9600GT to 460GTX

Hello Everyone :)... Hopefully someone can help... any help is appreciated. I have very little knowledge of compatablity and whatnot. But heres what I wanted to know...

Currently I have a 512MB 9600GT, I am planning on upgrading to a 460GTX...

I currently have 4GB DDR2 ram, which i plan to also upgrade to 8GB DDR3 ram, my power supply that is a 400W at the moment, I will be getting a 550W for my graphics card... the graphics card requires 2 6 pin power connectors, so I will be getting a new power supply that has enough for me to do that.

My processor is a Quad Core Q8330 @ 2.5GHz.

Now here's what I'm wondering, Is there anything else I should worry about? Such as cooling or Motherboard compatability.

my motherboard chipset is a Geforce 7100. If any more information is required for someone to be able to tell me whether this upgrade is worth it or will/wont work then I will give you the required information.

All I want to know is will this operation be effortless and simple... or is there anything I will have to look into or worry about?

Hello there, well. you can't upgrade to DDR3 if your motherboard supports only DDR2, so you'll have to stick with DDR2 modules.

GTX 460 is way more powerful than a 9600GT, but you have to be aware of the PSU.

The only way for upgrading to DDR3 memory would be changing the motherboard. but if you change your motherboard too, basically all you need is a new HDD and you have a new PC.

What's your budget?

Read this guide with the necessary info about PSUs and Video Card wattage and amperage.

https://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-c...ead-first.html

Yeah, I just realised the whole not supporting DDR3 thing. to be honest, I never realised motherboard worked like that. Makes sense now though I suppose.

Alright... So hypothetically, if i did get a new motherboard, got the 8GB DDR3, GTX 460, 500W/550W PSU, would my processor be suffice to run smoothly with all these things.

Looking back however, I'd probably go all the way and buy a new Hard Drive, so how about if I just put my current processor in a more powerful machine? would that work?

Here you have the specs for your processor

Intel® Core

It's a good one for sure, but depending on your budget, you could just sell the one that you currently have and buy a whole new one.. Core i5 based, the new sandy bridge models. but that's depending on your budget and your preferences. :)

That's how I was thinking of making some of my budget, that or create another pc out of spares left over to give to my brother. I might just do that though, sell my CPU for a better, I mean, would I be wrong in thinking an LGA775 socket is a little outdated now? Because I've always wanted an SLI capable motherboard, just so the options there.

Hmm.. the socket LGA 775 is not outdated, but it's being left out, now there's LGA 1156/1366/1155 and newer parts can get fairly cheap.

The cheapest Core i5 (Sandy Bridge) is only 184.99$, 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM is about 100$, a decent motherboard could go up to 200$ (if you want SLI and stuff) the rest would be a really good PSU, decent airflow case, you don't need that much of a big budget

Your right... that Core i5-2400 is looking pretty tempting. So if I bought that, 550W, GTX 460, 8GB DDR3 and a motherboard that supports SLI... Heck I'd throw in a 1TB hard drive, and re-use my BD-ROM and I'd have a pretty snazzy budget PC on my hands I reckon. Thankyou :).

With the GTX 460 i'd suggest at least a 600W, maybe a Corsair CX600 or a higher end model (Corsair is my favorite PSU brand)

Because the card itself requires a 450W PSU, but remember that your other componets will draw power from it. so it's better to have a little room to play than being tight, besides, if you're thinking about SLI, you'll need at least a 800W PSU at least, because 2 GTX 460's need 700W of power.

You could buy a small SSD if your budget allows it. maybe a Crucial C300 SATA 6Gbps 64GB (just for the OS/Apps) for 130$ or so. that'll increase your performance A LOT!

Could be a 64GB SSD + 1TB HDD (data and stuff), you'd have a killer machine

I was considering a SSD, just a small 64GB one for my OS, and the occasional long loading item such as games. However, the SSD would probably be further down the road, rather than straight away, and yeah, I saw that in the thread you linked earlier about the 700W.

But yes, a 600W one for now, and when I decided to upgrade, I will probably purchase a second GTX 460 because I hear that they're really good value currently when it comes to SLI. I'd also upgrade to a SSD and obviously the PSU. Ill have to buy it a new case.

I mean, I really am pushing my current 9600GT with Crysis and Fallout, all the time hooked up to 2 22" 1920 x 1080 monitors... In fact... Another question...

Whilst playing a game (Crysis) the other day, the game decided to go techno on me, and the colours were changing, as if it was at a 70's disco. whilst my other monitor was just showing strange black pixels everywhere. I exited the program and they were still there, until I re-booted. Is my graphics card broken? The drivers are fully up to date on the thing?

Well, i really don't know, but a 9600GT on two 1920 x 1080 monitors is not a good combo playing crysis haha..

The latest drivers for nvidia cards are here:

Latest NVIDIA ForceWare Video Drivers Windows 7