System Upgrade Help

Hullo again.

Back to these forums as they've been the best help so here goes.

I was about to buy some mentally over priced mmo gaming mouse that i wont really need for another few months when it occured that that extra cash might be well spent and used now on a computer part. Can you guys have a look see at my specs and see where I should upgrade next.

CPU Q6600
MOBO nVidia 680 lt sli
GPU GTX 560 ti
RAM 4 Gigs DDR (I think)
HDD 1Tb 5xxx Hitachi
PSU I Forget but its a 1000 watt hefter from what I remember

 

From the looks of your list, the only upgrade you could make is either an SSD, a slightly better graphics card, or gut your case.

4 Gigs is plenty, unless you are doing some serious multitasking, or gaming. Your mobo hasn't got the best type of CPU it can handle, but the prices for a Core 2 Extreme CPU are ridiculous. And you've got plenty of power if you remember right.

The only bottleneck I see in your system is the platter hard drive. Most standard HDDs (glorified record players) top out at around 150 GB/s. I wouldn't go crazy on an SSD, howver, because you have a slower generation of SATA which maxes out at 1.5 GB/s. A more modern SATAIII drive (6 GB/s)will only run at 25% it's rated speed with your version of SATA.

Basically, save your money to build something more modern, and donate your working PC to a place like the Cristina Foundation.

 

I'm not getting a new rig. I just recently upgraded my GTX260 to the one now and was seeing where to go next. You are bascially saying, don't....?

 

It depends what you are doing with it. Your hardware is fairly adequate for basic use (i.e., surfing the net, Netflix, etc.). What are you doing?

 

Games. Not really looking for a new rig anytime soon as it still ruins really intense for the next gen stuff as its still plays crysis 2, arkham city, shogun 2 fall of the samurai, guild wars 2 etc really really well. Was looking for the most noticable economic performance boost before I go sinking cash into fancy mice and things.

Seemed to me like a mouse was fluff over an aspect of the rig thats lacking

 

Could you post an Everest report?

http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

 

sure thing, here

 

The only thing I can really recommend as far as hardware is an SSD, but it won't really shine with your board as it is first generation SATA. I love my OCZ, and it's the best $140 of tax refund money I've spent in recent memory. Also, your board can hold 8GB of DDR2 RAM. You could max it out if you like but your OS would have to be 64-bit version of Vista to run more than 4GB. Upgrading your sound card really wouldn't have a major impact, it's really the one thing that hasn't made vast leaps in the past decade.

You could upgrade to Windows 7, but I can't vouch for your saved games transferring.

 

I sorta said to myself awhile ago if I'm upgrading the mobo I'm going the whole hog so I'll be leaving that. I'll defo throw some more RAM into her though. 4gigs of DDR. Ok cool i'll do that. Check out which ones are in there first and just double it...should be handy enough.

Thanks again

 

unless of course there are decently priced CPU/MOBO bundles out there around the $300


http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Bulldoz...1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1337449538&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Bulldoz...14?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1337449538&sr=1-14

 

Don't forget you need a 64-bit version of Windows to utilize more than 4GB of RAM!

What I did was pick up an Asus board with a UEFI BIOS and "core unlocker" feature. I got an inexpensive AMD black edition Callisto dual core 6MB L3 cache, and instead of a 3.2 GHz dual core, I have a very stable 4.0 GHz quad core. It all depends on your budget.

 

that's all well and good but how does it compare to the links I put up? Compare to my system right now I mean, and yeah im 64 bit OS.

 

I cant edit my last post, its seems confusing and rude. I meant can you compare the bundles to my current system? and yes its 64bit OS

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Bulldoz...1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1337456657&sr=1-5


http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Bulldoz...14?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1337456657&sr=1-14

 

Both bundles are superior to your current configuration, that much is certain. For the difference in price, the six core/8GB bundle is a better investment for years of use. To me, it would be a difference of about $60 USD for two extra cores, and double the memory.

Both boards are SATAIII (6 GB/s) versus your current board at 1.5 GB/s. As far as memory, DDR3 is less expensive than DDR2. Your current PSU is more than adequate, however it may not have all the power connections required to power up the motherboard. It depends which ATX version it is. The mobo is USB 3.0 capable, which is a future investment in newer devices.

Also, instead of a combo you could take your time and search out the best promotional prices for each component. It took me eight months to build what I now have, in an eleven year old case...

 

great stuff, I'll go ahead with that so. Thanks for you help. Looking forwrad to see what the increase will be like.

take care!

 

TIME OUT!!

Go forward how?

 

well i ordered the 6 core bundle. got too excited

 

Well, don't spend loot you don't have and I hope you have fun with it.

There's nothing like that new hardware smell!!!

 

i hear that, a little bit of pee fell out when I pressed the order button! Plus I read the the reviews, all 5 stars and the CPU/RAM and a heat sink are already connected. This is great has the idea of connecting a CPU scares me. I know one day ill have to but now....not this day!

thanks for your help. you can close this down now