Upgrade Path?

DarkMatter

DarkMatter

DarkMatter

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Joined
27 Jun 2008
Posts
628
Location
Rugby
Well at the moment i have the following specs

Q6600 ( B3 ) @ 3.05 "everyday" i think it could go up to 3.3 everyday if i was less concerned about heat. it overclocks nicely

Asus P5k-E Wifi

2Gb Crucial Ballistix ( standard Pc6400 overclocked )

Hd 2900xt 800/1900 everyday.

hx520

Vista 32bit (another annouying factor)
so at the moment i am abit lost as to where to upgrade too, the options are

1) buy new motherboard and ebay the P5k (get ether a nice X38 or X48), this means i can go for a pair of 4850's or hd4870x2 or something along those lines.

2) 2gb new ram ( its only £35 and hopefully from reading that article it will help solve some of the microstuttering and load times for some games)

3) get a 9800GX2 or 3870X2 and wack it into the PCIE1.1 slot and hope for the best

4) wait for nahelam and x58 and sell motherboard etc just before its out and get that along wtih other upgrades!

5) * take on your idea *



i'm open to suggestions ( i am even considering this Q6600 G0, P5E3 , 4Gb DDR3 for £300 and sell all my kit )
 
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A P35 board will take a X2 card. The top slot is still 16x although as it's not pci-e 2.0 there may be a bit of a hit. An extra 2Gb of ram will be wasted with a 32bit OS. I would just get a new Graphics card and then wait for Nehalem before doing a major upgrade.
 
the 9800Gx2 seems great value at £235, and i've seen 3870X2 on ebay pretty cheap ( or i could just buy from america for £140ish ).

or i could just get a 4870X2 then just accept there will be a bottleneck till i get a new motherboard when nehalem comes out?
 
any more suggestions? when is nehalem coming out for mainsteam use? i hear Q1 2009 =/ not that far away i suppose.... i wonder how long it will be till ATI or Nvidia replace there current line up.
 
24" so 1980x1200 res. Out of interest how have you found your hd 2900xt? mine could be used as a space heater lol but it has performed well!
 
i get a strange ammount of microstuttering in Coh OP. after reading that information from corsair about 2gb vs 4gb, it sounds like a logical explination to why that is. i personally take all graphical effects over AA so the hd 2900xt has served me well.
 
its a shame that the hd2900xt uses so much power etc, or i would have considered trying to find a second cheaply for crossfire. mine managed 14k on 3dmark which of course is not relevant to real life performance but its still good by todays standards
 
might see if i can find a 3870x2 or 9800gx2 cheaply and add another 2gb of ram. hopefully should be able to get the first combo for £150 or the second for £250
 
DarkMatter said:
might see if i can find a 3870x2 or 9800gx2 cheaply and add another 2gb of ram. hopefully should be able to get the first combo for £150 or the second for £250
Click to expand...

I think 9800gx2 over the 3870x2. With the pricing war currently on, you should get a good bargain. Did you mention what your budget was?
 
well, my budget is abit flexable. a 9800GX2 will be roughly £80-100 more than a 3870x2 i think. but even with the new cards the 9800gx2 still stands up well. i have a feeling the 4870x2 will be costing the same as the GTX280, which in my oppion is abit too much for a graphics card. £100 more than a 9800GX2 at least. im sure if you buy a graphics card in a year from now with £100 you will get something that beats the 4870x2.

i look for the best performance for price. so i usally bu high mid range
 
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