What should I upgrade (see my spec)

Tyrone77

Tyrone77

Tyrone77

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18 Feb 2008
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356
Hey chaps & chapettes!

About two years ago I built my lovely gaming rig with the help of overclockers. I think I got a great deal and it has served its purpose well. I must admit that I was a little annoyed when I tried to play Crysis on Ultra and it couldnt handle it.

So! I would like to make some upgrades to my rig to get it running all the top games and to future proof it for a year.

Here is my set-up which is overclocked to 3.4Ghz:
- Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case
- Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
- Abit IP35 Pro, Q6600,
- Tuniq Tower, AS5
- Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
- Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775
- OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR800C44GK)
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS)
- BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)


So what should I upgrade? I think as a benchmark I would like to be able to run Metro 2033 rather well and Crysis on Ultra silky smooth.

Edit: corrected spec
 
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screen size? res? If youre playing at 24" 1920*1080/1200 then upgrade gfx card, everything else is fine, if youre below this size/res your gfx card should still be adequate too
 
I should have mentioned:

Currently using a 19inch samsung LCD 1024X768.

I think I may upgrade to BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor [9H.L3XLB.QBE]. But not sure. Do you guys think a monitor upgrade is worth it?

Greywolf: So you think maybe getting another 4G.B of RAM and new gfx card.... sounds like a good plan. I dont want to buy a new rig just yet, just a reasonable (but significant upgrade) to last a year.

If I add another 4G.B how does that change my settings in BIOS for the overclock, I changed the RAM timings etc (I used an overclocking guide so not too sure about it all).
 
Tyrone77 said:
I think I may upgrade to BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor [9H.L3XLB.QBE]. But not sure. Do you guys think a monitor upgrade is worth it?

Greywolf: So you think maybe getting another 4G.B of RAM and new gfx card.... sounds like a good plan. I dont want to buy a new rig just yet, just a reasonable (but significant upgrade) to last a year.
Click to expand...

Benq screen: Do it, it's a nice screen. :) Gaming on a 24" widescreen is a whole new experience.

Asus HD 5850 awesome card with a 3 year warranty, grab one before they run out of stock again.

4GB RAM: I'm assuming he meant "upgrade to 4GB" not "add another 4GB". Although from your spec it looks like you already have 6GB RAM? Which is already more than enough. He probably read the 2GB part and assumed that was all you had.
 
Tyrone77 said:
I should have mentioned:

Currently using a 19inch samsung LCD 1024X768.

I think I may upgrade to BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor [9H.L3XLB.QBE]. But not sure. Do you guys think a monitor upgrade is worth it?

Greywolf: So you think maybe getting another 4G.B of RAM and new gfx card.... sounds like a good plan. I dont want to buy a new rig just yet, just a reasonable (but significant upgrade) to last a year.

If I add another 4G.B how does that change my settings in BIOS for the overclock, I changed the RAM timings etc (I used an overclocking guide so not too sure about it all).
Click to expand...

You could upgrade the screen size but obviously will impact more on your FPS, but I can understand why you would want to move from a 19"

Just to make sure I ment 4GB of RAM total not another 4GB plus the original 2GB making 6GB.

Going up to 4GB of RAM could change the overclock, however many people have overclocked with a Q6600 and 4GB of RAM. So possible numbers to use will be floating around somewhere. If you change the RAM to another make/model or add an extra 2GB then yes the timings etc will most likely need to be re done.

Edit: Redmint I missed that, Bit confusing layout of spec OP do you have 2 or 4GB of RAM? As you have listed both 2 and 4GB of differing speeds.
 
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:) it's 4G.B (2 X 2G.B)

Yep I think I may then go for a new monitor and 5850!!

Will a solid state HD make much difference to performance?

Edit (Ignore the 2G.B stated next to the cpu in op)
 
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It'll make Windows feel 'snappier' as everyone says and make games load faster. Some people seem to think it's the best thing they ever bought, some people seem to think 'meh it's alright I guess'. Suppose it somewhat depends how fast your current HDD is.
 
Your rig was same as mine, But i have Dell 24" screen. I upgraded the, BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB, to a GTX 285 & was very pleased .

A 5850, or 5870, would be my choice.
 
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