Gaming PC Upgrade Advice

[nick_1]

I'm looking at a upgrade to my system which currently looks like this:
A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon 64 4200 X2 @ 2.4ghz
2GB Geil PC3200
XFX 7800GT
76GB Raptor 10k+ Maxtor 250GB

I'm currently considering the following:
Asus P5K Premium £105.74
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz £151.56
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 £58.74
8800GT 512MB

Does anyone suggest any changes to that specification? I have had one person suggest a 780i but I'm unsure it is worth the price increase. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do this upgrade for around £450-500 but I'm willing to spend a little more if there is a major benefit in doing so...

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick

[staffsMike]

I would personally go for an abit board, IP-35pro is currently £97 on scan today only but the asus is certainly a good board.

The RAM is fine, I prefer geil but OCZ are very good. OCUK have black dragon 2x2GB for £65 so a little more but it would get my money.

8800GTS is quite cheap at the moment ~£190 and is a very good card but there is certainly nothing wrong with the GT if you can find a good deal.

[2Cold Scorpio]

I would personally go for an abit board, IP-35pro is currently £97 on scan today only but the asus is certainly a good board.

8800GTS is quite cheap at the moment ~£190 and is a very good card but there is certainly nothing wrong with the GT if you can find a good deal.

I agree with the IP-35 Pro; I love mine, and its a heck of an overclocker; I'vem anaged to raise my C2D E6750 by about 800MHz so far (making it go at 3.4 GHz).

I'd recommend an eVGA 8800GT Superclocked or KO card, personally. I have the SUperclocked and it does everything fine. Though if you play at resolutions higher than 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 (which is what I use), you might want to look at the new GTS.

[nick_1]

I would personally go for an abit board, IP-35pro is currently £97 on scan today only but the asus is certainly a good board.

I missed out on the Abit today only as scan have moved over to ASUS (part of the reason I was considering the P5K Premium). The Abit 35 Pro has gone back up to £113 so, the benefit is that the Q6600 is slightly cheaper. For that price would you still choose it over the ASUS?

As for the 8800GTS, I understood that the 8800GT could compete with the GTS at most resolutions. I forgot to mention that I'm hoping to use 1600x1200 as that is the native resolution of my screen.

Thanks,
Nick

[staffsMike]

the pro is in the supersavers today.. £97 (top section)

[staffsMike]

The higher the resolution the better the GTS will prove. If you can afford it go for the GTS if not then the GT will do fine.

[MSIC]

I'm currently considering the following:
Asus P5K Premium £105.74
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz £151.56
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 £58.74
8800GT 512MB

Does anyone suggest any changes to that specification?

Just a quick thought, what monitor are you using, and what sort of mouse, keyboard and speakers? I've previously found that although the innards of a PC obviously get loads of attention from websites etc (being less subjective, more defineable differences etc) it's the bits that we touch and look at and listen to the really affect the experience of using a computer. So at the risk of upsetting the applecart, have you considered spending £500 on these items and leaving your current desktop insides alone? (Of course, it depends on what you have currently).

The second issue to consider, if you do want to still upgrade the components as you mentioned, is to ask you how important noise and power consumption are to you?

[Anastie]

I had a similar original spec to yours. Quad was to expensive when I upgraded but what you are looking at looks fine. But what PSU have you got or getting. Always spend on the best PSU you can buy.

[nick_1]

Just a quick thought, what monitor are you using, and what sort of mouse, keyboard and speakers?

The monitor is a ViewSonic VP201s 20.1" TFT
The mouse and keyboard are Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3100
The speakers are an old set of Creative 5.1s. I cannot remember the exact model but they include a Dobly/DTS decoder box.

The second issue to consider, if you do want to still upgrade the components as you mentioned, is to ask you how important noise and power consumption are to you?

Noise is reasonably important to me which is why the system will be cooled using my Zalman Reserator1. I'm also tempted to replace the case with the new Antec P182 but otherwise this will live in a Antec Sonata paired with their Phantom 500 PSU.

Does this mean I should change my plans?

Thanks,
Nick

[MSIC]

Interesting. I like the Antec Sonata, so unless the extra space of the 182 is important, i wouldnt advise a change (the 180 / 182 case though is massive outside, but doesnt translate to loads more internal space though due to the very different layout).
Am not familiar with that brand PSU, but if you're confident it's a good make then stick with it. As for the Zalman, very nice one! Stick with it, although again am unsure if you need to buy a new CPU block / GPU block, so factor those in.

As for the other bits, they are all good components so i reckon you've already done your homework there and they will last you some time to come yet. I see that the viewsonic is a 1600 x 1200 4:3 ratio monitor - widescreen is the new black, but i certainly wouldnt change for the sake of it.

All in all i would stick with your original idea / post, and go with the other Hexus chaps advice on stuff too. Enjoy.

[nick_1]

Am not familiar with that brand PSU, but if you're confident it's a good make then stick with it. As for the Zalman, very nice one! Stick with it, although again am unsure if you need to buy a new CPU block / GPU block, so factor those in.

The Antec Phantom 500 is actually a replacement as I had to RMA one from another pc a while back. I do need to look at the GPU block side of things as I have a 775 adaptor with the watercooler but I probably should consider watercooling the GPU as well... £40 for the Zalman 8800GTS water block... not bad.

Thanks for the advice so far everyone it is currently looking like this:
Abit IP-35 Pro £97.51
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz £151.56
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 £58.74
512MB BFG Technology 8800GTS £193.86
Zalman ZM-GWB8800 GTS VGA Water Block £40.97

Nick

[fraps]

3870 512

[306maxi]

If you're gaming then don't bother going for a Quad. Go for a higher clocked dual core and it'll end up cheaper anyway

[nick_1]

If you're gaming then don't bother going for a Quad. Go for a higher clocked dual core and it'll end up cheaper anyway

I was going for a quad for two reasons, firstly it will be useful for longer and secondly I like the option of transcoding video as well as gaming

One final thing which just came to mind, should I be running Vista 64bit or 32bit as I'm using 4GB of ram? Will this affect gaming?

Thanks,
Nick

[Blitzen]

Take a look at this.
I know its only a web review but if this has any truth, (i think its ok), then the 8800GTS G92 is definitely the card to take.

The 8800GT starts to seriously lack at 22" and over resolutions. The 3870, although decent enough, is much worse than both at higher res aswell.

Tech ARP - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Review Rev. 2.0

[nick_1]

Take a look at this.
I know its only a web review but if this has any truth, (i think its ok), then the 8800GTS G92 is definitely the card to take.

The 8800GT starts to seriously lack at 22" and over resolutions. The 3870, although decent enough, is much worse than both at higher res aswell.

Tech ARP - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB Review Rev. 2.0

I just spotted this over at anandtech... AnandTech: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 & GeForce 8800 GT 256MB: Playing with Memory and G92

It seems to agree and with scan selling them on today only I am very tempted

Nick