Looking for a few recommendations

Here's what I have at the moment:

Gigabyte EP43-UD3L
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1866MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
2GB of RAM
Antec Truepower Trio 430W Power Supply

So far I haven't really had much trouble playing anything (except aion castle sieges.. /wrists), I can play GW with max settings on 1280x1024 res with no lag, except in spamadan and other crowded places, and if what Anet has said is true I should be able to play GW2 on medium settings no problem. However, GW2 isn't the only game I'm looking forward to playing in the (near?) future, and honestly I would prefer to play them on high settings.

A few things, first, I live about 5 minutes from one of these stores in calgary, so anything I could find there would be great, and second, I really don't have much to be spending on this (under $400 CND).

Taking that into consideration, would it be wise of me to upgrade the video card and the power supply? I was thinking one of these http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...2%28ME%29.aspx because I've heard good things about them and its pretty damn cheap right now, but my current PSU doesn't seem to be enough (or have the "Two available 6-pin PCI-E power dongles".. I think it only has one) and I don't really know what to look for in a new one, I only have the one I have now cause I needed a new one and this was one of the cheapest available lol...

I have been told though that my CPU is what I should be worrying about and had these recommended to me http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...9%28ME%29.aspx -- http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...8%28ME%29.aspx though these come out to be a bit more than I can be spending right now.

Should I be worried about any of this? would I even notice a big difference in performance with the gtx 460 over what I have now? CPU or video card? any help here would be appreciated!

Your system is dating a fair bit. The bottleneck is definitely the video card, however, your CPU / motherboard will bottleneck a fast video card as well, ect... The CPU is weak, but games are GPU-bound even Guild Wars.

Overclocking the CPU will re-establish the balance, but the board isn't that great for OC. And your memory may struggle too.

Upgrading to a i7 would be a waste of money, if you don't have graphics power in the first place.

As for the PSU, the info here state that the Trio can output 32Amps on the 12V rail (quote : +12V1, 12V2,12V3 maximum output 384 Watts max), and has 85% peak efficiency. Looks like a pretty decent PSU. But for driving a GTX460 / HD6850, I'd probably upgrade to a Corsair CX600W (or HX650 / TX650, if you have the cash and want to go modular).

All in all, I think your best bet would be either a small incremental upgrade (overclock CPU, get a sub $100 GPU, maybe less second hand), or a save money for a big upgrade when GW2 comes out, which could be 6 months and by then you could have something actually decent.

The 7900GS does suck balls, so even a cheap video card (say, a second hand 9800GT) would bring some big improvements.

for a full upgrade (minus the OS), you'd be looking at this



which is twice your current budget, I'm afraid.

and btw, upgrading to a i7 and a board like the Rampage means triple channel memory, 6GB. That's another expense. And I'd upgrade the PSU to 750W, and an after market cooler, that puppy is for overclocking. Kerching!

It's all good and well, but when you are on a budget, a i5 is a better compromise. SLI / Crossfire imo is overrated, when not going for balls out performance.

For gaming and general purpose, they are plenty fast. Or a AMD Phenom 2, which are quad core or 6 cores (I have a 1055T).

your psu should be fine for whatever you get as long as you're not overclocking a hell of a lot

your cpu and graphics card are both out dated, but if you change your cpu, you will probably have to change your motherboard and memory as well

if you cant afford to upgrade everything, just upgrade the graphics card, that would give you the biggest improvement, not sure if they come with the 6-pin adapters but you can get them from the same site for a few $ http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...1%28ME%29.aspx

Wait a few months and save up some money, then upgrade. 400 dollars isn't really sufficient to update the PC seeing as you're probably best off replacing processor and motherboard as well...

As has been said, your system is getting a little dated. The CPU is one of the slowest in that line and the 7900GS is a bottom end card. If you want to just upgrade things a bit, without spending a lot of money then there are a few things you can do to pep things up cheaply.

First off, the motherboard is a socket 775, so there are a number of faster and better CPUs you can install. Check around for a second-hand Core 2 Quad such as a Q6600, or even a faster dual core.

Secondly, check around for a second-hand video card. The only thing to watch for is that you don't want to get something that recommends more than a 450watt power supply.
If you want to future-proof things a bit, you could go for a new video card, such as an HD5770 or less, that requires a 450 watt (or less) power supply.

Overall, just going to a Q6600 and a better video card would boost your performance greatly.

Btw, video card-wise, at some point you're going to want to replace your old 4:3 1280x1024 monitor with something newer, like a widescreen 1680x1050 or 1920x1080. So you should get a video card with a bit of extra grunt.

Thanks for the advice guys! after reading all the replies, I'm definitely going to hold out until I have more money, a huge upgrade later is better than a small one sooner right? :P and prices can only drop after all.

Wait untill Sandy Bridge hits

At this point, I completely agree with the above.

Sandy Bridge will be very inexpensive as well, as the mainstream parts launch first, instead of the enthusiast stuff.

GPU prices will have settled down a bit by then as well, and hopefully the GTX 560 will be out, which will provide you the best in class GPU on the market at that price.