Upgrade Advice Please!!

Gadgetguy007

Gadgetguy007

Gadgetguy007

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Joined
19 Apr 2003
Posts
110
Location
Milton Keynes
Hi,

Am running the following and think its about time to upgrade my system so after some help and ideas please.

Normally use the X-Box for gaming now but would still be partial to the odd game on the PC if i feel like it but mainly now use it for photo and video editing and finding it a little bit slow nowdays and it seems to struggle with the odd game of Crisis or Unreal,current specs are as follows;

Intel core 2 Quad LGA775 Q6600 GO SLACR 2.40GHz
Abit IP35 Pro XE Motherboard
4GB Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400C5 DDR2
Hiper 680W HPU-5K680 SLi ATX 2.2
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
LG Flatron L203WT Monitor

Have a budget at the moment of £500.00 to spend on the main components and would be looking to upgrade the monitor to 24 inch with a faster responce time in the future but at the moment would like some ideas on processor,motherboard and RAM as a starting point or should i also be looking at putting a new graphics card in to start with aswell?

Many Thanks for any help and advice you can give as have lost track of the Intel processors and the performance they will give compared to the Q6600.
 
If you feel like it, you could upgrade to the new sandybridge cpu/mobos, and I think with 500 quid you could easily upgrade all 4 of the components you specified:

OcUK Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard £301.98

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £159.98

G.Skill RipJawX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL) £41.99

Sub Total : £419.96
Shipping : £9.50
VAT : £85.89
Total :£515.35

Sorry its a bit over, but you could always swap out the 460 for a 768 mb or an ATI substitute, and if you don't plan on overclocking switch to an i5 2400. Also, if you're worried about the asus motherboards you can swap it out for a gigabyte or msi one.
 
Giiven your main uses now are photo and video editing then as powerful a CPU as possible and 8 gig of RAM would be most beneficial

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Lost Planet 2 PC Game - Retail £274.99
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £139.98
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £97.99
Total : £512.96

The 4870 whilst starting to show its age still isnt that bad a card, especially for a 20" monitor, I'd leave this til you do your monitor and get main bits now
 
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I would save yourself a few quid. Spend £45 on a decent cpu cooler and overclock the Q6600 right up. It certainly won't slack in games if coupled with a new GPU.

Picking a Graphics card is a personal preference. Stick to something like a 6950 and you can't go wrong.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-027-HS

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-026-CM

There you go. Less than £300. You will have yourself a cracking gaming rig.

The rest of your system is fine. As you can see in my sig I am running on a [email protected] coupled with a 6970. I am getting excellent frames in the latest intensive games.

If you did wan't to upgrade the mobo, cpu and ram then it would cost you a bit more than £500 if you wanted a good gpu like the 6950. Unless you stuck with one of the lower end sandy bridges on an H67 chipset board that doesn't allow overclocking.
 

I'm well aware of his original post. However I was trying to keep well within budget and give different options, rather than flying in with the obvious "Buy a sandybridge, they're great"

He mentioned, he was struggling to play crysis and unreal, he was obviously planning on playing more games on the pc if he was upgrading. He never mentioned it was getting slow and struggling to run adobe premiere.

a [email protected] would vastly improve his video and photo editing, as I do this on a daily basis with mine. It would also give him the option to get a nice card to play all games maxed out, plus 200 quid in the back pocket.

If he had to go for the sandybridge and wanted to play games, he would need to spend somewhere around £750 for the mobo, cpu, ram and a decent gpu like the 6950, which of course is way out of budget :)
 
Thanks guys for the advice, like the look and idea behind the I7 as will be able to save and get a new GFX card and monitor in a few months time once the bike racing season starts and I can earn some extra cash with my camera.

Some very intresting info in your links 95thrifles and a very good system guide in your sig. Thankyou.
 
95thrifles said:
I hardly think using Crysis as justification to upgrade gfx is relevant, Crysis cripples most gfx, plus he's only running a 20" monitor so a 6950 would be overkill for 99% of games (bar the likes of crysis etc)

Crysis Warhead gfx comparison

Conversely an i7 2600k paired with 8 gig of RAM would make massive differences to his main uses

CPU comparison
Click to expand...

Gadgetguy007 said:
Hi,

would be looking to upgrade the monitor to 24 inch with a faster responce time in the future
Click to expand...
 
It all depends what he values more... £400 or waiting a little longer for something to render.

That comparison is based against a stock Q6600. The whole point of my suggestion was for it to be overclocked. Obviously the I7 still beats it.

Like I said, for him to get all decent components is way out of budget. I was only offering another alternative to the OP.

I'm quite sure he will make his own mind up on the matter. I'd rather not debate an aimless topic any more. Your knowledge I'm sure far exceeds mine and he should go with what you said :)
 
You have all made very valid points and recomendations that i will take on in my choice of upgrade paths.

Im a semi pro motorsport photographer so i take anywhere up to 2000 images in a weekend when at an event and need the processing power more at the moment than the gaming side so will be looking at the processor,board and RAM first to save me sitting for hours waiting for lightroom to do its stuff.

The money i earn through my photography finances my hobbies so will then in the future look at the graphics card and monitor to add to the package.

Thanks very much to all that have posted its given me some good ideas of components to look at in my upgrade path over the next few months.

One last question,does the Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor come with a stock cooler and if not any recomendations for one?
I have no intentions of overclocking in the near future and would run as stock and will then have a play with the Q6600 in another build.
 
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Gadgetguy007 said:
You have all made very valid points and recomendations that i will take on in my choice of upgrade paths.

Im a semi pro motorsport photographer so i take anywhere up to 2000 images in a weekend when at an event and need the processing power more at the moment than the gaming side so will be looking at the processor,board and RAM first to save me sitting for hours waiting for lightroom to do its stuff.

The money i earn through my photography finances my hobbies so will then in the future look at the graphics card and monitor to add to the package.

Thanks very much to all that have posted its given me some good ideas of components to look at in my upgrade path over the next few months.

One last question,does the Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor come with a stock cooler and if not any recomendations for one?
I have no intentions of overclocking in the near future and would run as stock and will then have a play with the Q6600 in another build.
Click to expand...

It does indeed come with a stock cooler. Personally though I always use an aftermarket one, even when not overclocking as the stock Intel ones are a bit rubbish to say the least. They will do the job however and is not essential to buy another.
 
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