Looking to upgrade

calebhatch

calebhatch

calebhatch

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Joined
4 Feb 2010
Posts
10
Hi all,

Wondering if peeps could give me some upgrade advice?

I currently have a Q9550 (asus P5Q mb) and a 9800 gtx+ 1gb (PCI-E) and want to upgrade but I am unsure as to what would give me a noticible increase, I only ever play WoW and I am aiming for something like 70fps during 25m raids.

Overclockers themselves told me to go for a Titan Proton (i3) with 5850 gpu but I was wondering if there are any better options (i.e. their overclocked bundles & a 5850?).

My current setup is all stock if that makes a difference :)

Many thanks in advance
 
Why would you want to chose a Core i3 over a Q9550??

A Core i3 is a dual core with HT and the Q9550 is a quad core!!

Look at this comparison of a Core i5 661(basically an overclocked Core i3 530) and a Q9550:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=50&p2=117&c=1

Even with a 500MHZ clockspeed advantage the Core i5 661 is slower in games.

I would overclock your Q9550.

Also maybe getting an HD5850 1GB will help with framerates as it is faster than a GTX285 AFAIK.

Of course if you are using an old hard disk an upgrade to a newer on like a Samsung F3 or a Western Digital Caviar Black or an SSD may also be useful.

If you have less than 4GB of RAM perhap you need to add some more RAM and of course I assume you have a decent PSU too.
 
If you are comfortable and confident in doing so, then as Cat said I would advise you to overclock your CPU as it has potential for some pretty big gains :)

A worthwhile monetary investment would definitely be a new graphics card, perhaps a single 5850, two 5770s in Crossfire if your motherboard supports it or even two 5850s - that setup should pretty much dominate most games out there ;)
 
I am not very good with overclocking stuff myself but like the idea of keeping my current cpu as it cost me a small fortune when I bought it in 2008.

The mb I have doesn't support twin gcards so that is something I will definately be replacing. Any suggestions on a mb to suit? and advice on RAM to suit that too ^^

I do have 4gb ram currently but no idea what model they are (at work atm)

My PSU is a Corsair 650w but again, if that won't be up to the job I am happy to replace
 
calebhatch said:
I am not very good with overclocking stuff myself but like the idea of keeping my current cpu as it cost me a small fortune when I bought it in 2008.

The mb I have doesn't support twin gcards so that is something I will definately be replacing. Any suggestions on a mb to suit? and advice on RAM to suit that too ^^

I do have 4gb ram currently but no idea what model they are (at work atm)

My PSU is a Corsair 650w but again, if that won't be up to the job I am happy to replace
Click to expand...

I would get an HD5850 1GB as long as you don't pay more than £230 for one.

An HD5850 1GB is faster than a GTX285 according to this review:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/30/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_review
 
If all you want is to be able to run WOW at 70 fps go with CAT's suggestion.

keep everything and just change the GPU to a 5850 1GB. Everything you have now will support this one change. :)
 
TBH,I would just get an HD5850 1GB and perhaps the cooler. Save the rest of you money for a new build in the next one to two years if it is required. The Asus P5Q is an iP45 based motherboard so it should be fine.
 
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