Give Me Future Advice!

Spacedeck · 25 Oct 2011 at 22:52

Ok, well my current rig is...

Type: Desktop
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
HD: 60gb SSD with 2x 1tb Discs for media.
Memory: 8gb DDR2
Motherboard: Asus P5Q
Graphics: Nvidia 9800 GTX + 1gb
CPU:Intel Q6600 (OC to 3.0)
Cooler:Arctic Freezer Pro
Power: Corsair VX 650W
Drive: LG Blu Ray and HD DVD drive
Case: Antec 300.

Ok now my question to you experts is.. what can I do with this? Ok I bought it for £500 of a mate ages ago now and it was 10x better then anything I've ever had before. Can I even possibly upgrade this? I am leaning towards "no" as the Mobo doesn't support DDR3, the case I don't think would fit a 560 ti and I think if I tried putting a new card in there it would just "kill" it.

So what can I do with this? Or should I start completely from scratch? My main reason for wanting to have a new system is BF3 as it will be a main game I would play. If it's the case of building new I'll have to start saving up then and if so how much would I need to save to get me a top spec machine capable of playing the best games no problem? I'd love to be able to buy all the top latest games but I never do as I never have anything good enough to run it

ETA: I game on my 32" TV so it would only be at 1080P anyway.

cmndr_andi · 25 Oct 2011 at 22:59

Hi there,

As you have indicated, the main part in your system which is limiting your performance is your graphics card.

Looking at your spec - specifically the 650W corsair PSU and Antec 300 case, you will be absolutely be fine with even a high-end single GPU card like a GTX 580, so a GTX 560 Ti would be no problem.

If you will mainly be playing BF3 then your 3GHz Q6600 should be fine, even when coupled with a much faster graphics card (looking at this test with the beta).

The GTX 560 Ti is a nice card, but personally I would suggest going for a HD 6950 2GB like this. It gives a bit more performance and has double the VRAM - which BF3 seems to eat up.

Spacedeck · 25 Oct 2011 at 23:16

So do you think I can still keep this current rig going for a while and also make a change to give me enough performance wise to cover playing latest games on high/maxed settings?

If this is the case then it would be good as I'm also trying to save for a motorbike :rolleyes:

Sometimes I think money grows on trees...

The actual 560 card I was looking at was this 560 Ti. this has the same amount of VRAM as the HD 6950 card you mentioned?

Is my motherboard a limiting factor when it comes to cards? Will it fit any good single card? If I can get away with just a new graphics card I would be ordering one on Friday once it's payday

so any help is greatly appreciated.

cmndr_andi · 25 Oct 2011 at 23:44

Your CPU is still actually pretty good - there are not many games out that require more than a 3GHz Core 2 Quad and BF3 doesn't seem to be among these. The techspot CPU performance scaling page I linked to above shows an AMD Athlon II X4 CPU (pretty much on-par with your Q6600) providing 48FPS in the battlefield 3 beta when using a GTX 580 graphics card. With the same settings and setup the modern top-end CPU the Sandy Bridge i5 2500K only produced 50FPS (2FPS more) which is most likely within the margin of error for the test. Therefore it can be concluded that for the Beta at least - with a modern quad core CPU the game is GPU limited - even with a top-end graphics card.

As for the motherboard, the P5Q is a P45 chipset board that uses PCI-E v2.0 - the same version used on modern sandy bridge boards and top-end graphics cards. The next generation (PCI-E v3.0) won't appear on graphics cards until next year. Therefore installing a modern top-end graphics card into the PCI-E v2.0 x16 slot on your P5Q motherboard will not limit it's performance.

As for the GTX 560 Ti you linked to - it looks like a decent card and worth going for. Comparing it directly to a HD 6950 2GB in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (a game that uses an earlier version of the Frostbite engine used in BF3) the performance of the two cards is pretty much even-stevens - however that MSI you linked to is overclocked to 880MHz on the core (from 822MHz stock) so you can expect slightly better performance with that particular GTX 560 Ti.

Spacedeck · 25 Oct 2011 at 23:59

cmndr_andi said:
As for the GTX 560 Ti you linked to - it looks like a decent card and worth going for. Comparing it directly to a HD 6950 2GB in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (a game that uses an earlier version of the Frostbite engine used in BF3) the performance of the two cards is pretty much even-stevens - however that MSI you linked to is overclocked to 880MHz on the core (from 822MHz stock) so you can expect slightly better performance with that particular GTX 560 Ti.

Thank you for all the help. I think on Friday I'll get one ordered so heres hoping the deal doesn't run out until Sunday

How confident are you that the Antec 300 case is big enough to fit such a card? Sorry for the question, I just don't want to buy it to then realise it isn't going to fit.

cmndr_andi · 26 Oct 2011 at 00:12

Unfortunately the "This Week Only" deals change on Wednesday morning - so the same deal won't be available on Friday (presumably it will go back up to £225).

As for the length - that MSI GTX 560 Ti card is 23.8cm long and the antec 300 case can accommodate a card up to 27.9cm - so plenty of room.

Spacedeck · 26 Oct 2011 at 00:29

cmndr_andi said:
Unfortunately the "This Week Only" deals change on Wednesday morning - so the same deal won't be available on Friday (presumably it will go back up to £225).

oh bummer! They should really change the name of that as saying This Week Only is a bit misleading if it changes on Wednesday.

Thanks for the checking everything for me, if you think the extra, money is worth buying the 560 I linked to then I'll pay that little extra.

Just one more thing, any chance you oranyone else could recommend a gaming keyboard / mouse as I've never had one

i am looking towards the Razer mouse's around the £40-£50 mark at the moment. Of course cheaper the better.

cmndr_andi · 26 Oct 2011 at 00:45

Spacedeck said:
Thanks for the checking everything for me, if you think the extra, money is worth buying the 560 I linked to then I'll pay that little extra.

Even with the original price - it's still a great deal. Since it's a nice performing graphics card, from a good brand, with a good cooler, a nice overclock and lots of RAM. It's also relatively short for such a powerful card - so ideal for your case (the HD 6950s - especially the nice ones - are rather long).

Spacedeck said:
Just one more thing, any chance you oranyone else could recommend a gaming keyboard / mouse as I've never had one i am looking towards the Razer mouse's around the £40-£50 mark at the moment. Of course cheaper the better.

For gaming mice - I swear by Logitech - they make some really well built, gamer focused mice and their warranty service is excellent should it ever break. With this in mind I would recommend this mouse - an evolution from the insanely popular MX518. The laser G500 is also supposed to be a nice mouse.

As for keyboard - i'm not a big expert in this area, but I hear the Microsoft Sidewinder X4 is a good keyboard at a nice price. If you budget is higher then the Logitech G110 is a great option.

Spacedeck · 29 Oct 2011 at 14:21

cmndr_andi said:
Even with the original price - it's still a great deal. Since it's a nice performing graphics card, from a good brand, with a good cooler, a nice overclock and lots of RAM. It's also relatively short for such a powerful card - so ideal for your case (the HD 6950s - especially the nice ones - are rather long).

For gaming mice - I swear by Logitech - they make some really well built, gamer focused mice and their warranty service is excellent should it ever break. With this in mind I would recommend this mouse - an evolution from the insanely popular MX518. The laser G500 is also supposed to be a nice mouse.

As for keyboard - i'm not a big expert in this area, but I hear the Microsoft Sidewinder X4 is a good keyboard at a nice price. If you budget is higher then the Logitech G110 is a great option.

Can I please have some people elaborate more on this subject for me please?

I am going for the G400 mouse as it's supposed to be real good and it's on sale at the moment

Can somebody reccomend me a good keyboard? That G110 looks pretty good but any others to consider and anyone who has used the G110 really like it?

Also can someone recomend a gaming mouse mat for me please. I think I've worked it out as having around 700mm by 500mm if my workings are correct. So a good mouse mat which is good for the G400 would be good.

Regarding the graphics card I have a 560 Ti 2Gb Phantom on the way.

I'm looking at ordering today.