Gaming system upgrade - Advice appreciated.

Triamp9

Triamp9

Triamp9

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18 Sep 2008
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107
Location
Newark UK
Hi all, my first post and I'm hoping for some help with choosing components for upgrading my system which is used almost entirely for gaming. I realise this sort of post is very common on these forums so apologies in advance.

I'm currently running an E6600 Conroe on an Asus P5B M/B with 2g Geil PC6400 ram, Hitachi deskstar 160GB hard drive, BFG 8800 GTX gpu. OS is XP home. I have a Jeantech 700W modular power supply which seems to have a reasonable spec. I'm happy with my Samsung 22" monitor which I like to run at 1680x1050 res. This system just gets by on modern games (Stalker, Opposing fronts, Crysis etc) with details lowered to a certain extent but like most of us I'm looking for more immersion with higher detail and frame rates.

My budget is around £500 or a little more if needs be. I'm hoping to get a significant performance boost over the above if possible for my money. I haven't been much of an overclocker in the past but I'm keen to have a go, hopefully without frying any components!

I've spent some time on these forums and reading reviews on various CPU's and Motherboards etc and came up with some ideas for the new rig:-

CPU = Core 2 duo E8500 or Q6600 quad. (I realise this choice is a can of worms ready to be opened !!!)

M/B = Asus P5Q deluxe or Overclockers have some 'B grade' Asus Rampage formula for £99 + VAT. Can anyone define 'B grade' for me?

RAM = Geil 8 gig PC6400 800mhz DDR2 (£96.34 inc. vat.)

Hard drive = Seagate Barracuda 500GB Sata II.

Case = Akasa Mirage 62 case.

CPU Cooler = Arctic Freezer 7 pro.

OS = Vista Home Premium 64 bit.

I thought it might be worth sticking with the 8800 GTX for a while. I'm not sure if any of the current crop of high end cards (Nvidia or ATI) would justify the £ outlay regards performance over the 8800 GTX, and replacing this would take me well over my budget at the moment.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

T9.
 
The best advice i think i can give you is to keep a hold of your money and dont buy anything for your pc.

For gaming the E8500 or Q6600 wont offer you anything the E6600 cant allready (which also means no need to change motherboard or ram, except perhaps doubling your current ram if you wanted).

I would only bother with the E8500 (& overclocking it) if you also purchased the 4870X2.
 
i echo aces' post to be honest

Triamp9 said:
CPU = Core 2 duo E8500 or Q6600 quad

would show no improvements in gaming especially
i moved from an e6300 to my quad and only got a very very small increase in all benchmarks i tried. for gaming a quad is a waste and you will be fine on your current cpu


M/B = Asus P5Q deluxe or Overclockers have some 'B grade' Asus Rampage formula for £99 + VAT. Can anyone define 'B grade' for me?


bgrade is normally what they get sent back - its new or has been defaced in some way normally - for example a motherboard may have a damaged box or be missing some cables - either way the main product will work - but i think you are fine on what you have


RAM = Geil 8 gig PC6400 800mhz DDR2 (£96.34 inc. vat.)

8gig is a waste - i never get close to using all 4gig of my ram even when encoding/editing video - why not try some faster ram if you have to... go for something like this
it would allow for better overclocking of your current processor and 2X2gb sticks in dual channel will work better than having all ram slots full

Hard drive = Seagate Barracuda 500GB Sata II.

thats your call if you need it - but the samsung f1 range is considered the best bang/buck atm - especially the 640GB model as it has very close performance levels to the WD Raptor

Case = Akasa Mirage 62 case.

case is personal preference - the akasa eclipse offers a lot of upgrade paths for watercooling etc - im a Lian-Li guy though :p

CPU Cooler = Arctic Freezer 7 pro.

if you are currently using the stock cooler - then perhaps this would be a good buy - if you want top end and plan to overclock your current chip [which is what i would do] then i suggest the tuniq tower

OS = Vista Home Premium 64 bit.


this is an excellent choice


I thought it might be worth sticking with the 8800 GTX for a while. I'm not sure if any of the current crop of high end cards (Nvidia or ATI) would justify the £ outlay regards performance over the 8800 GTX, and replacing this would take me well over my budget at the moment.


iwould personally stick with your gtx - there is nothing that wont play on it at good settings
wait a bit but dont consider anything less than a 4870 if you do upgrade
Click to expand...
 
I'd get a cpu cooler (assuming you're on the stock one) and overclock your chip, and buy a new graphics card.


B grade varies by item, it's best to call them.
 
Personally I would keep what you have. Maybe upgrade the GTX and get a new screen but even then it won't really be a spectacular upgrade.

Advice=Keep your cash and hold on a bit longer :)
 
Many thanks for your replies guys. Looks like you've saved me some cash!!

I am currently on the stock cooler and my attempts to overclock on my current set up have been, well, 'pathetic' to say the least!

I'll take your advice and stick with my current CPU and M/B but go for the Tuniq tower, an Akasa case, Vista 64, the faster memory you've suggested, and take a look at the ATI top of the range graphic cards. Once I've completed the upgrades I'll attempt to get my head around some serious overclocking.

Thanks again all, much appreciated, :)

T9.
 
Upgrading the graphics is the best way to get more frames and details, something like a 280 GTX or 4870X2 will increase your frames at that resolution by quite a noticable amount aswell as letting you max out all the in game settings

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-280-review-test/18 the GTX280, 9800GX2 and ATI X2 (old version) show solid improvements over the 9800GTX even at lower resolutions on games like stalker, you'l certainly get noticable FPS improvements with a card upgrade so if thats what you want i'd go for it
 
Triamp9 said:
Many thanks for your replies guys. Looks like you've saved me some cash!!

I am currently on the stock cooler and my attempts to overclock on my current set up have been, well, 'pathetic' to say the least!

I'll take your advice and stick with my current CPU and M/B but go for the Tuniq tower, an Akasa case, Vista 64, the faster memory you've suggested, and take a look at the ATI top of the range graphic cards. Once I've completed the upgrades I'll attempt to get my head around some serious overclocking.

Thanks again all, much appreciated, :)

T9.
Click to expand...

You do not need faster ram. PC2 6400 will get you to 3.6Ghz while still running 1:1. I would just stick with everything you have now (maybe a new card) and get the cooler and clock it. Any money spent now (apart from graphics cards) will be wasted as the next upgrade will be to Nehalem which is a new socket and DDR3 ram.
 
you would notice a difference with a new build
Including the cpu as i have e6600(3.15GHz) 8800gtx
built 2 pcs with e8400 8800gtx
and both of them have an big fps on all games we play

but i would wait for a new system as the i7 cpus are very close and would be much better than current C2Ds
 
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