Upgrading Desktop PC Hardware Question ?

Question

I'm upgrading my PC to the following specs:

Current Specs:

Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.0Ghz
3GB RAM
PNY NVIDIA 8400 GS w/ 256MB
252GB of Available H.D. Space out of the 500GB

Upgrading to New Specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 (Retail Version - Best Buy Online)
Antec 650w PSU
adding another 1GB of memory, so 4GB total
keeping the PNY NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS - is this card good enough for Crysis ?
should I upgrade the H.D. to 1TB ???

Will be using my machine primarily for running multiple O.S. on VMWare Workstation, Studying for Certs, Photos, Itunes, Movies, moderate gaming (not intensive).

Is there anything else you would recommend that I change or add in ???

Answer 1

So basically you are upgrading everything except the MOBO. It looks good, that CPU is a LGA775, so make sure it will fit into your current MOBO. The 1TB HD is a good option for multiple VM Workstations, plus it seems you like to play games also.

Answer 2

First things first: order all of your parts from www.newegg.com. It has an excellent selection of computer parts for absolutely terrific prices.



Now, about your video card...if you tried to play Crysis on an 8400 GS, Crysis would just laugh and say no. I would recommend upgrading that card to either a GeForce 8800 GTX or a GeForce 9800 GT (they are essentially the same), or if you are not too tight on the budget, you could look into a more upper end card such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 or GTX 285 or even consider the new ATI Radeon HD 5870s. Any of those will set you right.



Now, in regards to the hard drive, 500 GB is quite a bit of space, but you described several things you would be doing that can take up a lot of space. Depending on how much music and how many movies and photos you plan on putting on your computer, 500 GB should be plenty (1 TB would be quite a bit of movies, music and pictures!).



4 GB of RAM is a good amount of RAM and I believe should be fine for what you are doing, though maybe 6 GB may be better. I do not know much about running multiple OS on a machine, but it seems that it could require quite a bit of memory to do so effectively. Again, I'm no pro on the matter so just what I suspect; 4 GB of RAM is good, 6 GB might be better, you might want to look into that a bit more. Also consider whether or not the RAM is DDR2 or DDR3.



Everything else sounds pretty good to me. Just make sure your case can fit everything and make sure that your motherboard is compatible with all of the things you plan on adding.



I hope this has helped and good luck with the upgrading of your system!

Answer 3

The graphics card will run Crysis at lower settings. I would recommend an upgrade if you can afford it. I don't know your budget so have a look here http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforce-310-5970,review-31747.html The best graphics cards available for this month divided into price categories.



Upgrading the hard drive to a larger volume will provide you more space but not necessarily more speed. For a faster drive you should look at SATA II 7200 rpm drives with 32 MB cache. WD Caviar Black is a good choice, and install your OS on the newer faster drive. Alternatively you can get a SSD (solid state drive) for just the OS and keep the larger drive for storage. SSDs are blazingly fast but still expensive so although it's a great choice, it's not a necessary one.

Answer 4

Upgrading the HDD capacity is purely a question of: Are you running out of space? If not, then why? There are faster drives, though.



I have run Crysis on a single core with a geforce 6800 gs and 2gb of ram, albeit on XP and mostly minimum settings, so what you have will probably work.

Answer 5

Pretty good Specs when its upgraded. I can guarantee that the current graphics card wont run Crysis tough.

Answer 6

that sounds good, apart from graphics card i'd say. Maybe 9800 GT gfx card would be better. have a couple of 500GB HDD, one for normal use, the other to save films music on etc.

Answer 7

everything is good except the graphic card... plus, i see no point for upgrading the H.D to 1TB..you should use that money you want to upgrade the H.D into a powerful graphics card....

Answer 8

specific, all you decide on a pictures card. based on your hyperlink, you have an open PCI convey x16 slot, so get a video card to circulate in there (almost all new video taking part in cards are for PCI convey x16). i in my view like nvidia's geforce taking part in cards, yet i think of ATI's radeon sequence could desire to be greater efficient those days.