I'd suggest:

**Add 2GB more memory to your system. You don't have to install Windows 64bit if you want to save money. You won't be able to use all 4GB but you'll use 3.25GB or so.

**Put the rest of your money into a video card. That's usually the easiest thing to suggest on an upgrade. Pick a budget and then look here at Tom's Hardware (if you don't mind converting $ to £) to get a good suggestion for that price range.

You'll notice a big difference from those two things. The next upgrade after this should definitely be motherboard & processor.

Side note: Bulldozer doesn't seem worth it right now. You can get something that works good enough for your gaming needs for much cheaper (like the Phenom II x4 or similar). Cheers!

The CPU's OK if what you want to do is keep it, and I still say that's an excellent older motherboard. Do consider overclocking, if it's not entirely out of your comfort zone. You should be able to get 2.66 to 2.8 GHz pretty easily on a Conroe E6400, even with the stock cooler.

some people here suggested that you upgrade motherboard and CPU,but I don't see the point. He just needs to upgrade enough to be able to play some of the newer games. for games the video card is more important. sure a low end CPU will bottleneck the video card but still he'd be better off with upgrading RAM and video card then getting a new CPU and motherboard.

I was in the same boat a while back. Looking for the easiest upgrade. Not willing to do anything that could involve replacing the motherboard etc.

But it's really not so hard. In fact the only thing I had any trouble with was connecting the power & reset buttons to the motherboard. But even that was made easy by my new motherboard (ASUS)

If you're really looking to save money and upgrade in a meaningful way that's not going to be bottlenecked by the less adequate aspects of your system then you've pretty much got to start with the motherboard.

You can get a decent one for £70. £30 for 4GB RAM. Which means you could easily get a good quad core for under £100.

The only remaining weak spot is the GPU. Then again I've got my GTX260 spare which I'd be willing to part with for a not exactly budget-breaking sum...
It's the difference between having a good system he can build upon now or an old system that's not achieving half as much as it could with what it has.

The GPU is an issue, given the budgetary limitations. But getting a new card isn't going to do half as much as you'd expect if the rest of the system isn't up to scratch.

overread, I'd also like to know what the PSU is. Sure the wattage may seem like plenty, but that's not the most important aspect to consider here.

All of this telling the OP he has to upgrade his motherboard and CPU when he's already said he's not going to amounts to thread hijacking.

The OP said he has 200 pounds to spend without upgrading his present motherboard, and he's not interested in upgrading the CPU either.

Work with him or go jerk off somewhere else. Fucking pack of Job's comforters you are.

First off - cjrgreen - seriously chill no need to get so abrasive and abusive to people offering out their opinions on the situation. Heck if you read the original first post I fully left the floor open to suggestions other than RAM and the graphics card.



Personally I'm unlikely to follow the CPU and motherboard upgrade path simply because that path is expecting that, in a not too distant future, I'll be able to make a similar investment in the graphics and RAM departments. Sadly at the moment this isn't going to be the case for myself as I've a fair few other big investments before I can really re-visit the computer again. So whilst a new CPU and RAM releases a bottleneck on the system it lacks the ability (at least as far as I can determine) to allow me to get a meaningful upgrade on gaming performance with the current card setup that I have.

200 quid? Get a Geforce 550 Ti. Solid as fuck, and very reasonably priced too. I'd go with Palit, they know how to make a good card. You may even have some dosh left over for something else.

As for RAM, I'm not too well-versed in this area, but I've never felt the need to really go for the top end ones like Corsair. Been using Kingston's ValuRAM for years now. It's usually the GPU and CPU that make a difference for me.

these days its just cheaper to buy a whole new pc then to upgrade.
2 years ago i was struggling too with playing the modern games. bought a quad core, 4gb
ram and gt 210 videocard,windows 7 64bit for i dunno 400 euro orso?

his cpu is decent enough and psu is powerful enough to make your suggestion unwise.


get 560Ti and extra 2 gb of ram and you will be able to play anything which is not GTAIV.

my single core amd 3200 hold me for 4 years without any issue just needed to upgrade my GPU twice.

that was 2 years ago that price for a quad core, i think for the same money you can get a i5 these days. which can last you a bit longer...
that will include 2 gb more ram then he has now, a better graphic card , better processor.

it depends on what a person wants too really. do you want the highest settings in a game?
and it depends on what games he plays. an adventure game might not be so demanding as a high graphic shooter.

of course he can spend more for better hardware. he has 200 pounds. for that there is no point in getting new cpu while current one can still last for another 2 years.

there are only few games which really need good cpu. gtaIV is one of them. other games work fairly well with old cpu but with modern graphics card.

Honestly game wise I'm only aiming to gear up enough to get Sword of the Stars 2 to run - whilst also allowing for a little bit better performance wise on some others such as Dawn of War 2, The Witcher and a few others