Skyrim upgrade help: Please what should stay and what should go?

micstr

micstr

micstr

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I am looking at upgrading my gaming rig as the processor is long in the tooth and I want to beef my specs to play Skyrim.

The further dimension is that I have an old watercooled system - Zalman Reserator XT and blocks on my CPU and two video cards. Thanks to a bad Zalman mixture the cpu block started to gum up. I have flushed it out and am now using Feser cooling liquid BUT I am not sure how long this Reserator will last. I had times when the fan has got stuck at boot leaving the PC beeping away. I now don't leave my machine unattended. Watercooling made sense when I was living in hotter climes (I didn't use it much to overclock but aircooling had my 8800 Ultras broiling at 98 degrees); but as now I stand in the fork in the road - when upgrading the board is it worth continuing on such old WC gear given my budget.


I currently have:
Mobo GA-N680SLI-DQ6 with Intel E6700 - 2.66GHz Dual Core, 4 x 1 Gigs Ram DDR2-800
2x LG L226W monitors (Runs 1680 x 1050 native not sure if they are still up to scratch)
2 x Nvidia 8800 Ultras SLI
Logitech G15 Keyboard and G7 Wireless Mouse.
PSU is Gigabyte Odin GT? 700W? 4x12V rails
Case GZ-FA1CA-ASS Gigabyte 3D Aurora570 Silver Aluminum - 5x 5.25" & 7x 3.5" Bays - 2xFront & 1xRear 120mm LED Fans [size 8'' x 20.5'' x 22.4'' (W x H x D)]
Sound Creative SB X-Fi. DVD Writer drive. W7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I have replaced drives so far:
1 x SSD OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB (not running well on old board)
1 x 1 TB Seagate Barracuda SATA II


Budget: Up to 1100
I was hoping to reuse the monitors, soundcard and drives. I am less sure about the case and graphics cards


Please help me with your specs and opinions:
1) Recommendations for the obvious need for a new board, ram and chip.
- I do not upgrade my machine often so prefer a board that can handle emerging protocols like USB3

2) Do I need new NVIDIA graphics cards?
- Skyrim seems to be only at DX9 but if I leave my old cards then I am stuck with the watercooling unit (as I no longer have their airfans).
- On this limited budget is a top DX11 graphics card better than two mid SLI?

3) How good is aircooling nowdays? If you are used to quieter computer, then what sort of PC cooler would you need?
- Also do you recommend a better / bigger case than the old one I have?
- Or, should I persevere with my old watercooling system, but what will the be costs of new blocks be?

4) Views on keeping old components like PSU. Is it better to fresh start or do you think mixing old and new parts is fine? Or do you have a rule of thumb limit like 3-4 years for older gear?

5) Recommendations for a new gaming mouse as the wireless batteries are shot.

Many thanks and appreciate your help
M
 
would suggest that the 8800ultras should see you through another couple of months until the new graphics cards are out, if the CPU is struggling maybe get a cheap q6600 for the time being and oc it to 3ghz or so. well if you could stretch it to like march/April(with having upgraded the CPU to q6600) could do a full system overhaul with new CPU/mb/ram, graphics card/s, psu case etc.
 
most of what you have should be fine getting moved across to an upgrade, case/psu seem fine from what i can see having a quick look around.

is the dvd drive ide or sata ?

mouse wise have a look at the Razer DeathAdder, or do you want another wireless one ?
 
Thanks fowler002 thats a good idea to wait for the new graphics cards.

mp260767, DVD drive is an old IDE LH-201A1H so could be worth replacing. Mouse wise, I enjoyed wireless but the battery cycle doesn't last so I think I will stick to wired, so I will take a look at the DeathAdder.

If I was to change mobo and chip now - any suggestions?
 
2500K is a good processor to pick. Is your sound card PCI or PCI-E? PCI is getting harder to find on boards these days...

From the sounds of things you want to stick with Nvidia? Could go for a 560Ti/570 then.
 
1 GTX 460 should be more powerful than your 8800 sli. So anything above a 460 will be much better. Their is always something around the corner. but its your choice to wait or not. You can buy now and enjoy the game in all its glory when its just out, or you can hold off for 4-5 months. ETA for the new cards is about March-April. Bulldozer was always "Just round the corner".

Personally i'd buy now, spend money on an i5 2500k with a http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK mobo, 8gb of ram so down the line you could always upgrade to IB and you can change your graphics card to a new PCI-e 3.0. An H100 to cool the cpu and get a new case too, unless you're obviously happy with the case you have, but it might not have enough room for new graphics cards though. Try to reuse what you can.
 
Orcvader said:
2500K is a good processor to pick. Is your sound card PCI or PCI-E? PCI is getting harder to find on boards these days...
Click to expand...
Yes the sound card is a PCI card. Thanks for spotting that. Kobi's mobo recommendation has 2 PCI slots so I would be okay there.
 
Thanks Kobi - I hate the waiting game as well. With Graphics cards should one stick to one with the same manufacturer as the mobo or is that irrelevant? If going with the cheaper 560Ti for now, then is more memory better the new MSI 2048mg card or is the slightly faster clock speeds 1024 Asus card the better buy?

Noob clarification question - by IB do you mean IvyBridge?
 
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If you are keeping the monitors and plan on gaming at 1680x1050 then you really only need a mid spec graphics card such as a 6850, 460 or similar. Anything over that is really overkill imo.
 
If I were you I'd ditch the SLI Ultras given they are around the level of a single HD 4890 depending on game.

The 1024 Mb GTX 560Ti will be fine for gaming at 1680 x 1050, you only need to consider more VRam if you plan on getting a bigger screen in the future, which could be possible. :)
 
Thanks for everyone help. Wrapping up final build I am thinking of:

chip Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
card Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II TOP 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
mobo Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard (thanks Kobi)
Board supports DDR3 2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory

Any thoughts on:
- memory stick to basic Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel ? Or Corsair Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) equivalent?
Or, Is Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9) given the board viable?

- cooler H100 out of stock. Air cooler favourites? Gelid Tranquillo seems popular.

- If I have to get a new case. Views on Antec 902 or OCUK Freezebox mods?
 
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don't bother ith the h100 its too much(£100), if yo're spending that much may as well get one of the ek watercooling kits for a bit more.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-115-EK&groupid=962&catid=1532&subcat=

if you don't plan to push higher than 4.6ghz then the gelid tranquilo is the prob the best choice.

if you plan on going sli/xfire in the future then you will need to change the psu as it only as 2x 6+2 pci-e connectors from what I can make out, you'll need 4 for 2 cards as they each will have either 2x6pin, 1x6pin/1x8pin or 2x8pin unless of course you get low end cards which only have 1x6pin each.

case if going air cooling

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-075-SV&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=

don't bother with higher than 1600mhz for ram as you don't see real term benefits for the added cost, if going watercooling/closed loop then the vengence with the fins is fine but for air cooling go from the low profile ones(xm3, vengence lp or the kingston)

mb another option and cheaper http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-491-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990 wouldn't give you the 'asrock headach'(see the motherboard section) ;)

another option if buyin by 21st is the msi z68a-g55 g3 or z68a-g65 g3 with 20% cash back. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18338613
 
Thanks so much fowler002 for all your help - that case is sweet.

I see what you mean about the asrock - 13 pgs of posts!
I will stick with the z68a-g65 g3
 
I would advise holding out on the gpu for a few more weeks as the new 28nm cards will make moving up to a much higher res monitor possible. Once you're seen 2560 x1440 you won't want to go back :)
 
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