Help me spend $1500 on my computer. (not going to spend it right away)

[Davidh373]

Thanks I'll keep that in mind. However gaming is only part of what I use my PC for. I do a lot of HD video watching, and some encoding, some photo editing (got a 14MP camera and intend to be doing a lot of RAW editing, and lots of everyday web browsing and more. I plan on learning to program soon and will be doing lots of that. I used to do a fair amount of ray tracing (Pov-Ray) as a hobby. I also run emulators and much else. However gaming IS becomming a larger and larger percentage of that. Thing is I'm not a FPS fan so high frame rates aren't as important to me as high resolution + really high quality settings. For example I'm perfectly happy playing Dragon Age origins right now on my current system at 1920x1200 even though the frame rate is about 25fps. It would be nice to bump that up to 2560x1600 with AA. The gaming I'll be doing will mostly be RPGs, adventure/strategy, action, maybe some few FPSs. But I like high rez!

HD video watching can be done with on-board, and encoding would be faster, but barely noticable. Photo editing 14mp can be a strain.... on a pentium D with a gig of ram...
I don't think you'll have a problem with 2560X1200 with a 5850, yet alone a 5870 or 5970.
If you do end up editing footage @ 2k, 4k, ect. I could understand you wanting an i7, but you aren't, and even if you were you aren't professionally so there are no deadlines realistically. 3D animation rendering might warrant an i7 920, (@ 1280 x 720, a frame was taking my Core 2 Duo like 12 minutes, and 30fps video thats 15 seconds long that's KILLER). Get the i7 when they are cheaper and games you play are suffering a little, not when it's lightyears ahead of your needs. Do your upgrades in segments to save you money.

upgrade 1: Radeon 5850/ Geforce GTX 285 and matching PSU

upgrade 2: 6GB Ram

upgrade 3: SSD?

upgrade 4: i5 on P55/H55

upgrade 5: i7? next Graphics card?

basically at this point you are trying to justify wasting money. I know it may seem brutally straight forward but it's what I see. You may as well wait and get these new things when they're a tad older and cheaper. Your $1500 will last at least 50% longer and you'll get a lot more parts out of it this way.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

They're coming from Athalon procezzors and can care less about old arkiteckture. Sorry I just had to throw this in after reading your sig.

I'll let you live...this time.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind. However gaming is only part of what I use my PC for. I do a lot of HD video watching, and some encoding, some photo editing (got a 14MP camera and intend to be doing a lot of RAW editing, and lots of everyday web browsing and more. I plan on learning to program soon and will be doing lots of that. I used to do a fair amount of ray tracing (Pov-Ray) as a hobby. I also run emulators and much else. However gaming IS becomming a larger and larger percentage of that. Thing is I'm not a FPS fan so high frame rates aren't as important to me as high resolution + really high quality settings. For example I'm perfectly happy playing Dragon Age origins right now on my current system at 1920x1200 even though the frame rate is about 25fps. It would be nice to bump that up to 2560x1600 with AA. The gaming I'll be doing will mostly be RPGs, adventure/strategy, action, maybe some few FPSs. But I like high rez!

Really, the only thing that would benefit greatly from a CPU upgrade to i7 would be the video encoding and rendering. To be honest, if you're not doing it professionally, then it's a bit pointless. Gaming-wise there would be no difference between Q6600 and i7. Your Q6600 can handle everything else you say perfectly well. As I said before, it would be better spending a bit of money on more RAM, a better PSU, and better GPU(s). That would be all I would do. You don't need a new CPU, but you do need a new GPU.

 

[Locut0s]

HD video watching can be done with on-board, and encoding would be faster, but barely noticable. Photo editing 14mp can be a strain.... on a pentium D with a gig of ram...
I don't think you'll have a problem with 2560X1200 with a 5850, yet alone a 5870 or 5970.
If you do end up editing footage @ 2k, 4k, ect. I could understand you wanting an i7, but you aren't, and even if you were you aren't professionally so there are no deadlines realistically. 3D animation rendering might warrant an i7 920, (@ 1280 x 720, a frame was taking my Core 2 Duo like 12 minutes, and 30fps video thats 15 seconds long that's KILLER). Get the i7 when they are cheaper and games you play are suffering a little, not when it's lightyears ahead of your needs. Do your upgrades in segments to save you money.

upgrade 1: Radeon 5850/ Geforce GTX 285 and matching PSU

upgrade 2: 6GB Ram

upgrade 3: SSD?

upgrade 4: i5 on P55/H55

upgrade 5: i7? next Graphics card?

basically at this point you are trying to justify wasting money. I know it may seem brutally straight forward but it's what I see. You may as well wait and get these new things when they're a tad older and cheaper. Your $1500 will last at least 50% longer and you'll get a lot more parts out of it this way.

Yeah I was mostly just getting excited to see what I could build right now but I wasn't going to spend the money right away. Tanks for the suggestions. I am indeed going to wait a while.

 

[MisterDonut]

Whew, I thought I would be the devil's advocate there. Everybody's jumpin' so much on the new sockets, while I sit here completely content with my 775 processor (which can be more than I need sometimes!). 5850's are a bit low on stock again, especially the egg. They just stock the factory OC'ed versions . Again, I've heard rumors about an ATI counter to Fermi in September, 6xxx. If you are in no desperate need of perfect frame rates, a 4890 will hold you out until then (My friend also runs a 4890 and is gonna wait for next gen GPU's). I don't remember the wattage needed to run a 4890, but I think you might be able to keep your current PSU even.

 

[Locut0s]

Whew, I thought I would be the devil's advocate there. Everybody's jumpin' so much on the new sockets, while I sit here completely content with my 775 processor (which can be more than I need sometimes!). 5850's are a bit low on stock again, especially the egg. They just stock the factory OC'ed versions . Again, I've heard rumors about an ATI counter to Fermi in September, 6xxx. If you are in no desperate need of perfect frame rates, a 4890 will hold you out until then (My friend also runs a 4890 and is gonna wait for next gen GPU's). I don't remember the wattage needed to run a 4890, but I think you might be able to keep your current PSU even.

Yeah I noticed stock was super low on the higher end 5xxx series.

 

[mfenn]

It's all up to you. I'm just advising against upgrading, and even with what you have listed, in my books, it doesn't justify spending $1500 when your quad will do it just fine. Sure it's a faster chip, but again, the platform isn't going anywhere except down, so you can wait and see if the 6600 is going to hold you back (ask around). I don't know what Pov-Ray is, so I can't speak for that; but for the rest of your needs, your Q6600 should do it fine. Get a nice 5850 and overclock it. A lot of the more stressing games seem to fall in the FPS category and will require a more powerful card for the resolutions, but as far as the RPG's go, a 5850 will do you justice (I can't think of many RPG's off the top of my head as I am mostly an FPS player, so if somebody has information otherwise, please correct me). An OC'ed 5850 will come close to a 5870, and IMO, the price difference isn't justified by $100. Personally, I don't run an h20 as I still move my rig around and will definitely set one up when I'm more settled, but you will hands-down not be disappointed with the results. Quiet, cool CPU and GPU (You'll get nothing like what h20 offers with air cooling). The setup should also help with overclocking the 5850 without the fan attempting flight (The fan can get REALLY, REALLY loud above ~35&#37. I would even advise getting an SSD over a new processor as an upgrade, and I almost never recommend SSD's with the prices they're at.

As a second piece of advice, it's also not a bad route to pick up a cheap 4890 to satisfy your needs, wait until September when the 6xxx series might debut (rumors from friends, no source). Then perhaps you can also pick up a full i5/i7 upgrade.

Your increasing plans for gaming warrant that 5850! Intel's roadmap puts the 1366 at the top for a while, so I would just sit back and let the market do its thing. Meanwhile, ask around for some h20 advice .

Actually, I went from a Q6600 to an i7 860 and saw quite an improvement in minimum frame rates in Dragon Age, especially in areas with a bunch of NPCs around (e.g. Denerim) . I'm talking ~18 min to ~40 min. The game just loves a fast quad.

 

[Anubis]

get a V1200 B its longer and has more room

you will want that room

 

[Locut0s]

get a V1200 B its longer and has more room

you will want that room

Huh not a bad idea for the future upgrades I plan. Especially when looking at the dual GPU cards that are now around 13" or more. Thanks.

 

[Anubis]

this is the V1000 with a GTX 285 in it, a longer card will fit but you would have to take out the 2nd 5.25 drive and move it lower. the V1200 is 2 or so inches longer

 

[MisterDonut]

Actually, I went from a Q6600 to an i7 860 and saw quite an improvement in minimum frame rates in Dragon Age, especially in areas with a bunch of NPCs around (e.g. Denerim) . I'm talking ~18 min to ~40 min. The game just loves a fast quad.

Both OC, I presume?

 

[mfenn]

Both OC, I presume?

Nope, both stock. The Q6600 was a B3, so it didn't OC worth a damn. I'm happy with the turbo mode on the 860 for now, so I haven't felt the need to mess with it.

 

[Rebel44]

Nope, both stock. The Q6600 was a B3, so it didn't OC worth a damn. I'm happy with the turbo mode on the 860 for now, so I haven't felt the need to mess with it.

B3 wasnt so bad - my Q6600 B3 is at 3Ghz with little over stock voltage and it can be OCed to 3.4 easily (I just dont like 70+ C temp.)

 

[mfenn]

B3 wasnt so bad - my Q6600 B3 is at 3Ghz with little over stock voltage and it can be OCed to 3.4 easily (I just dont like 70+ C temp.)

I'll trade you then. My B3 wouldn't go above 2.8 without a huge voltage bump.