[NeuroDrive]

Hello there, I have just finished my exams and am looking forward to a nice long summer break...it occurred to me that an upgrade would be a good idea....

Currenlty I have:

Intel E8200 Dual Core 2.66 @ 3.6 GHz
OCZ 4 gbs PC2-6400 RAM
Sapphire ATI Radeon 4850 512mb
MSI P35 Neo2-FR iP35 mobo


I have also bought a new 23inch monitor so now I have 1x19in + 1x23in wide
Having 2 monitors I do far more stuff at once so i am in need of an upgrade.

My budget is £220 ($360).

I was thinking more ram and a quad core? Or perhaps another 4850?

Please advise,

Thanks :)

[Carbon]

I assume the 23" is 1920x1200 or 1920x1080? A 4850 at that res is going to struggle, replace it with a 4890 and that should be the most cost-effective upgrade.

[mrberty]

Yh I would agree upgrade your graphics card, and I would also by a single sataII hard drisk prefably 10,000 RPM just for your operating system and programs and this will give you faster access times to files and folders and quicker browsing of the computer.

[Razer]

I'd skip on that Raptor drive. No real need for it, Raptor drives tend to be for the most hardcore PC gamers, I don't think this guy wants to run Crysis at a million fps. I assume since he's running an 8200 and has overclocked it, he has a Sata 2 hdd too. A recent study showed seek times on a 74gb partition of a 1Tb drive are faster than the seek times on a Raptor too.

Do go with Carbons advice, a 4890 will see you through a load of games and 3d apps for a good while, you can grab another one for Crossfire if you so wish. That would be the best upgrade for you, 1Gb of memory will help a shed load at the higher resolutions.

The processor is fine, especially with that overclock so no worries there.

[mrberty]

Yh I agree with Razer the raptor drive isnt really that important to the speed of the computer unless you are going to be gaming. It would also make a difference in the speed of the OS and the speed of accessing the files and programs.