Opty 165 + x800 xl worth getting a 8800gt or upgrade entire system?

[GatorAl]

Ok, I find myself waffling back and forth on upgrading my entire pc. Currently I am running an Opty 165 (only at 2.2 ghz stock cooling) 1gb Corsair XMS DDR ram, Corsair HX620w psu, ati x800 xl all on my MSI k8n Neo4 Platinum. I'm still running under Windows XP as well.

Long story short; will my Opty bottleneck the 8800gt to the point where I won't see much improvement? I suspect not, so maybe I'm just looking for justification of buying all the new parts ;-). I know it won't be nearly as good as if I were running a Core 2 Duo, but it should be a reasonable jump from the x800 correct?

I mostly play World of Warcraft... yeah yeah I know, but the wife plays too, Call of Duty 4, BF2 etc.

I'm eyeballing the new e8400 chips with the utmost interest, but I cannot seem to determine which motherboard I should get. I planned to get the 800gt with the e8400 anyway as it fit my budget comfort level.

I wouldn't mind seeing what others are looking at for e8400 boards, I've been reading the forums and there certainly isn't any clear cut winners... unless I missed something.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Depends on your budget, I'm personaly very happy w/ My Asus Maximus Formula + 8800GT

 

[BlueAcolyte]

The opty wouldn't bottleneck you too bad, but your RAM would.

 

[GatorAl]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
The opty wouldn't bottleneck you too bad, but your RAM would.

ah that is a good point, there is no sense in adding more ddr at this point. Looks like I might want to really start looking at boards, and ddr2.

 

[GatorAl]

Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
Depends on your budget, I'm personaly very happy w/ My Asus Maximus Formula + 8800GT

Like the looks of that board, but I just can't push myself to spend that much. Perhaps if I wasn't doing my wifes machine at the same time. I'm trying to hold sub $200 mark if I can find a decent board.

 

[nerp]

Get the card. The opty won't bottleneck it quite yet, dude. You can look brilliant NEXT year when you buy an inexpensive but stable board and kickass quad chip and 6-8GB of DDR2 or 3 at prices you'd crap yourself if you saw them now.

And when you do that, you'll slide the card you bought now in and prepare to replace THAT with something better.

An opty 165 with 2+ gb of ram and a quality card is still decent, imho.

I'm biased, see sig. 🙂

 

[Doclife]

Personally, I would upgrade your system with 2GB DDR 400 RAM, a decent CPU cooler and overclock the Opty 165 to ~2.6GHz or higher if possible. Total cost would be about $150 ($110 for 2GB DDR 400 RAM, $30 CPU cooler). With the increased memory and overclocking, I don't think your system would bottleneck the 8800GT video card too much, if any at all.

If you decided to go the Core 2 Duo route, get the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (rev 2.1) or GA-EP35-DS3R mobo for ~$127. Superb on board sound, plenty of USB ports (8), and a great overclocker. Both boards would support 45nm CPU (E8400/E8500) right off the box if I'm not mistaken.

For RAM, get the DDR2 Jedec standard memory type (the one that run at 1.8V) to avoid compatibility issues. DDR2 RAM are dirt cheap now, get 4GB (2 x 2GB) for about $76

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820208353

Total cost for E8400 C2D upgrade is ~$420 (mobo + RAM + CPU)

 

[GatorAl]

Originally posted by: Doclife
Personally, I would upgrade your system with 2GB DDR 400 RAM, a decent CPU cooler and overclock the Opty 165 to ~2.6GHz or higher if possible. Total cost would be about $150 ($110 for 2GB DDR 400 RAM, $30 CPU cooler). With the increased memory and overclocking, I don't think your system would bottleneck the 8800GT video card too much, if any at all.

If you decided to go the Core 2 Duo route, get the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (rev 2.1) or GA-EP35-DS3R mobo for ~$127. Superb on board sound, plenty of USB ports (8), and a great overclocker. Both boards would support 45nm CPU (E8400/E8500) right off the box if I'm not mistaken.

For RAM, get the DDR2 Jedec standard memory type (the one that run at 1.8V) to avoid compatibility issues. DDR2 RAM are dirt cheap now, get 4GB (2 x 2GB) for about $76

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820208353

Total cost for E8400 C2D upgrade is ~$420 (mobo + RAM + CPU)

Yeah, I thought about doing that, but plunking another $150 + the 8800gt just doesn't sit well with me. If I need to add to the current system to "drive" the card I may as well go for the Core 2. I'll either keep the opty for a spare computer or sell parts t someone with slightly less demanding needs.

I can't complain about the Gigabyte prices, but I worry about making sure it supports the e8400 out of the box. I don't have any other intel chips available here (or know anyone) so that I could flash the bios.... it would suck to get it here and find out it won't go without a bios update. If I could clear that up, I'd probably have one of those boards , 4gb ddr, the wolfdale chip, and 800gt on order right now .

I do appreciate the suggestions, I've been really unsure which way to go, so at least this helps me layout the options.

 

[Doclife]

Originally posted by: GatorAl

Originally posted by: Doclife
Personally, I would upgrade your system with 2GB DDR 400 RAM, a decent CPU cooler and overclock the Opty 165 to ~2.6GHz or higher if possible. Total cost would be about $150 ($110 for 2GB DDR 400 RAM, $30 CPU cooler). With the increased memory and overclocking, I don't think your system would bottleneck the 8800GT video card too much, if any at all.

If you decided to go the Core 2 Duo route, get the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (rev 2.1) or GA-EP35-DS3R mobo for ~$127. Superb on board sound, plenty of USB ports (8), and a great overclocker. Both boards would support 45nm CPU (E8400/E8500) right off the box if I'm not mistaken.

For RAM, get the DDR2 Jedec standard memory type (the one that run at 1.8V) to avoid compatibility issues. DDR2 RAM are dirt cheap now, get 4GB (2 x 2GB) for about $76

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820208353

Total cost for E8400 C2D upgrade is ~$420 (mobo + RAM + CPU)

Yeah, I thought about doing that, but plunking another $150 + the 8800gt just doesn't sit well with me. If I need to add to the current system to "drive" the card I may as well go for the Core 2. I'll either keep the opty for a spare computer or sell parts t someone with slightly less demanding needs.

I can't complain about the Gigabyte prices, but I worry about making sure it supports the e8400 out of the box. I don't have any other intel chips available here (or know anyone) so that I could flash the bios.... it would suck to get it here and find out it won't go without a bios update. If I could clear that up, I'd probably have one of those boards , 4gb ddr, the wolfdale chip, and 800gt on order right now .

I do appreciate the suggestions, I've been really unsure which way to go, so at least this helps me layout the options.

I'm pretty sure that the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R would support 45nm CPU out of the box because that board is just recently released like 2 weeks ago and no one has it in stock yet, except for 1 vendor

http://www.ncixus.com/products...GA-EP35-DS3R/Gigabyte/

By looking at their web site (Gigabyte), I saw that it specifically states that the EP35-DS3R supports 45nm CPU

http://www.gigabyte.us/Product...ew.aspx?ProductID=2637

 

[geokilla]

I'm in a similar position as you, except that my X2 is at 2.4Ghz, I have 2GB RAM, and a X850XT. I've wanted to upgrade to a 8800GT ever since it came out, but my mom just keeps on saying no. At this rate, I can get a new computer in the summer.

With that said, I'd suggest you just try overclocking your Opty first and getting a 8800GT. Then if you still find your computer slow under hard gaming, then see if you can get yourself a C2D setup.

 

[sutahz]

OK I didnt read every reply.. but i tried (a bit drunk, so attn span/patience is much lower).
OC from 2.2->2.6??? Is that even worth it... really? (18.2% OC)
I say buy the 8800GT, buy another GIG (yes its very expensive compared to DDR2, however by the snd of it, you will last another 12-18mo's off the new gear. CoD4 was fun, if you can pull yourself away from your guild, play it).
Overclock w/ your OEM HSF, see what you can get outta it. Is it dusty? Blow it clean.
IF YOU HAVE the itch, pull the trigger, asap. That E8400 is white hot. 8800GT is a killer deal, even at $300 is you ask me. Less is just that much more like a super nova. Use dealram or ebay to find a good deal/steal on DDR-400 (that you can use to OC). Or get cheap stuff and use a divider, yes you'll see some improvement w/ good ram on your system more then a C2D system, but the effects are not THAT big. Is your 1GB 1 stick or 2? not that it matters, dual channel really only benefits integrated video... though I have yet to test that statement personally 🙁
So do you have the itch or not?