Hey so I'm planning on an upgrade, but there are two "issues"/dilemmas: If you want to get to the point, just scroll to the bolded area and beyond. I hate it when this time comes!

1) Is it worth it to upgrade just to play Crysis?

I don't see any other PC games coming out that would need much in the way of graphics. I was checking the release schedule for PC this year, and I don't see that other BIG game, so in a way it would just help me out with my current games.

Or am I missing something?

2) I don't even know where to start, or if I should start from scratch.

Current Setup:
AMD Athlon 3500+ (Socket 939)
1 GB RAM
nVidia 6600 256MB

Processor
So....I was wondering how intensive Crysis in on the processor, and what is recommended. I was actually planning to do a memory and GPU upgrade only, but if I had to do it I guess I have to.

Now, since the MOBO I have is socket 939, if I upgrade to the newest processors which are for socket AM2, will that work?

If what Wikipedia says is correct: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpu_socket

It only supports up to Athlon X2 4800+ which I don't know if it is a worthy upgrade, again, depending on how Crysis is in this regard.

EDIT: "AM2 processors are incompatible with 939 motherboards and vice versa,"--Hmn....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_AM2

GPU
Now everyone says the best bang for the buck is a 8600GT, but I want something a bit more future-proof so I was looking into an 8800GT? Below $200 and as close to zero as possible without making it crappy :)

I don't know I was looking at this list right here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Sub...

Also, my PSU is 480W, will it handle a GPU like that?

And also, the power for the GPU goes from one of the molex from the power supply to the GPU correct?
http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimag...

I see the picture yes, but I don't want to be missing something.


RAM
Well, I was hoping another GB to my system would do good enough, what do you think?

By the way I use Windows XP.

To recap, I'm hoping to be able to play a game like Crysis and still be somewhat future-proof and run upcoming games at high settings with acceptable 30+ framerates.



Any help and recommendations will be highly appreciated, thanks in advance.

:( You see what you did! Man, now it is harder, haha.

And I play lots of PC games, probably more than console games actually, but aside from Flight Simulator X, everything else I have performs fairly well on what I have. No crazy resolutions and ultra AA and things like that, but looks are ok as well as performance.

I don't know if I'm ready for a full on system rebuilt, although that is much easier when buying things. I guess I'll wait for my system to become even more obsolete and then do a full upgrade.

Now, you say wait for ATI's new cards but then when that comes out you KNOW something better will be on the way, so I don't know if I want to follow that route.
I don't know what to do really, an upgrade you are presenting would cost ~ $600-700

I could buy a PS3 with that............although I don't know what for.......

Upgrading isnt woth it for just 1 game. Wait till some more stuff you want on pc comes out. starcraft 2 is coming in lik 2 yrs. :P

Yea I was guna buy a new GPU until i saw these and now i may aswell wait, but then i kind of also feel that spending money on new hardware is a waste of time as it devalues so fast you may aswell wait for the price drops.

Never ending circle really :S

Well thanks for the feedback, I appreciate the help.

Also crysis sucks as a game. At least i found it to be pretty much terrible. Not worth upgrading to play it imo.

Duno man, i thought that about Crysis when i played it at a friends house for about 30 min.
Then when i got a computer that can run it well... now ALL games look last gen, and im not even exagerating, go in water, come out... thats just gold.
And if you use the DX10 crack, then the water and light look even better...
As for gameplay, well typical semi-tactical shooter.

But, yeah, if you build a pc that can run crysis at 30 FPS, youre good for years to come.

ATI 4850 is out, looks good, im still waiting for 4870 tho.

Well I just did a total calculation of roughly what it would cost me.

MOBO ~120 (Asus P5N-E SLI nForce® 650i SLI)
GPU ~200 (ATI 4850 512MB)
CPU ~200 (Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775)
4GB RAM ~ 100
Power Supply ~100 (could be about 60 depending on wattage, this one is hard)

So overall that is ~776 including tax. This is all from newegg, some items have free shipping, some don't. Let's call it anywhere from $750 to $800 with tax included.

There are a few things I included which frankly I am not entirely sure about. For example:
*Do I need a SLI MOBO? Am I ever going to have two cards worth using together?

*Do I need a power supply with really high wattage considering it will only be needed for SLI? (By the way, what is recommended for just one powered card?).

*Is 4GB needed right now? Hmn..........

So basically, I could again go back to my original $600-$700 price point.

Conclusion, I think I will wait it out a bit more. See what games come out, what new--affordable--cards come out, price drops, etc.

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd4800/requireme...That's for 4850.

Remember that you can only use all of the 4GB of RAM on 64bit OS.

Hey thanks, I didn't know AMD had that info in their site. If I were to use only one GPU my current PSU would do to be honest.

My friend, my last pc died on me and was the 4th one I`ve built so I know that it wasn`t a fault of my own. I didn`t fancy building one as there weren`t any cases on the market that caught my eye. I decided to go to the Alienware website for a laugh and see just how expensive these beasts were and guess what...I ended up buying one rofl.

Specs:

* Alienware new P2 chassis in Space Black
* Astral blue standard lighting kit
* AMD® Athlon™ X2 5200+ 2.7GHz Dual Core 2 x 512KB L2 Cache cpu
* Alienware® Standard System Cooling
* 750 Watt Alienware® Approved Multi-GPU Power Supply
* 512MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3850
* 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 x 1024MB
* Alienware® Approved AMD® 790FX Motherboard
(Includes PCI-Express 2.0, BIOS Overclocking Utility, and Support for AMD Phenom Quad-Core Processors)
* Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 – DirectX 10 Ready!
* 250GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM
* LG 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Writer
* Single High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Port
* High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio - Standard
* AlienCare 1-Year Free Phone 24/7 and Collect & Return
* Alienware® Mesh Cap - Included!
* Custom Alienware® Mousepad
* Alienware® Exclusive Internal Wire Management
(So neat it`ll make you sick lol)
* AlienContact - Remote Alienware Support
*

* All for £630.98

Then I paid for a recovery dvd:
* AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition [+£29]

and it cost me £659.98 plus shipping fee.

For that, I got my 1st ever legitimate Operating System (hush hush) which is £150 on it`s own, not to mention that it`s been built by proffesionals and all I have had to do is to sit back and relax.

For me, there`s only 5 games that I`m really looking forward to:

1: Lich King expansion
2: Spore
3: Left 4 Dead
4: Diablo-3
5: Starcraft

Crysis wasn`t that good anyway and to be honest, it`ll take over from Doom-3 as the next main bench-marker for future gaming rigs.

Before people on here start to criticise, I know that Alienware rigs aren`t everyones cup of tea and that I could`ve built a rig for that price, but in fairness I honestly couldn`t find a case that caught my eye, so go to Alienware.co.uk/com and check out the Aurora rig as it`s a value in my opinion.

The ram, gpu and cpu all mean that the above list of games should all run comfortably at 1920x1200 resolution too, so think about it and see what you think.

I hope this helps friend ;0)

PS: The mobo on my build is fully future proof too, with pcie-2 rails for multi gpu`s, offering double the bandwidth and coupled with the 512 HD3850 and Vista, it is compatible with not only DX 10, but also DX 10.1 too.

The mobo also supports dual core AMD cpu`s and the next big upgrade for me will be to get 3 gig of 1066mhz DDR2 dual channel ram and a bigger gpu (if needed). The psu is a 750 watt too, so seeing as the case is huuuuge, I should have enough room and power to fit in any future gpu from either ATI or nVidia too without any issue.

I know that your specced up rig is only marginally dearer and offers slightly better parts, but remember that with the Aurora you`ll be getting a new legit OS, a new Alieware case, dvd/cd burner combo drive and much more too, including an internal 250 SATA 7200rpm HDD.

When it comes (holds breath), I`ll let you know how it performs buddy.

Other than sounding like a complete Alienware PR, let me say that is freaking expensive my friend.

That is basically $1000 USD, so that is $200 more expensive than a MUCH better system I was looking at. The GPU is outdated, you have an AMD CPU, and HDD's are so cheap right now you can get a 500GB drive for about $100 and 250GB for about $50. It's not "slightly better" parts either.

But that is ok, I would never buy from Alienware, even if buying a prebuilt system, there are better places out there on the net to do so.

And by the way I'm in the US which means I still have to pay taxes for that. And if I go to the U.S site it gives it to me for no less than 999.99 lol, and that is without freaking taxes. Even ibuypower.com has a better price for the same PC and you have more OPTIONS. I basically built that same PC for $50 less, free shipping, 3 year warranty and support, and 4 free games, and Vista 64 bit (Alienware doesn't even tell you which).

And besides, Alienware wants to charge $128 for shipping, what the crap? It's nice how you just said "plus" shipping fee. Come on man, you go buy more Alienware, more power to you.

LEBATO, custome build it yourself, buy the pieces, assemble them, its realy not hard, 1st time i ever did was 2 weeks ago, and with patience its very doable.
for case i reccomend the antec 900, its cheap and very well vented.

lol of course man, that's what the thread is all about.

Alienware PR rofl. Nah, I know what you are all saying, but I was just surprised at the cost. Afetr not having a pc of my own for 7-8 weeks I think that I`m allowed to go a little bit nutty lmao.

As long as it plays Spore, Lich King exp, L4D and Diablo-3 then I`m happy as Larry and can`t wait.

I hope you get what you`re looking for btw. Good luck :0)

ouch..... well i dunno if you ever want to overclock, and you may have problems as many do with 650i motherboards.

If you aren't going to mess aroudn with your computer at all 650i might be ok to have.

I would read online about the problems with some of the items you want to buy in this upgrade. :)

Little late to the thread but SCREW SLI almost all modern LGA775 motherboards will support Crossfire which gives you access to linking 2 x ATI/AMD 4850 or 4870 which currently are the best dollar/performance value video cards on the market

Q6600 @ 199$ with an after market cooler can easily clock to 3GHZ! on air.
Might be worth considering, if you are not waiting for Intel's next generation Nehalem processors

Good luck with your build