Salvage the CPU maybe?

Kellogz · 26 Feb 2010 at 15:23

I got a pc from another company 2 years ago and tbh its done me great well.. it did, paid about £300 for it on a refurbished deal. Here's its specs:

Ram: 3072
CPU: Q6600 @ 2.4ghz
MB: Unknown manufacture :cool:

PSU: 450W
GFX: ATI Radeon 4850 1gb [Did not come with it origonaly]
Extras: DVDRW drive, Floppy drive
Case: Black plastic thing
HDD: 260gb

Well im looking to make an upgrade and ive been looking for something noticeable But i believe the mobo is faulty as i have had problem since just before christmas a lot with this, the HDD too and possibly the ram. you would not believe the trouble i had getting it to even work sometimes. saying all that its done me well but i had been persuing since christmas to replace the whole damn lot as i was so fed up with it and i want better quality parts anyways. But im looking at stuff i want and thinking, hmmm how can i get all that for this much :confused:

I remember a lot of people advising me to maybe salvage and OC the Q6600 and it will do the job so theres pennys saved there! Also the DVDRW drive can be salvaged also! yay more pennys! so ive been giving it ago thinking what i need and this is what i have so far.

My problem is this! Ive never OC in my life and have no clue but i was reassured that people will help here so i reckon i can give it a go. Im fine with putting pcs together and all that just OC always sounded "Scary" to me. So im going to give it a go! But saying that i dont have a clue what i need to OC, really. Ive got this below together so far but im trying to work out:

1. Am i missing anything?
2. Which mobo and ram to use to make my OC easy.
3. Will what ive chosen so far do well?
4. Will and OC q6600 work well or should i just get a phenom 955?

i have £200 to spend left on mobo and ram and anything else i need.

stulid · 26 Feb 2010 at 15:37

I would just go with what you have listed.

Then in a year or two get new CPU, motherboard and ram.

Kellogz · 26 Feb 2010 at 15:45

stulid said:
I would just go with what you have listed.

Then in a year or two get new CPU, motherboard and ram.

Thanks for the confirm

ok cool still need to know which mobo and ram to get though with the £200 left

also whats the talk on 2x5770 vs 5850? i wont be running anything larger than 1440x900 is the argument simply that the two cards only slightly outperform the 5850 in crossfire, but will be more £s if wanting to upgrade later on?

Redmint · 26 Feb 2010 at 15:56

You say you've got "Ram: 3072" could you be a bit more specific with RAM speed and how much you're looking to upgrade to? Personally I'd go for the single 5850 for the reason that you stated.

It's easier to suggest a motherboard once we know how much RAM you're planning to use and if you want crossfire.

-edit-

Okay guess I need to read more carefully, you think the RAM is faulty too. I assume you're planning to go for 4GB RAM though?

Kellogz · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:01

looking to get 4gb ram perhaps more depending how much the mobo will cost and if i have the extra from that to spend but 4gb would do me fine. I dunno how to tell you what my rams running at its the cheap stuff pc world put into it so i dont know where to look. and yes in future possibly gain another 5850 and xfire. Also too add i have windows 7 ultimate 64bit edition already before that question is asked if i can support it

Diggsy · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:06

To be honest, spending that amount on outdated tech seems a little crazy to me.

You have a budget of £700, and if you sell the spare parts (Q6600 + 4850) you could boost that budget to £850.

For that I would consider buying the following...

...now obviously I have added in the Corsair H50 which has is about £35 more than the Fenrir, but its a much better cooler to be fair. Oh and the PSU I have chosen is a Corsair modular. Will make cable tidying much easy, its a lot quieter than the OCZ, and an all round better PSU.

bJN · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:11

I wouldn't go with the HD 5850 Toxic Edition simply because you're paying a lot more for next-to-no difference. Save the money and get a normal HD5850, preferably either a Sapphire or ASUS model.

Secondly, if you're only running on 1440x900 res like me, I doubt you would need anything more than a HD5770 unless you intend on running say Crysis on full whack, my 9800GT is a fair bit behind these new cards and still handles every single game I've thrown at it on this res.

Also, with regards to the Hard Drive you've chosen, I would advise against the EcoGreen model unless your aim was to save electricity and lower noise, but it would be "better" (in terms of loading times etc) to get the normal version.

If all you intend to do is salvage the CPU then I would suggest getting this motherboard and this RAM. If you are going to salvage the RAM as well, I'm guessing it will be DDR2 so I would suggest this motherboard.

Hope it helps

Redmint · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:14

Think I agree with bJN's suggestion if you really do want to stick with the Q6600, it's a solid motherboard and shouldn't be too tricky for a first time overclocker.

Kellogz · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:19

Nice option there Diggsy problem is order has to be made in the next day and wont have time to sell the old stuff, complicated to explain all the details but £700 is the what i can spend even if i sold the stuff next week.

Also still be intrested to see any recommendations still on a mobo and ram

or even tweak it too get a CPU in but i wanted that certain case and GFX card. very tight to get into my budget which is wondering if salvaging the CPU and OC was my best option.

Another question though is if i wanted to upgrade my CPU say in a year+ or so would that mean a new board for the new CPU? i understand intel and amd are different sockets and that certain chips within them are also different. This could perhaps make me lead to not getting a xfire mobo as i would prob upgrade the CPU and GFX at the same time.

ive been looking at that board BJN all day myself so perhaps thats the one to get. And that ram appeals to me visualy but i heard some bad reviews about it or is that just rumors? as for the GFX i play mmos, that require fast loading of 200+ people in one area at times, and my current card chokes at those times, with 20-30 people about no problem 70-90 FPS 200-300 people fighting and spells shootign everywhere you see it drop to 9 FPS, thank god theres a shortcut to remove players around you or would be unplayable. Im talking about Aion also which will not use DX11 ever but i am lookign to play future games like BF2 BC.

panta · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:27

What's your current list Kellogz?

Sell the Q6600 and 4850 on eBay and add the return to your budget.

bJN · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:36

Right then I've just come up with this spec below. If you need to order it today / tomorrow then it's fine I'm pretty sure most stuff would be in stock, perhaps not the graphics card but you would get one when they next come in. The total comes in just under the £700 limit but add shipping costs on to it will make it around £710?

If you do go with this spec, keep hold of all your current components (i.e. use the 4850 for now until the graphics card arrives if it is out of stock) and then sell them all to recover some of the costs later down the line

/thread?

Fledge · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:37

Fun fact:

2x 4850 in crossfire = >5850
+ OC'd Q6600 = win

bJN · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:41

Fledge said:
Fun fact:

2x 4850 in crossfire = >5850
+ OC'd Q6600 = win

Not true, if the 4850s only have 512mb vRAM you aren't going to beat a 5850 in any world scenario, regardless of whether they're in Crossfire as it will still only use the 512. Also, no DX11 support, and as the OP said he is going to be playing things like BFBC2 so DX11 features would be a big plus to him. And also, Crossfiring ANY card will result in lower minimum FPS than a single card solution.

Not just that it's old-tech, although I would agree that it is probably the better way to go, especially as the Q6600 still holds its own very well today.

Kellogz · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:45

ok so tiding up this is kinda what my options are so far. Cant sell the cpu and card in time for the order so thats a no go, like said before complicated to explain why but heh. As for the GFX over the XFX i asked this on the GFX section they said the extra £6 for the pre overclocked version. Please tell me if this is false though.

Option 1. Salavage the CPU and get the following:

Option 2. Get this:

Thanks all for the imputs keep them comming i see 3-4 posts been done while i did this one, so much help on this forums its frigging amazing

Diggsy · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:50

Kellogz said:
Another question though is if i wanted to upgrade my CPU say in a year+ or so would that mean a new board for the new CPU?

In short, yes. There is nothing really to upgrade to on the 775 platform from your Q6600.

Another option, closer to budget...

EDIT - for an extra £6 you could have the higher specced RAM on this... http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-025-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Or if you are adamant that you want to keep the Q6600...

...but as you can clearly see, you won't be saving much (although I did put the Fenrir back)

EDIT - theres no 3rd party CPU cooler on your option 2 in your last post.

bJN · 26 Feb 2010 at 16:57

Diggsy said:
EDIT - theres no 3rd party CPU cooler on your option 2 in your last post.

That's because there doesn't need to be

at stock the 955 will handle anything and even with the stock cooler it can get around a 5-10% overclock quite easily without much increase in temps.

Essexraptor · 26 Feb 2010 at 17:04

Not sure I agree with you about the ANY xfired card having a lower fps bJN.. Min fps of my xfired 5870's appears to be slightly higher in my case than when I have just 1 card enabled.

Go with the Q6600 and either the ASUS + a decent 4Gb of paired 1333Mhz upwards RAM
or the cheaper, but equally capable, Gigabyte MB and again a set of 4Gb paired 1066 upwards RAM.

Option 1 basically

Then, as already stated by others, upgrade the MB and CPU (and possibly RAM) at a later date.
The Q6600 OC'd will still give you a solid gaming rig.

panta · 26 Feb 2010 at 17:18

Kellogz have you got any means I can contact you by other than here? I want to send you a link to a cheaper part but I got banned for posting 'competitor links' last time I linked somebody and it was an item OcUk didn't even stock. :rolleyes:

bJN · 26 Feb 2010 at 18:00

Essexraptor said:
Not sure I agree with you about the ANY xfired card having a lower fps bJN.. Min fps of my xfired 5870's appears to be slightly higher in my case than when I have just 1 card enabled.

I meant better minimum frames than a card better than those in crossfire, i.e. a 5850 will have better minimum frames than crossfired 5770s.

Kellogz · 26 Feb 2010 at 19:03

panta said:
Kellogz have you got any means I can contact you by other than here? I want to send you a link to a cheaper part but I got banned for posting 'competitor links' last time I linked somebody and it was an item OcUk didn't even stock.

has to be done via OC hehe so thats a no go for me but thanks for the effort

Im getting a lot of people saying go for the board and use the 6600 and save £s so i think ill go with that, im not botherd that in 1-2 years i will have to get a whole new board and CPU really. Atleast i will still be able to use a lot of the parts in the future such the 5850, case, hdd. unless someone can tell me why its wrong.