Cpu + Mobo + Ram

Hey,

Im looking to purchase upgrades on the 3 items. As i fried my mother board, i think its time i went up a bit on my spec.

Current spec (5 years old now) is Quad Core Q6000, 4gb (2x2) DDR 2 ram and p5n-e SLI mobo.

Now i been looking into the new sockets of the i5 and i7 contemplating it.

What im planning to use my pc for is movie editing / gaming / music processing. Very cpu intensive and a reasonably GPU intensive during games.

Now i would rather keep price to a minimal obviously although thats quite impossible in the UK with our tax but need to do it before VAT increases next year.

So any one up to date on the recommended hardware so far. I was thinking DDR3 ram i should consider going to now.

Thanks for any help.

p.s im sticking with my 8800 GTS 320mb GPU for now but will possibly buy the next gen 4xx series by nvidia, so a dual or even tri-sli slots would be nice to have solely for the option. I also have a card for audio card which i need a slot for recording (1010lt Delta)

I'd keep it all except for the 8800GTS to be honest, overclock it, add some more RAM & you're sorted :)

Q6600 is only 3yrs old btw :)

3 years old ? I have had it for 5 years unless i had some kind of OEM release, but deffinately had it for 5 years.

Can't keep it , i fried my Mobo or CPU or both.

Yeh my gpu is low but its not a major aspect of my pc experience with gaming.

I been looking at:

i7 930 + GABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 mother board but then i see the price and im like oooof thats steep!

p.s i dont know jack all about RAM is this ram good :
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=40598

Its very cheap compared to the other similiar ram so i don't get why its over 100£ cheaper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rs#Core_2_Quad - Jan 2007 :)

What's your budget? Seriously though, that GPU needs to go if you're upgradig, what sort of games are you playing that aren't GPU intensive?

Weird approach to be honest mate.

You'll gain absolutely nothing by swapping those components out for new ones, unless you want to spend quite a few hundred quid - and even then gains will be fairly minimal.

Graphics is the obvious part to improve, perhaps the hard drive if it's an old one. But I wouldn't bother changing anything else.

EDIT: Yep, missed that bit too.

I would buy a really cheap socket 775 chip, an old P4 (check it's socket 775 though) or something off eBay, see if the board's working.

If the board's working, you could get yourself a Q9450 or something similar, and it's a fairly cheap upgrade in comparison to a whole new combo.

Otherwise, if everything's dead, or you just can't be bothered, I'd get a new AM3 rig, with a cheap quad-core or a hexa-core if you want to spend a bit more cash - that would be equivalent to a cheap i7 build.

I didn't realise you'd fried something. if the CPU is ok then buy a cheap s775 board & keep the chip :)

Well something is fried but i got no way of knowing if its my MOBO or CPU or both. I took out everything including ram and it still will not turn on yet LED on mobo is on and i replaced my PSU same issue.

Which finally concluded that the mobo is dead or cpu or both.

I should ask, why do they sell such over priced cpus / new sockets / DDR 3 ram if theres little gain and the only main gain is on the GPU?

The only game i play is Bad Company 2 - and im happy playing on low setting at 50FPS.

You are happy playing at low settings until you see it on higher settings ;)

True lol but im not a heavy gamer im a casual gamer so at most i might get a 2xx series in next coming months if the next 4xx series by nvidia do not live upto the hype again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SirChick

True lol but im not a heavy gamer im a casual gamer so at most i might get a 2xx series in next coming months if the next 4xx series by nvidia do not live upto the hype again.

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At the moment the ati hd 5850 hits the sweet spot for for high end graphics cards, looking at price and performance you will be hard pressed to beat it. If you do go for nvidia 4xx series than be prepared to cough up an arm and a leg and a few toes.

Besides I've seen the 5850 overclocked to the level of 5870, not bad if you ask me

last I checked you can get them for around £220-250

If thats way out of your range then the hd 5770 is your best bet ~£130

Also the nvida 2XX series have shot up in price a gtx 260 ~ £140+. It would be hard for anyone to recommend paying that amount for older tech