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To upgrade or not?

Doctorjellybean

Doctorjellybean

Doctorjellybean

Associate
Joined
7 Oct 2010
Posts
6
My rig currently consists of an Asus P5N32E mobo and Intel Quad Core Q6600 CPU with 2GB RAM.

Now I have a few options:

1) Replace current 2x1GB RAM sticks with 4x2GB sticks
2) Upgrade CPU with either an Intel i5 or i7, or AMD Phenom II Black Edition. That would have course require a mobo and RAM change as well.

I basically use my system for gaming, video editing and 2D/3D creation (Poser, DAZ 3D Studio). I would appreciate some advice as to which path to take. If it is number 2, which CPU.

Thanks in advance.
 
Similar system to mine except my Q6600 is overclocked.


I've just installed windows 7 ultimate 64, and it still seems quite slugish, I would defenatly recommend upgrading to 4GB or more RAM. Thats what im going to do.
 
Upgrade the ram and have another go at overclocking your cpu. Depending on your cpu cooler you should be able to get it running at 3.2GHz +.
 
I had a similar dilema.
Upgrade my q9550 or add more bits to my board.

With intel supposedly releasing new CPUs in 2011, I decided to hold off replacing my system. Instead I bought more RAM and an SSD for windows 7 64.

To be honest, my current CPU can handle everything I throw at it. However my new memory (Kingston) has a few problems with my mobo and it blue screens randomly and about once a day.

However, I can put up with this as its only to hold me over until mid next year when I rebuild a new rig.

SSD makes lots of difference, once I figured out how to install it properly
 
You should just get 2x2gb of ram to save yourself the expense of mass amounts of ddr2 sticks lying about when you upgrade in a year or two.

And yes, overclock again, get a guide , this forum is riddled with q6600 aficionados who have done exactly what you need. Even a 3ghz overclock will make it feel so much more speedy and is not hard to manage with patience and 2 hours invested in the forum.
 
Interesting to see that people advising to add ram are running i7 systems lol. I did have an extra 2x1GB sticks but experienced too many BSOD's to have a stable system. Asus mobos (mine in any case) are picky about RAM so perhaps I should get Asus recommended sticks.

Is an SSD drive worth the expense?
 
More ram is a child of the applications you run , not your OS anymore ... I run wow , crysis and some video editing, all that data occupies ram, so more ram is god,
An ssd is a vital part of any system that cost you over 800 pounds nowadays, your not getting your monies worth if ya dont own one for boot disc and perhaps your most burdening and most used applications. (And a q6600 system cost about 800 pounds at that time, assuming you needed everything not just some parts)
 
necrontyr said:
A q6600 and no point in an ssd, not even the intel 40gb ? clarify please :)
Click to expand...

because looking at the op's usage it would seem he's more cpu/bound than anything, yes an ssd would load programs faster but when rendering etc it would be sat doing diddly squat, increase the ram and bump up the clock to 3.0 or more and it'll bring in the most benefit for the least outlay


Doctorjellybean said:
I basically use my system for gaming, video editing and 2D/3D creation (Poser, DAZ 3D Studio)
Click to expand...
 
True , but i'm taking it for granted he will attempt to overclock his current system again, if your going to be doing rendering work and your time is precious every mhz helps. Especially since a q6600 has so much headroom, but rendering large files also benefits greatly from loading them quickly into and out of ram, he asked a basic question is an ssd worth the expense, and in all cases where time is at a premium then the answer has to be yes, imho.
 
Seems like my SSD question has opened a can of worms :D

Perhaps, given all the advice, the best option would be to stick 8GB RAM in and build a new system next year. That way I can use the existing rig as a slave for network rendering when I build the new system. If I do put in an SSD drive now, then I can always put it in the new rig.
 
Yea, id migrate the ssd when the time comes but 8 gb of ram is expensive, second hand or a cheap deal would be what i'd look for, since it wont be migrate-able to the new machine.
 
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