Best time to upgrade now?

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Hi there. Time to upgrade the trusty 2700 XP to make a machine that'll run Vista properly.

Intel Core 2 DUO LGA775 E6600 2.40GHz Retail / Asus P5B Deluxe / 2GB GeIL PC2-6400C4 DDR2 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

Would anyone change anything from the OcUK bundle - or is the Asus GeIL and E6600 bundle quite a good option? Its not completely essential to upgrade now, but Im thinking sometime between now and the next few months I suppose. Is it worth watiing a while longer or is the E6600 and P5b at quite a good price for its performance as it stands?

Also going to be needing a new graphics cards. What do people reccommend. Rarely play games but I sometimes dabble here and there, but 2D and movie quality are of importance.


Cheers :D
 
The bundle looks good, the HDDs though are IMO not worth it, a pair of Seagates/WDs could beat one Raptor.

If your not doing major gaming a cheap 8800GTS or 7600GT should be fine.
 
Will_3rd said:
If your not doing major gaming a cheap 8800GTS or 7600GT should be fine.
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thats a massive jump in price between the two if not major gaming. I believe the only choice should be 7600gt if not major gaming.
 
mattpj said:
thats a massive jump in price between the two if not major gaming. I believe the only choice should be 7600gt if not major gaming.
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pssshh they guy might of wanted a DX10 card, you never know ;)
 
Have to say I haven't really been reading around much for the past few years so pretty much clueless to new stuff.

With respect to the hard drives I dont really want to get into having to RAID them together. Am I right in thinking that having a 10k HDD for a Windows drive would offer some advantages over 7.2k?


So for a graphics card I know Leadtek were pretty good build quality a while back - does that sill stand? e.g. Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SILENT Heatpipe GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express).

Not wishing to go for the while ATi vs Nvidia debate but is this worth the extra £40 over the Leadtek: Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ULTIMATE SILENT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express). Are Sapphire of good quality compared to Leadtek?


Cheers :)
 
aMb said:
With respect to the hard drives I don't really want to get into having to RAID them together. Am I right in thinking that having a 10k HDD for a Windows drive would offer some advantages over 7.2k?
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A 10k drive will boot windows quicker and load maps on games quickly.

aMb said:
So for a graphics card I know Leadtek were pretty good build quality a while back - does that sill stand? e.g. Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SILENT Heatpipe GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express).
Click to expand...

BFG is my personal choice (lifetime warranty), have no experience with Leadtek myself.

aMb said:
Not wishing to go for the while ATi vs Nvidia debate but is this worth the extra £40 over the Leadtek: Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ULTIMATE SILENT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express). Are Sapphire of good quality compared to Leadtek?
Click to expand...

The X1950 is a very good GPU, people usually buy Sapphire or HIS when it comes to ATI cards.
 
If you're not gaming, go for the BFG 7600GT

Raptors are seriously not worth it. The price : performance increase ratio is ridiculous. Any decent 7200RPM drve with 16MB cache will be more than fine.
 
Only the sellers will decide and knowing them they might not pass on the
cuts for a while maybe end of may even.I just know there's a price cut in april
by how much is'nt too clear as of yet.
 
I was also looking at upgrading to a similar spec as yourself and have decided to wait after hearing murmurings of a Core 2 Duo price drop, hoping it will happen in May.

Regarding the 7600, although it is a good card wont it be hindered by its lack of DX10 compatibility? Granted for now its not much of an issue but in the near future wont it cause problems even for someone who only plays games occasionally?
 
Surely the lack of DX10 compatability just means it wont be able to show some extra "effects" in a game? Could someone perhaps clarify this?

Some comments about waiting until May seem tempting, but it depends on what sort of offerings are going to be about? Around £200 seems very reasonable right now for the performance of the E6600, but what do people see happening in a couple of months time? Would the Quad cores become a more accessible price or would the E/X6800 be avaliable at E6600 money? I'm not sure its even worth cosnidering a Quad core? :confused:


Edit, for anyone thats interested

One of the most remarkable cut, Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40 GHz/4MB L2 x 2/1066MHz FSB), which has been launched on Jan 7, is planned to be cut from $851 to $530, a 37.7% off. Meanwhile, Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66 GHz/4MB L2/1066MHz FSB) and E6600 (2.4 GHz/4MB L2/1066MHz FSB) is planned to cut from $530 and $316 to $316 and $224 respectively, a 40.3% and a 29.1% off.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
aMb said:
Edit, for anyone thats interested
Quote:
One of the most remarkable cut, Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40 GHz/4MB L2 x 2/1066MHz FSB), which has been launched on Jan 7, is planned to be cut from $851 to $530, a 37.7% off. Meanwhile, Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66 GHz/4MB L2/1066MHz FSB) and E6600 (2.4 GHz/4MB L2/1066MHz FSB) is planned to cut from $530 and $316 to $316 and $224 respectively, a 40.3% and a 29.1% off.
Click to expand...
Where did you get those details from?
 
Cool cheers.

I'm interested in opinions regarding DX10 cards as well actually. Like you said is it likely to just be a case that they run the game but with less effects or will it eventually be the case that some games are DX10 only?
 
Unfortunately there seems hardly ever to be a 'best time' to upgrade. You could wait for x,y and z sure... but then you run the risk of sitting on the fence for ever.

You have to take the plunge sooner or later - now is as good a time as any I reckon.

The only thing I will say is avoid 'dead end' technology if you can. I got burnt buying an AGP board just as PCIe came out. Upgrading needed a new mobo and ram as well as cpu and gfx. If you can stretch to a DX10 gfx card now - it'll save having a 'dead' component later.
 
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