Upgrading PC

[Trunks]

Well, I'm thinking about getting back into PC gaming. Just more competition on PC and I personally like it better then consoles. Anyway, I have to upgrade my PC a little bit, just want to be clear on some things.


Processor: Intel i5 Quad core 2.67 GHz
Should be fine to run current games for a little while correct?

I'm getting a new graphics card, most likely this one
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-130-625&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo)

Power Supply is fine, 650 Watt or something I can't remember. 250gig hardrive, all fine.

The problem I came to is my memory. I still run windows XP 32bit. So it only runs 3 gigs of memory. Is this going to be a problem? I really don't want to upgrade to windows 7, and I can't stand xp 64 bit because they always seem to have problems finding versions of a game or driver that runs with 64 bit.

So to sum it up.

Specs:
Intel i5 Quad core 2.67 GHz
GeForce GTX 550
3 gigs Memory

Good enough?

[egg-whites333]

i dont know much about computers in this way but after reading all the reviews on that page it had more cons over pros and the pros wher kind lame just had to find somthing nice to say i would not go with that one

[Synge]

Motherboard? Is your current motherboard compatible with the i5? If you plan on getting a Sandy Bridge chip you'll have to buy a new mobo for sure.

@ Egw: EVGA make the best NVIDIA cards and there are way more positive than negative reviews (4/5 eggs with 250 reviews total) so I'm not sure what you're looking at.

[LiNuX]

What synged said - the problem with upgrading your CPU usually means you need to upgrade the mobo. And 3gigs of ram should be fine for now, most games recommend 2-3 gigs.

And for GPUs, I actually like XFX more than EVGA. I've used EVGA a lot and it's currently on my old computer (currently my sister's), but I've had great exp with XFX the company. But EVGA is awesome too. But XFX ftw.

[BangMy Octopuss]

If you want games, graphics, and other multimedia programs to run faster, upgrading to a more powerful graphics card should be your first priority. And Microsoft's Windows Vista, with its 3D-accelerated Aero interface, gives you another reason to upgrade. To run Aero, you'll need a DirectX-9-capable graphics chip and at least 128MB of dedicated memory

[Trunks]

@egw333 - I use to game on PC a lot before. It's definitely way better, the community of people its self makes up for all the money you have to put into it. Plus like I said, I'm a competitive gamer, and PC is the way to go in the field.

@Synge - I meant to say I already have the CPU and Motherboard those are all fine. It was mainly a question about the RAM. Everything is compatible already checked that.

@Linux - Yeah, I like both XFX and EVGA, but from my research, all of newer XFX cards are all Radeon cards. I personally hate Radeon, so that won't be happening. I've had compatibility errors with Radeon cards for older games. My current card, which is junk, it's a Radeon HD 5600 series, basically a multimedia card but, it won't play games that run Direct x 6 and lower. I had to install older drivers to for it to work. Had the same problem a few years ago when Burn Crusades came out for WoW. They patched it up, but was still annoying. Sticking with Nivida from now on.

@Bangmy Octopuus - if I do get a different OS it's going to windows 7 not Vista lol. Vista is junk.

But if 3 gigs is enough that will save me 100 bucks from having to buy Windows 7. I have 4 gigs of DDR3 in my PC at the moment, runs at 1600, overcloackable to 1866 I believe. Not sure if XP has a clock on the speed it runs too.

Also reminds me, my CPU is overclockable to 3.4, so I have that option if I need more performance as well.

[egg-whites333]

Motherboard? Is your current motherboard compatible with the i5? If you plan on getting a Sandy Bridge chip you'll have to buy a new mobo for sure.

@ Egw: EVGA make the best NVIDIA cards and there are way more positive than negative reviews (4/5 eggs with 250 reviews total) so I'm not sure what you're looking at.

sorry just read the first ones

[BangMy Octopuss]

Yeah Windows 7, not vista. Typo bro, sorry.

[Trunks]

Well it looks like I'll have to upgrade to windows 7 after all. Battle Field 3 doesn't support Direct X9. Well, that means I might as well buy more memory too. Sad day.

You've done well for me Windows XP. I'll always love you.

[BangMy Octopuss]

Well it looks like I'll have to upgrade to windows 7 after all. Battle Field 3 doesn't support Direct X9. Well, that means I might as well buy more memory too. Sad day.

You've done well for me Windows XP. I'll always love you.



Haha, thought soo

[LiNuX]

Just dual boot. I still have my XP installed, no need to fully upgrade.

[egg-whites333]

xp is the best i hated how when i got my new laptop i had to switch :(

[Trunks]

Just dual boot. I still have my XP installed, no need to fully upgrade.

Oh yeah I forgot about that, I don't know much about it though. can I put windows 7 on a slave drive or do both operating systems need to be on the same hard drive?

Also would I have to install BF3 under the new partition for windows 7? I'm not sure how Direct x 11 will work with the dual boot.

[LiNuX]

Oh yeah I forgot about that, I don't know much about it though. can I put windows 7 on a slave drive or do both operating systems need to be on the same hard drive?

Also would I have to install BF3 under the new partition for windows 7? I'm not sure how Direct x 11 will work with the dual boot.

You can put it on separate drives, that's how I have it. Otherwise if you can make a partition it would be good too. And I think you need to install the game in the same OS you're running from, I've tried to run Steam from my XP (while logged into win7) and couldn't get it to work properly, so I just redownloaded. Not sure if there is a good way to do it though.

[Trunks]

Almost sounds like more of a hassle then it's worth.