thinking of upgrading

hardc0re_tid

hardc0re_tid

hardc0re_tid

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im currently running as follows:

Asus Maximus Formula SE
Q6600 @ 3.8
4gb Geil 6400 ULL
768mb 8800gtx oc2

what would be a good upgrade, eg i was running an e6300, 2gb 6400 prior to the q6600, what would see leaps and bounds above my quad setup?

basically what im after is mobo, ram, gpu and cpu, all other bits are fine
 
Looks like a pretty nice setup you have there. If you use it for mainly playing games, then my main upgrade suggestion would be a new graphics card. The ATI 5850 looks fantastic and will be a lot faster than your current card.

As for CPU/Mobo/RAM, a Q6600 @ 3.8GHz is mighty powerful, you would really need to go for an i7 rig to see much difference. However, unless you use highly CPU intensive applications (like video encoders) then you will not feel much difference at all - games won't run much faster as they will be GPU limited.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Looks like a pretty nice setup you have there. If you use it for mainly playing games, then my main upgrade suggestion would be a new graphics card. The ATI 5850 looks fantastic and will be a lot faster than your current card.

As for CPU/Mobo/RAM, a Q6600 @ 3.8GHz is mighty powerful, you would really need to go for an i7 rig to see much difference. However, unless you use highly CPU intensive applications (like video encoders) then you will not feel much difference at all - games won't run much faster as they will be GPU limited.
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+1 get a 5850 as its best bang for buck at the moment. The 5870 is very nice but 33% more cost over a 5850 for about 15% better performance isnt worth it at the moment.
 
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Definitely get a new graphics card, a while back i ran a q6600 at 3.8ghz, i then sold it and got a q9550 also clocked to 3.8ghz (rather daft upgrade) mainly i wanted to try out a new cpu, gaming wise their was no difference at all, i have lately moved to an i7 rig, but i do a fair bit of encoding but still no noticeable improvement in games.
 
hardc0re_tid said:
what about a solid state OS drive and a new gpu?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=hd-078-sa&tool=3

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-214-as&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1502

whats on par with the 5850/70 cards nvidia flavoured?

the 3.8 oc is on air by the way, would water cooling be a good investment? ive got a u2 ufo case by the way
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an ssd and gpu would be a great upgrade combination. the ssd will speed up things in general use and the gpu will speed up games and any gpgpu stuff.

personally, i would go for an intel ssd as they seem to be the best in real world conditions and when you spend this kind of money, you may as well get the best.

as for an nvidia card which is comparable, this review is a good start. So basically, you would need a stock overclocked GTX 285 like this to achieve performance similar to the 5850. The 5870 seems to perform similarly to a 4870X2, thus much faster than any GTX 285 and slower than the GTX 295, so there isn't really an equivalent Nvidia card.

As for watercooling the Q6600; what load temperatures do you hit with the current 3.8GHz overclock on air cooling? If they are safe then water is probably not needed as the very maximum you can get out of a Q6600 is 4GHz (if you're lucky) and a water upgrade would obviously be expensive.
 
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