rate my upgrades

[donjonson]

back in 2002 I built the rig I am currently typing to you on. Well my system is just now falling short for current games. I have around $1000 to work with and I would be greatfull if you could take a look at my upgrades and critique.

I would like to play any of the latest games and soon to be games on high graphics settings on my monitors native resolution of 1680 x 1050. I plan to spedn 1000 -1400 bux

I don't need:
--------------
Case
Hard drives (I have two SATA drives.)
monitor
optical drives
mouse
keyboard.

I do need:
--------------
CPU
MOBO
VIDEO CARD(S)
PSU
RAM
possibly one of those fancy physics cards I have been hearing about?

I have been out of the loop for a while. when I built this rig the nvidia Ti4600 was the top 'O' the line card. ( I later upgraged to a 9800xt.)

Here is what has been suggested to me. I plan to overclock

$270 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115131

$32 Xigmatek HDT-S1283 cooler http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835233003

$65 4GB DDR2 1000 http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145

2x crossfire $195 Radeon HD4850 1GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102759

$120 Asus P5Q Pro motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131299

$110 650W Xigmatek PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817815001


I have a little bit more money to work with so if you think I could get better gaming performance with a few hundred more dollars I would like to hear it. I dont plan to upgrade much at all. I will probably milk this new system for everything it is worth. for at least 5 years.(like I did with this one)

also what operating system do you recomend? XP(which version?) vista(which version?) 32bit 64bi etc.


thank you in advance

 

[Denithor]

e8400 $165
Corsair 650TX $80AR
Asus 4870 $230AR

Faster dual core CPU is better for gaming than slower quad core (and the dual will overclock to a higher level with less heat generation & energy consumption than the quad).

Better PSU for less money.

Go for a single 4870 (or a GTX 260) instead of two 4850s. Two 4850s is overkill for 16x10 and you may have problems with the CF setup (google "microstutter" for example before you build a multiGPU setup).

EDIT: You're much better off spending $500-600 now on upgrades and then the same two years from now rather than $1000-1200 today and trying to make it last for 4-5 years. Two years from now you'll be able to buy probably $2000-3000 worth of today's stuff for $500-600 then.

 

[donjonson]

thank you for the advise.

what OS do you recomend. I hear alot of bad news about vista. is there any reason I should upgrade to vista? also should I move to a 64bit OS or is that not all it is cracked up to be.

oh and what cheaper better psu would you recomend for overclocking?

thanks

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: donjonson
what OS do you recomend. I hear alot of bad news about vista. is there any reason I should upgrade to vista? also should I move to a 64bit OS or is that not all it is cracked up to be.

Oh, the power of the internet - out-of-date slander still swirls around like common currency.

Most new builds here on ATF use Vista64 SP1. Yes, Vista with SP1 is a solid OS, and the 64-bit version overcomes the 4GB memory address limit (your build in OP would address >6GB).

 

[ther00kie16]

Get 64 bit Vista since you are getting 4GB of ram.
Get a 4870 1GB GDDR5 off of ebay with the 25% live.com cashback.
Buy.com is cheaper for a power supply (also google for 5% off coupon). Either go for something less (520hx for modular or even 450W) for a single GPU setup or more (750W) so it can support multi-gpu if you ever decide to go that route.

 

[akugami]

Now, when Vista came out, it was POS but ONLY because of crappy or non-existent drivers. Today, I can recommend Vista with no problems. If you hate some of the fancy UI effects, just change the UI back to Windows Classic.

Since you are not going with a stock CPU HSF, I'd alternatively recommend the Q6600 which you can overclock to decent speeds. Probably not as high as the E8400 can but if you're not using SLI or XFire'd video cards then it won't matter much.

 

[donjonson]

Originally posted by: betasub
and the 64-bit version overcomes the 4GB memory address limit (your build in OP would address >6GB).

what is OP?

Originally posted by: akugami
Since you are not going with a stock CPU HSF, I'd alternatively recommend the Q6600 which you can overclock to decent speeds

is that better than getting the yorkfield Q9550 and overclocking that?

also which version of vista do I need? I know there is like 4 versions.
home premuime professional porn star etc.

thanks

 

[DSF]

OP stands for original post or original poster, depending on context.

 

[jae]

vista x64 home premmie

 

[Denithor]

For mostly gaming use go for a dual core instead of quad. Lower power consumption, less heat generation, better overclocking for improved gaming performance.