an upgrade path. I am guessing here that you run your memory in a 2GB + 1GB configuration, so replace the 1GB module with a 2GB one and run Vista Home Premium 64-bit. I also recommended the Hyper TX-2 because I highly recommend keeping your processor and overclocking it to 3Ghz using the G31's higher speeds - its so simple and easy to do, and there's very little chance of you frying the chip unless you start to play with voltages. Lastly, the HD4670 will rip the 9500GT to shreds and will play anything you can think of at much higher settings.

I recommend this stuff because I believe others will say, "Get an E5200, buy an HD4850, get a better PSU, bla bla bla", but they wouldn't address the issue of bottlenecks. If you purchase those upgrades for your system, I guarantee you that not only will you get more performance, but you'll be much happier with the system as a whole. Plus, Vista 64-bit has unbelievable stability and performance, and you'll probably find that you'll have no complaints whatsoever.

[Wesley]

Bumpity bump, Double posts are sooooooo ghastly :-(

[McDangerous]

if i may suggest, why not get the windows 7 64-bit RC, and save on the OS, and use the extra R1200 for maybe a HD 4770.

you whouldn't need a new PSU, and you'll get a lot more performance from it. don't get me wrong, the 4670's are great, i love mine to pieces, especially if you have a native res of like 1280 x whatever, it kicks ass. but, id rather get the 4770, think it'll last you a bit longer performance wise, and i don't think any of your other components whould bottleneck it so much that you notice it....

and wes, how much of a performance boost is a 64-bit OS over a normal 32-bit? i'm very strongly considering getting another 2gig ddr2-800 module and giving it a go. in what terms does it give more performance? actual FPS, loading times, responsiveness?

[Wesley]

if i may suggest, why not get the windows 7 64-bit RC, and save on the OS, and use the extra R1200 for maybe a HD 4770.

you whouldn't need a new PSU, and you'll get a lot more performance from it. don't get me wrong, the 4670's are great, i love mine to pieces, especially if you have a native res of like 1280 x whatever, it kicks ass. but, id rather get the 4770, think it'll last you a bit longer performance wise, and i don't think any of your other components whould bottleneck it so much that you notice it....

and wes, how much of a performance boost is a 64-bit OS over a normal 32-bit? i'm very strongly considering getting another 2gig ddr2-800 module and giving it a go. in what terms does it give more performance? actual FPS, loading times, responsiveness?

There's method in my madness by recommending Vista. If he buys Vista in or after the month of July, he'll probably qualify for a free or super, super-cheap upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium ^_^ If he doesn't, at least he'll have a very good edition of Vista that he could use on three computers of his choice.

Its entirely up to Bouncer if he wants to use the Beta and swap out for an HD4770, but there are very few cards being shipped to sunny S.A. every month due to the poor 40nm yields thus far. He's better off getting the proven HD4670 and enjoying solid performance.

And as for 64-bit advances, its more in the line of stability and multi-tasking and all-round general OS speed that you'll see an improvement, and perhaps a handful of frames in games here and there. Do a google for "32-bit vs 64-bit" or something like that and see what hits you get, you may land on a few good tests that show you the clear difference.

But as an example, do you play your own music while playing games? Are there lags while switching songs? You wont ever get that in 64-bit.

Plus, 64-bit Vista is how Microsoft was supposed to take over XP's market share. Vista in 32-bit is way better than any XP version once it gets a good run in and you get the hang of it, but 64-bit Vista is the way Vista was intended to run. Three months ago I played on an Asus predator for an hour, and I walked away feeling happy - that is what Microsoft intended for their customers all along.

[McDangerous]

thats true, and the worst part is, the only ones coming in are the friggin expensive Gigabyte and Asus models, 2 manufacturers who are always priced the highest. if only prophecy whould bring in the force3d one, it should be a good R300 cheaper (at least) than the other ones.

I hear what you're saying, though i must say, i don't ever really see any lags while playing songs and skipping, even rating them while i'm playing. but that may just be foobar. the way i've set it up, it only uses about 20mb of memory, compared to winamp's 75, while retaining full functionality.

[Mic]

This is a stupid question, but is there something like graphics cards for laptops? Or is it just the on-board of the motherboard?

[Chevron]

This is a stupid question, but is there something like graphics cards for laptops? Or is it just the on-board of the motherboard?

Yes they are. You can't just walk into a ic and purchase one though. Just order a laptop with the graphics you want straight off the bat.

The gt130m is basically a 9600gt.

[Wesley]

This is a stupid question, but is there something like graphics cards for laptops? Or is it just the on-board of the motherboard?

What are you asking exactly here? Are you wondering if laptops can have upgradeable graphics? The technology is already out there in the form of MXM slots, but those lappies are really expensive, and you wont find them in S.A. easily.

There are also external graphics cards available which can fit almost any laptop via PCMCIA adapters or via USB/FireWire, but I haven't seen any models being available locally or internationally for that matter. So, the reality is that you're stuck with the internal graphics when purchasing a new laptop. Why dont you take a look at my "Mine's smaller than yours!" column on the NAG website, I listed a few tips about laptops and their graphics cards if you're looking to buy one.

[Mic]

Yes they are. You can't just walk into a ic and purchase one though. Just order a laptop with the graphics you want straight off the bat.

The gt130m is basically a 9600gt.

So you can't upgrade it like you can with the RAM or a HDD?

What are you asking exactly here? Are you wondering if laptops can have upgradeable graphics? The technology is already out there in the form of MXM slots, but those lappies are really expensive, and you wont find them in S.A. easily.

There are also external graphics cards available which can fit almost any laptop via PCMCIA adapters or via USB/FireWire, but I haven't seen any models being available locally or internationally for that matter. So, the reality is that you're stuck with the internal graphics when purchasing a new laptop. Why dont you take a look at my "Mine's smaller than yours!" column on the NAG website, I listed a few tips about laptops and their graphics cards if you're looking to buy one.

Just read this now.

The reason I'm asking is because my current laptop has some potential. For fun I ran dxdiag and found it had a 3.06GHz processor. But would like to run oldish games on it, but it doesn't have that great on-board.

[Wesley]

So you can't upgrade it like you can with the RAM or a HDD?

The reason I'm asking is because my current laptop has some potential. For fun I ran dxdiag and found it had a 3.06GHz processor. But would like to run oldish games on it, but it doesn't have that great on-board.

You can upgrade the hard drive and RAM, but it depends entirely on the laptop in question.

You say it runs at 3Ghz? Then that means you have a laptop with a Pentium 4 mobile processor. That's older than my model, heck it still uses DDR-SDRAM, and probably an ancient IDE hard drive as well. Can you post up your screens of the Dxdiag report? A screen of the System tab, and one of the Display tab. For a comparison, look at mine.



That's my system tab.



And that's my display tab.