Which should I upgrade?
 

Currently, I am looking at the lowest cost possible to either upgrade my system or to purchase a brand new computer or even a lightly used gaming computer.

My currently system is: P4 3.2ghz with a Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT

My video card recently burnt out and now I'm contemplating if I should just buy a new computer all together or to just find a cheapo used video card for 75$.

I play world of warcraft and league of legends; I don't really demand high performing graphics.

My question is, if I were to find a video card, new or used; which one should I look at? OR should I just buy a new computer all together? There is a large selection that I have looked at from all price ranges. Some which have HD available which I could upgrade to.

TIA,

Shin.

http://www.revscene.net/forums/fs-ati-5770-t640207.html

Good deal for something that'll last you a bit, will be overshooting it for WOW/LOL though.

make sure it's compatible with your motherboard and PSU can handle it.

WoW is more CPU and RAM based. I'm 100% sure that if you get the HD5770, your P4 will be bottlenecking it. Not sure about LoL though.

I just want something that won't bloody overheat...I only have a 550w Power Supply.

FYI I ran a hd5770 pcs+ from powercolor with a phenom II x4 965b overclocked to 4.3ghz with 4gb of cosair dominators. I am positive you can get
Those now at like 300 without the mobo. If you are willing to go used you can definitely get all that with a mobo for 300. It is plenty for most games out today.
This setup is a year old and has been plenty reliable. Gpu temps under 60 full load :)
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Tempting, Still looking for a cheap card tho...since my set-up is still pretty reliable.

You could get a used 5770 on craigslist for 75 for sure.
If you don't mind looking at older Gen bang for buck card
try a 4870. The 5770 is more future proof and will have
more overclocking headroom. The 5770 is also a 40nm
card meaning it will consume less energy and generate
less heat. A 500w psu will be plenty!

Also the pcs+ 5770 comes factory overclocked with a better
heat sink, it is $100 brand new right now.
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I have never heard of powercolour before tho. I never really used the original ATI's before either...Used Nvidia for a while now. The heat sink on the ATI's look like they cover more than the ones from powercolour...or is it the same?

The memory is indeed not actively cooled, but the results speak for themselves. The card idles at the low 30's, is quiet, uses 100w full load and only 18w idle. This particular 5770 performs around the level of a GTX260, at a lower price point.

Also, don't let the size of the heatsink fool you, the design is just as important.

You do realize that your cpu was holding back your 8800gt the whole time right? An old card like 8600gts would be suitable for your CPU. Anything else is just overkill.

I'd say 30-40 bucks should fix your problem, probably wouldn't be able to get the other half of the performance from a 75 dollar card.

^ Yeah, but I was thinking of upgrading within the year but since the video card burnt out...I don't have much a choice...everything else is in working order so I don't have any complaints.

Edit: Should I look for a XFX 5770? Since it has this lifetime warranty...or does the powercolor have a similar thing?

Just saw this...kinda tempting...http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rd...212754026.html

just upgrade to a sandy bridge i5

are the sandy's ok now? i heard there was some problems or something about them awhile back

they already fixed all the motherboards a month ago

SandyBridge mobos are fixed now. Looks for B3 Revision stamped on the box. They started getting them a few weeks ago. I got my replacement from ASUS last week.

Personally, if i plan to use the card on a future pc, I would get something more expensive. But each to their own I guess.

From personal experience, XFX has the best warranty and service. But keep in mind, make sure that the first owner registered his card online within the first 3 months of ownership, and he remembers to transfer it to you. If he didn't reg it within first 3 months, it's a standard 1 year limited warranty.

Personally - I would upgrade to a new computer. a P4 is old enough that it's about time where an upgrade would last you another good 3-5 years depending on what you're doing with it.

Even the new Sandy Bridge MB's might not be something I'd be pushing for. You could find a cheap Socket 1156 MB and get a decent i5 - like the 760, and you'll be set.

The only thing I'm not happy about with the 1156 MB's is that there aren't any with USB 3.0 that I know of - but if you get a a regular ATX board - you'll have plenty of slots to get an expansion one though - which are cheap....

here are the 1156 boards locally that have usb3.0. i don't think it's a big deal though, you can get a usb3.0/sata6 pci-e card pretty cheap.

depending on how cheap the 1156 boards are, i'd go for the 1155 ones when the replacements start shipping in april.

The 1155 replacement boards are already shipping. NCIX has them in stock. As well I got my replacement last week.

so all the in stock boards now are the replaced ones? good to know.

They'll list revision B3 in the product title.

http://www.ncix.com/search/?categoryid=2-107&q=b3+1155

Not all of them are in stock yet but there are quite a few that are.