Summer upgrade

[snakeater]

Hi, first post in the forums! Been lurking for a while now, but have finally decided to actually register... anyway...

Considering a summer upgrade; but not sure if my PSU can handle it, or what to buy.

Current Rig

E6600 @ 3.4 (AF7 Pro)
8800 GTS 320
EVGA 680i
2 gigs Corsair Dominator 6400 C4
Hiper 580 Type-R
Raptor X 150

I'm a bit of a speed freak, and despite what people say, I still don't find half my games playable eg. FEAR and STALKER. I run everything at 1680*1050, and I'm wondering if the cut memory if having a very serious effect on my performance.

With a £400 budget, I want an upgrade, but I'm very aware of the upcoming 9 series and DX10.1 being only part of the next gen of cards...

Therefore, an 8800GTX/Ultra seems silly, but with the next nvidia series at the very earliest 4 months away, I'm not sure if I can hold on
I also want to permenantly migrate to vista, something I've tried before but the performance was simply too low, both general usage and games.

Q6600? 2900XT (something really tempting about going red again)?

Q6600 and 2900XT? (I could possibly go to £450) But if so, would I need a new PSU??

Anyway, any suggestions are more than welcome!

 

[Craig321]

I'd say go for the 8800GTX if you can't wait.

 

[DavidB]

Apparantly theres issues with vista+raptor+GTX = massive mess.

Something you might want too look into before buying anything.

 

[Kanifee]

hounestly mate if your using vista the best thing you can do is wack in another 2gig of ram in xp dirt plays excellent smooth as you like on ultra settings on 1280x1024 i installed vista and bosh jerks and lag when i crash small annoyances here and there like the camera jerking a little bit at the start when it does the close ups of the car on the start line.
buy 2gig of ram and hold out to upgrade the rest youll take the ram over to the other upgrade and flog the rest.
just my oppinion though.

 

[snakeater]

Thanks for the advice!

I'll probably just pick up another 2 gigs and wait then.

Out of curiosity, would a 580 hiper cope with a 2900/8800GTX and q6600 and raptor AND 4 gigs?