Rig upgrade advice

JoyPadJedi

JoyPadJedi

JoyPadJedi

Associate
Joined
8 Jan 2006
Posts
340
Location
Leicestershire
I built my current PC in March last year and it was quite a beast:

AMD X2 4400 (939)
Corsair 2GB 3500LL
ASUS A8N32 Deluxe
BFG GeForce 7900GTX OC
WD Raptors RAID0
Tagan 580W PSU
Lian Li PC-7+

What, if anything, would you suggest tweaking or upgrading for its first birthday? I seem to find the processor holding the system back sometimes, even clocked to 2.6. 2.7 improves this slightly but it's not stable.

Main games I will be playing are C&C:TW, Shadow of Chernobyl, HL Ep 2 and Crysis.

Detailed specs in sig. No budget really, as long as whatever I do is worth the money and makes sense! Any advice greatly received!
 
Well you could get a Gigabyte DS3/DS4 or maybe an Asus 650 board and pair it with an E4300/6300/6400. for RAM, id look at the Geil low latancey kit.

Shouldnt cost too much after youve sold your current cpu/ram/mobo :)
 
Hi thanks for that. I fully expected to be recommended an Intel solution, and rest assured it WILL be a consideration!

Firstly, this is potentially what I'll be upgrading to in a few months and as you will see there is a fork in the road:

- Single 74GB Raptor to replace the 2x36GB RAID0 array I currently have
- BFG 1kw PSU (or similar - some would say overkill, but it will hopefully be enough for a long while)

AMD route:
MB: CROSSHAIR mainboard
CPU: FX62 (based on current pricing, so this will probably change)
RAM: Unsure - can anyone suggest a good XHAIR-compatible kit?

Intel route:
MB: Totally baffled! 975X difference = Xfire support? :confused:
CPU: Conroe-based, not Extreme edition they are much too expensive
RAM: As recommended I'll look at the GeIL LL kits

I'd appreciate comments/recommendations on all this, specifically:

Ditching the RAID0
CROSSHAIR MB views/experiences
AMD vs Intel ;)

When I upgrade to Vista near the end of the year, I will also be changing to a DX10 graphics card. Cheers all and feel free to tell me to search the forums :D
 
Last edited:
Hmm... someone with a similar system as me, if not - slightly better.

My current system was a beast in its time, back in January 2006. But it's still going fine for me. If anything, it might be worth waiting until April or so, from what I've read - Intel will be slashing prices of their Core2s and introducing some more mid-range chips for a much lower price tag.

I'm pretty sure I'll be upgrading mine soon whether it is in April or Christmas I'm not sure, but I'll definitely be putting Vista on it. :) But this time, I'm going to watch my budget and only upgrade what I need to rather than for the sake of it. :p
 
JoyPadJedi said:
I built my current PC in March last year and it was quite a beast:

AMD X2 4400 (939)
Corsair 2GB 3500LL
ASUS A8N32 Deluxe
BFG GeForce 7900GTX OC
WD Raptors RAID0
Tagan 580W PSU
Lian Li PC-7+

What, if anything, would you suggest tweaking or upgrading for its first birthday? I seem to find the processor holding the system back sometimes, even clocked to 2.6. 2.7 improves this slightly but it's not stable.

Main games I will be playing are C&C:TW, Shadow of Chernobyl, HL Ep 2 and Crysis.

Detailed specs in sig. No budget really, as long as whatever I do is worth the money and makes sense! Any advice greatly received!
Click to expand...

TBH your current PC is pretty good. My advice would be to save some more money then build a C2D/DX10 system from scratch later in the year. You could then get a decent price for your current rig, too.
 
TBH your current PC is pretty good.
Click to expand...
:cool: lol cheers

Think I may as well resign to the fact that it won't be a simple 'upgrade'. At least I have the foundations such as case/monitor/drives/peripherals.

Will likely dig up this thread in 2-4 months.
 
Or a few weeks... :)

Take a look at this spec pour moi:

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler (478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA755)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
AcoustiPack Deluxe v2 Acoustic Material Kit

Thoughts?

All this will be going in my existing Lian-Li PC-7+ case, unless anyone can think of a reason why not?

I'm also considering ditching 2x36GB Raptors in RAID0 that I currently have to free up space and reduce the noise, and using my existing WD Caviar 250GB as my main apps drive - do I see nods of agreement, or will I really notice the slower performance?

With this new setup I want cool, but also quiet. I've specced the Sythe to hopefully start me on my way to this, but there's also the case fans to consider, which are currently the 2x120mm stock ones. Any suggestions on replacements for them?

Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom