Hi all,
A couple of years ago I picked up a decent OEM system at a very good price to replace my 5-6 year old hand built. I wasn't gaming anymore so this computer has been excellent for work/productivity applications. Well, now Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out and I'm rethinking the system.
The system as it is now:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.34 GHz
4 Gigs RAM
GeForce 7100/nForce 630i (on-board)
Win 7 64 bit
I have 2 PCIe slots (low profile) and am considering my options to optimize this system. Obviously one can't make a purse from a sow's ear (unless its a big sow, and you like ugly purses...) so I'm not looking at putting the latest, greatest id card in this since it will bottleneck elsewhere. I'm not really up to date on the hardware side, so I was encouraged to ask here. Where is my sweet spot for upgrading the vid card for peak performance? nVidia GT 430? 210? Radeon HD 5550? Like to keep this under $80--lower the better--and I'll put the real money into the system upgrade in a couple of years.
TIA
A couple of years ago I picked up a decent OEM system at a very good price to replace my 5-6 year old hand built. I wasn't gaming anymore so this computer has been excellent for work/productivity applications. Well, now Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out and I'm rethinking the system.
The system as it is now:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.34 GHz
4 Gigs RAM
GeForce 7100/nForce 630i (on-board)
Win 7 64 bit
I have 2 PCIe slots (low profile) and am considering my options to optimize this system. Obviously one can't make a purse from a sow's ear (unless its a big sow, and you like ugly purses...) so I'm not looking at putting the latest, greatest id card in this since it will bottleneck elsewhere. I'm not really up to date on the hardware side, so I was encouraged to ask here. Where is my sweet spot for upgrading the vid card for peak performance? nVidia GT 430? 210? Radeon HD 5550? Like to keep this under $80--lower the better--and I'll put the real money into the system upgrade in a couple of years.
TIA