New member... Hi... Upgrade??

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Newark Notts
Hi folks, i'm new though been lurking for awhile, just wanted to let fans wars finish or atleast die down before i joined.
pc

My pc specs at the mo are q9450 @ 3.2, xfx 790i ultra, xfx gtx260xt, cxx diablo 4gb @ 1600, 1tb f3, cm690, northq 850w. I'm trying to make my mind up if its worth upgrading to an i5? Or spending my money on going dx11?

pc


mypc.jpg
 
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Perhaps if you told us your budget, what you have in mind for your rig, (gaming, video production etc etc), and what initial ideas you may have had, then we might be able to help you better. :)
 
His snaggster,


First of all, the q9450 is a very capable chip itself, so unless you plan on doing some heavy multitasking and/or encoding I personally wouldn't bother. Also, don't forget that the q9450 is a socket 775 chip, while the i5 series is 1156 - which would mean buying a new mobo as well as a new processor.

However, I would definitely consider upgrading do a dx11 card - a 5850 if you just want some sweet gaming performance. It depends really; let us know what you do with your pc and your budget and we can help out a lot more. :)
 
My budget is about £300, With that i could get an i5 and ud5 mobo, but not sue if ram will work in a p55 as its 1.9v csx diablo 2000. I did have a look on there web site and it will run @ 1.6v.
I manly use my pc for gaming so it would make more sence to go for a new gpu, as my260 is starting to show its age (metro!!!). Or do i go ssd? Or save and wait for new 32nm i7's. Thanks for the replys gents.

Ow yer any idea why my pics not showing?
 
That's quite a few questions, so I'll try to answer them one by one;


If your budget is about £300, I would spend that on a new graphics card first of all. The q9460 should still be able to handle dx11 graphics even with most of the effects turned on (wave ripples, light shafts etc), so I would definitely invest in a new card. The sapphire 5870 is going for just over £300 on this site, so if you're prepared to blow your budget on a new card, then that's the one to go for.

Secondly, I'm afraid your RAM will not work with a p55 board, as the board specifications only allow RAM to run up to 1.65V due to the P55s have a memory controller built into the CPU. The good news being that RAM is a fairly unnoticeable upgrade to a desktop anyway, (unless its a major upgrade) so you only need an extra hundred bucks or so for a decent dual channel kit.

Thirdly, SSD technology is still extremely expensive for the average consumer (think; £350 for a 160GB X-25M), and the Samsung f3 is a speedy runner anyway.

Fourthly(?), 32nm i7s are not due until 3/4th quarter of this year (with the exception being the six-cored 980x), and by the time you've waited until then, you might as well look into their Sandy Bridge series ( which is apparently targeted at a more mainstream audience ). Until then, I'm afraid the cost of purchasing an i7 is still ridiculously high, as you'll often need a new motherboard/RAM/heatsink to go with it.


And last, I'm not 100% sure. Did you hotlink (copy and paste) the link in the text box?

Hope I helped. :)
 
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Thanks Ayjay.. looks like a new gpu then. If i go for a 5870 with a bit of luck it will last well into my next build..

And no i did'nt unclick the circle (spot the NooB) Thanks mate.
 
No worries dude. The 5870 should definitely keep you going for at least a couple of years. And the can always crossfire 'em thanks to your beefy PSU.

Best of luck!
 
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