HELP ME AGAIN TR

[LJizL]

hey guys you all helped me build my pc 5 or so years ago and well its on its last leg lol the gpu is dying as long as other things so im thinking of scrapping the cpu mobo and gpu.

i currently have an amd gigabyte mobo
tricore 720
and nvidia gts 250 1 gb

im thinking either going for the set up in the newest sweet spot or just grabbing a 560 gpu and tryin to find a x4 840 somewhere online

would there be that big of a difference? between the two options as one is much cheaper.

btw i plan on streaming League of Legends this should be fine for streaming correct?

thanks ahead of time im off too work

[Dirge]

Hey its great to hear this forum has been a help to you in the past. The last PC I built, I based on the Econobox from TR's system guide, with a few modifications to the basic recipe. Here is a link to the most recent guide Linky

[ImSpartacus]

I'm a bit conservative. I think a bargain 560 and a new CPU would be plenty for LoL. This is a good time to find good bargains on old (but more than capable) hardware.

[JustAnEngineer]

How much memory does your current socket-AM2+ system have?

If you want to upgrade the graphics card in your existing PC, a Radeon HD6870, HD7850, HD6950 or HD7870 or a GeForce 560Ti, 560Ti-448 or 570 would provide very good gaming performance. You can see how these cards compare on TR's famous value charts:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22573/12
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22473/9

[Airmantharp]

How much memory does your current socket-AM2+ system have?

If you want to upgrade the graphics card in your existing PC, a Radeon HD6870, HD7850, HD6950 or HD7870 or a GeForce 560Ti, 560Ti-448 or 570 would provide very good gaming performance. You can see how these cards compare on TR's famous value charts:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22573/12
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22473/9

This. If your CPU isn't already overclocked, grab a decent aftermarket HSF for it (if you don't have one yet) and get it close to 4.0GHz. A newer GPU will take care of the rest.

[LJizL]

well about overclocking my cpu a few months back i had thought i gotten a virus when infact it was the heatsink was caked with dust and it may be damaged also is there a way to test for this?. ive since been regulary cleaning it but the gpu is so bad that i had my pc come on with yellow tint to it which i guess is a good sign its going out ive tinkered with it and it will play games but fluctuates very much in fps which it used to stay steady 60+

also at this time i only have 2x2 gigs of 1066 ram ddr2

and i know my rig is ok right now but ive tried streaming and it doesnt stream smooth. and before someone points it out i know it has alot to do with you isp and upload speed but i have 35 mb DL and 6 mb UL

[JustAnEngineer]

Yes, keeping your heatsink reasonably clear of evil dust bunnies is helpful. You can monitor your processor temperature with a variety of tools. I happen to like using the All CPU meter sidebar gadget with Core Temp, but you could try whatever monitoring software came with your motherboard if you wanted.

If you're randomly losing colors, you may have a loose cable connection between your graphics card and your monitor, especially if you're using the obsolete analog VGA signal instead of a DVI digital signal.

Whether the connection is loose or not, you definitely need to upgrade your graphics card if you want to enjoy the latest games. I would not settle for anything less than a Radeon HD6850 ($140 -20MIR) as a minimum for gaming, but I believe that the higher performance of the Radeon HD6870 ($160 -10MIR) is well worth the extra $20. Radeon HD7850 ($257) performs better and uses less power, but the price increase from the HD6870 is pretty steep. If you're a dedicated NVidia fan, then the GeForce 560Ti ($217½) continues to be their card for mid-range gaming.

A newer graphics card could help with your streaming video, since it would unload some of the video decompression work from your CPU. My father's Phenom II X3 720 2.8 GHz CPU (like yours) doesn't perform well with full-screen streaming because the Radeon HD3870X2 graphics card in his system doesn't provide much acceleration for streaming video codecs, but the much weaker Opteron 175 2.2 GHz CPU in my mother's PC handles streaming video just fine because the Radeon HD4870 graphics card provides help with the video.

You might also want to double-check that you haven't had some disaster drop your network connection down to half duplex or 10 Mb/s and that your hard-drive hasn't somehow downgraded itself to PIO mode.

Your 2x2 GiB of DDR2 memory is sufficient for most tasks. If you find that you are running out of memory (something that the aforementioned All CPU meter can show you), then you might spend $60 to add another 2x2 GiB, but if you're not using up all that you have now, the performance increase would be small.

[FormCode]

I agree with the above stated. I have had a Phenom II 550BE for 2 years now, still going strong. An aftermarke hsf can do wonders, temperature and noise wise. Although I might add that instead of a high end card, you could get an HD6850 and a 60 gig Corsair SSD. With this combination you should see improvements in everything you do across the board. Even if your mobo supports sata-II only. Please correct me if I'm wrong !

[kc77]

I'll just condense what was said above. All good recommendations.

[*]Do a little spring cleaning. Upgrade or replace your HSF (if need be) to make sure your CPU is performing as it should.

[*]4GB of Mem is enough for most things (although more couldn't hurt--- if you are thinking about more mem get it now since prices will go up over time for that standard of mem). You don't need to go overboard regular Crucial or Kingston mem is perfect for an econobox. If you have 4 slots double it to 8GB and call it a day.

[*] You could upgrade your video card to something like a 6870 or a 560 Ti.

[*]And finally get a SSD . You would be surprised of just how much a performance benefit this is. If you can't do anything else at a minimum clean your box, and get a SSD. It's always nice to stay on the bleeding edge of processor tech, but it really isn't needed anymore. Unless you are gaming above 1080, or planning on running VMs, or video encoding lots of video that processor will last you quite a while.....probably until it dies.

[Ifalna]

[*]And finally get a SSD .

Since he is a ONLINE gamer, I don't really see the point of spending so much on a SSD.
He will have to wait for the other parties (which probably don't have SSDs) during loading times anyway and once in game a SSD does nothing for you because if your system starts reading lot's of Data from the disk you need more RAM.

[Arclight]

hey guys you all helped me build my pc 5 or so years ago and well its on its last leg lol the gpu is dying as long as other things so im thinking of scrapping the cpu mobo and gpu.[...]

GPU
Today's equivalent of the GTS 250 would be a GTX 560 Ti or a HD 7850 in terms of performance (but not sure in terms of price).

CPU
i'd advise waiting for IB, maybe they got a reasonably priced replacement for the 2500K, if not buy that one.

RAM
just buy a 8 GB dual channel kit and be done with it.

HDD
if you're satisfied with your old one and if it's a SATA, you could skip an update...maybe buy a SSD in a year or two from now.

PSU
if your old one is still in good shape you could keep it, but it would be good if you could replace it. If you do want a new one look for a good ~500W model from Seasonic.

Enclosure
Keep the old one if it provides enough air flow (i.e. it must have at least a intake fan at the front -for HDD and video card- and an exhaust out the back -to expell the heated air) and if the PSU mounting is at the base.

Motherboard
Depends on what CPU you'll get and there are many models. I'd avise one that has VRM heatsinks and it's made by a known brand. You should also read a review of said mobo before buying. Be advised, mobos do seem to be among the most DOA parts so don't worry if you get a dud, just RMA it.

CPU cooler
Must buy an after market one, it doesn't need to be fancy (like the Noctua D14) but affordable and efficient. There is a slew of HSF out there, buy one that has good reviews and fits in your enclosure.

I understand your budget might be short of the things i recommended but you can change and adapt them according to your needs. I mean if your GTX 250 was good enough (in terms of performance) a HD 6850 will be more than enough as a replacement. As for the CPU, if you don't wanna OC you could get a i5 2400.....and it will still be plenty faster then the old AMD tricore.