Last upgrade advice for an aging comp.

Blue_Rage · Dec 25, 2011

Hi all!
Current System (Old I know):
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 (Currently clocked at 3.6GHz)
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
DIAMOND 4850PE3512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Monitor running at 1920x1080

Question is this. I'm trying to squeeze the last bit of life out of this, and was considering a Radeon HD 6870. Does it make any sense? Will the current MB PCIe 1.0 limit an PCIe 2.1 card? Well thanks in advance and happy holidays.

qubit · Dec 25, 2011

Yes, it makes perfect sense. My current system is an E8500 @ 4.11GHz with a GTX 580 in it - and it flies. It may be "slow" compared to Sandy Bridge, but it will still play every modern game you throw at it very well.

I'm currently upgrading it to an i7-2700K, as you can see from my sig.

Welcome to TPU. :toast:

NdMk2o1o · Dec 25, 2011

Blue_Rage said:
Hi all!
Current System (Old I know):
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 (Currently clocked at 3.6GHz)
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
DIAMOND 4850PE3512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Monitor running at 1920x1080

Question is this. I'm trying to squeeze the last bit of life out of this, and was considering a Radeon HD 6870. Does it make any sense? Will the current MB PCIe 1.0 limit an PCIe 2.1 card? Well thanks in advance and happy holidays.

6870 would be a good fit for your rig, you have one of the best dual core CPU's and 4 gigs of RAM so it would be a decent upgrade from your 4850 and will run any games out there at high settings without too much issue, just one comment, I would clock that E8400 to at least 3.8-4.0GHZ as it will easily do that. The only real issue will be in games that are heavily multithreaded CPU dependant, though there aren't that many.

Crap Daddy · Dec 25, 2011

No, it will no limit anything. Get the card and put it to good use.

Blue_Rage · Dec 25, 2011

Awesome news guys, and thanks a ton for the quick replies. Going to order it now!!

qubit · Dec 25, 2011

Blue_Rage said:
Awesome news guys, and thanks a ton for the quick replies. Going to order it now!!

Yeah, you're welcome. :toast:

It's this kind of responsiveness that first hooked me to TPU - and almost four years later I started doing the news for it.

You'll love it here.

timma · Dec 26, 2011

get the gigabyte 6870 OC windforce 3x :rockout:

JustaTinkerer · Dec 29, 2011

Dont know much about the E8400 but you might want to OC it a little more if your dropping in a 6870.

My Q6600 was a bottleneck right up to 3.4GHz with a 4870, so I would imagine even sticking your E8400 up to 3.8GHz couldn't hurt.
TBH I could be wrong, but if you have the headroom heat wise, it cant be a bad thing, your GA-EP35-DS3L is a monster when it comes to the E8400, if what I read is true 500FSB+ was/is regular.

Jetster · Dec 29, 2011

I have the E8400 with a 6870 The C2D is overclocked to 3.9. It does pretty well and you will see a noticeable difference at that resolution going to the 6870.

white phantom · Dec 29, 2011

first off welcome to TPU and heres to many happy years with us :toast:

second off yeah the gpu would be a good upgrade and also maybe a quad core? im in the process of upgrading to a i5 2500k so may have a q6600 for sale or going on ebay soon unless my wee bro calls dibs :laugh:

Azfar · Dec 31, 2011

Welcome to the 6870 Club

System Name	Quantumville™
Processor	Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard	Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling	Noctua NH-D14
Memory	16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage	Samsung 850 Pro 256GB \| WD Black 4TB \| WD Blue 6TB
Display(s)	ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) \| Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case	Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply	Corsair AX1600i
Mouse	Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard	Yes
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

System Name	Ryzen Reynolds
Processor	Ryzen 1600 - 4.0Ghz 1.415v - SMT disabled
Motherboard	mATX Asrock AB350m AM4
Cooling	Raijintek Leto Pro
Memory	Vulcan T-Force 16GB DDR4 3000 16.18.18 @3200Mhz 14.17.17
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Nitro+ 4GB RX 580 - 1450/2000 BIOS mod 8-)
Storage	Seagate B'cuda 1TB/Sandisk 128GB SSD
Display(s)	Acer ED242QR 75hz Freesync
Case	Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair VS 550w
Mouse	Zalman ZM-M401R
Keyboard	Razor Lycosa
Software	Windows 10 x64
Benchmark Scores	https://www.3dmark.com/spy/6220813

System Name	Old Fart / Young Dude
Processor	2500K / 6600K
Motherboard	ASRock P67Extreme4 / Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 DDR3
Cooling	CM Hyper TX3 / CM Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	16 GB Kingston HyperX / 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws X
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti / INNO3D RTX 2060
Storage	SSD, some WD and lots of Samsungs
Display(s)	BenQ GW2470 / LG UHD 43" TV
Case	Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced / Thermaltake Core v31
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar D1/Denon PMA500AE/Wharfedale D 10.1/ FiiO D03K/ JBL LSR 305
Power Supply	Corsair TX650 / Corsair TX650M
Mouse	Steelseries Rival 100 / Rival 110
Keyboard	Sidewinder/ Steelseries Apex 150
Software	Windows 10 / Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Quantumville™
Processor	Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard	Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling	Noctua NH-D14
Memory	16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage	Samsung 850 Pro 256GB \| WD Black 4TB \| WD Blue 6TB
Display(s)	ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) \| Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case	Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply	Corsair AX1600i
Mouse	Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard	Yes
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

System Name	Just need to tidy it up now
Processor	FX-8120
Motherboard	Asus M5A99X EVO 990X
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Video Card(s)	BFG GTX 280 H2OC
Storage	OCZ ocz vertex plus(60GB), 2TB hdd
Display(s)	1x ACER x19ws ( need new one)
Case	Custom
Power Supply	(GOT) OCZ GameXStream 1010 Watt
Software	LOL
Benchmark Scores	Soon, very very soon, just need to tidy it up.

Last upgrade advice for an aging comp.

Blue_Rage

New Member

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit

NdMk2o1o

Crap Daddy

Blue_Rage

New Member

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit

timma

New Member

JustaTinkerer

New Member

Jetster

white phantom

Azfar

New Member

System Name	Juliette // HTPC
Processor	Intel i7 9700K // AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	ASUS Prime Z390X-A // ASRock B550 ITX-AC
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12 Black // Stock
Memory	Corsair DDR4 3600 32gb //G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3600
Video Card(s)	ASUS RTX4070 OC// GTX 1650
Storage	Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 1Tb, Intel 665p Series M.2 2280 1TB // Samsung 1Tb SSD
Display(s)	ASUS VP348QGL 34" Quad HD 3440 x 1440 // 55" LG 4K SK8000 Series
Case	Seasonic SYNCRO Q7// Silverstone Granada GD05
Audio Device(s)	Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 // HDMI to Samsung HW-R650 sound bar
Power Supply	Seasonic SYNCRO 750 W // CORSAIR Vengeance 650M
Mouse	Cooler Master MM710 53G
Keyboard	Logitech 920-009300 G512 SE
Software	Windows 10 Pro // Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Blue
Processor	Core 2 Quad Q9400
Motherboard	Asus P5Q3
Cooling	Hyper 212+
Memory	Corsair XMS 6GB DDR3
Video Card(s)	Sapphire HD6870 1GB
Storage	Seagate 1TB, WD 1TB
Display(s)	Samsung P2250
Audio Device(s)	On-Board
Power Supply	Corsair TX650
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

System Name	White Phantom
Processor	i5 2500K @ 4.4ghz = 1.360-1.368 vcore
Motherboard	asrock p67 pro (not pro3)
Cooling	prolimatech megahalem with 2x nocuta in push pull (thanks to the 54thvoid) ;) , stock phantom fans
Memory	16gb Kingston hyper x ddr3 1600mhz
Video Card(s)	Asus strix 970 ocd 1.5ghz core
Storage	240gb ssd , 1tb Western digital Black, western digital 320gb
Display(s)	samsung syncmaster p2450 via DVI @1080p 60hz
Case	White and blue NZXT Phantom (carbon fibred sides/door)
Audio Device(s)	onboard , philips AMBX pro speakers 80watts rms
Power Supply	Xfx750
Mouse	Rat 3
Keyboard	Act cheapo "gaming"
Software	windows 10
Benchmark Scores	world record for most amount of times machine has pissed me off ....