Need suggestions for upgrades.

[F1N3ST]

I haven't been around computers for probably a year now. And my current rig is going to be getting some upgrades I think.

E6300
Abit IB9
4x1GB DDR2 800 4-4-4-12
X700PRO, water on X1900XTX blew out, X700 is a temp card.
80GB Raptor
Thermaltake i7 Cooler
Antec Earthwatts 650W

What would be best to upgrade? Definitely getting a new graphics card, probably motherboard, and possibly RAM.

This motherboard does not like OC'ing, I have perfect temps at 2.66ghz, new motherboard needs to OC decently.

Also, new motherboard must be PCI-e 2.0 probably depending on what graphics card you suggest.

New RAM is not out of the question, my current four sticks are kind of outdated.

Please post some suggestions assuming I have $400 to spend, thanks.

 

[krnmastersgt]

With your budget I wouldn't stress PCI-E 2.0 as a necessity from a motherboard, just because it has 2.0 as opposed to 1.1 doesn't really mean anything unless you have a card that is capable of utilizing that much bandwidth. In any case you should start by stating what this system is used for (although I'm gonna take a guess and say gaming), and what kind of resolution you play at/use since the video card will differ depending on the resolution you require.

For the motherboard, any P45 will be fine and they generally overclock very well, the Asus P5Q series is probably your best bet (cheapest P45 is a P5Q series board). Your current ram is fine, assuming you use a 1:1 divider you'll never hit the guaranteed speed from the ram anyways. If you use some other divider however, one that's more ram intensive, you might want to consider a 4gb pack of 2x2gb since you're more likely to get a stable overclock with less actual sticks (or go for ram rated at 1066 so you KNOW you'll get that high if need be).

 

[crimson117]

What's your upgrade motivation? Games too slow? Video editing too slow? Hard drive too small? Part choices really depend on why you're upgrading, so let us know.

Gaming upgrade, keep your motherboard, around $387 after rebate:
Video Card: Powercolor 4870 1GB - $200 after rebate.
CPU: e8500 3.16ghz wolfdale (may still get decent OC on your board) - $187

Gaming, plus a little OC with existing ram, around $402 after rebates:
Video Card: Powercolor 4870 1GB - $200 after rebate.
CPU: Intel E7400 2.8ghz wolfdale - $120
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q SE PLUS - $82 after rebate.

Pure OC, sacrifice a bit of gaming power for more OC, around $399:
Video Card: ASUS EAH4850 TOP/HTDI/512MB Radeon HD 4850 - $115 after rebate
CPU: e8400 3.0ghz wolfdale (will do 3.6ghz easy, 4.0ghz with some luck) - $165
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q SE PLUS - $82 after rebate.
Ram: Patriot Viper 2x2gb (very overclockable) - $37 after rebate

Personally, if I had your rig right now, I'd buy the ASUS 4850 512MB for $115 to hold me over, and save the $285 to go towards a more permanent Core i7 / x58 / DDR3 upgrade later in 2009 once prices drop.

 

[F1N3ST]

Thanks for the responses you two, really helpful, I would say that you about answered my question perfectly. How do the quad core's price and overclock though?

 

[F1N3ST]

Yeah probably mostly gaming, I play at 1680x1050.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: F1N3ST
Thanks for the responses you two, really helpful, I would say that you about answered my question perfectly. How do the quad core's price and overclock though?

At the same price, the quad core will be slower in GHz, but you'll have 4 cores. In heavily multi-threaded tasks, like video editing or advanced photoshop stuff, a slower quad core is better than even a moderately faster dual core.

But current games don't benefit from more than 2 cores, generally. So for gaming it's better to have 2 faster cores than 4 slower ones.

Quad cores don't usually overclock as well as dual cores because they have 4 cores generating heat instead of just 2.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: crimson117
Personally, if I had your rig right now, I'd buy the ASUS 4850 512MB for $115 to hold me over, and save the $285 to go towards a more permanent Core i7 / x58 / DDR3 upgrade later in 2009 once prices drop.

We have a winner!