Upgrade or not? The big question...

[Bobman_JCT]

I recently ordered an HD5850, since I really needed a graphics card update, and I won't be getting another one in a while. The rest of the PC, though, is pretty... Limiting. Particularly the CPU, which is an old e6600.

I've been running it at stock for 3 years, and I recently replaced the heatsink with a higher quality one after it broke when I took it off the motherboard to clean it. From what I've heard, I have 3 real options, and £300, but I was wanting to spend some of that on a monitor - So does anyone have any advice on which option I should take?

First, I overclock my current CPU, and buy a flashy new moniter with some of the cash. My CPU has been getting overvoltage errors for the past year every now and again (especially when I try and disable or enable hardware), and the whole PC would shut down. Long story short, after adding the new heatsink & reformatting, it hasn't happened since. So, overclocking would be possible, but I don't know whether the CPU would take it so well. I can then upgrade to i7 when it eventually dies, or otherwise sometime next year.

Second, I replace the CPU with a better core 2, with about a £170 budget, and buy a moniter as well. I don't really want to spend that much, unless I have to, especially since I'll probably be upgrading to i7 before long.

Third, I replace the whole motherboard, RAM and CPU with an i5 setup, and limit myself in terms of upgrades since it just wouldn't be worth going from i5 to i7. This would mean no monitor.

So, what should I do? Any advice on overclocking?


Additional details:

PSU: 3 year old modular type-R, 580W. I guess it's putting out like 500W now.
Mobo: Asus P5B
RAM: 4gb, 800Mhz
Cooler: Akasa cool blue cpu cooler (AK-961, could apply arctic silver if necessary)

I'm optimising this for gaming.

 

[reiyushin]

I'd OC the chip and get a nice screen. When it dies or doesn't cut the mustard anymore then upgrade

I assume you've got 4Gb ram and a decent enough cooler?

Your main use of the PC would be? Gaming?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What motherboard,RAM and PSU do you have currently??

 

[pieman109]

If the bulk of your pc useage is gaming, I'd suggest overclocking your e6600 to 3.2ghz which should be a piece of cake to do (400 x 8 and bump the V core up a bit,). That should be sufficient to stop the cpu being a bottleneck and drive the 5850 well enough, very underrated cpu the e6600.

 

[Bobman_JCT]

PSU is a 3 year old modular type-R, 580W. I guess it's putting out like 500W now, and yeah, it's a gaming PC. I sometimes transcode video, but really, this is about optimising framerates.

The motherboard is an Asus P5B, and yeah, it's 4gb of RAM (after adding in a 2gb stick I ordered with the GPU).

The sink is an akasa cool blue cpu cooler (AK-961), which runs pretty well, quieter than the old heatsync at load speed, at least. Currently has stock thermal paste, but I could apply some arctic silver I have if necessary.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would probably overclock your existing E6600. OTH, if you can secure a cheap Q6600 secondhand this would be a nice upgrade.

Apart from that I would either spend the rest on a monitor now or towards a full system upgrade next year.

 

[Bobman_JCT]

Ok, I'll try overclocking it tonight before the card arrives.

Any advice on overclocking? Is it worth taking the time to switch to arctic silver? Should I mess with the voltages much, despite getting overvoltage errors in the past?