[Tech] Upgrade time :)

Taffy

Taffy

New Member
Hey guys. Basically, I'm looking to go over to Windows 7 in the new year (maybe wait until early Feb depending on how big the December paycheck is). Along with the ~£80 for that, I also want to upgrade the PC in some way. I'm willing to spend around about £100 on the upgrade, so nothing huge. I've got 2gb or RAM, and my graphics card is the GeForce 8800GT. Would I be better off getting an extra 2gb of RAM (thus bumping total to 4gb) or investing in a new graphics card? Or perhaps something else, such as a sound card (which I don't currently have)?
 
Nanor

Nanor

Well-Known Member
Graphics card. You won't notice a huge difference in the RAM upgrade, plus you'd need 64bit W7 to run it. I'd recommend a ATI Radeon 4870. Excellent card and very cheap. Somewhat over your £100 but well worth it.
 
Haven

Haven

Administrator
Staff member
Pretty much what nanums said, you'll see a bigger improvement in upgrading your gfx. Personally I would go for a slightly lower graphics card with 1GB of RAM on it over a slightly faster one with 512MB to allow it to run well with big textures.
 
Nanor

Nanor

Well-Known Member
This would be a good card to buy. It's got the 1GB vRAM you want for larger textures like Haven said and it's fucking fast.

It's not released just yet, but it's definitely one worth waiting for.
 
Taffy

Taffy

New Member
Nanor said:
Graphics card. You won't notice a huge difference in the RAM upgrade, plus you'd need 64bit W7 to run it. I'd recommend a ATI Radeon 4870. Excellent card and very cheap. Somewhat over your £100 but well worth it.
Click to expand...

I'm planning to use the 64bit W7 anyway. Will 64bit W7 still run fine on 2GB of RAM?

Also, how do I find out whether I shouldd get PCI or PCI-e?
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
Yes. 64-bit has the same requirements as 32-bit (CPU speed, etc.), it just needs a 64-bit processor (which anything in the last 5 years almost definitely will be). It just means that you can address 2^64 bits of memory, instead of 2^32 bits.
 
Taffy

Taffy

New Member
Thank you elD :)

Okay, I think I will go with the 4870. I can stretch to that sort of price. I may even throw in an extra 2gb or RAM at a later date if I feel like it.

I still don't know whether I need PCI or PCI-E though. :s
 
Taffy

Taffy

New Member
Cheers Psi :)

Right, as soon as January rolls around, I'm ready to buy and go in that case :D

How easy is it to install the new card? I'm a blithering idiot, so if it's vaguely complicated I'll have to find out how to do it.
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
Does your mobo support PCI-E? If you have an older mobo, you'll be wasting your money. If it does then you definitely want PCI-E not PCI
 
PsiSoldier

PsiSoldier

Well-Known Member
Installation itself is pretty simple, just unscrew the back plate of the card from the case, unlock the clip on the PCI-e slot, and the card should come out relatively easily. Oh, don't forget to make sure your PSU has enough PCI-e power connectors for the card (Judging by the piccy that one takes 2 6 pin connectors, the site doesn't say though :()!

Also, is it possible for you to have a look on your PSU to see how many amps you have on the 12v rail, as well as the wattage of it?

EDIT: Ok, that card comes with molex to 6 pin PCI-e adapter, so as long as you have one 6 pin connector, itsallgood(tm).

EDIT2: Oh, if you have an extra £7 spare you could get a 4890 XXX like I have, IMO for 7 quid more there's no reason not to (dual slot cooler ftw btw) :D
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
PsiSoldier said:
Installation itself is pretty simple, just unscrew the back plate of the card from the case, unlock the clip on the PCI-e slot, and the card should come out relatively easily. Oh, don't forget to make sure your PSU has enough PCI-e power connectors for the card (Judging by the piccy that one takes 2 6 pin connectors, the site doesn't say though :()!

Also, is it possible for you to have a look on your PSU to see how many amps you have on the 12v rail, as well as the wattage of it?

EDIT: Ok, that card comes with molex to 6 pin PCI-e adapter, so as long as you have one 6 pin connector, itsallgood(tm).
Click to expand...

yea the 4870 needs two 6-pin connectors
 
Taffy

Taffy

New Member
elDiablo said:
Does your mobo support PCI-E? If you have an older mobo, you'll be wasting your money. If it does then you definitely want PCI-E not PCI
Click to expand...
Well it's all pre-built Dell thats just over a year old, so I would've thought so? How would I go about checking this though?

PsiSoldier said:
Installation itself is pretty simple, just unscrew the back plate of the card from the case, unlock the clip on the PCI-e slot, and the card should come out relatively easily. Oh, don't forget to make sure your PSU has enough PCI-e power connectors for the card (Judging by the piccy that one takes 2 6 pin connectors, the site doesn't say though :()!
Click to expand...
How do I check that? :)

PsiSoldier said:
Also, is it possible for you to have a look on your PSU to see how many amps you have on the 12v rail, as well as the wattage of it?
Click to expand...
Probably, I'll have a look tomorrow morning if I have the time (last minute xmas shopping FTL)

PsiSoldier said:
EDIT: Ok, that card comes with molex to 6 pin PCI-e adapter, so as long as you have one 6 pin connector, itsallgood(tm)
Click to expand...
Sorry? :eek:
 
PsiSoldier

PsiSoldier

Well-Known Member
Taffy said:
Well it's all pre-built Dell thats just over a year old, so I would've thought so? How would I go about checking this though?

Grab GPU-Z, and check under "Bus Interface". It should say something along the lines of PCI-e x.0 x<number> @ x<number>. Copy what it says here.

How do I check that? :)

Open your case up and have a look at the different cables that are coming off of your PSU, there's 3 types; 6 pin, 8 pin, and 6+2 pin. Either 6 or 6+2 pin are fine. Here is a pic with a 6+2 on the left and a 6 on the right.

Probably, I'll have a look tomorrow morning if I have the time (last minute xmas shopping FTL)

Heheheh

Sorry? :eek:

Basically, it converts 2 Molex power connectors to fit a PCI-e power connector, as seen here. If the card you buy has one of these, you can get away with just having one PCI-e power connector on your PSU.

EDIT: Molex connectors are the old chunky ones you use with IDE HDDs and disk drives, like this
Click to expand...

Poasting toast
 
KillCrazy

KillCrazy

Active Member
A difference between PCI and PCI express is the slot size. PCI is larger than PCI express. To be even more brief, the PCI express slot is very small. You can see from the pic below.
pci-express-card.jpg


A graphics card will take the PCI- Express 16x slot, correct me if I am wrong? I recently bought a Geforce GTX 275 graphics card that takes two of the 6 pin power connectors that Psi is talking of. Originaly my PC came equiped with two SLI cards that took one 6 pin power connector each (power cables attacked to the side of the card). My new GTX 275, takes two of them. So by replacing the two SLI cards with the one, I had two power cables spare for that card.

Yeah I confused myself. I didn't even know about these power connectors myself until I replaced my card. Luckily I wasnt shorthanded.
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Taffy said:
Psi,

Under Bus Interface it says PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x16 2.0

Is that a good thing?
Click to expand...

Yes.

The fact that you already have an 8800 means that you're on PCI-e anyway, so it's all good :)

It is literally a case of taking the existing card out, and plugging the new one in. Assuming a standard case, you'll have a screw that attaches the backplate to the case, take that screw out, then underneath the card at the end of where it slots in is a little catch, just push that to the side and with a firm tug the card should come right out. Also remember to unplug any extra power cables that are plugged into it too! An 8800 does, I believe, use one of the 6-pin connectors we're on about so you should be able to figure out what they look like from that.

Any card you buy that requires two of these to be plugged in normally comes with an adapter that will allow you to use two standard molex connectors to become one of these 6-pin plugs though so it should all be fine :D
 
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