hey . first of all im not sure if this is where this post should be brought but i have a HP a6152n and was wondering what i should upgrade to get the best performance i can. i already have an 8800 GT in there so what else should i do?
hmm im getting alright performance.. it seems to be a little laggy in games still and im kinda worried.. maybe i should upgrade the powersupply? oh and im also looking at getting a new mother board because this one only has 1 pci-e and 1 pci slot . what kind of motherboard should i look for?
The Core 2 Quads won't overclock very well without a big cooling upgrade, and let's be honest, that's not going to be easy in an hp system, I'd advise against overclocking that system much. The CPU is plenty powerful enough as it is. What games do you get lag in, what sort of lag is it (occasional stutters, or just a generally low frame rate) and what settings are you using? Don't expect to be able to max games like Crysis, because no system can do that yet, no matter how good it is.
The PSU won't cause lag on its own, but if the PC didn't originally come with the 8800GT, you would be wise to replace it anyway to avoid overstressing it and causing premature failure, potentially damaging the rest of the PC. Go with something like a Corsair HX unit, assuming it will fit in the HP case, no guarantees on that one...
For cooling reasons I wouldn't bother looking at dual graphics in an HP case, so you may as well get a board with one PCIe16x slot again, but with better features in other areas. Look at something like a Gigabyte P35-DS3R.
Originally posted by sammorris: The Core 2 Quads won't overclock very well without a big cooling upgrade, and let's be honest, that's not going to be easy in an hp system, I'd advise against overclocking that system much.
Well yeah, it's a bit of a down-note, but with the standard cooling setup it wouldn't be wise. With a Duo you could probably make a good OC regardless since they produce naff all extra heat until beyond 3Ghz. In an inexpensive machine like that, the CPU will probably have the stock cooler (or just as likely, a variation on it made by someone else - it's even cheaper to buy the CPUs OEM and get a cheap aftermarket cooler for them, or at least it was in the past - my old Time PC came with an Akasa heatsink - just as awful as the stock one!) and with the limited case airflow, that's a double whammy for heat. Even if you put a big third party cooler on the CPU, the case may not have sufficient airflow to keep up.
