upgrade

[larryddd]

hi
below is details of my build
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 LGA775 "Kentsfield" 2.66GHz (1066FSB)
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)
Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair VX 550W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-550VXUK)
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
if I want to upgrade my graphics card which is the best one to go for and would I have to change any other parts of my build. thanks in advance

 

[cmndr_andi]

I would suggest going for the ASUS 5850. Its a much faster card than your 4850 and will work great with your PSU.

Is your CPU overclocked?

The only other upgrades I would suggest is an SSD if you can afford it, or upgrade your peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse etc).

Also, what OS are you using?

 

[larryddd]

upgrading

hi
thanks for the quick reply
my CPU is not over clocked
and I am running window 7, my monitor is a really up to date dell. sorry for being a bit dim what is the SSD

 

[kylew]

I would suggest you get a 5850 and overclock your Q6700, you should be able to get a decent overlcock out of it.

 

[cmndr_andi]

As kyle suggests, I would give overclocking a try with your CPU. You will need a new cooler, something like this is excellent. Apart from that, your board is made for overclocking and the Q6700 uses the G0 stepping - which is great for overclocking. With the new cooler I would aim for a 1GHz overclock.

An SSD is a solid state drive, a hard disk that uses flash memory technology for instant response and much faster read/write speeds than normal HDDs. These drives are rather expensive, but if you put your OS and main games/apps on it - you will see big speed boost when anything calls on the drive. It makes the whole experience of using the OS much snappier. IMHO, this is one of the best price/performance SSD currently available.

 

[larryddd]

upgrading

thanks for the replies, if I did want to go for a better monitor any really good ones out there

 

[cmndr_andi]

thanks for the replies, if I did want to go for a better monitor any really good ones out there

What have you currently got and what is your budget? Also, what do you generally use your monitor for? (eg gaming, CAD, web browsing, photoshop, coding, office apps etc).

 

[Kharbyne]

5850 would be your best bet for gfx card

 

[larryddd]

upgrading

hi
my monitor is a Dell S2309W 23 inch full HD wide-screen, budget depends on the monitor and if it was worth the upgrade. I use the pc for games and web. thanks

 

[cmndr_andi]

That's a pretty decent monitor - certainly should do the job for what you use it for.

If you do feel like an upgrade, then I would suggest looking for an IPS/VA 24in+ monitor, but these are quite expensive and perhaps difficult to justify if your current one is doing fine.