Will you upgrade this year.

[Pilgrim_uk]

I am thinking something new for the computer this year. I have a very quiet 8800GT 512 (custom) which has stood its ground very well in the latest games but unfortunately Skyrim and Cliffs of Dover proved too much for the old gal. A quiet HD6850 should cover that. Not looking for ultra settings just enough to make it playable also only have an old Hiper type R 580w psu.

Also thinking about getting one of them new fangled SSd's the young un's are going on about. (120gb range should be enough)

Finally making the move to 64bit Windows 7 been meaning to do this for a while but just never got round to it. (no need to buy this already have a licence)

So time to look up the loft and see what I can sell on ebay to fund the purchases.

Anybody else thinking along the same lines.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Want of upgrade---->Here
Need of upgrade------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>Here

[Grey M@a]

System starting to show it's age in some games but tbh I play very little these days anyway I am tempted to sit on this Q6600 system a little longer or until it dies on me. (System spec over there <-------)

Only really playing indie games these days and SWTOR rest of them tend to be console ports and I am not having any issues there.

I have so little time to get gaming in that the time I do have is either spent on SWTOR or playing the bairns 3DS xD

[Hoonigan]

I definitely recommend you get yourself an SSD.. They're unbelievable! A lot of people are raving on about the Crucial M4 drives, although I've never seen one in action myself, but that's the drive you should be looking at reviews of.. Or the Corsair Force GT which I have, that's a very nice drive

I'm thinking of upgrading to the next round of NVIDIA cards once they're released, depending on their price..

[roorooroo]

Don't really feel the need to upgrade for another year. My 920 is doing well as is my gfx card. Probably the longest time between upgrades since my old 386sx actually!

[Pilgrim_uk]

I know what you mean about longtime upgrades. I have not had to upgrade my machine for awhile and decided to see if it could be quieter over a year ago. It was the only thing left to do to it. A Synology NAS (DS106j) is louder than my PC now.

@Hoonigan

Yeah I need to start the awful task of researching new ssd's as is my OCD when buying new components. Cheers for the tips.

[Dareos]

My 2 desktops are now 6 years old (bought and built with help from Hexus members and Scan, thanks folks ) and its nearing the upgrade time for at least one of them.

I plan to have a closer look around March/April time, and will be bugging our resident Moose for a build guide around that time (really Cat, you should get paid for this).

The one thing is, both my machines run like a dream, only replaced a PSU on my main one, and switched OS's a couple times, and I dont do much gaming anymore on the PC, was mainly for MMO's before and i just dont have the time nor inclination for those. Xbox/PS3 etc for drop in drop out stuff mainly. I still want to build one tho, getting itchy just thinking about it hehe.

[scaryjim]

Given I've just *downgraded* my Q6600 to an E5300, and decided to sell off my spare 8800GTX instead of going crossfire, I'd say the answer is probably no.

*HOWEVER* I do intend to finish my watercooling / modding project, which will hopefully allow my to push my minimal rig to the limit OC-wise, so perhaps it's not quite accurate to claim that I won't be upgrading at all...

[Pilgrim_uk]

Given I've just *downgraded* my Q6600 to an E5300

Who are you and what you done to scaryjim.

Downgrade, Its a durty word round ere parts.

[IronWarrior]

Given I've just *downgraded* my Q6600 to an E5300, and decided to sell off my spare 8800GTX instead of going crossfire, I'd say the answer is probably no.

*HOWEVER* I do intend to finish my watercooling / modding project, which will hopefully allow my to push my minimal rig to the limit OC-wise, so perhaps it's not quite accurate to claim that I won't be upgrading at all...

Why would you downgrade?

I plan to upgrade my case this year.

Later in the year if I can afford it, upgrade everything else, motherboard, cpu, ram and psu.

[scaryjim]

Downgraded because my Q6600 was more CPU than I needed for my workload, I made money off the transition, and the E5300 uses less power and runs *much* cooler. I haven't noticed any difference in performance in any of the games I play regularly. Plus, of course, the E5300 overclocks like a mad thing, even under the Q6600's stock intel cooler

I think the older you get the more pragmatic you get about computing requirements. I spend most of my time on my laptop or tablet, and the Q6600 was going to waste. If I'd kept it much longer there wouldn't have been as good a market to sell it into, so I reckon I made the right decision for me. The rig I have now should see me through happily until it dies completely, and then I'll have to make a decision about whether I get a new gaming rig or just leave it be (by that point I may well have a laptop that'll play all my games at decent quality!)...

[Hicks12]

Upgraded 3 months ago from :

e8400 ----> 2500k @ 4ghz
asus p5n-d(POOP BOARD, overclock failure... NIVIDA CRAP) ----> Asus p8z68-v, excellent board reliable fast and cost effective!
4GB DDR2 pc6400 crucial ram (1000mhz overclock!) --- > 8gb DDR3 1600mhz ram, not overclocked
Xclio 700w psu ---------> ThermalTake GreatPower 675W psu (more reliable!).
Nvidia GTX460 --------> No change!


the difference was extreme! Everything is responsive and the SSD performance just went through the roof, originally had a corsair f60 and a crucial c300 128gb drive but having only sata 2 and no ahci support didnt get the full benefit, now have a crucial m4 64gb boot and 128gb for games super quick . Booting takes seconds and shutting down even less, its fast its quiet and its even more energy efficient somehow.


Will certainly be upgrading the GPU this year, i held off the current series as i knew the next was set to make a big difference and i am finally breaking past having midrange/budget cards . My games are feeling the lack of grunt, i.e BF3 i want ultra!.

[Pilgrim_uk]

I think the older you get the more pragmatic you get about computing requirements.

Wise words indeed. I think the last thing I bought for no good reason was a pair of 75gb raptors many moons ago. Noisy little things still have them round here.

[deaglecat]

I have been mulling similar. Current setup is a Q6600, Ati 3600, 4Gb and many terrabytes. Dual monitors 23 and 21.

Use mostly to play Wow, Portal etc and also watching Tv shows, Films etc.

I can't really get into get into the more demanding games cos the look like poo on my rig.

Would love to upgrade the Graphics card but I have a Dell 350w psu and so my options are limited.

Any advice welcomed.

Deag

[pooley]

Want of upgrade---->Here
Need of upgrade------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>Here

lol spot on

[IronWarrior]

I have been mulling similar. Current setup is a Q6600, Ati 3600, 4Gb and many terrabytes. Dual monitors 23 and 21.

Use mostly to play Wow, Portal etc and also watching Tv shows, Films etc.

I can't really get into get into the more demanding games cos the look like poo on my rig.

Would love to upgrade the Graphics card but I have a Dell 350w psu and so my options are limited.

Any advice welcomed.

Deag

Sounds like you have some type of Dell Pre-Built?

You really need to upgrade that GPU to something better, but you going to need a better PSU. I would spend something like £50 on a PSU for a 500w and then that should allow you to upgrade to a 5000 or 6000 AMD series GPU, maybe around the £100-200 range.