Upgrade or replace?

News

Sony Offers Free DVD Burner Upgrade

Published on January 14, 2004

Beginning next month, owners of Sony's 530 series of DVD drives can upgrade to 8X DVD-R and 4X DVD-RW recording speeds for free. Read more

Hitachi intros hard drive upgrade kit for notebooks

Published on September 07, 2005

Hitachi is set to offer a hard drive upgrade for notebooks that people will be able to install themselves. Read more

Want to upgrade that G3? Think different. . .

Published on September 04, 1999

Owners of Apple Power Mac G3s can't upgrade to Motorola's new G4 chip. Read more

HP shakes up execs after disappointing results

Published on August 13, 2004

Three key executives in the company's top enterprise server and storage unit were replaced after the division posted a $208 million operating loss. Read more

Last Reviews & Articles

Best Video Cards For The Money: Dec '08

Published on December 04, 2008

Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great—that is, if you have the time to do the research. At the end of the day, though, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget, and that’s what we’re going to show you. Read more

Overdrive: Germany's Team Is Chosen

Published on December 03, 2008

With Team USA's winning scores in its sights, the German teams battled it out for the chance to compete in our world final even later this month. Read more

WD's 2nd Gen GP: More Speed, Less Power

Published on December 03, 2008

Usually, green hardware means you're giving up performance in order to cut back on power consumption. But Western Digital's second-generation Green Power drive changes all of that. Read more

Tom's Holiday Buyer's Guide 2008, Part 4

Published on December 02, 2008

Welcome to part four of our Holiday Gift Guide coverage. This time around, the Tom's Hardware staff picks its favorite components for your wish list rounding out 2008. Read more

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Upgrade or replace?

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Author	Thread : Upgrade or replace?

motoxguy

Profile: stranger

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08-22-2008 at 04:12:58 PM

Hey all,
First post for me, hopefully I can get some input.

I current have a 3-4 year old Alienware system. 3.2ghz P4, 4gb DDR ram. The last upgrade I did to it was added a 9800xt (256mb) video card and a better power supply. I run my 3d games at high res 1680x and I definitely experience low frame rates at medium to high settings. I really want to get back to smooth, high frame rates at high detail settings. What would you recommend I do to get back up to speed? Can I upgrade some hardware or is it time to replace the system?

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GEOFELT

Profile: Faithful Poster

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08-22-2008 at 04:40:18 PM

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It is not clear if your frame rates are limited by the vga card, or the CPU. It's probably a bit of both, depending on the game. I suspect it's mostly the gpu.

As a strategy, upgrade the video card to a high end single card like the GTX280 or 4870X2. This assumes that your upgraded PSU has two pci-e connectors, which indicates enough power to drive them.

If the improvement is not enough, then it is time to replace the cpu part of the system, keeping the new GTX280/4870X2

teh_boxzor

iTs Me
Profile: addict

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08-22-2008 at 05:14:46 PM

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i'd say replace i would think your mobo is out of date and cant support the newer tech out there. keep the case though

knotknut

Profile: addict

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08-22-2008 at 05:15:51 PM

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Post your systems components please.

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