Giving thought to a PC upgrade for gaming. *UPDATED WITH DECISIONS*

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shingletingle

Senior member
Jun 30, 2007
976
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Hello all, I've been considering upgrading my PC. It's been over a couple of years since the last time I've done a significant upgrade, so I'm not up to date on what to look at. I've done some reading and concluded the following.

1) Intel is ahead of AMD. The Intel CPUs I'm considering are the E6750 or E6850 or the Quad E6600. Is it pointless to step up to the Quad?

2) Nvidia seems to be a step ahead of ATI with the 8800GT (G92) or 8800GTS (G92).

3) DDR2800 4GB (2x2GB) memory seems to be the way to go.

4) Motherboard -- I'm uncertain what to get here. I think I'd like to keep it in the $100 to $125 price range. The GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L caught my eye.

That's all I really need. This would be for gaming. Also, I'm not into overclocking. Just something I've never been into. I've always used the stock speeds.

Am I looking in the right direction in those 4 areas?

EDITED with decisions made 1-15-08:
I figured I'd update everyone with the choices I made which are a little different than what I considered earlier. I made the move mostly as a result of hot deals that popped up recently.

1) CPU: Intel C2D E6750. I know the new processors are right around the corner, but I wanted to get the ball rolling now on my gaming PC upgrade and besides, who knows what the availability will be on the new CPUs. The 6750 should be plenty good enough. $189

2) Motherboard: ABIT IP35-E. I don't need a motherboard that's too fancy. For the price, I don't think this could be beat. $60 AR

3) Memory: 4GB total (2 sets of 2x1GB Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 4-4-4-12 memory). Chose these mainly because of two deals. I got from 2 vendors to take advantage of the rebates to get 4GB total. $37AR at one vendor and $30AR at another.

4) XFX Geforce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB. Comes with Company of Heroes. Didn't plan to spend this much on a graphics card, but I figure this will last for quite some time. Since this didn't cost much more than a regular 8800GT, I went with this GTS. $299AR.

5) Cooler Master 750 PRO RS-750-ACAA-A1 power supply. Should be more than enough to ensure adequate power for the pc. $50AR

And of course Vista Home Premium Upgrade Edition. I've been using 32-bit but I'll give 64-bit a shot. I already have the 64-bit installation DVD.

Stuff I'm keeping from the current PC.
Samsung DVD-RW drive
Western Digital Raptor 74GB hard drive
Seagate 300GB hard drive (used for backup files, music, data, etc)
X-Fi XtremeMusic soundcard
Soyo 24" LCD
Klipsch 5.1 Ultra Speakers
Logitech G15 keyboard
Razer DeathAdder

Looks like I pretty much went all out with this.
 
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Roguestar

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
6,045
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The Q6600 should be fine for now and will do you well for the next while as more games are becoming multi-threaded.

You'll see only around 3GB of your 4GB if you aren't using Vista x64, but if you're wanting to buy 4GB, then 2x2GB modules is the way to do it.

Good choices for motherboard and video card.

Get a good quality PSU around 400 or 500W. Corsair HX 520 or Seasonic 500W should do the job nicely.
 
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PolymerTim

Senior member
Apr 29, 2002
383
0
0
I'm still researching for my next build as well (haven't upgraded in over 3 years!) and I've found pretty much what you stated, with a few clarifications.

1) For upper mid-range and higher, intel is the way to go. AMD is still very competitive in lower mid-range due to the price war, but you will probably want intel. The next generation (45nm Penryn) procs are coming out very soon though, so if you don't have to build now, I would wait a bit. Link Before the end of January, the E8400 will be out at the same price point as the E6750 and will have significantly better performance and run cooler. If you decide to go quad core though, the new quads have been delayed (at least the non-extreme ones), probably for a couple months. Whether or not you need a quad is still a big debate, but I think most people agree that for the next year or two, a dual core is plenty for a gaming machine, especially if you clock it over 3 GHz.


2) Actually, from what I've read, the new ATI 3850 and 3870 are very competitive with the 8800GT. I know it gets a lot more complicated than this, but their performance seems to scale really well with price and is generally in the order of 3850 < 8800GT < 3870. It looks like they are all good buys, but most serious gamers want at least the 8800GT. Remember that for gaming, the video card is more important than just about any other component for fps performance. I'm considering an ATI card just to help out AMD a bit (they are having a bit of trouble lately ;) )


3) I think 2x2GB DDR2-800 is definitely the way to go, especially if you aren't overclocking. DDR2 is cheap right now so there is no point going with less.


4) I've heard a lot of good things about the DS3L. I think, if you're not overclocking, then all the P35 boards you buy will have pretty much identical performance. What I do is start with boards that are popular (so there's usually 50 other people that have had and solved whatever problem you're likely to run into) and then compare features.

Also, another thing I keep seeing is not to go too cheap on a PSU. You don't need a lot of whats for your system, but make sure it is a quality one. Probably better for you to check out the PSU forum for specifics, but you probably want something in the 300W-450W range.

Good luck on your build. I'm still waiting for the cash on mine so the quad core Penryn's may be out before I can buy.
 
M

MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
4,131
0
0
Note about OCing:

I got Abit IP35-E, cheap supertalent ddr2 800 ram (4 gb) and e6750

upped FSB from 333 to 400 and now my e6750 runs at 3.2 ghz and stays under 30 deg C on stock cooling.

Man tech has gone way forward in noise and energy consumption. My skt A setup was a jet, this C2D barely breathes.
 
DSF

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
4,902
0
71
Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
Note about OCing:

I got Abit IP35-E, cheap supertalent ddr2 800 ram (4 gb) and e6750

upped FSB from 333 to 400 and now my e6750 runs at 3.2 ghz and stays under 30 deg C on stock cooling.

Man tech has gone way forward in noise and energy consumption. My skt A setup was a jet, this C2D barely breathes.
Click to expand...

Under 30C under load? I doubt it. Might want to get the latest version of CoreTemp that has the correct temps and double-check.
 
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shingletingle

Senior member
Jun 30, 2007
976
1
0
I figured I'd update everyone with the choices I made which are a little different than what I considered earlier. I made the move mostly as a result of hot deals that popped up recently.

1) CPU: Intel C2D E6750. I know the new processors are right around the corner, but I wanted to get the ball rolling now on my gaming PC upgrade and besides, who knows what the availability will be on the new CPUs. The 6750 should be plenty good enough. $189

2) Motherboard: ABIT IP35-E. I don't need a motherboard that's too fancy. For the price, I don't think this could be beat. $60 AR

3) Memory: 4GB total (2 sets of 2x1GB Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 4-4-4-12 memory). Chose these mainly because of two deals. I got from 2 vendors to take advantage of the rebates to get 4GB total. $37AR at one vendor and $30AR at another.

4) XFX Geforce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB. Comes with Company of Heroes. Didn't plan to spend this much on a graphics card, but I figure this will last for quite some time. Since this didn't cost much more than a regular 8800GT, I went with this GTS. $299AR.

5) Cooler Master 750 PRO RS-750-ACAA-A1 power supply. Should be more than enough to ensure adequate power for the pc. $50AR

And of course Vista Home Premium Upgrade Edition. I've been using 32-bit but I'll give 64-bit a shot. I already have the 64-bit installation DVD.

Stuff I'm keeping from the current PC.
Samsung DVD-RW drive
Western Digital Raptor 74GB hard drive
Seagate 300GB hard drive (used for backup files, music, data, etc)
X-Fi XtremeMusic soundcard
Soyo 24" LCD
Klipsch 5.1 Ultra Speakers
Logitech G15 keyboard
Razer DeathAdder

Looks like I pretty much went all out with this.
 
S

shingletingle

Senior member
Jun 30, 2007
976
1
0
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Get a good quality PSU around 400 or 500W. Corsair HX 520 or Seasonic 500W should do the job nicely.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I guess you missed this part in what I got:

5) Cooler Master 750 PRO RS-750-ACAA-A1 power supply. Should be more than enough to ensure adequate power for the pc. $50AR
 
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Roguestar

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
6,045
0
0
I saw your edited post, but I think that the higher watted PSU will both waste energy and perhaps not be as reliable as something of superior brand.
 
K

krunt

Member
Jan 11, 2008
98
1
0
return the PSU, get something else, (the Corsairs and Antecs may have problems with the Abit ip35). Ill try to easily explain why...

The max system draw you will have with one video card on that setup will probably never exceed 500-550w, this will be true unless you are doing some serious overclocking. Now of course when your system ages it becomes less efficient and require more power, but it will take quite a few years for you to start needing more than 500w on a full load. Most power supplies are best at 40% to 60% of their total capacity. Therefore, your system which at idle and light use will draw 200ish, 250w?, will only be using 25-30% of the PSU. Which basically means it is drawing more power then needed and running hotter then needed. Get something around 500w and you will be fine.

If it is SLI rated, and you are not using SLI, chances are it is already more than adequate.
 
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