an inbetween builds upgrade

[gJabberwock]

Kinda hate to start a new thread for this buts its kind of a three part question.

I currently have a

win7
Core 2 E6550
a Gigabyte p35-DS3r
4 GB 6400 cl4 ram
430W thermaltake tr2 psu
and an
X1950 pro

I just got my master degree and want to celebrate (ok so i still need to do some corrections). so I bought a handful of newer games (last couple pc games i bought before this were fear and fallout 3) and figured i would try to do an inbetween builds upgrade and try OCing my CPU a bit.

in the end things have escalated a bit after browsing around I noticed people mentioning that while some thermaltake PSU's are good there TR2 line is poor.

so I am looking at getting a 700w OCZ modXstream or a 550 or 650W corsair psu or a 520w antec neo eco

and a new graphics card I was originally trying to decide between a 1GB 460 or a AMD 6850 but the fact that i can get an asus 768MB 460 for $130 seems like better bang for the buck especially now that i am buying a psu aswell

so:
Does this seem like a logical/worthwhile. is the idea of a inbetween builds upgrade in this price range reasonable or should I just hold out (I am amazed everyonce in while by how well my x1950 performs) a year or 2 until a build a new comp ?
upgrade?
and which psu/gpu combination would you suggest?


oh yeah I am wanting to run things at 1920x1080

 

[happy medium]

Save the money on a psu and grab a 6850 card. Your fps will triple with a little overclock on the cpu. You psu will handle a 6850.

Do not throw any more money into that system, then you have too.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

You can transfer the new power supply to your next build, so if you get one then get a good one. All of the ones you listed are pretty good. And if you intend on overclocking a good power supply is going to matter even more.

As for the video card a GTX 460 SE or 768MB should do the trick. Even a GTS 450, HD 5750, or HD 5770 would provide substantial improvements over an X1900.

You should mention what games you bought that need the extra performance.

 

[gJabberwock]

Thanks for the feedback so far.
Yeah i was kind of intending to carry the psu over to my next build which is why i was sizing them a bit larger than what i think i need for my current set up.

as far as games i just grabbed Mass effect 1&2, borderlands and metro 2033. Might get something else to not sure what, i've had my nose to the grindstone for the last 6 months so im a little out of the loop. might get black Ops or some other modren FPS if anyone else i know has it for PC, if you cant tell im planning on unwinding a bit for the next month

 

[RavenSEAL]

Thanks for the feedback so far.
Yeah i was kind of intending to carry the psu over to my next build which is why i was sizing them a bit larger than what i think i need for my current set up.

as far as games i just grabbed Mass effect 1&2, borderlands and metro 2033. Might get something else to not sure what, i've had my nose to the grindstone for the last 6 months so im a little out of the loop. might get black Ops or some other modren FPS if anyone else i know has it for PC, if you cant tell im planning on unwinding a bit for the next month

Get bad company 2 and grab a GTX460 along with the new PSU, that'll leave you all set for at least 2 years, even better if you can afford to SLI in the future. :thumbsup:

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Thanks for the feedback so far.
Yeah i was kind of intending to carry the psu over to my next build which is why i was sizing them a bit larger than what i think i need for my current set up.

as far as games i just grabbed Mass effect 1&2, borderlands and metro 2033. Might get something else to not sure what, i've had my nose to the grindstone for the last 6 months so im a little out of the loop. might get black Ops or some other modren FPS if anyone else i know has it for PC, if you cant tell im planning on unwinding a bit for the next month

Well set yourself a budget that way you know what to work with.

A good 550W (or bigger) power supply will be more than enough for a typical build, even after you upgrade. Intel and AMD aren't going to release processors that use more power than current ones, and video cards are going to stay in relatively the same power envelope as current ones.

But if you plan, or want, to do multi-video card setups along with overclocking, you should be looking to get at least a quality 600W power supply.

 

[Throckmorton]

I've learned recently that modern games need quad cores. My poor E6600 (2.4ghz C2D) is bottlenecking even my 8800GT. I was planning to buy a GTX 460, but now I'm going to put that off and upgrade to a C2Q for now.