Life in the old dog yet?

Drunkenmassacre

Drunkenmassacre

Drunkenmassacre

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Joined
9 Jul 2009
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1,023
Location
Moray, Scotland
Hi guys, I'm bored and have some money coming in, but not really sure what to do to update my computer. So, I need some help. I'm currently running:

Asus P5B Deluxe (socket 775),
E6600 @ 2.8GHz,
PQi Turbo 2Gb (2x1Gb) DDR2 (PC2-5400),
Seagate 160Gb SATA 8mb cache + Samsung Spinpoint 1Tb SATA 32mb cache
Sapphire HD3870 Toxic Edition 512mb DDR4 PCI-e
Corsair HX620W PSU
Thermaltake Kandalf LCS Case
Plextor DVD-RW PX-760A

If I had about £300 to spend, what would you guys suggest (with a possability of another £300 in about 4 months time)?

Cheers guys, anything suggestions will be greatly appreciated! :cool:

Also, I'm looking to buy a new 32" tv to use as a monitor, what do I have to take into consideration with regards to resolution etc?
 
Whats the main uses for the PC?

Also over the 2 phases of the build are you looking to completely overhaul the rig or just the worst parts?
 
£300
Hmmm... I'd probably go AMD with the Phenom II (720e?) triple core black edition and AMD 3 MB coupled with 2GB DDR3 and a GTX260 if you can stretch to it
 
Its not nice to hear and im having to do this at the moment but maybe ride out your current rig until you have the £600 in 1 lump then go for a major overhaul.

I've been waiting for 2 months now for this reason
 
This is a respectable rig for £350

I dont know if that motherboard is capable of it but if you get lucky with a capable motherboard you can unlock the tri-core 720 to a quad core.

fapqi0.jpg
 
My suggestion would be to do the following things:

1) Get a cooler like this
2) Get 4GB (2x2GB kit) of RAM like this
3) Overclock the CPU to ~3.5Ghz (I had a quick read up on your mobo and it looks like it will be fine with this).
4) Get a nice fast graphics card. You could technically afford this beast, but something like this is still very fast and a bit cheaper.

Edit: As for a 32in TV as your monitor - make sure you get a good quality 1080p one. Usually TVs don't make very good monitors as they are massively bright, low resolution, have massive pixels, sizeable input lag (in many cases but not all) and use panels which are inferiour to PC monitors. However, if you plan on watching a lot of video and plan to game from a fair distance away, they they can be a good choice.
 
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I was initially thinking along those lines Cmndr_andi
I had a quick read up and see people hitting 3.4/3.5ghz

Something like
34ranw1.jpg
 
HybridX said:
I was initially thinking along those lines Cmndr_andi
I had a quick read up and see people hitting 3.4/3.5ghz

Something like
34ranw1.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks awesome, though I would suggest looking at the XFX version of the card, as the full 2 year warranty is direct through OCUK. So if you have any problems with it, you will get back a replacement faster than the sapphire version.

BTW, that RAM is great as is the cooler.
 
I'd just whack 4 gig of ram in there and a better graphics card, no need for a new motherboard and a total rebuild.
 
I did have an XFX HD4850 XXX Edition, but either it was a bad batch, or just a crap card, I kept getting sent broken ones, so I'm back with my old card anyways. Also, would I really need the cpu cooler, seeing as mine is already cooled by the case lcs?
 
gv_of_e said:
I did have an XFX HD4850 XXX Edition, but either it was a bad batch, or just a crap card, I kept getting sent broken ones, so I'm back with my old card anyways. Also, would I really need the cpu cooler, seeing as mine is already cooled by the case lcs?
Click to expand...

Its a shame about your problems with the 4850. Is it currently away for RMA or have you sent it back for a refund? Either way, an upgrade to a 5850 will be a huge upgrade and you could always sell your old cards and get some money back.

As for the cooling, I suggested the CPU cooler as I assumed that you topped out your overclock at 2.8GHz, but looking at reviews of that liquid cooled case I guess that may not be the situation. When you run an CPU stress test like OCCT, what maximum temperature do your CPU cores hit after 15 minutes of full load?
 
to be honest, I only went to 2.8 because i didnt have to muck around with voltages etc. too much. I've never overclocked before, so don't wanna risk blowing something in my computer.

edit: would it be more worth my while to overclock my cpu further and save my cash for when I have more? After using OCCT, it read 50 deg c as max for both... that any good?
 
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gv_of_e said:
what should i do next do you reckon?
Click to expand...

Keep going, 3.2GHz next :)

Ensure that you are inputting the Vcore voltage manually and its not set to AUTO, when its auto it generally uses far too much volts - which creates more heat.

Make sure you either vary the memory divider so that your RAM is running at or below stock frequency. Usually, I run the FSB synchronously with the RAM (on core 2 systems like yours) ie. both at 400MHz - but with your board that will be difficult so stick with the divider.

When you boot up after overclocking, run a stress test immediately (prime 95, orthos, occt). If it fails or crashes, then give the CPU some more volts. If it runs fine, then give it a bit less until it does crash. You can then give it a touch more, and if it runs stably then you have a reasonably optimised overclock. Rinse and repeat until you hit a speed you want to stick at.
 
If its just for a quick test after changing settings, I usually only run it for 15 minutes or so. When I get to an overclock I like, then I start doing a 6 hour+ stress test to make sure it is 100% solid and ready for day-to-day use.
 
cheers for the help, you've been great. Gonna give COD4 a go, just to make sure its ok at this level. I'm fairly certain its ok, but I dont wanna attempt anymore changes tonight, I'm too tired lol

edit: OK, I gave in and OC'd to 3.2ghz. No problems so far, not changed any settings other than the bus speed and the VCore is still at stock 1.39V... am I doing something wrong cos this seems too easy....
 
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